Putting a big buck on the wall can be difficult even if that big buck is standing in front of you broadside at twenty yards. A twenty-yard shot is a chip shot to most bowhunters who practice every day for the opportunity to tag a buck with a large rack. For some reason, making that twenty-yard shot can be difficult in real life. When the big buck finally materializes, many of us crack under the pressure. Hitting the bulls eye doesn’t prepare us for the real thing in the woods. Sometimes, it is buck fever that causes us to make a bad shot. Other times, it’s the thick sleeve on our coats that sticks out too far and the bowstring connects with it as we let the arrow fly. It can also be a limb the size of a toothpick that seems to come out of nowhere that causes our arrow to fly like a drunken air force pilot after it hits it. Sometimes, the buck jumps or ducks the arrow. Other times, what appears to be a perfect hit turns out to be a buck that only bleeds internally. You get the point … things don’t always go as planned. When things don’t go as planned, many bowhunters rely on John Engelken from New York. He is a professional blood tracker who relies on the superior nose of his blood hounds and his superior skills as a blood tracker to help hunters find their lost buck.
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I recently wrote an article about Engelken for Petersen’s Bowhunting Magazine, and you can hear a radio interview with him on their website right now. He is currently camped out at Tall Tine Outfitters in Illinois. He helps Tall Tine and other outfitters in Illinois find bucks that the guides and hunters can’t find. In most cases, if a buck is mortally wounded and the blood trail is fresh enough, Engelken and his dogs find the buck. Below are a few pictures of some of the bucks Engelken and his bloodhounds have found this year at Tall Tines Outfitters and Illinois Connection Outfitters. Tracking big bucks may sound like a lot of fun to most of us, but in a recent conversation with Engelken, he told me that although it’s fun, it is also a lot of work. “I haven’t been getting much sleep the last few nights. Some nights I am up almost all night. I am working with a few different outfitters and when they encounter trouble, I am the first person they call,” Engelken explained.
If you are interested in using the services of a blood tracker, there are a few scattered across the country, but few do it for a living like Engelken. Engelken relies on bloodhounds and a German Shepherd when he is guiding caribou hunters in Quebec.
If you are interested in having a blood tracking dog of your own, many kennels have them for sale. If you plan to have one of your own, you can plan on working your tail off. Like any hunting dog, they require a lot of training.
Keep checking my articles over the next few weeks. If Engelken finds a whopper in Illinois, I will post another article about it. The bucks below are classic Illinois Whitetails - heavy mass and lots of tines. I guess that’s why every bowhunter I know hunts Illinois in the fall.
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