Dog never took it past where I found last blood. Never really took it at all in my opinion. Also where my shot would have missed would be as follows. Too far right by a foot or more gut shot, more than that hams. Don't see me missing that bad . Too far left blow out opposite shoulder or miss completely. Don't think that happened because deer went through a creek that had about a 8 to 10 foot bank on both sides. Don't see him doing that with three legs . Too high neck to head. Too low bullet stays in deer from front to opposite shoulder. Lower in any direction grazes deer. Ruled out grazes deer because no hair and amout of blood of blood. Ruled out staying in deer because went to far. So that's where I'm at. But with any of these injuries dog should have trailed deer past where I found last blood. Correct? How much did me looking for deer and me having my dog running around out there come into play, as far as messing things up.

I can't believe you have roped me into this Harold but here's my take, and it's worth about 2 cents. Deer have interdigital glands. They secreet scents through this gland. For instance a doe that stomps is releasing interdigital gland scent. A fawn that loses its mom is releasing interdigital gland scent. A deer that is wounded hurt is releasing interdigital gland scent. The late John Jeanneney figured out that the dogs can key in on the interdigital gland and wounded deer. Heres an article about it somewhat. https://www.mossyoak.com/our-obsession/blogs/deer/history-of-deer-tracking-dogs

Please don't over analyze deer tracking like throw and mow. You've got great dogs that find dead deer and alive deer. At the end of the day who cares how they find them as long as they do. Will they find them all? No, will you lose some that are dead as shucks 50 yards away? Yep. Dogs are dogs at the end of the day and they have their days just like we do as people. But I can tell you this they smell something a whole lot better than I can in the woods.


Hey! How exactly is a rainbow made? How exactly does a sun set? How exactly does a posi-trac rear-end on a Plymouth work? It just does.

This was a deer I tracked four or five years ago. You probably wont ever see this too many times but the hunter backwhacked him twice with back to back shots from a 7 mag. He didn’t kill it and we didn’t find it though….His cousin killed it two weeks later in the same plot and this was the pic they sent me. We tracked it the morning after it had been backwhacked twice about the farthest I’ve ever tracked a backwhack….over 700 yards….I think the reason we were able to track this one farther than most is fairly evident by the two big wounds across the deer’s back….This was also a track where there was virtually no blood to be seen the whole way …….Was it because the deer wasn’t bleeding or because we just weren’t able to see the small amount it put out. If Otis was following an interdigital gland scent then why did it peter out at 700 yards…..Did the deer just stop secreting it?.....or did the deer just stop putting out enough blood to track?

My opinion to the above? It slowly quit putting out scent as it calmed down and realized it was not mortally wounded. I have no idea though, just a theory I'm not sure if deer even feel pain. It hurts me seeing some deer and they act like nothing is wrong.

These types of explanations is part of why I feel like there’s good potential that we’re spreading misinformation. It’s no offense to anyone….It’s kinda akin to how ideas get spread around a fire at deer camp about the rut and the moon and corn causing deer to be nocturnal…..and bigfoot, etc. Sometimes there’s truth in what we think to be happening and sometimes we get it wrong.

I kinda think the same thing

This would be about the only thing that makes sense. Ole boy got the digitalis gland secretion scared out of him. Brisket shot. Time to practice shooting. Maybe he will come back next year

When you look at the interdigital scent, it is white and waxy. Doesn't seem like it's scent could instantly change or could be produced rapidly (upon a wound). The only thing that would make sense to me is the amount of scent being dropped. When a deer stomps, it is depositing the scent for other deer to smell and be alarmed. The scent in small amounts is natural, but when there is too much, other deer are warned. Often deer that are shot have trouble running and will run heavy footed so to speak. Maybe an increase in the scent deposited along with microscopic blood droplets gives the dog an instinctive clue that the deer is wounded, following a scent trail undetectable to humans.

Just my theory...

