If you make a marginal shot on a whitetail and are considering contacting a tracking dog, you need to be very deliberate in your actions after the shot. This will increase the likelihood of recovery. (Photo by NSC Photography, Shutterstock)
December 02, 2025
By Clint McCoy
In November 2017, I was perched up in a heavily covered hedge tree when I caught a glimpse of a familiar buck: a pretty 8-point sporting a double throat patch.
The buck approached to my left and what should have been a chip shot turned into a disaster. I rushed my shot, and it impacted directly into the buck’s shoulder. The buck whirled around and presented me a follow-up shot, and upon impact, the animal took off like a lightning bolt through dense cover. He stopped about 100 yards out and walked slowly to the north.
I was dejected, and I knew I was about to have a long evening. It had been cool and dry that day, but a cold front was to arrive after dark with freezing rain, snow and wind. After finding both my arrows’ impact sites and blood trailing into a dense thicket, I decided to back out and call my friend Jonathan Beachy, owner of Best Effort Recovery. He kindly agreed to meet me and bring his bloodhound, Sally, to clean up my mess.
TRACKING DOGS & DEER CULTURE In recent years, there has been an increase of support for the legalization and use of blood tracking canines. And I for one support their use. Let’s face it! When the adrenaline is flowing, deer hunters sometimes make poor shots. And when our animal doesn’t lend for an easy tracking job, it is easy for us to give up hope and sour the experience all together. Cue the tracking hound!
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An experienced handler and tracking dog can be tremendous assets to the recovery of wounded game. I know I’m stating the obvious here, but have you ever considered just how gifted a dog is when using their nose for game recovery? As human beings, we simply use our eyes to locate and follow blood trails. I myself have red-green color deficient eyesight, so my ability to blood trail downed game is awful.
The olfactory ability of canines trumps simple human eyesight by a factor of several million! Bloodhounds, for example, have between 250-300 olfactory neurons working to pick up scent along a blood trail. Comparing this to our human ability to detect odor, dogs can literally process scent 40 TIMES better than us! It is my experience that after an errant shot, the faster one decides to call in a dog handler, the better the odds of recovery. But like anything else, planning is everything.
PRE-SEASON With the rising popularity of blood trailing canine services across the country, there are two resources a whitetail hunter should familiarize themselves with. United Blood Trackers is a great online resource to help deer hunters locate dog handlers in their home state. The site is also helpful in outlining each state’s legal requirements when using dogs afield.
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Likewise, a new mobile app called TRAKR was recently launched by Shane Simpson of Minnesota. His app can also help hunters locate canine handlers and has scores of statistical data based on historical tracks from the past. If you are an avid deer hunter and plan on spending lots of time in the woods this fall, play it safe! Make contact with a dog handler in your area before the season starts. Call and introduce yourself and exchange contact information. Establishment of this connection can save you significant time during the deer season, should the need for a tracking dog arise.
AFTER THE SHOT It’s important for hunters to give handlers and their dogs “room to work” while on a track. By staying out of the way, you’re allowing the handler and the dog to give their best effort. (Photo courtesy of Clint McCoy, DVM) If you’ve hunted long enough, you know when you’ve executed a great shot on a whitetail and when you haven’t. It happens. If you find yourself doubting shot placement immediately after the encounter, consider calling your nearest tracker as quickly as possible. Call or text them from the tree or the blind and give them some notice as a courtesy to them. Most canine trackers I know are swamped with requests during the heart of deer season, so reaching out for the potential of aid is a smart idea.
What happens next can usually help make or break a successful dog assisted recovery. If you even remotely think you may need a tracking dog, be smart about how you proceed immediately following the shot. First and foremost, you should give the animal adequate time before taking up the trail yourself. When you begin, go it alone or with one trusted friend. The more people you bring into the track job, the more likely they are to contaminate the trail, throwing off the dog. The ideal scenario is to find an impact site of the shot with first blood, hair or an arrow. Mark this location and don’t walk all over the site with your boots. If there is an arrow left behind, leave it for the dog to examine.
