Sometimes despite our best efforts shot placement is not ideal or the animal does not drop within sight of us. That’s when tracking becomes important in order to recover the animal and options like the use of a blood tracking dog should be an option. North Carolina law allows the use of a dog only in counties that allows deer hunting with dogs and only when the dog season is in. So black powder season and archery season the use of a tracking dog is prohibited when they could be a big help especially with traditionally warmer temperatures and a greater risk for meat spoilage.
While I know the use of hounds to hunt deer can be a divisive topic with hunters often pitting traditions and local culture against more popular hunting methods. That is certainly not a topic I want to dive into at this point but I see no reason a person would be upset or disturbed by the use of a tracking dog on a lead to track down a shot deer.
Last month a group of blood trackers from across the country attend a weekend of training here in North Carolina to improve their skills as well as their dogs’ skills. I attended the Saturday workshops where the workshops focused more on the human aspect of the track and reading the signs a wounded animal leaves. Two of the instructors were from Germany where hunters are required to have trackers and dogs in order to recover the game they shoot.
They set up mock shot sites so that we could apply the lectures into a field experience identifying where the bullet hit the animal by the signs left behind. In a future post I’ll talk more about what I learned that weekend because as a hunter I learned a lot. For dog handlers it was how to look at the potential track job and make a determination of how hard the deer was hit and whether the dog would be up to this particular track job.
While the dogs can track small amounts of blood, often over looked by humans, trackers often want to feel pretty confident that the blood trail will end in success.
As hunters we need to urge North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to include the use of blood tracking dogs on a lead as a legal option all season to help us track down deer that we have shot. There are a few trackers in the state now but I’m sure more would join the ranks if it was allowed statewide. If you live in another state you should check to see what your current laws are and if you can utilize a blood tracking dog

Red =No Tracking Allowed
Green= Tracking Allowed
Gray= Some Tracking Allowed
Source United Blood Trackers

The buck I lost last fall while black powder hunting would probably have been the same outcome even if I had access to blood tracking dog. One it was black powder season and a non dog hunting county but more importantly I couldn’t find any blood in the broom straw where I shot the buck. I bet the deer I lost the year before would of quickly and easily recovered if I could of used a dog. Every year I hear a few hunters who lose a deer similar to that it be great if tracking dogs would become a legal option for us.

Additional Info

F3 Workshops
North American Teckle Club
Deer Search Inc
United Blood Trackers

I’ll be attending the annual Johnston County Quail Unlimited Banquet tonight in Selma NC @ the Moose Lodge. Always a fun time with some great food the fun kicks off at 6pm. Usually some great raffles, door prizes and auctions so if you get a chance check it out. Cost is $50 each $75 per couple and $275 for a sponsor if there are any left. Contact: Joe Moore at 919-915-0441 for more info.

Earlier I posted a story out of Florida where hunting TV personality Gary Finch of the TV show Gary Finch Outdoors was charged with multiple hunting violations in Florida. More information is coming out and official records from FWC have now been posted. In the arresting officers official reports we see where Layton the cameraman told the officers what had taken place but Gary Finch attempted to lie his way out of the situation.

I confirmed this from Layton. He gave me the following post Miranda information:
- Two turkeys were killed yesterday.
I taped both hunts.
- One turkey was given to the landowner and one is in the truck in an ice chest.
Gary killed both of them.
- I knew it was wrong after the first one was killed and we were going back.
- Alabama has a season bag limit of 5, but a daily bag limit of 1 also.
Layton’s statement made sense and was consistant with the evidence present. I felt at this point
that Finch gave one turkey to the landowner so he could continue to hunt and film without being
caught attempting to take over the bag limit
I then interviewed Gary Finch and he told me the following post Miranda information:
- I shot this one here yesterday morning at about 0730hrs.
- It ran off in the woods and got away, I could not find it.
- I got all scratched up chasing it. (showed scratched on hands and arms)
- We went back in the afternoon and I killed the other one.
I felt like Finch was not being truthful so I went back to Layton and confirmed that I had heard him
correctly. I asked him if two turkeys were taken the day before (March 20, 2010) and both were
harvested. He told me that was correct.
I then re-interviewed Finch. Finch then admitted that he did find the turkey and had taken one
during the morning hunt at around 0730 hrs, and one during the evening hunt at approximately
1700hrs. This exceeded his daily bag limit. He told me he lied because he was scared and that it
would not happen again.
I then went to the location from the evening hunt on March 20, 2010. I was accompanied by
Layton. He showed me the ground blind that they sat in. There were still turkey decoy’s present.
They were 22 yards from a feeding station with feed present. I took photographs and went back to
the vehicles to gather some further identification information.
FWC

FWC FW-NW-10-OFF-2161

Unbelievable and this guy has a TV show? I would hope his sponsors will look long and hard to see if they want their names and products associated with a liar and a poacher.

