11/19/2025
Today was our 2nd known deer in the 6+ years that we have tracked for that was found deceased by the hunter. These are hard to swallow. In this scenario this clients deer was shot approximately 55 hours prior to our team showing up and previously ran with a fellow tracker that had worked the ground before us the day prior, this client knew he had made a pretty decent shot on his deer that’s something a lot of trackers hear on this profession, I like to listen and understand every track detail possible, (one of the coolest cleints we have met) he practically begged me to get to him and moving our schedule to make this happen, at this point my girl akira ran 2 previous Brutal lines with one bumped deer and no deer on the other that had 2 injured deer in the same vicinity practically the same game trail. Tonight I received a phone call from the (known down buck) client- we found him! After requesting where the location this deer was found I had checked our gps and we were within 140 yards upwind of this deer. Moral of this long story trust the dog!!! I believe in year 7 with my senior girl with 46 recoveries and multiple proof of life after tracks after the fact that this was a bad call on me the handler. I believe I had pulled her off the track due to countless distractions (live deer) birds etc. being a tracker has got to be one of the toughest careers out there. With this being said I am greatly happy that the closure of this clients deer was met and he was able to at least close his chapter on that animal sadly we learn and grow from these misreads.