As you follow the existing blood trail, it is wise to stay off to the side of the sign and not step through any more blood than you can physically help. This can help maintain the integrity of the scent trail for the dog to follow, and it reduces the likelihood of you spreading scent in areas where your deer didn’t travel. If you run out of blood, mark the location and stop the track all together. Do not grid search the area prior to calling a tracking dog. Back out of the area, make the call to the handler and be patient with their arrival. If you find yourself considering the help of a tracking dog, it should be priority to leave the trail as free from contamination as possible, and contact should be made in a timely manner.
MAKING THE CALL No hunter wants to call a tracking service. Swallowing a little bit of pride and asking for help with a tough track can better the odds of recovering wounded deer. The dog handler will usually ask a series of questions you should answer with honesty when calling. The tracker will want to know where on the body an arrow or bolt impacted. Did the arrow pass through? Was the shot from an elevated position or on the ground? How did the deer react to the shot? How far did the deer travel, and did it run out of sight, or did it stop and walk for a bit?
In an archery scenario, style of broadhead used is an important piece of information, as is caliber or gauge of firearm used during gun season. Did you recover the arrow? And if so, what did the matter on the shaft and fletching look and smell like? How much time has passed since the shot? All these are critical pieces of information a tracker needs to know when contacted.
Keep in mind, your call for tracking service might be the third or fourth call a handler has received for the day, so patience with them is respected. You should also remember that a tracker may be so busy they have no choice but to turn down your call, based on the initial phone consultation. Be respectful of an experienced tracker’s evaluation, and if deemed appropriate, help will soon arrive. Agree to meet the team at an easily accessible location and lead them to a safe place to offload.
DURING THE TRACK The author called in a tracking dog after arrowing this mature, Illinois buck. Although inclement weather prevented the dog from finishing the track, the author says he located the buck the next day only because of how hard the dog worked the night before. (Photo courtesy of Clint McCoy, DVM) Soon after meeting your tracking team, take them to the point of impact. If you have done your job, this location should already be marked and easily visible for the dog to inhale and interpret the scent of the deer. What’s next? For me, I try to stay in the background and let the dog and tracker do their work. It is quite a thrill to watch a good tracker and a seasoned dog work a track toward a downed trophy, and they usually don’t need any coaching from the sidelines!
I will stay off to the side of the track and continue to mark last blood or sign and allow the team to work at their own pace. Ever hear the phrase, “don’t guide the guide?” The same applies to deer trackers and their dogs. If the track runs out, the dog may struggle to make forward progress. Sometimes, the dog may jump the wounded game, and the handler may pull the plug on the track if the deer isn’t mortally wounded.
If everything goes according to plan, the dog and handler will successfully locate your deer. Before celebrations are to be had, allow the team to have their moment together around the fallen game. This acts as a payoff for the canine and a reward for their effort, positively reinforcing their training. Allow the dog to sniff and lick the downed deer and give the handler time to praise the dog for a job well done.
AFTER THE RECOVERY The weather conditions had turned brutal the night I first called Johnathan and Sally to help track my buck. Sally had been running hard for several days and I knew she was tired. The temperature was dropping, and a wet snow was blowing sideways on a stiff, north wind. We had tramped through some very dense cover full of multi-floral rose bushes and Sally ended up tuckering out, so we called the track off. I felt terrible for dragging the two out there on such a crummy evening.
When I asked how much I owed him for his efforts, Johnathan completely declined. That didn’t sit right with me. After all, he had spent his fuel driving to meet me. He spent money on the batteries and tracking lights we used, and the terrain and weather were miserable. Big bloodhound dogs need to eat and dog food costs money, as do veterinary bills. And how do you put a price on the hours of training needed to become good at trailing and locating downed deer? Johnathan felt bad that we didn’t recover my buck that night and I practically had to force him to take some money.
The next morning, I returned to where Sally had last identified blood, and not 100 yards away, I found my buck dead and covered in snow in a deep ravine. The weather conditions we were tracking in made it very difficult. I would have never located that beautiful double-throat-patch buck without help from that bloodhound.
To summarize, be mindful of how hard deer trackers and their canines work to help deer hunters out of a jam. Pay them honest. Tip them on top of what their rate is. Take photos of their successes and share them across social media as a way of advertising their services. And, above all else, shake hands, offer thanks and hug that dog!
