***The Deadly Dozen - Team 13***

I pulled my cams off public land about a month ago since I knew others may be in scouting. I confirmed the deer are where i expected but nothing outstanding on any of them. I'm looking for does early season, but if a nice (this is very subjective in the South) buck passes, well...

We can take up to 6 deer, 2 of which can be bucks.

It will be a game time call which particular spot I sit depending on the wind, if I get out on Sat.

Best spot is a 300yd hike but actually fairly close to a major highway. Furthest spot is a 3 mile hike in and out. Everything I need (stand, sticks, bow, pack) is packed in and out daily. So taking a deer 3 miles back will kind of suck, but hopefully a good warm up for CO.

I fly out to CO for elk on Wed, so I may 'disappear' for a while...

 

Checked camera's today and nothing but does....

 

Good luck in CO! I'll be leaving Oct 19 for CO.

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The new plot for a west wind is kicking into gear i had left over Buckwheat checked and today it has germinated wrong time of the year for BW but it will help overall with soil I will plant the mix next week in all three plots red clover cereal grain rye forage oats Austrian winter pea and daikon radishes. I will set stands this weekend later than normal but i am glad i will be hunting on the opening day

 

Sorry I haven't been on here lately because i haven't been able to find my phone. I thought my 2 year old had done something with it...... anyway, i am going to go talk to one of the land owners I hunt on today. I'm going to ask him If he cared if I put a food Plot in next week. I really don't plan on hunting there til around November so everything should be good by then. I am also going to do my last card pull next week. I should have some nice ones on camera. It's been about 2 months since I checked 2 of them. I am ready for season to get here! I have to wait til October though. Who's season opens next week?

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I was able to finally get out and sight in my hunting bow yesterday... it was awesome shooting broadheads again It only took one shot at each distance 10,20,30 and 40 and they all hit perfectly. Archery deer eason opens here on Oct 1st.
Then I took my 4.5 month old Catahoula puppy out on a training deer blood trail yesterday... he did awesome and has a heck of a nose, its a blast to watch his nose work.
Here is a photo of my Choctaw

 

Well while lady forge had a good day i did not. I was practicing yesterday afternoon with my new hoyt carbon defiant that i bought last month. i went to take a shot and my nock blew apart causing me to pretty much dry fire the bow. The string blew off the bottom cam leaving my bow in one hell of a mess. hopefully nothing is wrong with the bow and it just needs a new string. I took it to my local shop and hope to hear from them today. Nothing like a setback 18 days b4 the season opens.

 

Oh No, I used to manage an Archery Pro Shop and have seen a few bows come thru your senario and be okay but... to be honest that is when carbon riser bows were first coming out on the market and I never had one with a carbon riser brought to me blown up so I dont know how they react to your senario. I hope for the best for you and hope you can get her back up and shooting soon.. hopefully its a low damage situation to the bow for you.
I cant stress nock inspection enough... I have seen so many people blame a bow etc when it was really a damaged, worn, cracked nock that cause the bow to blow. Especially the translucent nocks the more UV exposure the quicker the nock ages... my nock provider I shoot for recomends that all nocks be replaced every year even if they look ok. Just yesterday I thru away 4 nocks that at 1st glance look ok but upon more thurough examination with my reading glasses on ( Yes Im old and need reading glasses ) had small hairline cracks.
When in doubt throw them out !
By not replacing your nocks you save $6 to 20$ etc but can end up costing you $600 to $1200 etc on buying a new bow or bodily injuries

 

Pretty boy! How are you starting his scent trailing? Using hide/ blood/deer legs or something different? What is you feelings on/experience with the blooded "blood scent"?

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Good advice on nock maintenance!

Unfortunately some of us have had reading glasses for a long time.

 

Well this is rather frustrating....wanted to post pics of my 3 plots but suddenly Tapatalk tells me I don't have an account...grrrr...have to love technology!

