10/16/2026
DO THINGS REALLY GO AS PLANNED? 😂🏁🦌
Total race distance 700 yards.
How often does a plan actually go the way you expect it to?
Mark took a close shot with his Ravin crossbow and felt he made an excellent shot. The bolt zipped right through and stuck in the ground. From his elevated position, he could see blood on the green swamp grass!
But when he got down and looked at the bolt, something didn’t look right. Mark sent me a few pictures, and my response was…
“How does it smell?”
“Not much of a smell.”
“Any fat on the bolt?”
“No.”
To me, it looked hit back!!!
Mark: How long should I wait?
Me: Dead now is still dead later. Give him as much time as you can!
Around 12:30 p.m., Mark started tracking. He followed what he described as a fatal blood trail. About 100 yards in, he found a bed with a fair amount of blood. A short distance farther, he found another bed. Then things got confusing. He couldn’t figure out which direction the deer had gone.
He hadn’t heard anything and assumed he might have bumped the buck while walking back to his truck after the morning hunt. Little did he know, the deer had run toward the area where he had parked!
We made arrangements to meet about an hour before dark. It’s always nice to have some daylight to get a track started.
As I’m getting my equipment ready, I realize something…
I DON’T HAVE SILO’S 30-FOOT LEASH!!! 🤦♂️
Mark and I put together a half-assed leash, hoping this deer wasn’t far away and that our homemade contraption would hold together.
What could possibly go wrong? 😂
🏁 LET THE HOONIGAN SHOW BEGIN!
I start Silo at the hit site, and he’s pulling EXTREMELY HARD! He takes me straight to the beds, then heads northwest. I catch a glimpse of blood in a third bed.
Silo is BLAZING through the tall swamp grass, practically jumping to land on top of the grass so we can push our way through it. I’m not seeing any blood, but he’s convinced he knows where he’s going.
We enter a small patch of woods. Silo takes me over three logs that nearly send me face-first into the ground. We come out into one of Mark’s food plots, where Silo goes left down a mowed lane, takes a right into the CRP, and follows a deer run.
AND THAT’S WHEN THE LEASH BREAKS!!!
No big deal, right? I’ve got him on GPS!
I pull up the screen on my phone…
THE COLLAR ISN’T CONNECTED!!! 😳
I SCREAM, “SILO!!!” a couple of times, and thankfully, he listens and comes back to me.
I reconnect the collar, fix the leash, and tell him to TRACK!
Instead of continuing in the direction he was headed, he turns north, goes back through the food plot, heads into the woods, and crosses those same three logs again.
He circles around, heads north into some thick bedding, and now he’s high-nosing and frantically searching.
I’m thinking the deer is close and Silo has hit a scent pool.
So I take the leash off.
Silo charges into the tall cattails and starts barking!
THAT’S A BAY BARK!
I tell Mark to get ready.
Then I look over and see Silo standing at the base of a tree, looking UP.
I can smell the c**n musk.
You’ve got to be kidding me. 🤦♂️
I tell him NO ⚡️ and start bringing him back toward the beds so I can figure out how this buck left that third bed.
Then I hear Silo barking AGAIN in the cattails.
Now I’m thinking it’s the deer and the c**n was just a distraction.
NOPE. A SECOND RACCOON TREES!!!
Silo gets the ⚡️, and now he truly knows he F’d up!
🐕 TIME TO CALL IN THE OLD MAN!
Back at the beds, I still can’t figure out how the buck left. Silo isn’t leaving my side because he knows I’m upset with him.
I’m embarrassed. Mark is standing there watching this entire sh*tshow unfold.
Time to get Sarg out of the RAV.
I walk Sarg to the beds and let Silo run free to do whatever he wants.
Sarg connects with the scent, gives me his signature tail wag, and we’re heading northwest on the same line Silo originally took!
THIS TIME, I’M SEEING PIN-DROPS OF BLOOD!
The buck had exited the beds by making his own path, jumping over all the tall weeds instead of following the established deer runs.
