Kevin Armstrong, NY Bowhunters, Full Draw, Winter 2011
There are few men alive in North America today who can say that they have taken up 1,000 blood trails in their lifetime. Still fewer can claim nearly 1,000 trails where the hunter who wounded the deer had already done every thing in his or her power to recover the animal but had ultimately, with all sign exhausted, been forced to give up the trail. John Jeanneney has taken up nearly 1,000 such desperate trails to date and he has recovered hundreds of deer and black bear that would have otherwise gone unrecovered. As I write this review John is preparing for his 35th tracking season in 2010 where he will reach, or nearly reach that 1,000 trail mark.
As you can imagine a good deal of savvy is acquired in 34 seasons of aggressive tracking. Add to that a passion for hunting and a scholarly nature trained to detect, examine, and interpret detail, combined with an unerring compulsion to teach. The result is author and tracker John Jeanneney. All that savvy, passion, and experience is encapsulated in John’s second book on the topic: DEAD ON!
In his first book Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer John entered an area of our hunting literature completely devoid from a North American point of view. John’s book successfully filled that void and it now stands as the primary reference for both novice and experienced leashed deer tracking dog handlers.
Through his decades of interaction with hunters John has grown increasingly aware of the need for a simple, unapologetic, straight to the point, book that can be used by both firearms and archery hunters to determine where their deer was hit, how critical the wound really is and how best to proceed to insure recovery of the animal. John’s new book DEAD ON! does exactly that. John explains the importance of a hunter training himself to see his living targets in three dimensions, or, as the military refers to it, in ‘target aspect’. He describes how to analyze interpret and evaluate minute details in blood color, pattern, density and volume. He discusses how to properly analyze the hair found at point of impact and beyond. He discusses how hunters are often wrongly encouraged by what they perceive to be voluminous blood loss when in fact that same sign may be telling a very discouraging story. John makes some thought provoking and perhaps controversial remarks on when and how long to wait before taking up the trail of deer hit in various parts of their anatomy. All this and much more are packed into a slim 110 page volume that can be carried in a hunters back pack or cargo pocket and read on deer stand.
For the impatient reader who wants to cut right to the chase John has distilled the key points of each chapter into bullet point summaries. The book is well illustrated with 34 supportive National Bowhunter Education Foundation like deer anatomy illustrations and field photos that John has compiled over his years of tracking.
This book is stripped of all fluff. Jeanneney is not trying to sell a product or even an idea. He is simply taking decades of hard won field experience, and distilled it down to a few easy to understand concepts, and putting those in terms simple enough for a child to understand yet sophisticated enough for a seasoned professional to appreciate and gain from.
If you are a deer hunter who lives in a place where tracking wounded deer with a dog is illegal, impractical, or unavailable, this book is a must. If you are a new hunter you owe it to yourself and to the game animal to understand exactly what to expect from various wounds, how to interpret the sign left after impact, and how to proceed with waiting and trailing. If you are a seasoned old tracker and dog handler like me there is plenty here for you too.
This little book could change your next deer season. It could help you recover deer that would otherwise be lost. What could be more important than that?
As you can imagine a good deal of savvy is acquired in 34 seasons of aggressive tracking. Add to that a passion for hunting and a scholarly nature trained to detect, examine, and interpret detail, combined with an unerring compulsion to teach. The result is author and tracker John Jeanneney. All that savvy, passion, and experience is encapsulated in John’s second book on the topic: DEAD ON!
In his first book Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer John entered an area of our hunting literature completely devoid from a North American point of view. John’s book successfully filled that void and it now stands as the primary reference for both novice and experienced leashed deer tracking dog handlers.
Through his decades of interaction with hunters John has grown increasingly aware of the need for a simple, unapologetic, straight to the point, book that can be used by both firearms and archery hunters to determine where their deer was hit, how critical the wound really is and how best to proceed to insure recovery of the animal. John’s new book DEAD ON! does exactly that. John explains the importance of a hunter training himself to see his living targets in three dimensions, or, as the military refers to it, in ‘target aspect’. He describes how to analyze interpret and evaluate minute details in blood color, pattern, density and volume. He discusses how to properly analyze the hair found at point of impact and beyond. He discusses how hunters are often wrongly encouraged by what they perceive to be voluminous blood loss when in fact that same sign may be telling a very discouraging story. John makes some thought provoking and perhaps controversial remarks on when and how long to wait before taking up the trail of deer hit in various parts of their anatomy. All this and much more are packed into a slim 110 page volume that can be carried in a hunters back pack or cargo pocket and read on deer stand.
