Rack Trackers Deer Recovery

Rack Trackers Deer Recovery A professional service to recover wounded whitetail deer for hunters with a trained tracking dog.

02/10/2026

With a deer recovery dog, they are always looking for scent and as a handler we are always reading their body language. Today, Jett gave me a “proximity alert” (which means she’s telling me she’s close to her target by wagging her tail and butt uncontrollably). She did this app. 20 yards away from this antler, and by the time I could dig my phone out she was on it. Even though I no longer train her for finding antlers, she will still occasionally find one for me. Good day in the woods!

Bowhunting can be a game of inches. This buck was tracked on November 4th for a hunter that knew the general area of th...
12/05/2025

Bowhunting can be a game of inches. This buck was tracked on November 4th for a hunter that knew the general area of the hit on the deer, but lost blood while tracking the deer. I put Jett to work on it the next day and she took us to their marked last blood and she seemed to struggle after that. When this happens, it indicates to me that the deer is not giving off the ‘dead deer’ scent needed to track and to my dog, the buck’s scent is just like every other deer in the timber. I restarted her several times to be certain we weren’t leaving the hunter’s deer in the woods, but Jett only advanced the track a short ways further and was verified by a drop of blood crossing a creek. We don’t always get the fun of a recovery because of live deer, but many times we can ease a hunter’s mind knowing that every effort was made to recover and it is still alive. The buck showed up on trail camera November 29th, 3 and 1/2 weeks later. More than likely was breeding does during that time and now returning to his home area. The wound is circled in the first picture.

11/29/2025

Confirmed alive…and still chasing. This buck was a little more special because it was one I tracked for my young niece during firearm deer season and one that I videoed 2 days earlier while bow hunting (clip in comments). The only evidence at the hit site was white hair so we weren’t sure what to expect. Jett locked on quickly and took us to first blood at 200 yards or so. It was just a few drops. We went app. 1100 yards to the neighbor’s fence while only finding a few drops of blood along the way, but I could tell she wanted to keep tracking. We didn’t want to ruin our neighbor’s hunting, so we backed out at the fence and I went back the next day with approval of the landowners. Jett restarted at the fence at the 48 hour mark and took the track another 400+ yards and was verified with 2 drops of blood. After that, the buck seemed to quit putting out the “adrenaline” scent needed to progress further and I called her off and assumed another live deer. It was great to see the buck back in action and not lost to the buzzards. He’ll be bigger next year!

Jett and I were called to help recover this young man’s buck on the 1st day of Illinois firearm deer season. After find...
11/29/2025

Jett and I were called to help recover this young man’s buck on the 1st day of Illinois firearm deer season. After finding the deer, we realized that the shot placement was good, but this buck just didn’t leave a visible blood trail. On top of that, it rained hard all morning long washing away any blood that would be visible. We agreed to track after the rain quit, which was about 6 hours later. Jett made quick work of this track and the heavy rains didn’t diminish the scent of the fatally wounded deer. This was one of those tracks that is a good representation of showing hunters that lots of scent profiles are present in a track that we cannot see, but a trained dog can pick up even after a heavy rain.

We can’t recover them when they’re not dead, but a good dog can tell you a lot by the way they are tracking. This buck ...
11/17/2025

We can’t recover them when they’re not dead, but a good dog can tell you a lot by the way they are tracking. This buck was tracked yesterday morning and Jett never liked the track right from the start. She “loosely” followed the trail from the hit site for a couple hundred yards right where the buck travelled and then she just acted like the scent disappeared. This happens a lot on non-fatal hits when the excited deer calms down and stops emitting that wounded deer scent. By Jett’s actions, I told the hunter that I felt this was a superficial hit and the buck would probably be chasing does later that day. This morning I received a video from the hunter of the buck alive and well checking scrapes. We were both happy to see it! Even though it wasn’t recovered, we made the hunter feel better knowing he didn’t leave a great buck dead in the woods.

