Mooseman
02-24-2007, 12:19 PM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/TaraKeith238.jpg
A group of us at "Canadian Game Tracker Association" (http://www.canadiangametrackers.com/) went to Europe last November/December to learn from some of the best trackers in the world. This is a story of one of these calls we got to go along on. Defiantly an exciting one that I was able to film as well.
The place is a US military training base in Germany called "Grafenwoehr". (http://www.grafenwoehr.army.mil/)It is rather large {MAP} (http://www.satellite-sightseer.com/id/5498/Germany//Grafenwoehr/Grafenwoehr_U_S__Army_Training_Area) and is also home to thousands of US troops that train here. The place is usually active with fighter planes doing shooting practice, big transport planes doing dropping practice, tanks shooting at targets, rockets and right down to hand held weapon training and combat training and so on.
When the base has a "no shooting" time, the German foresters have to get the logging done and the hunting has to get done then as well. Since there are no large predators the game populations have to be regulated by hunting or nature will take care of a over population problem by introducing a disease. In the two days we were there they shot about 100 red deer and ? roe deer, ? boars and some foxes as you can see in this Video (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00125.flv). The red deer harvest for the last season was about 1.200.
With that much shooting, there are also some not so perfect hits. Therefore this place has access to many trackers and offers the perfect opportunity to do a "Main Exam" there. The "Main Exam" is a test for the tracking dog. Without a good score at such a test the handler will not get permission to breed his dog. A thorough health check is a given but to prove it self at the task is a performance based breeding stipulation that produces a very high percentage of excellent dogs. As you can imagine it is also a very criticized stipulation by all those that don't make the cut.
This call was such a "Main Exam" and that is why there are so many people in this group. There is a judge, a witness and the in charge forester and of cause the dog handler and us.
If I recall correctly the shooter shot 5 animals on that drive from his highseat. As the one forester and I started pulling them to the road and loading them in to the trailer, one calf that wasn't laying where he told us to look. We looked for blood as the thorn brush in front of us started to move and the red deer calf came flying out with one leg dangling. The forester with me couldn't make it quick enough to his truck to get the gun out in time. So we called it in and a tracker and his dog came to start this track only two hours after the hit.
First the tracker has to check the "Hitsite" for signs like hair, blood, pieces of bone......just anything that could tell him something about the hit. Even though we told him what happened, the tracker has to look and confirm since often the shooters descriptions are not all the facts.
Grafenwoehr Video 1 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00116.flv)
After examining the facts on the ground the dog gets to check out the site and begins the track. A +30' long leash is very important as the dog can work a larger radius and be more concentrated on the task at hand.
Grafenwoehr Video 2 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00117-1.flv)
Surprisingly the calf did not bleed that much anymore. It lost allot of blood in the brush and after the first 250 yard run the wound almost quit bleeding. That can be a problem for the tracker, as we like to see confirmation. If you know your dog well, you kind of know when it is still on the right track or when not. It's behavior will change if distracted by another scent temptation. And let me tell you there was a lot of other animals that had crossed the wounded trail. Very tough for the dog since we started to track unusually early on the hot trail due to schedule pressure from the military. The dog has a easier time on a cold wound trail and can differentiate better to concentrate on the individual scent of the wounded animal.
Some times the dog pointed out the odd drop of blood to us and made everyone happy by confirming to be on the right track.
Grafenwoehr Video 3 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00118.flv)
After 2 km of tracking on the long leash the dog pulled hard and lifted it's head in excitement. That was the sign to for the handler to let her off leash because the calf is still out of sight but not far ahead. The dog took off like a bullet, barking. We started running after the dog as good as we could but the sound faded away. The handler had to rely on the tracking system now to locate the dog and hopefully with it, the calf as well. After another 2 km we saw the dog as it was holding the calf on the ground. Us showing up made the calf brake free from the dog once more and it took another run through the trees with the dog right on it. No real chance for the handler to shoot without putting the dogs life at risk in that situation.
Grafenwoehr Video 4 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00119.flv)
The dog was able to force the calf to another stand off, thus giving the handler the chance for a shot. The animal was so pumped with adrenalin that it took another short run. The dog finally pulled it down for good.
Only the handler is allowed to shoot in this situation. The reason should be self exclamatory.
Grafenwoehr Video 5 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00120.flv)
A perfect ending to a very difficult track. Both, dog and handler offered a first class performance that will be graded very high thus allowing the handler to breed with his dog. The dog is so good due to the amount of tracks she has done so far. Like everything else in life, practice practice practice.