I used to use a stalking stick to sound like a 4 legged animal walking and not a human and would put interdigital scent in a slot at the bottom end of the stick. I've had deer, dogs, and coyotes come up trying to find me. The key was to deposit a trace amount and not too much.

Here's a thought for the simple minded like myself. If a deer could smell this "mortally wounded scent itself, wouldn't it just save itself some trouble and just die in peace without all this trailing and tracking nonsense?

It's a whole lot easier on everybody if they just lay down and give up the ghost right there ...

I don't think the scent changes just that the gland closes up and the scent quits getting released to the ground. But then again I have no idea what I am talking about so I should not even be posting.

I have no idea what you are talking about??? The waxy substance is between the split in their hoofs and there would be no way to "close" it or stop it from being deposited as the deer runs. You can dig it out with a small stick on dead deer if you want to see what I'm talking about. My point was that it has already been produced and changing the "smell" of it would be impossible for the deer to do.

I agree. I just don’t think it happens the way folks are saying……We’re talking about a gland and scent that the deer uses everyday to communicate scent to the ground. I don’t think they are just shutting it off and on…..To me it would seem more like this stuff is akin to ear wax…..Its like ear wax between a deer’s toes……and every time they take a step that little waxy substance leaves a faint scent trail behind it for the other deer to follow that is likely short lived in natural amounts. From an evolutionary standpoint it would be irrational for a prey species to be going around the woods everyday leaving a long lasting scent trail leading right to them. I would bet that in a natural application it probably doesn’t last more than 2-3 hrs……

I think yall are just making it up as you go. Tell me this, if theres 10 deer in a field and you shoot one of them. All ten deer run away. The deer you shot dint bleed a drop. Here comes the tracking dog. He gets right on the deers trail and finds it laying 400 yds from the field. I figure this is a situation that happens every day during deer season in America. What was that dog trailing? There was no blood. There were ten fresh deer trails going into the woods. How exactly do you think that dog could tell the scent of the shot deer?

When you hit a deer with a high powered rifle you usually knock something out of him whether you see it or not. The dog is usually able to detect a hit at least at the hit site and for a short distance…..That doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to track the deer for sure though. You could hit a deer in the guts and I couldn’t guarantee you that we could track all the way to him. I’ve had a number of gut hits over the years that had scent trails that just came to a dead end after the deer bedded up or after coyotes jumped them. It isn’t a situation where you can just track to every deer no matter what and everything points to it being a matter of the amount of blood and other fluids the deer is putting down on the ground and vegetation from the wound as to why or why not. The vegetation plays a big part of it too. Just imagine one of those leg shots I posted a picture of moving through a sage brush field. He may quit putting out blood that you can see but for a dog’s nose he’s wiping that wounded leg on everything he passes.

I think the only way that would be possible would for there to be trace amounts of blood, undetectable by humans. The only other way is if there were excess interdigital scent deposited, but that seems highly unlikely to me that a dog would know what is too much.

A guy I used to hunt with back in the 80’s made a Interdigital gland scent
Used a bobby-pin to get the wax out of the gland and would melt it in with a small jar of petroleum jelly
I saw deer dogs follow him all the way to his stand…..we were stalk hunting and another group of men were using dogs
Was with him at the deer expo and he was talking to Ben Lee about this scent he made and the following season old Ben came out with…yep you guessed it….a interdigital gland scent

A big part of this equation is “time”……As you go from 1 hr after the shot…. to 4 hrs ….to 12 hrs….. to 24 hrs these scents that the deer leaves behind start to dissipate and they don’t do it at the same rate. What the dog is able to detect an hour after the shot is different than what they can detect at 24 hrs…... Yes, a dog likely does track the deer itself through a combination of scents….one of which being interdigital gland scent…. IF you get on the track soon enough…..However, I think that after a certain amount of time has gone by then the dog is tracking on blood alone.

So, now account for how the dog picks up the shot deers scent over the 47 fresher deer tracks that moved around in that area over that 24hr period.

Its the one that was bleeding......