Mack’s Bloodhound Tracking Service

10/01/2023

Just a couple of pictures that may help you!

The grids are aiming points for quartering deer.
The DeerCast diagram is a great visual for possible vitals hit.
The last that is the most important of all is the wait time photo!!
Please read over the picture and make sure you follow those times! This will help the chances of you recovering your deer! Remember it costs you nothing to reach out to a tracker and ask their opinion, most if not all of us love talking about deer recovery and most are always willing to help so reach out to us. I have buddies that will call me from the stand and just double check what they should do.
Good luck everyone, Otis and I are ready to get out in the woods!

09/30/2023

Deer Hunters!!! Otis and I need your help..
We are looking for known kills (you KNOW it was a good shot) but didn’t watch the deer fall we would like to come out for some warm up tracks! So if you are in the Litchfield, Hillsboro, Irving, Coffeen area and are willing to help us out please give me a call.. Thanks, and happy hunting!!

09/29/2023

Bout game time.. Give us a call!

10/21/2022

09/30/2022

09/30/2022

More good information..

Things to remember about tracking:
1. WAIT after the shot! This is the time to be patient. Hunters spend hours and hours waiting for the perfect shot. Often times hunters wait only a matter of minutes to take up the track. Deer are very tough animals and need time to expire.
2. Don’t let blood sucker you in. A lot of blood only means a deer is bleeding a lot, it doesn’t always mean it’s a dead deer.
3. Try to remember as many details about the deers reaction and path of travel after the shot
4. When taking up the track walk along the blood trail and not on it. The scent particles can attach to your shoes which can possibly mislead a dog if one is called in later.
5. Grid searching might end up with the deer found. Keep in mind tho with all those people walking randomly around, the scent particles will be scattered all over making it very difficult or even impossible if a tracking team is called in later
6. Mark your point of loss well with something preferably manmade that is highly visible from ALL directions. It can sometimes be very difficult to find your point of loss if it is not marked well, especially at night.
7. Obtain permission to track on the neighboring landowners property if a tracking team is called in. Please do this ahead of time, to save any hassles.
8. WAIT!!! Did I mention that already? REMEMBER A DEAD DEER GOES NOWHERE, BUT A BUMPED DEER GOES SOMEWHERE? Once a bedded deer is bumped it will be most likely difficult to track visually due to the fact the deer’s blood has most likely clotted up.
9. Oh and one more thing always take your weapon with you while tracking (during legal hrs). If you come up on a live wounded deer, you can maybe get a finishing shot off.

Good luck and be safe.

09/30/2022

Season is upon us!! Good information to keep in mind after the shot! Good luck and be safe everyone!!

What can you do after the shot to maximize your chances of finding your deer? As trackers, many of us talk to 100+ hunters a year and we see what works and what doesn’t. Stack the odds of a recovery in your favor.

1. Watch where the deer goes after the shot and where you saw it last. Not just a general area, but be specific! He ran to the right of that stump or he jumped the fence with the wire down. Follow the deer in binos if you can.

2. Immediately note the spot the deer was standing when you shot. Don’t wait to do this. Things look different from the ground than they do from the tree.

3. If the deer ran out of site, wait in the stand / blind for at least 30 minutes, good hit or bad. If the deer slowed to a walk or even stopped in sight, wait in the stand as long as you can before climbing down or getting out of the blind quietly.

4. Mark the spot the deer was standing with your arrow or something else that’s easily identifiable. Don’t use a stick!

5. Take a picture of your arrow if you have it. The fletching and the shaft. It’s critical evidence that you’ll need to use. Please don’t wash your arrow!

6. Back out of the woods quietly in the opposite direction the deer went if possible.

7. Note the behavior of the deer. Did it jump, kick, hunch, run, slowly walk off, was it limping, carrying a leg, tail up or down? Could you see an entrance or exit as it ran off? These are all clues you need to use to help determine where you hit the deer.

8. Be patient! If you know the hit was good AND the evidence on your arrow or the ground at the hit site confirms what you think you saw, wait a minimum of 2 hours to do anything. Longer is better. A dead deer won’t get up and run off.

9. Do not track with more than 2 people. A group of people only serves to spread the sign and scent around the area.

10. DO NOT walk on the blood / scent trail. Scent gets on the bottom of your boots and is transferred everywhere you walk. If you need a dog, this complicates matters greatly.

11. If the sign your seeing doesn’t match what you think you saw, back out and call me sooner than later.

12. DO NOT grid search if you lose blood! Imagine having 12 GPS units on the dash of your truck all telling you to go in a different direction. This is what’s it’s like for the dog in an area that’s been grid searched.

13. Mark the spot of last blood (ribbon, light, toilet paper, etc) and back out. Carry something with you when you hunt. I personally like orange survey ribbon as a marker. If you come up to an empty bed with blood in it, back out and call me.

14. The dog is the best first option and a poor last resort.

If you get in the habit of being observant, remembering the small details, treat the hit site and blood trail like a crime scene and learn to use the dog as the best first option, I promise you that you will recover more deer.

I am always welcome to take calls if you have questions or to just want to run a scenario by me to see what I think.

09/08/2022

From another tracker:

Most people don’t realize how low the spine is in the front of a deer
I have roughly outlined scapula and upper arm just to give you an idea where they lay

What most people think is an “upper chest” “high lung” shot is actually above the spine

The arrow hole is ideal
A bit up and back will also work

09/05/2022

All deer hunters need to read this!

From Fellow Tracker, Donnie Deaton, Arkansas Blood Trailing Network:

👉🏼If it looks ”little high” it’s bad high!

👉🏼A lot of the “lung blood” you see isn’t lung blood. The bubbles either come from blood soaked hide rubbing together causing it to oxygenate the blood or from the deer standing there and puddling.

👉🏼10” of blood on an arrow shaft doesn’t mean you got 10” of pe*******on.

👉🏼Your meat isn’t going to spoil in an hour or four.

👉🏼Lots of blood is very seldom a “good” sign.

👉🏼Every dog out there will eat “poop”

👉🏼If the deer “walks off” after shot it’s 99% gut.

👉🏼Spine shot deer need to be shot again.

👉🏼Your bow isn’t magic and neither are your bullets.

👉🏼Rain is normally a good thing.

👉🏼Very seldom do deer “double back”

👉🏼They are wounded/hurt animals not magical critters with Houdini tricks (most of the time)

👉🏼Wounded deer don’t go swimming because they are hurt. (You may find them there, but I’ll bet large money a coyote pushed to the water)

👉🏼You might as well be honest, the dogs and the trackers will figure it out.

👉🏼Some of us have “do not track for so & so list” (we also share these 😬🤷🏻‍♂️)

👉🏼Your deer across a property line doesn’t mean anything without permission to cross it.

👉🏼We get 86,542 phone calls and text per day!

👉🏼We love visiting and meeting new friends.

👉🏼Deer will run uphill, down hill, side hills and sometimes vanish when hurt.

👉🏼Most trackers don’t know how to say “no”

👉🏼All shot deer don’t die. “He ain’t far”

👉🏼Most importantly! There is more wounded game lost and not recovered because of pride than there is bad shots!!!!!

Shoot it again if it moves! Wait double/triple the time you think you should before you track! BE HONEST about property lines! Call the dog before you call your buddy “Jimbo” that’s the best tracker you know. Jimbo can always find it if the dog can’t.

Enjoy what Gods given us! Be thankful for it and respectful of it.

I hope you don’t need us, but call us when you do. 😉