Floppy Ears Deer Tracking

The Missouri Blood Trackers Symposium is still open for enrollment. We have UBT1 and UBT2 testing spots available. If you want to experience a weekend immersed in tracking knowledge and hang out with some of the countries most knowledgeable trackers, this event is for you. Enroll now to lock in your spot. Location is Sullivan, Missouri at Meramec Springs State Park. Seminar date is March 27-29th. Enrollment forms can be found on our website: mobloodtrackers.com
We hope to see you there!

Had a great time today testing Declan’s dog Honey with Marissa Rosentreter. Joshua Gatlin Gunn tagged along to watch. Honey crushed this UBT 1 test with zero call backs at 5 months old! She’s an easy dog to read and she knows when she’s off the line. She would even stop and indicate the blood she found. Now if we could just train Declan to go look at what she’s trying to show him 🤣🤣. Together they will put a lot of deer on the tailgate. Thanks again for allowing me the opportunity to watch Honey work.

This past weekend was our youth rifle season, our neighbors grandson shot a deer and his dad Chris called and asked if Whiskers wanted to track a deer. I said yes, absolutely.

As I was getting Whiskers ready my youngest son said dad can I go with you. I said heck yeah! On our ride down he said dad do you think I could track this deer, and I said I would love that.

We started Whiskers at the hit site and there was a pretty big pile of blood and she had to lick it all up before she would start tracking. Once I got Whiskers started in the right direction I handed the lead to my son. He said what do I do? Just follow the dog buddy. Whiskers made short work of the track. The Buck was quartered too and a well placed bullet made it an easy job. If I remember correctly this deer only went 175 yards and my son did a great job tracking his very first deer. Thanks again Chris for the call and allowing us to work Whiskers. Congratulations again Jeremiah!

Video in comments

We got a call from Dixie’s buddy Will. We have tracked for him and his friends in the past. Said he shot a buck early this morning. The deer was 33 yards quartered away. He thought the shot felt great but lost blood around 100ish yards and wanted to know if we could help. I was at work and tried to get him hooked with Tom Monehan but he already had a full day scheduled. I said what about the Josh’s, and he said they were tracking too. We didn’t have a busy day at work today and I had kids to take trick or treating at dark. So I went and asked my boss if I could leave and thankfully he said yes.

I took both dogs with me and I started whiskers at the hit site. She went down the blood trail that Will had marked extremely well with toilet paper. When we got to last blood we got into some pretty thick stuff and whiskers refused to go any further. I went back to the truck and got Dixie. She made a big loop out and got into a scent pool (I didn’t catch it the first time). I went back to last blood and restarted her. She made a few big loops in some crp and then back into the thick thorny, briars. Once we made it out of that mess I waited for Will to catch up but said he was going to work around the wall of thorn’s. I said I was going to let Dixie keep going a few more steps and Dixie threw her head straight up and knew it was just a matter of time before we laid eyes on this deer. With Dixie’s nose straight in the air we walked another 100 yards straight to the deer. Congratulations Will on a great buck and thank you again for the opportunity and trusting us to find your deer.

Tonight we went to what we thought was going to be a training track for Whiskers, but it turned in to the real deal pretty quick. The shot ended up being further back than suspected. The arrow entered behind the last rib and exited low in the belly close to the rear legs. We ended up jumping this deer and seen it bed back down very quickly. We approached her one last time and that was all the gas she had left in her tank. Thank you again Mr. David for the opportunity.
We greatly appreciate it.

Hunters if I or anyone from the Missouri Blood Trackers Association has recovered a deer for you, post your recovery picture in the comments for your chance to win $100.

Tracking calls have been few and far between, Hopefully they pick up soon. Miss Dixie has been spending her time sitting in the barn staring up at the loft, patiently waiting for one of the barn cats to mess up. 

Just don’t do it folks, the recover rate is less than 1%. It just isn’t worth it.



Day four of the ETHIC countdown.One of the most unfavorable calls we trackers receive from a hunter in need is, the frontal or quartered to shot.

Please do not attempt the frontal or quartered to archery shot on a deer, yes even if you have a crossbow! While I'm sure there are a few out there that will say that they have killed deer with a frontal shot or quartered to shot with their archery equipment, those type of shots are not an optimal shots. I can tell you for myself and from what many other trackers have encountered, we almost never recover (I never have) the frontal or quartered to shot deer. Almost every tracker I know would highly advise against such a shot, especially with archery equipment. WAIT for the deer to turn to expose its vitals to optimize your shot placement. If the deer does not turn, simply let it walk! Tomorrow is another day!

A couple of days ago I made a survey post on a closed network FB page of trackers that reside from all over. In the survey I had asked trackers to their opinion on the frontal/quartered to shot. The results were unanimous to the almost 100 comments, NO DO NOT TAKE FRONTAL SHOTS!!! Some of those commenting had many more years tracking experience than myself. It’s from experience that the voice of reason speaks! This post is meant to be shared.

Tracking calls have been very slow so when I was asked if I wanted to Judge a test I said absolutely. Congratulations Tom Monehan and Mr. Hyde N seek on an excellent UBT-1. Keep an eye on this pup at Bear The Big Black Dog Tracking he’s going to do great things. Thanks to Josh Ross and Marissa Rosentreter for setting me up!

Tomorrow is Opening Day of Missouri Archery season. The girls and I are ready if you need us. If we aren’t in your area check out the map on Missouri Blood Trackers Association or find it at https://www.mobloodtrackers.com/. Good luck to everyone hitting the woods tomorrow and remember when in doubt back out. 314-910-7969

Sunday we met with a small group from the MBTA and worked with our dogs. The training lines consisted of back tracks, grid searches, critter distractions, coyote urine, road crossings, and one line even had the wounded “deer” jump up and take off running. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. A huge thank you to Tj Reily, Josh Gunn, and James Gordon. They met Saturday morning and laid all of the training lines for every team in attendance. Josh Gunn not only helped lay the lines he also cooked for all of us on Sunday too!

The girls (Dixie & Whiskers) are ready for the 2025 tracking season to kick off!

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