Deer Tracking Dog Secrets to Recover Your Buck

Shane Simpson and his bluetick coonhound Callie are the Spec Ops of the whitetail hunting world. When you need help recovering a deer, they’re the ones you call. Simpson is a blood-tracking dog handler who helps hunters find their marginally-hit deer. He and Callie will drive long miles, follow impossible tracks, and search for deer because, well, it’s fun for them.

Simpson is a founding member of the Minnesota Tracking Dogs and offers services from other trackers across the state. United Blood Trackers does the same thing nationally. All but seven states allow hunters to use tracking dogs to recover big game. So, if you’re a whitetail hunter, there’s a good chance a volunteer tracker lives in your area and is ready to put their dog to work. These trackers can help you find a specific deer on any given track and are learning fascinating things about blood trailing, deer behavior, and shot placement along the way.

Learning to Track

Simpson started training Callie as a puppy by hiding deer hooves around his house and having her track them down. As Callie developed, Simpson made longer tracks in the yard and aged them. Now you can watch all of their adventures on his Youtube playlist “The Callie Chronicles.”

Interestingly, tracking dogs don’t just sniff out blood. Wounded and stressed deer give off different odors, which dogs can pick up on.

“That’s probably why a coyote can find a deer before you do,” Simpson says. “They’ve crossed deer trails going through the woods and then they cut that one and smell ‘aw, this one is injured’ and then they follow it right to your deer. Well, a tracking dog is doing the same thing. That’s how they’re able to stay on one particular deer when there are others out there.”

Prior to taking Callie on tracks for the general public, Simpson had her track two deer for a friend as a test run. Simpson’s buddy had killed two deer with his bow and didn’t expect either tracking job to be difficult—he was wrong. The hunter had mixed up the directions the deer had run, one of the hits wasn’t as good as he thought, they had to deal with coyotes, and they had to pick up the trail the next day. Eventually, they found both deer, but Simpson learned valuable lessons that day—lessons that were reinforced season after season of tracking.

Pay Attention After the Shot

The seconds and minutes that follow your shot are critical. Rather than celebrating or filming a selfie video, watch and listen carefully. When Simpson gets a call from hunters, he asks specific questions to gather important information that will be useful for recovering the deer.

The more accurately you can answer these questions, the easier it will be for a tracker to find your deer.

Don’t Track Too Soon

An honest assessment of your shot placement is crucial. Many hunters who hit deer “just a little back” assume they hit both the lungs and the liver, meaning a quick kill. In reality, these are gut/liver shots, and hunters often start tracking too soon, bumping the deer out of its first bed, which greatly decreases the chances of recovery.

“A lot of people think that liver hits kill pretty quickly, and it does in some cases,” Simpson says. “But I’ve tracked deer that were alive after 16 hours after they were hit, and it was a liver shot.”

Simpson has data to prove this. He cuts open and analyzes every deer he recovers, documenting shot placement with photos.

Mark the Blood Trail with Tissue

Simpson appreciates it when hunters mark their blood trails with tissue paper.

“It helps the tracker so we can start at the hit site,” he says. “When we’re tracking, we go pretty fast at times. And I can see tissue go by as we’re tracking, and I’ll know that she’s on it. It gives us confirmation so that we don’t have to second guess.”

Using a GPS waypoint to mark the blood trail works, but tissue paper is more effective. GPS cannot accurately pinpoint the blood trail, and being even a few feet off is unhelpful. Additionally, tissue paper is biodegradable, so there is no need to pick it up later. Furthermore, mark the spot of the last blood with something highly visible, avoiding camouflage hats or gloves.

Also, try to avoid walking directly on the blood trail. This makes it more difficult for the dog to pick up the deer’s track.

Don’t Overestimate the Blood Trail

Hunters tend to be overly optimistic about the amount and type of blood on the ground, according to Simpson.

“A hunter will call and say ‘I have lots of blood, and then it just stopped,’ but when we get there, it’s really only a few drops,” Simpson says. For context, think about cutting your finger and the amount of blood it produces. That amount of blood could be splashed all over your yard or kitchen, but it is far from “lots of blood” that could indicate a fatal injury.

Additionally, don’t assume that bright red blood indicates a lung shot.

“Bright red blood doesn’t always mean a lung shot. Bright red blood could be muscle. Blood coming from the lungs is highly oxygenated, it’s bright red, and when it goes out to the different muscles in the body, it’s still bright red. You could hit a deer in the leg, and the blood will be bright red. Blood, to me, is just blood. An exception is if you get darker blood that has a purple hue or essence to it, which often means liver,” Simpson explains.

A “Grid Search” Is the Last Resort

If you are tempted to conduct a grid search with buddies, Simpson advises calling a tracker first.

On tracks that are not grid searched, Simpson has a success rate of over 60% in recovering the deer, even considering that many deer he tracks haven’t been mortally hit. On tracks where there has been a grid search, Simpson and Callie have about a 10% recovery rate.

With a grid search, you and your friends spread scent molecules and blood droplets all over the woods, making it challenging for the dog to work through a crisscrossing maze of scents if they are called later.

“An analogy we like to use is to imagine a playground with fresh snow on it, and there’s just one set of tracks going through it,” Simpson says. “Now imagine a bus full of kids got dropped off and played in the playground for six hours. That first scene is what a track looks like to a dog when an area hasn’t been grid searched. The second one is what a grid-searched area is like for a dog.”

Beware of the Old Wounded-Deer Myths

Two of the biggest myths in blood trailing are that wounded deer always run downhill and that they head for water. These beliefs are simply untrue. Simpson’s experience shows that only about one percent of deer are found near water. As for running downhill?

“A hit deer will go whichever direction it wants,” Simpson says.

After the shot, deer typically run in a fairly straight line. They might charge through brush initially, but then they’ll get on a deer trail and keep going in a given direction, whether uphill or downhill. The only exception is for poorly hit deer.

“A deer only goes somewhere intentionally when it has a chance to think about it,” Simpson says.

Deer that live longer usually seek out a spot in cover where they can watch their back trail. Besides that, there are no hard-and-fast rules for what a wounded deer will do.

Tracking Dogs Are Low Profile

Despite their growing popularity, there are still misconceptions about blood tracking dogs. Many hunters and landowners think that a tracking dog handler releases a pack of hounds that run freely through the woods, making noise. This is not the case. Tracking dogs are kept on a long lead held by the handler. They are usually quiet. Additionally, the disturbance caused by one handler and a dog is much less than a group of friends grid searching with spotlights and yelling to each other.

“Just me and a dog, I’m in and out of there,” Simpson says. “I’m straight to your deer. Here’s the deer, and the hunter drags it out.”