Grafenwoehr Video 6 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00122.flv)
A group of us at "Canadian Game Tracker Association" (http://www.canadiangametrackers.com/) went to Europe last November/December to learn from some of the best trackers in the world. This is a story of one of these calls we got to go along on. Defiantly an exciting one that I was able to film as well.
The place is a US military training base in Germany called "Grafenwoehr". (http://www.grafenwoehr.army.mil/)It is rather large {MAP} (http://www.satellite-sightseer.com/id/5498/Germany//Grafenwoehr/Grafenwoehr_U_S__Army_Training_Area) and is also home to thousands of US troops that train here. The place is usually active with fighter planes doing shooting practice, big transport planes doing dropping practice, tanks shooting at targets, rockets and right down to hand held weapon training and combat training and so on.
When the base has a "no shooting" time, the German foresters have to get the logging done and the hunting has to get done then as well. Since there are no large predators the game populations have to be regulated by hunting or nature will take care of a over population problem by introducing a disease. In the two days we were there they shot about 100 red deer and ? roe deer, ? boars and some foxes as you can see in this Video (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00125.flv). The red deer harvest for the last season was about 1.200.
With that much shooting, there are also some not so perfect hits. Therefore this place has access to many trackers and offers the perfect opportunity to do a "Main Exam" there. The "Main Exam" is a test for the tracking dog. Without a good score at such a test the handler will not get permission to breed his dog. A thorough health check is a given but to prove it self at the task is a performance based breeding stipulation that produces a very high percentage of excellent dogs. As you can imagine it is also a very criticized stipulation by all those that don't make the cut.
This call was such a "Main Exam" and that is why there are so many people in this group. There is a judge, a witness and the in charge forester and of cause the dog handler and us.
If I recall correctly the shooter shot 5 animals on that drive from his highseat. As the one forester and I started pulling them to the road and loading them in to the trailer, one calf that wasn't laying where he told us to look. We looked for blood as the thorn brush in front of us started to move and the red deer calf came flying out with one leg dangling. The forester with me couldn't make it quick enough to his truck to get the gun out in time. So we called it in and a tracker and his dog came to start this track only two hours after the hit.
First the tracker has to check the "Hitsite" for signs like hair, blood, pieces of bone......just anything that could tell him something about the hit. Even though we told him what happened, the tracker has to look and confirm since often the shooters descriptions are not all the facts.
Grafenwoehr Video 1 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00116.flv)
After examining the facts on the ground the dog gets to check out the site and begins the track. A +30' long leash is very important as the dog can work a larger radius and be more concentrated on the task at hand.
Grafenwoehr Video 2 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00117-1.flv)
Surprisingly the calf did not bleed that much anymore. It lost allot of blood in the brush and after the first 250 yard run the wound almost quit bleeding. That can be a problem for the tracker, as we like to see confirmation. If you know your dog well, you kind of know when it is still on the right track or when not. It's behavior will change if distracted by another scent temptation. And let me tell you there was a lot of other animals that had crossed the wounded trail. Very tough for the dog since we started to track unusually early on the hot trail due to schedule pressure from the military. The dog has a easier time on a cold wound trail and can differentiate better to concentrate on the individual scent of the wounded animal.
Some times the dog pointed out the odd drop of blood to us and made everyone happy by confirming to be on the right track.
Grafenwoehr Video 3 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00118.flv)
After 2 km of tracking on the long leash the dog pulled hard and lifted it's head in excitement. That was the sign to for the handler to let her off leash because the calf is still out of sight but not far ahead. The dog took off like a bullet, barking. We started running after the dog as good as we could but the sound faded away. The handler had to rely on the tracking system now to locate the dog and hopefully with it, the calf as well. After another 2 km we saw the dog as it was holding the calf on the ground. Us showing up made the calf brake free from the dog once more and it took another run through the trees with the dog right on it. No real chance for the handler to shoot without putting the dogs life at risk in that situation.
Grafenwoehr Video 4 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00119.flv)
The dog was able to force the calf to another stand off, thus giving the handler the chance for a shot. The animal was so pumped with adrenalin that it took another short run. The dog finally pulled it down for good.
Only the handler is allowed to shoot in this situation. The reason should be self exclamatory.
Grafenwoehr Video 5 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00120.flv)
A perfect ending to a very difficult track. Both, dog and handler offered a first class performance that will be graded very high thus allowing the handler to breed with his dog. The dog is so good due to the amount of tracks she has done so far. Like everything else in life, practice practice practice.
Grafenwoehr Video 6 (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v724/MoosemanBC/Tracking%202/?action=view¤t=M2U00122.flv)