Need a wounded-deer tracker? Get a beagle
Surprisingly, some smaller breeds are the best trackers
Bob HodgeSUNBRIGHT, Tenn. — Billy Swafford thinks the perfect salve for a deer hunter who has lost the trophy of a lifetime could be a beagle. Specifically, a 7-month-old beagle named Mossy.
Swafford hunts the rugged hills of Morgan County, Tenn., and in the past three years he and some of the hunters who share his lease have shot trophy bucks only to watch them disappear. An experienced hunter who knows how to track a deer, Swafford has spent hours crawling through the undergrowth looking for the smallest signs that could lead him to his deer.
"Last year I shot a big 8-point during bow season and I mean this was a really nice deer," Swafford said. "It was probably 18 inches wide and had 9-inch brow tines … about a 130-class deer … and I never found it.
"From then on I said I was getting a dog."
That's where Mossy — full name Mossy Oak Camouflage — comes in.
| “ | In Alabama I had a plot (hound) and they would be good for about a half-mile then they would run down. A beagle just keeps going and going. That's what I was looking for. ” | |
| — Billy Swafford, on his choice of a deer-tracking dog |
It's against the law to hunt deer with dogs in Tennessee, but it's legal to use a dog to track a wounded deer as long as the tracker is unarmed. Swafford had used dogs to both hunt and track deer in Alabama and he knew a canine's nose follows trails human eyes miss.
"A good dog can really make a difference," he said. "I guess we used dogs to track 20 deer and they found 18 of them. That's a pretty good percentage."
Swafford decided he wanted a beagle and then set about visiting a variety of breeders. He would take a deer heart or lung from the previous season and drag it 10 or 15 feet to leave a trail for the beagle pups. The one that showed the most enthusiasm was the one he bought.
"In Alabama I had a plot (hound) and they would be good for about a half-mile then they would run down," Swafford said. "A beagle just keeps going and going. That's what I was looking for."
To train Mossy, Swafford has gotten help from John Jeanneney's book "Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer." The book covers the different types of dogs that make good trackers — dachshunds are very popular — and lays out a plan for training them.
Swafford laid the groundwork for training Mossy during deer season by saving blood, hearts, lungs and tails from deer he and his friends killed. He started Mossy on small easy-to-follow trails and has gradually made her work more difficult.
Swafford takes blood and deer parts into the woods and lays out a trail that would be similar to one that would be left by a wounded deer. Every few feet or so he drops a little blood and at the end of the trail is some deer meat and a tail that serves as Mossy's reward.
"It's not just blood she's trailing but the smell of the deer as well," Swafford said. "Eventually I want her to be able to follow a trail that's 48 hours old."
Her best job was two weeks ago when Swafford and Ty Ballinger put down a trail in the Morgan County mountains that ran for nearly a half mile. They then waited for 24 hours before letting Mossy go to work.
"It took her about 50 minutes," Swafford said. "I don't think she lost the trail one time."
A trail Swafford and Ballinger put together for her this past week was like throwing Barry Bonds a hanging curve.
Deer blood marked the path Mossy would follow and some fluorescent orange paint on trees allowed Swafford and Ballinger to make sure she stayed on course.
Even though the trail included several 90-degree turns, jumps over logs and briar thickets Mossy barely paused as she wound her way through the woods. She works in silence and doesn't go after a deer baying like her rabbit-hunting counterparts.
"That was too easy," Swafford said. "I think she's about ready to try one that's 36 hours old now."
While tracking deer with dogs might seem novel to many Tennessee hunters, in some areas it's big business. Several northern states host field trials for deer-tracking dogs and dogs-for-hire to track downed trophies are commonplace.
Swafford will have Mossy around for his hunting club's use this season and will also make her available to other hunters who can't find a trophy buck. If she performs well enough this fall he may start advertising her services.
"How much do you charge? I guess it depends on how far you have to go," Swafford said.
At the end of the trail Mossy gobbles down the bits of deer meat and walks off with the deer tail as a prize. Although the pup usually shows off an agreeable personality, when Swafford or Ballinger try to take the deer tail Mossy does her best "Cujo" imitation.
"That," Ballinger says, "is something we're going to have to work on some more."
Bob Hodge is a sportswriter for The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee.
