Don't count out using the family dog as a tool to help as well. Two years ago, I was out tracking a huge doe I'd shot in the morning. My dog - a German Shepherd with NO TRAINING in tracking, broke his chain to find out where I'd gone (he recognized the "dead deer" blood smell on me when I came home to take a break at lunch). At any rate, I didn't want him there with me, but he started out across a field and I followed him. Everywhere he went, I found small specks of blood - and eventually he led me right to the deer. I would NEVER have looked where he took me because the blood trail was extreemely sparse and the specks were far apart. He would have literally run to the deer if I hadn't been restraining him during the entire tracking process. I used him last year to find another doe that could've been tricky.

I thought he was letting me down though on a big buck I shot last year that I was sure had crossed my driveway. I took him all over the other side of the driveway and he couldn't seem to lock-in on anything. When I returned to the side I was sure it wasn't on, he took me right to it!

As I said, he's never been trained in tracking, but he's got a heck of a nose and has led me to all 3 of the deer he's helped with.