November 12, 2025

We tracked for Chris last year. We felt like we may have left that deer in the woods but couldn’t be sure. It was a long track and we put in the effort for quite a while. One of my biggest concern is leaving deer behind un recovered. The area Chris hunts is a vast public spot, at least for Iowa. The North East part of Iowa can be a bit like Billy Goat hiking (at least to me). So when Chris reached out, I knew we were up against a hike, but I really wanted to help him close in on it this year.

Chris had done everything right on this track and mentioned that he knew what to do this time from what I had told him last year – that is great to hear. Clearly marked hit site and last blood. After the hit, it was decided to let the deer expire, so they waited 8 hours. Then the initial effort to track the deer led them to some real nasty thick briar and rose area where they lost blood and decided to back out and call.

We started at the hit site and took the same path (mostly), which meant we went right through that nasty stuff. I was surprised with just how much nasty crap there was in one spot! Last blood was right at a fence line, so this made it a bit more challenging for momentum. When restarting, I like to go back a bit from the last good spot and then cast the dog, then hold on. Well, a fence makes that a bit tougher haha.

The first run after the fence took us to the left for a short duration before we turned back. Second cast had us darting downhill and took us to an edge of private, so we decided to go back and I would try and start the dog a little before last blood and just try to maneuver the fence the best I could. This time we went a little to the left and hooked back towards the area we went on the second cast. The wind was really blowing, so I can only imagine what the scent was doing here. The fence and body of thorns were right at the top of a small ridge, and a clearing. Basically, last blood was inside the body of thorns and on the other side of the fence was grass at the top of a ridge. With high winds that can be a bit tough on where the scent and trail is actually heading.

On that third cast, as we hook around towards the path of our second cast, Alli was a lot slower, I could tell she was working the area a bit harder. We had actually ran past this area on the second cast, but it must have either been downwind or we just went too fast.. Either way, about the time Chris and I said that we could smell something, Alli was pulling me into an area protected by a willow and some rose, I could see the deer. I just let go of the leash while she was on top of the deer and then just gracefully, as best as I could, swam through the rose and willow to the down buck. A very happy end.