Interesting article in the Sacramento Bee about hogs and hunting;

John Poswall has a problem. He lives on 50 acres in the hills of Lincoln. He has a beautiful house, beautiful landscaping and a beautiful view of the wildlife that parades across his land – deer, wild turkey, quail, waterfowl.
What could be wrong with that?
Pigs, that’s what. Wild hogs come up from the creek at night and root their way across the property, leaving a wake of landscaping so thoroughly turned that you’d think it had been rototilled.
The mere thought of such mayhem puts a big, inappropriate grin on my face. I am a pig hunter, and what Poswall sees as a problem sounds like dinner to me

What really makes this story so interesting is that fellow blogger Phillip Loughlin of the Hog Blog is featured in the story . Check it out and isn’t it great that a newspaper on the left coast would carry a pro hunting story.

Gary Finch host of a regional outdoor show called “Gary Finch Outdoors” has been charged with multiple hunting violations in Florida during a recent turkey hunt. Florida Wildlife officers caught him and his cameraman allegedly with multiple violations including exceeding the daily bag limit, exceeding the season limit, hunting over bait, and lying about his state of residency.

Stories like this are just unbelievable and you got to wonder how someone can do things like this and stay in the industry. It’s one thing when someone makes a mistake or forgets to do something but this would appear on the surface to be blatant acts on his part. I have little use for slobs in our sport.

JACKSON COUNTY
While patrolling northern Jackson County, Officer David Arnette and K-9 Officer Mike Guy checked several bait sites on private property. While checking one of the sites, they discovered a fresh turkey feather which showed signs of being broken off, as if shot. While heading to another bait site, they heard two gunshots. They came upon two hunters carrying two freshly killed turkeys. Just beyond the hunters, the officers observed that the hunters had set up on a food plot where wheat seed was scattered over the ground. There were also fresh turkey feathers in the food plot where the turkey had been killed. When questioned about the second turkey, the two hunters took the officers to where they had killed it. This area was also baited with wheat seed. Interviews were conducted and one of the hunters also admitted to killing two turkeys the day before, one of which was also taken over a baited site. This hunter was in possession of a resident hunting license, although he is actually a resident of Alabama. Three of the four turkey hunts had been filmed for an outdoor hunting show the two men produced. Charges for taking turkey over bait, taking over the daily bag limit, taking over the season bag limit, and obtaining a resident hunting license by giving false information have been direct filed with the State Attorney’s Office.

FWC Law Enforcement Field Operations Weekly Report 15 April 2010

Finch’s cameraman, Steven Royce Layton, of Brewton, Ala., is also charged with one count of taking wild turkey within 100 yards of a feeding station. Authorities say he was within 67 yards of an active feeding station.

WMBB News 13

Our sport does not need folks that cheat like this especially in the public arena of outdoor television.

*** Follow Up Story***

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare,
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

NRA 2010 will take place May 14th -16th at the Charlotte Convention Center giving many of us who live here an opportunity to take in some of the events. While Charlotte is a few hours from me I’m hopeful I can get over for the weekend. My favorite country singer Charlie Daniels is performing, Oliver North a man that I think would make a great president, Ted Nugent rock star, NRA Board of Directors member and the ultimate ambassador for the second amendment will be among the many more famous in attendance.
I think we all know that our freedoms now more than ever seem to teeter on the edge of the abyss with many of the liberal socialist political leaders we have in office right now. On this Patriots day I think of a band of farmers and shop owners that stood on a village green in Massachusetts to tell the King of England that we had been pushed as far as we would be pushed. I don’t know about you but this bunch we got in Washington and its liberal socialistic views has got to go. The election is coming up soon and we need to give them a strong clear message get back to the Constitution and a limited government.
You want to hear more from Uncle Ted check out this interview on the NRA website.
Hope to see ya in Charlotte

Durham NC. Durham residents are frustrated with coyotes roaming their neighborhood and eating their cats and no one seems willing to help.

