Tyler's Big Game Recovery

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Tyler's Big Game Recovery

Deer and bear tracking team serving Northwest PA, Southwest NY, and Northeast OH on occasion. No fee - tips/donations only.

21/07/2026

Well, I tried to video this track but I experienced "technical difficulties." It was a hoof drag with no blood and no liver: 140 yards straight then 50 yards after a 90 degree turn, aged 2.5 hours. Woodrow did great for never having seen or smelled a deer hoof before!

14/07/2026

60ft liver drag aged about an hour. This is one of several ways that I begin mental conditioning. Woodrow is 10 weeks old here and has all the potential in the world to become a great tracker!

27/06/2026

And here he is, the newest member of our tracking team...Woodrow!

Woodrow is currently 9 weeks old and has been excelling in basic obedience training. We have been doing 2-3 short 10-15 minute sessions a day since bringing him home earlier this week.

This first week has been mostly about settling into his new home, exposing him to things we will likely encounter while tracking, and socialization.

This little guy is pure potential and I couldn't be happier to have him! I researched different breeds for about two years before I settled on a Pudelpointer.
https://share.google/VFdRZU3xbgWnchdlD

We have already started mental conditioning towards tracking, and a liver drag will be happening very soon.

Special thanks to John over at Iwan Kennels whose dogs are excellent and well cared for!
https://www.facebook.com/share/19CG6tAVeR/

17/06/2026

Only 5 more days until I pick up the newest member of our tracking team!

09/01/2026

Here's one I forgot to post back in November and it ended up being our last recovery of the season. Rifle season was very quiet for us. I was more focused on getting my son Frank lined up on a few deer and spending some time with the fam than tracking. I ended up only going out on 3-4 tracks and all were alive, bleeding, and moving well for miles and miles.

This one in the picture was a quick one from what I remember! The young lady that shot it actually hit it twice and they backed out after bumping him up a few times. Hondo took us right to him in the tall grass. So tall that I didn't know the buck was there until almost stepping on him!

26/12/2025

Well, it's time to get out the old .50 smoke pole and that means tracking season is just about all wrapped up. I'm in the process of cleaning all our gear and making a list of everything that needs replaced for next year.

I haven't taken the time yet to add up all the tracks and run the numbers but I will and then I'll post it. I know our average will be a little lower than normal this year because I set out to get to as many people as physically possible. I think we ended up in the mid 80's!

I do want to say thank you to all the hunters that trusted us to help you track. From trophy bucks, to freezer does, to bobcats and bears... it has been an amazing season! God bless and Merry Christmas!!!

01/12/2025

11/20...This beautiful NY buck was quartering towards the hunter. The hit ended up exiting back and low. He was bumped up and made it around 700 yards. Hondo got there in 15-20 minutes from the start...this is my first year using OnX instead of Huntstand and I'm really liking that it records time, as well as distance on tracks.

28/11/2025

11/19...Dah bears! This bear was hit with a 12g slug and then jumped into the most horrendous brush I have ever crawled through. The hunters took the track a ways into the brush, but wisely backed out. We came out the next morning and jumped in.
Hondo tracks bear completely different from deer. Generally speaking, he stays tight to the line on deer. But with bear, he doesn't care one bit about the line. Blood, hair, pad scent... doesn't care. It's all wind. He has left the obvious track with blood all over, to pull me 370 yards to a fresh, empty bear bed with blood in it.

This track he was not able to do that at all. It was thick...hands and knees mostly, but also a lot of belly crawling thick. Test your sanity thick. So thick it was funny, and then it wasn't again. Out of the 300+ tracks that I have been on, this one takes the cake on thick.

We were in his inner sanctum. We found 6 wound beds. And around the 1.2 mile mark we found wound bed #7...and it had fresh blood in it. I would not have crawled through fresh sign after a wounded bear. Thankfully, he moved through some open timber and I decided that we would track a few hundred more yards and then reassess.

We came up to a swamp edge with really tall reeds. Visibility was only a few feet so I stopped a 10 feet from the edge to think what to do. Then Hondo and I heard what sounded like a man walking through the reeds about 10 yards away. There's a lot of hunters here and there and Hondo was just staring and listening like I was so I gave a "HEY...YO... WE'RE OVER HERE." Each time I paused in between and the walking would stop, and then start up again. Hondo was getting super nervous and giving his huff bark which I have only ever heard him give to people.

And then I saw him. Big, black and still on his feet, but hurting. I put a slug in him...more reeds moving...yada yada yada he turned and started coming out of the reeds! I shot the last slug I had out of my break action .20g and took off running the other way!

He was a solid 255lb. Chatauqua County, NY bear.

24/11/2025

11/15...I ended up taking several days off from tracking and call volume has been slowing down. But this was one crazy track! It was a 1.5 mile hike just to get to the hit site and this was Hondo and I's 4th track of the day. As we were hiking in it started to rain in sheets and by the time we got to the hit site it was a full blown thunderstorm...in November! No one really knew exactly where the deer was standing when he was shot, so we just blundered towards where they had last blood and someone was smart enough to ask "Tyler, is this even worth it!?" If the wind had been worse we would have had to pull out. I'm not too worried about lightning while I'm in the woods. It's high winds in the woods and lightning in the fields that I do not particularly enjoy.
The wind wasn't too bad so I thought it was fine to continue. At about that moment, Hondo started pulling. Between the heavy rain and the flashes of lightning I was pretty disoriented so I just followed along behind Hondo holding onto the lead. The hunters tracked this deer 300 yards and we tracked him for about another 300 and there he was...head up, bedded, and staring at us. The hunter thought he might have liver shot this deer, but as it turns out it was a leg and sc***um hit. Now before all the trolls in mom's basement that don't know anything chime in here...I can legally dispatch a deer day or night with a firearm in NY with my Leashed Tracking Dog License. I was able to put this buck down quickly and as humanely as possible.

After that we had him in a cart pulling him down the road, miles away from my truck. A kind soul driving down the road picked us up at random. He had his boys with him and it turns out they were at the Homeschool Day at Miracle Mountain Ranch where I work. They recognized me from a tracking talk and demo that I gave at that event!

Address

16436

Telephone

+18149648202

Website

https://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/tracker-info/?user=2106

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