Alright……well…..I wasn’t going to start a tracking thread this year and instead just write a short story here and there in the LFTT threads like any other kill story. I’m afraid though that it’s going to take away from those threads if I’m constantly on them chatting back and forth with folks about my tracking stories. So I’m gonna just go ahead and start a thread down here in the dog forum where I can ramble on about whatever comes up if I get excited over a track and other folks can ask questions or make comments if they want to.... without detracting from other threads. Nothing to report this morning other than some tired feet. The day ain’t over yet though……….


Welcome to The Tales of Otis and Shelby Lou……….

I'll be checking this thread regularly through the season. Here's to a safe and productive season

I'll be keeping up as well. What does Lftt stand for?

Live from the tree

....

Thankya sir

Thanks fellas! I'll try to make the thread entertaining as well as informative. I'll try to include details like shot location, type of gun or broadhead, how far the traveled. etc....and maybe we'll all, including myself, gain a better understanding of blood tracking and how deer react to different shots. Feel free to ask whatever questions you want to. It's ok if the thread takes a few twists and turns along the way onto different subjects....I'll eventually right the ship with a new story.

I'll be a regular viewer, H. Thanx. A first for us yesterday . At the hit site was darker blood, dinner plate size, and two tooth size pieces of bone. At the shot the deer hit the ground struggled and got back on it's feet and was gone. This was the reaction of a deer hit above the spine but I have never seen bone that was not a broken leg. 3 hours later after over a 300 yard track we came up on the deer that tried to attack Reba. We found that the deer had been hit just above the spinal cord about mid-neck. 308. The bone was pieces of spine. Always learning something new.

Looking forward to it.

Man my 2 grandmother's names are Reba and shelby.come on mam....

Glad to have you along for the ride. Hopefully, you and Reba can get up here in January to go on another track with us this year.

I thought it might be good for any new folks if I introduce everyone a little more to our main characters in the story…….

Otis (left) is a 2 ½ year old male Slovensky Kopov. Otis came from the only Kopov breeder in the US located in Peoria, IL. Both of Otis’s parents were imported from Slovakia where Kopovs are used for the purpose of hunting Russia boar as commonly as beagles are used to hunt rabbits here in the south. Kopovs are a member of the hound family and said to have one of the best noses in the group, rivaling even the ol’ blood hound. This is Otis’s third season of tracking and he’s really starting to hit his stride. I’ve been super pleased with how he’s started off this season.

Shelby (right)…or Shelby Lou as she gets called most often around here by my wife and boys….is a 6 month old female chocolate lab that came from another Aldeer member’s kennel in south Montgomery Co….She comes from a good line of duck and field trial dogs and is bred to be really athletic and nosy. Bamaeyedoc says she’s too good to be a tracking dog. She’s got a TON of drive and I believe will eventually be a top notch tracker. Right now she’s still just a puppy though and has a long way to go in order to be able to contain all that drive and excitement. I’ll take her with me on every track this year and run her in behind any short runs I may have. I’ll also try to get her on a few of her own tracks as well as we go along. I'll run her on any known kills that I or friends/family may have. Ideally, if I can put her on 20+ tracks total this first season then I’ll be happy. Next season I’ll start running her more off lead more……tracking alongside of Otis.

Pretty pup's right there.

Thanks man....

October 31, 2016

After starting out the season busier than expected….everything has come to a screeching halt over the last few days. After going out on 5 calls in the first 10 days…..we’ve went out on none in the last 4. This last weekend was completely dead. I think the hot temps are keeping many hunters at home and it’s likely to continue through this week as well.

The tracks so far this season have all been under some extremely tough scenting conditions in the midst of the current drought we’re in. We’ve tracked a variety of shots from ones that were dead deer smoked…… to ones that were barely scratched up. So far we’ve recovered one dead….found another 2 still alive..….had 1 unknown called off on the property line….and 1 that ran into the scent line abyss of a used dirt road. Really high midday temps are forcing us to only track really early in the morning or really late in the evenings.

All in all I’ve been super pleased with how Otis has started this season. One of the toughest things about training a tracking dog is having the patience to train one for several years before they start to really understand the game and get good. Every experienced tracker I’ve talked to has told me…..”Just wait until that 3rd to 4th season “…….This is the beginning of Otis’s third season and I can really see what they’ve all been talking about starting to unfold. He’s really starting to figure out the game and how to play it.

The other day I watched him work up and down a small creek branch to figure out where the deer had crossed and you could just see it all clicking for him. He has far more confidence in himself this year now that he's beginning to mature out of adolescence and into a grown dog. My confidence is much higher too after having another season under our belts. I can really read Otis well now and understand what he’s doing and why. I’m also learning more tricks of the trade and how to search an area in more ways than one. These Garmin handheld units are the bomb.


Anyways….let’s go rake some more dust in the yard and wait on better days. I may have to start telling old tracking stories from last year if the weather doesn't soon change.

Blood Tracking Tip:


If you’ve tracked your deer for 150 yards and haven’t found it……..then back out. If you’ve smoked it through the heart or lungs then very rarely will the deer go more than 150 yards. That's really pushing it too. Most smoked deer with be within 50-100 yards. If the deer has made it farther than 150 ish.... then you’ve made a marginal shot and the deer needs time…..3-4 hrs with a gun and 6-8 with a bow…maybe more depending on the shot.

It’s not uncommon for people to call and say that they gave the deer an hour and now they’ve tracked him for 300....400... 500+ yards. If you've tracked him that far after an hour then the deer is very likely still alive and you're gonna push it. I’ve even had folks call me that jumped the deer and then kept tracking it until they jumped it a second time. That deer ended up going nearly 1 ½ miles. Don’t get so amped up after the shot that you start making bad decisions. Read the sign and make the right call.....

"When in doubt...back the fugg out!"

Glad I found this over here. Looking forward to the stories!

Glad you made it.

Hopefully this front that’s coming through later in the week will cause things to pick back up so I’ll have a story to tell. The youth weekend is just around the corner. That should bring in some fun calls as well.

I haven't gotten any calls either. I'm sitting in a blind now. It's brown and down this evening. Rim and I are chomping at the bit to get on a track.

It won’t really get good until the rut gets here. It’ll be wide open come mid-January.