For the impatient reader who wants to cut right to the chase John has distilled the key points of each chapter into bullet point summaries. The book is well illustrated with 34 supportive National Bowhunter Education Foundation like deer anatomy illustrations and field photos that John has compiled over his years of tracking.
This book is stripped of all fluff. Jeanneney is not trying to sell a product or even an idea. He is simply taking decades of hard won field experience, and distilled it down to a few easy to understand concepts, and putting those in terms simple enough for a child to understand yet sophisticated enough for a seasoned professional to appreciate and gain from.
If you are a deer hunter who lives in a place where tracking wounded deer with a dog is illegal, impractical, or unavailable, this book is a must. If you are a new hunter you owe it to yourself and to the game animal to understand exactly what to expect from various wounds, how to interpret the sign left after impact, and how to proceed with waiting and trailing. If you are a seasoned old tracker and dog handler like me there is plenty here for you too.
This little book could change your next deer season. It could help you recover deer that would otherwise be lost. What could be more important than that?
Will Elliott, The Buffalo News
Jeanneney, a retired university professor and lifelong hunter and tracker, admits to losing deer himself and has devoted years in developing betters ways to prevent these losses.
His specialized book, “Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer,” became widely accepted mainly with dog handlers interested in volunteer efforts to find injured big-game animals.
Parts of the tracking dog book helped the average hunter upgrade skills at shot placement and better approaches to tracking game before calling a deer search dog handler in an attempt to find the fallen game before predators such as foxes, coyotes, and other wild carnivores find the carcass.
Jeanneney’s new text, “Dead On!”, focuses on those things hunters should have in mind before taking the shot and offers good advice for hunters who do not have access to a tracking dog or tracking dog services.
The subtitle tells all the aspects that are addressed in this book: “Deer Anatomy and Shot Placement for Bow and Gun hunters. Tracking Techniques for Wounded Whitetails.”
A quick review of the more than 100 pages of this text clearly indicates he centers his 34 years of tracking experiences and tips mainly for bow hunters. Guns provide shock impact that more effectively results in clean kills.
Bow shots, however, rely on vital-organ hits that dispatch deer and other game animals more through hemorrhaging and blood loss than the powerful punch of a rifle bullet or shotgun slug. Even the sections devoted to gun hunting serve as sound advice for bow shooters.
One section on gun hunting is taken indirectly from Robert Ruark’s famed recommendation: “Use Enough Gun.”
Jeanneney not only suggests higher calibers—for example, a .270 instead of a .223—but he also cautions against using light-grained varmint cartridges when a heavier grain designed for big game would result in a more humane kill.
Chest shots, gut shots, and leg and muscle hits all get special attention. The book explains signs of hits in each area and offers useful tips on how to identify these hits by hair and blood samples left at the point of impact. After covering high-hack, and head and neck shots, the text turns to considerations made after a shot that does not result in a visible, immediate kill.
Popular perceptions given in hunting books and magazines often tout a half-hour wait after any bow shot resulting in a deer running out of sight. Jeanneney sees it as a myth that undisturbed deer will lie down within 200 yards of a hit and begin to “stiffen up.” He counters that belief with the comment: “The stiffness that hunters observe sets in only after death.”
Instead, the hunter should concentrate on identifying the nature of a deer’s wounds and “go cautiously but promptly to the hit site. Check everything.” Then decide whether or not to go slowly and as quietly as possible along the deer’s trail.
Two more myths exploded in this book: (1) “Wounded deer readily go up hill, if they have a reason to do so” and (2) “Gut-shot deer DO go to water.”
The book counters many more long-held misconceptions about deer shot-placement and tracking procedures.
His specialized book, “Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer,” became widely accepted mainly with dog handlers interested in volunteer efforts to find injured big-game animals.
Parts of the tracking dog book helped the average hunter upgrade skills at shot placement and better approaches to tracking game before calling a deer search dog handler in an attempt to find the fallen game before predators such as foxes, coyotes, and other wild carnivores find the carcass.
Jeanneney’s new text, “Dead On!”, focuses on those things hunters should have in mind before taking the shot and offers good advice for hunters who do not have access to a tracking dog or tracking dog services.