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What is you feelings on/experience with the blooded "blood scent"? What do you mean ?
I use real deer blood, raw deer meat, Frozen raw green deer ears with the meat bases attached to the fured ears and deer hide. All are used in the trail. A few pieces of meat at the beginning just to entice the find it urge... and the ear or hide drug on the blood trail with a bit or raw deer meat used at the end of the trail hidden under the deer hide.
Now yesterday I used no green deer ears just the blood and meat juices for the trail with the meat reward under the hide at the end for the reward.
I also have a special collar/harness with a bell on it that is only used when were tracking, that way the minute the collar and bell come out and he sees and hears it he knows its time to get to work tracking.

 

Sorry auto correct must have kicked in & I didn't catch it....bottled blood scent....there is a man made deer blood scent available for purchase....my experience with training police dogs tells me to stay away unless absolutely necessary. Not that man made is bad, but the scent compunds/make up aren't exactly the same which can lead to some confusion for some dogs when switching to the real thing...I had started my shepard for trailing/tracking this past spring but ran out of fresh product. Hadn't thought about keeping the ears. That's a great tools! I feel like I should slap my forehead like I the old 'I should have had a v8' commercial!

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LOL Well Im not above gathering blood from roadkill and a few local deer butcher will take in freshly killed roadkill in the off season so you can contact any in your area and request the blood... you can thin it with hydrogen peroxide once it quagulated for freezing.
I steer away from artifical scents. Even the trainers I know avoid artifical scents. You have way more experience in formal dog training than I so I am relying on the teaching from other blood trackers. They have echoed exactly what you said that it is confusing for the dogs. After speaking with a few seasoned blood trackers I now relize the dog can come to know the difference in the scent from meat blood ( Blood I gathered when thawing frozen deer meat) versus arterial blood. The arterial blood from a kill shot on a deer/ or roadkill will contain fragments of the organs they have passed thru on the deer/ or the damaged organs. Im learning as I go thru this so the dog and I are learning at the same time. Luckily the breeder I bought him from has sucessfully trained many dogs to blood track and my dogs Dam and granddam were bloodtrackers, He has been a wealth of info for me.
Where I hunt we used to have a 1/2 bloodhound/ lab pup at 6 months that blood tracked and it was fun learning from her and her owner. He would bring her out on kills even if you knew where the deer dropped he wanted her to practice tracking them all. Here she is Copper

 

That's the best way to teach & test even in man tracking. Know where the end is & keep an eye on the wind direction & swirling so you can get an idea of how the scent may be traveling. I can always apply principles of what I know but there is always differences from subject to subject. I'll take in what ever knowledge you can & are willing to share though!

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Since you brought up the wind that has been very impotant in my training.
I have only let the pup track from up wind cause I wanted him to learn to track the blood trail and not just wind where the end of the track is by having the wind in his face. I am going to let him track one from downwind in a couple of more days just to test him and see how he tracks it.
I am laying down a track with the dispencer at the end of a 6 foot pole and I never let my scent cross or get near the track.. I dont want him tracking my scent, I also tie the deer hide to the end of the pole with a piece of deer sinew and let it drag through the track. Rubber gloves and rubber boots are very handy for his training.
I have been since he was 10 weeks old conditioning him to love anything deer related.. I feed him raw deer meat, let him have a piece of deer hide to play with, give him an antler to chew on, give him deer jawbones to chew on in the yard and leave buck skulls in the yard for him to chew on, deer blood and deer ears. And always make anything he does with deer stuff the most fun in the world to him... and tasty to Its really been alot of fun.

 

It sounds like you are both enjoying this! That's the main part of any training, has to be fun! Thank you for all your insight!

When you start tracking into the wind, pup may start to "cast" which to us looks like he is not on the track when in fact that will be where the scent is pooling. Usually the dog will be a couple to several feet to one side of the track depending on how strong the wind is. Not sure if you have run into that before or not. Always best to train to the source of the odor & not the odor itself in my line of work. I would imagine the same principle would apply here as well?

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Counting down the days here in WV til opening day. Got a few really nice bucks Id be happy with but 1 buck has my full attention. I'm running cams trying to pinpoint the right place and time to give me my best chance at him. Heres a few pictures I got of him from card pull today.

 

That's a great buck, good luck!

 

That's a stud! I hope you get him... I put a food Plot in yesterday and tomorrow I'm checking my camera cards at another spot. I hope I have one that big camera.

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