A happy and successful bowhunter after the help of Darrell Maggert and his tracking dog, Oakley!
We all know what early November brings in the deer woods; the rut is in full swing! The next twig snap could explode into the buck you’re after chasing a doe by your stand! And the weather can be crazy, changing so fast. November 9, in the late afternoon, we got a call from a longtime bowhunter who had shot a buck earlier in the day and lost blood in the rain. He suspects that his shot was a little far back but it sure sounded like it would be fatal.
This track will be on state land, so we scheduled it midday the next day to try to avoid other hunters. It continued to rain on and off, switching to a little snow overnight. After I met the hunter, it was very clear he was not at all optimistic about this tracking dog stuff. He’d never used a dog but was referred to us from the local sports shop and figured he would try it once. He’s a great guy, just not sure this really works.
After a decent walk back to the hit site, we let Oakley go to work. Oakley is 10 years old and is all business. Very little will distract her and she doesn’t get excited over other animals. We definitely won’t see any blood today, and that’s fine. The first few hundred yards are working down a gentle slope that we clear pretty quickly, but shortly before he had lost blood, we hit an area of small ridges and valleys coming together and the wind is making crazy circles.
The next 200 yards led to a muddy-bottomed creek. Oakley really has to dig in! She’s checking everything, sniffing, snorting, and smelling way up every twig and brush along the way. My hunter is being patient, telling hunting stories from past adventures as we watch Oakley work, but you can definitely see he is losing hope. He explains to me that his last blood was more to our right at the creek and he marked it there but Oakley is going more left. That’s ok. I explain: let’s just let Oakley do what she wants, and we can always take her to that spot later if all else fails.
Before long, we are 30 yards from the creek, in thick cover, and he tells me there’s a nice place to cross to the right, where he was yesterday. I tell him to go ahead but I’m following Oakley. We split ways, and after pushing through the brush, I see Oakley walk right past his marker in front of me as she crosses the icy, muddy creek. I know this is the exact spot the hunter was yesterday, but I’m not saying a word until Oakley gets out in front of me. I don’t want to be right up tight to her.
Before long, I call the hunter over and he realizes this is the spot; he thought it was more to the right. This actually happens a lot. It’s so easy to get turned around in the woods. The dog isn’t looking for a spot, they just follow the deer.
Now we are moving much faster on a totally uncontaminated line. Climbing over logs and pushing through swamp grass, just catching a glimpse of Oakley’s tail 60 yards ahead of us. At about 900 yards into the track, we round a small high spot just to catch a glance of a decent buck and a doe bolt out of there! As they do, my GPS beeps that Oakley had stopped just behind a couple of trees in front of us. The hunter asks if that was his buck?
Well, I really don’t think so, I explain. As I could see Oakley standing over his dead buck!
The celebration begins. High fives, pictures, and the hunter finally tells me, “Man, I didn’t really think this would work!”
These moments are priceless!
So glad we could help and make a believer out of him!
Darrell Maggert, Committed Deer Tracking, 989-992-9799.
