How so?
Thermal vs dog
- Thread starter Bonzo dog
- Start date
baguio
Well-Known Member
Because you clearly don't know much about tracking. Tracking wounded deer in the dark will just push them on with little chance to safely despatch it. You risk your dog getting injured which is always expensive. You then have no dog to track the next one. You also risk injuring yourself!
Please stop typing without thinking!
Some of us live in the real world and use the dog as a tool, on the 3rd one now, all been used for follow ups while night shooting and obviously shooting at last light. If time is a luxury then wait for the morning by all means
baguio
Well-Known Member
The one word that stick out from that comment! You will have a re-think when one of you gets injured or worse! I bet that we won't hear about it though!
It only makes a difference to the human in the team if its full daylight or pitch black.
I more ment along the lines of it possibly not being very well trained therefore them not willing to use it at night
Please, your embarrassing yourself now....
No I won't, the dog is there as a tool to be used, if the worst happens then it happens, I'd obviously rather it didn't but that's the risk you take using a dog for follow ups regardless if it's night or day. I've had one dog tossed up in the air by a stag(in daylight) and a couple of near misses, these things happen in the big jobs (and the real world)
If you had to track that same night , the novice dog is way better than the expert human i should think . Put it on a line though . Be better to come back in the light though on most occasions , i do like a line on my own dogs
Each to their own, don't work the dogs on leads and will follow up at the time, return in the morning if it offers the better chance
John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
Aye.
I had a laugh at that one too
won’t track in the dark? My dogs do 90% of their tracks in the dark, haven’t had any problems due to it being dark yet! I think not working a dog in the dark is a bit like those that wear a helmet and high vis whilst on a track!
How are they meant to handle a wounded deer if on a line? Personally I think a line just hampers the dogs ability
I meant a tracking line not a lead , a line is a very worthwhile thing even if it just slows them down so you have a handle on things , you know like the deer taking off at speed or the beast needing a bullet
Frankly my primary goal is for the dog to track and for the beast to be found dead or finished with a shot . A lightly wounded deer could very well outrun the dog but the dog very well might refuse to call off or give up, across roads etc . My last two dogs would both go in really hard and although i escaped any big vets bills i dont want to push it with this one
My own problem is more i am rubbish at finding the dead deer that do the death rush , heck i had to go back for the dog once for a head shot Sika stag in thick rushes
I think you hit the nail on the head. Some people need a dog because they aren't great at tracking deer. I was lucky to be taught by my uncle who was a very good tracker of dieing deer. I loose less than 1 percent of deer I shoot at and that's missed and wounded and I will quite happily except that with out having a dog. I've had people with me and they struggle to keep up with me when I'm tracking. I try to explain it as you have to think like a deer and follow the sign. But I'm a sad person that has done nothing but think about deer since I was 15 my wife puts up with alot and thinks deer are all I think about to a obsession. I can even tell the difference between the deer by smell alone
In my defence i have pretty much always had a dog , the best humans i have seen track are however well below a poor dog - so long as they get what you want from themI think you hit the nail on the head. Some people need a dog because they aren't great at tracking deer. I was lucky to be taught by my uncle who was a very good tracker of dieing deer. I loose less than 1 percent of deer I shoot at and that's missed and wounded and I will quite happily except that with out having a dog. I've had people with me and they struggle to keep up with me when I'm tracking. I try to explain it as you have to think like a deer and follow the sign. But I'm a sad person that has done nothing but think about deer since I was 15 my wife puts up with alot and thinks deer are all I think about to a obsession. I can even tell the difference between the deer by smell alone
baguio
Well-Known Member
Lets be honest. Most shot deer don't need tracking at all because they're visible from the shot sight. I actually like practicing tracking and am more than happy to track any that have run. However, when push comes to shove the thermal can more often than not pick them up easily and quickly.I think you hit the nail on the head. Some people need a dog because they aren't great at tracking deer. I was lucky to be taught by my uncle who was a very good tracker of dieing deer. I loose less than 1 percent of deer I shoot at and that's missed and wounded and I will quite happily except that with out having a dog. I've had people with me and they struggle to keep up with me when I'm tracking. I try to explain it as you have to think like a deer and follow the sign. But I'm a sad person that has done nothing but think about deer since I was 15 my wife puts up with alot and thinks deer are all I think about to a obsession. I can even tell the difference between the deer by smell alone
I had a fallow buck , during the rut, very low early morning light, that I liver shot. It was quartering towards me and I unfortunately created a problem with a bad shot. It was stood on a big open hilly field , but it disappeared from my view almost instantly after I took the shot owing to a big oak tree that obscured my view of its departure from the field.
I knew it was a bad situation as I’d heard the bullet strike with that wrong sound . I went over to what I thought was the shot sight and found absolutely nothing . I decided to go and get my brand new puppy ( well 6 months old) before I trampled about.
She, on a 10 m line that I wasn’t holding found the shot sight within seconds ( a good 60m away from where I thought) and then slowly, very slowly , worked her way across the field in a direction that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Anyway, based on what I’d learned from Cookingfat from this site, on a deer dogs training course I’d recently done with her , I just let her nose do the work and trusted her.
About an hour and a bit later and after several km of crawling through crappy undergrowth lshe found the Fallow buck bedded up in some brambles. It took me completely by surprise and came at me at full angry speed . I’m certain it would have nailed me if my little 6 months old dog hadn’t gone for it, she gave me the time window to stand up, chamber a cartridge, call her back to me ( she actually pulled back to the OFF ! command) and I shot the buck square between the eyes at 5 or so meters distance with my .30-06 Schultz and Larsen- a 150 g nosler bt Explosion stoped the situation from going further.
Prior to that I’d been crawling through very dense woodland and my dogs long trailing line had been what I followed.
A thermal spotter
would have been pointless, but a fantastic tiny young dog on a long line saved my arse and a whole lot of problems.Kindest regards, Olaf
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