12/14/2025
This was our first time tracking in the snow. It was a pretty cool experience. This was a suspected back whack and we didn't end up with a deer, but I'm glad I gave it a shot because Millie put in some really solid work. The deer was shot with a 350 Legend from about 85 yards yesterday evening. He dropped immediately, but a few minutes later jumped up and ran off. No blood, no hair. It snowed around 2 inches overnight. We started on the track around the 16 hour mark. We didn't have a solid starting point, but we got Millie close enough that after a few circles she took up a trail. After awhile she started tracking hot. I wasn't sure she was on our deer but she had looked pretty confident up to this point. Then we spotted a bare spot in the snow. A deer had obviously been bedded there. She picked up the pace and kept barking. We now had deer tracks in the snow, so we knew we were on a deer, but still not 100% sure it was the right deer. 1.5 miles into the track we spot a tiny speck of blood in one of the hoof prints. We had been pushing the right deer enough to get him bleeding. If there hadn't been snow on the ground I don't think we would have noticed the bed or the blood. We continued on, crossing freezing stream after freezing stream. Millie's leash was a frozen rope and she was completely caked in snowballs. She pushed on for 2.25 miles to the edge of the property. We decided that we had enough confirmation to call this deer non recoverable and we called the track. Millie was not happy. She wanted to keep going. She is one tough little dog and a deer tracking machine.