Fearful residents have called animal control, but neither the county nor the state can help.

“We’ve got cats missing, we’ve got cats the tails are off of them, so I did call animal control,” resident Linda Rowland said. “It’s a real concern of mine that something could hurt a child.”

But the close encounters have not convinced animal control to help out.

“We do have a presence of coyotes and we’re aware of it,” said Melinda Duarte with Durham Animal Control.

Duarte says by law she can’t trap a coyote. Most animal control offices in the Triangle are only licensed to handle domesticated animals, leaving people like Rowland with only one option.

“If they are on their property and they’re in the process of attacking or attempting to attack small animals they’d be in their legal right to shoot it,” Duarte said.

Rowland was told to call the North Carolina Wildlife Commission.

“Wildlife told me I couldn’t trap it, because I wasn’t licensed,” Rowland said. “I couldn’t shoot it, because wildlife has rights we should have rights too. We’re the ones paying the taxes.”

ABC 11

Animal control cannot help because coyotes are wildlife however I believe these folks have been giving some misinformation. North Carolina does not have a closed season on coyote so any licensed hunter can kill them. Now the county and or the city may have restrictions on discharging a weapon that prevent such actions.
Wildlife like foxes and coyotes are more visible right now because chance is pretty good they have young kits they are trying to raise. Thus this time of the year it is not unusual to see them hunting during daylight hours.
Now with how rapidly the coyote population has expanded across the state if we could find a way to tax them it might be good. Then again they probably want free health care that will just cost us more.

Seems this weekend a couple of critters have tried to turn the tables on some of our younger hunters. One of my friends reports that he and his daughter had a coyote charge in after hearing their calling and spotting their decoys. That will get your heart a pumping.
The second story was from my good friend Chuck and his son, who I’ve hunted with a number of times, as they called turkeys Saturday morning. Chuck had a medical procedure that prevented him from shooting a gun so he was the designated caller.

My son and I are walking a road bed calling and we heard something running thru the leaves coming our way.. We both thought ok here comes some deer.. NOPE turns out to be 3 wild dogs. Well at 30 yards and they were closing growling and snarling, the first got pretty much shreaded with #5′s. The others got over top the ridge before my son could shuck the next shell in and get on them. Those 3.5′s throw a mean thump on the shoulder and pumping of it, he couldn’t get back on them in time. Thats the reason I wasn’t toting was didn’t want the jarring on me.

Good thing his boys can shoot and they know how to defend themselves. Feral dogs are becoming more and more an issue across North Carolina and really many other states as well.
These are examples of how quick one can go from being the hunter to the hunter. Quick decisive action is the only way to deal with this situation and its impressive our young people were able to react and avoid injury.

This is the second part of a story about my muzzleloader hunt last fall so if you missed it go back and read part one.
I was turkey hunting that field the other day when I came across a femur bone to a large deer. I began looking around and after about 30 minutes I came across the skeletal remains of a buck. The seven pointer was in some brush about 50 yards from the area I grid searched. While I thought my buck was an 8 pointer this seven pointer was missing a brow tine that would have been easily overlooked by me. I had made one of the biggest mistakes when I tracked this deer many months ago by not retracing his back trail from how they entered the field. I had learned that lesson early on in my hunting career as I helped and observed more experience hunters tracking deer. A lot of times an injured deer will circle back to their back trail confident of the safety of it because they just came that way. “If you lose the trail look back to find it” He was laying within 10 feet of the trail he had entered the field on that day chasing the doe. I knew the doe went back that direction but it never occurred to me that he had managed to get by me and back that way. A rookie mistake and it cost me a trophy. This would have been my biggest buck yet.
I called the NCWRC and talked with an enforcement officer about the situation and while we can’t be 100% sure this is the buck I shot that day he told me that I could take the antlers. Not knowing for sure how the buck died there is no law in NC that would prevent me from picking up the skull and horns.
I didn’t get a turkey but I got a skull and horns that will serve to remind me to do all the steps when searching for a deer and skip the shortcuts.