The subtitle tells all the aspects that are addressed in this book: “Deer Anatomy and Shot Placement for Bow and Gun hunters. Tracking Techniques for Wounded Whitetails.”
A quick review of the more than 100 pages of this text clearly indicates he centers his 34 years of tracking experiences and tips mainly for bow hunters. Guns provide shock impact that more effectively results in clean kills.
Bow shots, however, rely on vital-organ hits that dispatch deer and other game animals more through hemorrhaging and blood loss than the powerful punch of a rifle bullet or shotgun slug. Even the sections devoted to gun hunting serve as sound advice for bow shooters.
One section on gun hunting is taken indirectly from Robert Ruark’s famed recommendation: “Use Enough Gun.”
Jeanneney not only suggests higher calibers—for example, a .270 instead of a .223—but he also cautions against using light-grained varmint cartridges when a heavier grain designed for big game would result in a more humane kill.
Chest shots, gut shots, and leg and muscle hits all get special attention. The book explains signs of hits in each area and offers useful tips on how to identify these hits by hair and blood samples left at the point of impact. After covering high-hack, and head and neck shots, the text turns to considerations made after a shot that does not result in a visible, immediate kill.
Popular perceptions given in hunting books and magazines often tout a half-hour wait after any bow shot resulting in a deer running out of sight. Jeanneney sees it as a myth that undisturbed deer will lie down within 200 yards of a hit and begin to “stiffen up.” He counters that belief with the comment: “The stiffness that hunters observe sets in only after death.”
Instead, the hunter should concentrate on identifying the nature of a deer’s wounds and “go cautiously but promptly to the hit site. Check everything.” Then decide whether or not to go slowly and as quietly as possible along the deer’s trail.
Two more myths exploded in this book: (1) “Wounded deer readily go up hill, if they have a reason to do so” and (2) “Gut-shot deer DO go to water.”
The book counters many more long-held misconceptions about deer shot-placement and tracking procedures.
Craig Dougherty, OutdoorLife, December 23, 2011
John Jeanneney tracks more wounded deer in a season than most bowhunters do in a lifetime. He is widely respected within the hunting community as one of the top trackers and blood trailing dog breeders. That’s why his recently released deer tracking book Dead On! raised more than a few eyebrows.
The book covers blood trailing and tracking from top to bottom, but one of Jeanneney’s most interesting points is that he encourages bowhunters to re-think the conventional wisdom of waiting (at least a half hour) after the shot to follow up on a deer. No more automatically sneaking out of the woods to let bowshot whitetails “lie down and stiffen up.” No more coming back after supper to pick him up.
Jeanneney admits that his “don’t wait” advice flies in the face of conventional bowhunting wisdom. Wisdom that is still taught in bowhunting education classes. But he has solid reasons for his recommendations.
Wait or Don’t Wait?
Dead On! posits hunters are wasting valuable time by waiting before searching. As a minimum they should quietly go to the hit site and search for evidence (provided the deer has left the area). This includes blood and hair analysis, looking for ground sign and arrow recovery if possible. If conditions are right, hunters should then immediately move forward with the tracking and recovery process. Here’s Jeanneney”s rationale for immediately moving forward.
Only Dead Deer Stiffen Up
Jeanneney argues that he has jumped hundreds of deer from their wound beds and has yet to observe any evidence of stiffness. Weakness, yes, but unless the deer is risen from the dead (as rigor mortis sets in after death) there will be no stiffness.
Initial Shock Favors the Hunter
Jeanneney then moves on to discuss shock theory stating: “shock (in humans) sets in within minutes of a traumatic injury.” Humans in shock are often drowsy and weak but often feel no pain. Medics treat shock by lying down the injured individual and helping him stay calm.
Transfer the above condition to a wounded deer and: “we can see that the time immediately following a traumatic injury is the time when a deer’s survival instincts are most likely to be most muddled …this is the time to approach carefully for a finishing shot rather than stay in the stand and hope for the best … it doesn’t make much sense to do what combat medics recommend for survival”.
Moving Deer Bleed More Than Bedded Deer
In defense of getting on the blood and pushing the deer, the author points out correctly that most if not all archery killed deer die through blood loss. A running deer’s heart rate is 3 times greater than that of a resting deer. It stands to reason
that a heart pumping 3 times faster than a resting heart will bring on accelerated blood loss (and accompanying pressure loss and death) a lot quicker than a resting heart. A moving deer will be easier to track and flush out clots quicker than a resting deer. This argument applies to both chest and leg and shoulder hits. Hard to argue with that.