Another “proof of life” photo came in tonight on a buck that was shot yesterday and we tracked it midday today. Shot wa...
11/12/2025

Another “proof of life” photo came in tonight on a buck that was shot yesterday and we tracked it midday today. Shot was at 7 yards with an extreme angle causing exit somewhere on underside of the deer because there was a lot of white hair at hit site. Still not sure what was impacted by the shot. The front leg is bloody from being under the deer when bedded down. Jett has really impressed me this season with her focus and methodical tracking. She took us to 1 wound bed in a thicket about halfway through the track. Total she took us close to a half mile and then began to display the signs of a non-fatal hit. It’s nice to get a photo back so that we know we did everything we could.

11/11/2025

This is how it all began! I’ve been asked by numerous hunters that we’ve tracked for “how did you teach your dog to track wounded deer”. So I thought I’d share her very 1st practice track. We started her at 8 weeks old and did very short liver drags across the lawn with a liver treat at the end. Next, we went to drops of blood and bow-kill deer hooves in longer tracks. We progressively made the mock tracks longer in length and aged longer depending on the progression of her development. The next step was to wean her off the blood to just deer hooves only. Eventually we got to where we were using only deer hooves for practice and aging for 24+ hours. At the end of each track would be a deer hide or hooves and a big celebration when Jett found them.

11/08/2025

We went 1 for 3 tracking deer today and met some amazing hunters and seen beautiful country along the way. Track 1 was a really low intestine hit that Jett tracked the same direction 3 times but the buck stopped giving her the scent she needed to progress further. It may expire, but not anytime soon. Appeared to be making scrapes along the trail. Hopefully get some trail cam pictures.
Track 2 was phenomenal. Went app. 900-1000 yards through many terrain changes. Deer was hit high and angled into chest cavity. From timber, to tall switch grass, picked cornfield, and back to timber. Video of end of recovery is posted and more pics in comments. It was an old bruiser!
Track 3 was a really low shot under the heart 48 hours ago!!! Not sure how Jett would handle the old scent, we put her to work. She picked the track apart and advanced us past where the hunter stopped. The only visible blood was near the start of the track. Then just like that the deer’s “adrenaline” scent went away after going several hundred yards in the timber and Jett was at a loss. I would assume this buck will be on camera again soon, hopefully.
All these tracks were in the same area, and all the hunters went together to watch some great dog tracking and talk deer hunting even though we didn’t know each other. It was a GREAT day and memories were made!

11/08/2025

This buck was a creek bottom deer that was shot quartering to at a very close distance. You would not even know the deer was hit (from zero blood on the trail) if not for seeing the blood on the pass-through arrow. The exit hole once again was plugged up with connective tissues and membranes of the stomach. The tall bottoms grass made it very difficult to track by sight. Jett made quick work of the track and let out her aggression on her prize at the end.

11/07/2025

This is a great example of a tracking dog locating a fatally wounded deer with no visual blood. This buck was shot quartering to from an elevated stand. The arrow hit 1 lung, liver, and stomach, and exited directly under the deer, but the exit hole was plugged up with no visual blood for the 1st 100 yards. Jett tracked straight to this buck after it was given ample time to expire. This dog loves her job.

These photos are from an outfitter in Pike County, IL of a buck we tracked last Tuesday morning and it was presumed to b...
10/25/2025

These photos are from an outfitter in Pike County, IL of a buck we tracked last Tuesday morning and it was presumed to be a non-fatal shot from what Jett was displaying on the track. She tracked well across an unpicked soybean field and after entering the timber she struggled to stay on track after the buck calmed down and stopped putting off the ‘adrenaline’ or ‘stress’ scent needed to track. We exhausted all options and called it off assuming it would be OK. We get numerous shoulder shot calls and CANNOT stress enough to stay back away from the shoulder area. We really enjoy and learn a lot from getting pictures back of deer that were not recovered and survive.

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