Story by:
Lab Tracks Deer Recovery
Zoey and Karen made a new friend!!! This hunter called Karen and was very worried about his shot. He had gotten a pass through with the buck quartering to. He did not have much of a blood trail, in fact there was no blood to be found, but he thought he heard the buck crash. Upon a quick inspection of the arrow he found gut matter and decided to call. He gave a quick look where he heard the crash and did not see anything so he backed out. In Illinois using a dog for tracking on public land must be done after hunting hours so the call was scheduled for 930ish that night. We felt like this would be long enough because of the likelihood of multiple organs involved. We met the hunter and walked to the hitsite. Karen gave Zoey the start up routine and away they went. I stayed at the hitsite with the hunters and waited. Shortly after Karen disappeared into the dark we got a call that she had found blood about 350 yards out and was ready for us to advance. (Normally we use radios but I had left one of our radios with a previous hunter on accident) We began heading in her direction and we quickly got another call that she had found the deer it was about another 10 yards in a brush pile!!! To say the hunter was happy is an understatement, this was his best buck to date and he had worked really hard to pull off the opportunity. Getting to reunite hunters with their buck is one of the best feelings in the hunting world!!!
Congratulations Buck and Good Girl Zoey!
