Y�all bear with me cause this is still a new venture for me but I�ve been giving some more thought toward my �fee� for coming out and tracking. I think this is what I�m ultimately going to go with

$50 to come out
$100 if deer is located
$150 if deer is put on tailgate

For right now I�m going to just wave the $50 fee for coming out until I feel more comfortable with Otis�s experience and maturity. I�ll just play that by ear as we go on more tracks. Right now I'm very pleased with how he�s doing. To clarify the difference in put on the tailgate versus located�..on about half of the calls that trackers are called on, the deer is found but its not fatally wounded and never recovered. These deer would be considered located but not put on the tailgate.

Most of you probably already saw this pic but I wanted to add it to my thread since it was Otis�s first find of the season.

Well, Otis ended up getting to help a kid find his first deer this morning after the young man hitting the deer really far back yesterday evening. It doesn�t get much better than this.

CNC and Otis to the rescue!

Here�s the story to go with the pics. There wasn�t a whole lot to it really. We might have tracked it 300 yards or so. The deer was shot in the hind quarter up into the back of the guts. It was putting off some blood that they could very slowly track but the buck was zig zagging all over the place and making it so hard for them to follow that they pulled off of it last night. After going back this morning I think the grandad was just getting really anxious and wanted to call in a tracking dog to be sure they found it for his grandson. It was actually an awesome track to get Otis on because he had to dig a little for this one but not so much to make him give up or get frustrated. The buck had gone part of the way across an open grass field and it made Otis have to put his nose down in the grass and really hunt being a 17-18 hr old track in that setting. I worked him most of the way on lead on this one because we were pretty close to a road. I cut him loose toward the end but we were nearly to the deer when I did. The little man is only 7 years old and this was the first deer he had ever shot at.

Congrats Harold!

Thanks!.....I think it's really just about to get started. A lot of folks will be in the woods this coming weekend.

Love reading about Otis. Love that pic of him sitting down and looking up the tree too.

Thanks AC......This is more fun than hunting to me. I'm ready to get on another one.

congrats, nothing like watching a good tracking dog work out a track.

Good job guys!

Thanks Troy�.Gatorbait��I think Otis knows what�s going on now. I left the tailgate down on my truck yesterday when we got home after I had unloaded things. This morning when I took Otis out, he played around for a minute then ran over to the truck, jumped up in the back and got in his kennel that he rides in to tracks. I walked over and he just sat in there looking at me with the door to the kennel wide open like �C�mon! Shut the door and let�s go!�

Otis made the hometown newspaper! Special thanks to the editor.

Link

great write up

Nice article

Ya'll need to get a trackers list to all the processors and taxidermist, need to have the contact information out there.

Thanks fellas.....I thought the author did a really nice job as well.

Timbercruiser.....I've got cards at the local processors here close to me. I still need to get some to the guy down in Hurtsboro though. I don't think I'm even going to hunt this weekend. Hopefully I'll get some tracking calls this and have another story to tell......but in the mean time I may just go around to the local hunting clubs Saturday, introducing myself and handing out cards about the time folks come out of the woods.

Well�..Otis and I had a good run going there for a minute but we had a track bring us back down to earth tonight. The call came in about 7:15. The hunter reported that they had shot a pretty decent buck with a .308 and they could only find a little bit of blood where the buck had exited the field. They said that had only gone a short ways out into the woods without finding anymore blood before they decided to call in a dog. Otis and I loaded up and headed to meet them.

I arrived and as I got my snake boots on and my tracking gear loaded up in their Ranger, we discussed the shot a little more and their attempts to find the deer. It turns out that they had actually searched for the deer for the last couple hours with 5 people and a yard dog before calling in tracker. This was Otis�s first night run on true lost deer. We had run training lines at night in the past but not yet on a real track. It being dark didn�t seem to bother him at all but all the searching before we got there really threw him for a loop on this one. I started him out on lead to give him a minute to get his excitement under control and eventually cut him loose.

He started out pulling strong and tracking with confidence where the deer had exited the field. He led us off the hill about 75 yards into a little bottom but it became apparent after a few minutes that he was following the trails of the searchers. We would run a trail out 50 yards or so with confidence and then he would lose the scent. At that point Otis would turn around�.back track�and pick up on another line. We repeated down 5-6 trails and then I decided just to cut him off lead and let him run. He made several more attempts circling out from me but he was just tracking in circles and he never could work through where the searchers had been. He eventually starting losing his motivation and after about 45 minutes to an hour of searching I decided to call it off. Just now making it back home and thought I�d write the story while it was fresh on my brain.

I really hate that we weren�t able to work our way through that one because Otis was hunting hard. That�s just part of training a young dog though. Learning the work through an area where hunters have been grid searching is going to take a little time. We had found three in a row before that one. It was still a good experience for both of us. On to the next track!

Another call came in this afternoon about an hour after dark. The hunter stated that one of their hunting club member�s little boy shot his first deer this afternoon just before dark with a .243�.. It was a basket rack buck and being his first deer they think he just aimed for dead center of the body. The deer took off out of the field and only ran a short distance before they saw it go down. They went to get the truck to load the deer up and when they came back the buck was gone. They started searching for it and couldn�t locate any blood to track by. Not too far into the search they jumped him up and watched the buck disappear into some thick stuff. They decided after this to go back to camp and give the deer some time. This is when they called me and after talking it over we�ve decided to give the deer overnight and meet up in the morning. The hunter on the phone said that he is almost sure that it�s a straight up gut shot. It sounds to me like the deer is hurt pretty good and wanting to bed up so I don�t figure it�ll go far if we don�t push him. As long as we give it some time I think we�ll find it dead in the morning within 200-300 hundred yards.

To be continued������.

Good luck! Hope you find him

Thanks! I sure don't want to count my chickens before they hatch working a young dog.... but I feel like we'll be able to find this one.

Update?