The Coyotes Will Get There First
If that’s not enough, Jeanneney’s argument against waiting is bolstered by the proliferation of coyotes in many areas. Coyote populations are rising rapidly in whitetail country and there is ample evidence to suggest that they are learning to key off
of hunters, eagerly and easily following the scent trails of wounded or already dead game. This year I was beaten to my first bow kill of the season by a pack of hungry coyotes intent on eating supper the same time I was eating mine (while waiting for my deer to stiffen up and die). Numerous hunter anecdotes from around the country report “race to the carcass” conditions in coyote
infested areas. Certainly it is very risky these days to follow traditional wisdom and wait until the next morning to find your deer.
When to Wait
With the caution of a true scholar Jeanneney is quick to state that a rapid follow-up is not always called for. Such is the case with shots to the stomach liver and intestines. Here he states there is much less external bleeding (easy tracking) and deer
are prone to bed in the first few hundred yards. Sadly, many of these hits result in a slow and lingering death so it is best to try to keep them bedded in a small an area as possible.
Food for Thought
According to Jeanneney deciding on the appropriate waiting period is one of the toughest calls in deer hunting. After
one of the worst (shooting) seasons our hunting gang has had in years I painfully must concur. Among the hunting fraternity nothing is worse than not recovering a wounded animal and recovery strategies must be thought out carefully.
If nothing else, Dead On! forces us to think more carefully our recovery strategies. With deer hunting season winding down, this is a good time to look back on our recovery rate. Did we lose more than we should have? Did we employ the right recovery strategies?
John would be the first to tell you that answers to these questions are never absolute and the only definitive answer is a recovered deer. But I can assure you that Dead On! can make your tracking decision a whole lot easier.
About the Book and the Author
Jeanneney’s tracking knowledge was accumulated over a 36-year career of tracking deer and responding to calls from hunters needing the assistance. Jeanneney has tracked over 1,000 wounded whitetails. He gets the call when the hunter gives up. He sometimes takes 2 or even 3 calls per night at his upstate NY location.
His secret? Years of experience and a kennel full of superbly trained tracking dogs. His dogs are worked on leash and are capable of following wounded deer for miles. Run out of blood sign, no problem, they will key on body scent. Rain, snow or a day old trail no problem, John and his dogs can generally work it through. Like the Energizer Bunny they just keep going and
going until the deer is recovered or John decides the deer was not mortally wounded and reluctantly calls a halt to the search.
And this is what makes Dead On! truly unique. It is written from the point of view of a person who can stay on a wounded deer with no visual sign present. He can advance the line well beyond where a normal sight tracker must quit. Because of this he has been able to figure out what hundreds of wounded deer have done after being wounded. It’s this extra knowledge of
following deer with no visual sign, (along with a lifetime of study and experience) which qualifies Jeanneney to write books, present papers (across the U.S. and abroad) and challenge conventional wisdom on recovering wounded deer with unparalleled authority.
The book should be required reading for anyone going afield with bow or gun and should be standard “reading room” material in every deer camp in America. At a little over 100 pages in length with a cost of $13.95, it’s both quick read and easy on the pocketbook.
The book covers blood trailing and tracking from top to bottom, but one of Jeanneney’s most interesting points is that he encourages bowhunters to re-think the conventional wisdom of waiting (at least a half hour) after the shot to follow up on a deer. No more automatically sneaking out of the woods to let bowshot whitetails “lie down and stiffen up.” No more coming back after supper to pick him up.
Jeanneney admits that his “don’t wait” advice flies in the face of conventional bowhunting wisdom. Wisdom that is still taught in bowhunting education classes. But he has solid reasons for his recommendations.
Wait or Don’t Wait?
Dead On! posits hunters are wasting valuable time by waiting before searching. As a minimum they should quietly go to the hit site and search for evidence (provided the deer has left the area). This includes blood and hair analysis, looking for ground sign and arrow recovery if possible. If conditions are right, hunters should then immediately move forward with the tracking and recovery process. Here’s Jeanneney”s rationale for immediately moving forward.
Only Dead Deer Stiffen Up
Jeanneney argues that he has jumped hundreds of deer from their wound beds and has yet to observe any evidence of stiffness. Weakness, yes, but unless the deer is risen from the dead (as rigor mortis sets in after death) there will be no stiffness.