We follow that line into the woods and cross the same three logs. This time, I spot more blood on the logs.
I call Silo over.
“FIND IT!!!”
The Hoonigan hits the e-brake, does a couple of donuts in the woods, downshifts, and heads straight into the food plot.
Meanwhile, I’m with Sarg, moving at a tortoise’s pace and following a sparse blood trail.
We find blood in the food plot, head down the mowed lane, pick up a few more drops, and enter the CRP on the same deer run where I had called Silo back after our equipment failure.
I check the GPS.
Silo is a couple hundred yards away on the dirt road!
He heads into the ditch, and I watch him work the creek while Sarg and I continue following random blood smears in the grass.
We pop out onto the road and find blood drops running down the center of it and into the creek bottom.
It’s a nasty waterway with soft banks. Both dogs are struggling to solve the puzzle.
Silo is about 50 yards to my right. He gets back on the road, then heads into the CRP we just came from.
Now he’s heading west at a decent pace.
I hustle to get onto Silo’s line to see if I can confirm anything.
BLOOD!!!
LFG!!! 🔥
I’m watching Silo go about 100 yards, throw a donut, then straighten out for another 100 yards before ripping off another donut.
This is one Hoonigan hound running the course!
He’s now about 300 yards away and doing burnouts nonstop.
I turn to Mark and say…
“SILO GOT HIM!!!”
Mark looks at me and says, “Rob, don’t be joking with me. I’m already very anxious!”
Then I hear Silo barking as we get closer.
Mark says, “I hope it isn’t another c**n!”
I tell him, “NO WAY! IT’S YOUR DEER, AND IT’S ALIVE!!!”
🦌 THE FINISH LINE!
We shift gears and hustle toward Silo.
We’re battling through buckbrush, vines, and weeds over our heads. We literally make a complete circle around Silo trying to find a way through to him!
A drone wouldn’t have seen this buck in that cover. Without Silo locating him, this deer would have had a very real chance of going to waste.
When we finally reach the buck, he’s just died. His eyes and tongue are still warm.
RECOVERY!!!
🧡 THE OLD MAN AND THE HOONIGAN
Sarg gave all of us the confidence we needed to get back on the scent line. Without a doubt, Sarg would have gotten us to that deer.
He showed me the line, confirmed the direction, and gave me the information I needed to get Silo back on the race course.
But once Silo had that information and settled back into the track, the Hoonigan hound set a course record and got to the buck in a flash!
With Sarg showing him the way and a little competition from the old man, Silo apparently decided he had something to prove.
“WATCH THIS, OLD MAN! I’VE GOT THIS ONE!” 🏁😂
One thing about owning a Hoonigan hound is that they come with a few factory defects:
* ❌ Hates being called back.
* ❌ Hates going straight.
* ❌ Hates going slow.
* ❌ Hates being told to track like a normal hound.
* ❌ Apparently thinks racc**ns are part of the job description.
* ❌ Has absolutely no respect for my blood pressure!
And let’s be honest about my part in this mess:
* I 💯 screwed up by forgetting his leash at our last track.
* I have no idea why his collar disconnected.
* I have no idea why he decided to tree TWO racc**ns in broad daylight while we were tracking a wounded buck!
I was lucky to have Sarg there to help put the pieces together and a client who was incredibly patient while I tried to manage my wild hound.
This track was a reminder that things don’t always go according to plan. Sometimes experience, patience, teamwork, and a little bit of chaos are what get the job done.
Sarg brought the experience. Silo brought the horsepower. And together, they got Mark his buck! 🦌🏁
Once again, Silo takes my anxiety straight to the redline…
WHILE HE’S JUST GETTING WARMED UP!!! 😂🔥
Brenden Miller- Icon Mortgage
Kalkal
William Buckingham, Whitetail Properties Land Specialist
Fluid Graphics
Wrenn Construction
Castlebar Lake Lodge
Southern Cross Cut Gear
Hoonigan