Initial Shock Favors the Hunter
Jeanneney then moves on to discuss shock theory stating: “shock (in humans) sets in within minutes of a traumatic injury.” Humans in shock are often drowsy and weak but often feel no pain. Medics treat shock by lying down the injured individual and helping him stay calm.
Transfer the above condition to a wounded deer and: “we can see that the time immediately following a traumatic injury is the time when a deer’s survival instincts are most likely to be most muddled …this is the time to approach carefully for a finishing shot rather than stay in the stand and hope for the best … it doesn’t make much sense to do what combat medics recommend for survival”.
Moving Deer Bleed More Than Bedded Deer
In defense of getting on the blood and pushing the deer, the author points out correctly that most if not all archery killed deer die through blood loss. A running deer’s heart rate is 3 times greater than that of a resting deer. It stands to reason
that a heart pumping 3 times faster than a resting heart will bring on accelerated blood loss (and accompanying pressure loss and death) a lot quicker than a resting heart. A moving deer will be easier to track and flush out clots quicker than a resting deer. This argument applies to both chest and leg and shoulder hits. Hard to argue with that.
The Coyotes Will Get There First
If that’s not enough, Jeanneney’s argument against waiting is bolstered by the proliferation of coyotes in many areas. Coyote populations are rising rapidly in whitetail country and there is ample evidence to suggest that they are learning to key off
of hunters, eagerly and easily following the scent trails of wounded or already dead game. This year I was beaten to my first bow kill of the season by a pack of hungry coyotes intent on eating supper the same time I was eating mine (while waiting for my deer to stiffen up and die). Numerous hunter anecdotes from around the country report “race to the carcass” conditions in coyote
infested areas. Certainly it is very risky these days to follow traditional wisdom and wait until the next morning to find your deer.
When to Wait
With the caution of a true scholar Jeanneney is quick to state that a rapid follow-up is not always called for. Such is the case with shots to the stomach liver and intestines. Here he states there is much less external bleeding (easy tracking) and deer
are prone to bed in the first few hundred yards. Sadly, many of these hits result in a slow and lingering death so it is best to try to keep them bedded in a small an area as possible.
Food for Thought
According to Jeanneney deciding on the appropriate waiting period is one of the toughest calls in deer hunting. After
one of the worst (shooting) seasons our hunting gang has had in years I painfully must concur. Among the hunting fraternity nothing is worse than not recovering a wounded animal and recovery strategies must be thought out carefully.
If nothing else, Dead On! forces us to think more carefully our recovery strategies. With deer hunting season winding down, this is a good time to look back on our recovery rate. Did we lose more than we should have? Did we employ the right recovery strategies?
John would be the first to tell you that answers to these questions are never absolute and the only definitive answer is a recovered deer. But I can assure you that Dead On! can make your tracking decision a whole lot easier.
About the Book and the Author
Jeanneney’s tracking knowledge was accumulated over a 36-year career of tracking deer and responding to calls from hunters needing the assistance. Jeanneney has tracked over 1,000 wounded whitetails. He gets the call when the hunter gives up. He sometimes takes 2 or even 3 calls per night at his upstate NY location.
His secret? Years of experience and a kennel full of superbly trained tracking dogs. His dogs are worked on leash and are capable of following wounded deer for miles. Run out of blood sign, no problem, they will key on body scent. Rain, snow or a day old trail no problem, John and his dogs can generally work it through. Like the Energizer Bunny they just keep going and
going until the deer is recovered or John decides the deer was not mortally wounded and reluctantly calls a halt to the search.
And this is what makes Dead On! truly unique. It is written from the point of view of a person who can stay on a wounded deer with no visual sign present. He can advance the line well beyond where a normal sight tracker must quit. Because of this he has been able to figure out what hundreds of wounded deer have done after being wounded. It’s this extra knowledge of
following deer with no visual sign, (along with a lifetime of study and experience) which qualifies Jeanneney to write books, present papers (across the U.S. and abroad) and challenge conventional wisdom on recovering wounded deer with unparalleled authority.
The book should be required reading for anyone going afield with bow or gun and should be standard “reading room” material in every deer camp in America. At a little over 100 pages in length with a cost of $13.95, it’s both quick read and easy on the pocketbook.
