• home
  • about this book
  • table of contents
  • about the author
  • pics
  • buy
  • reviews
  • readers' comments
  • brochure
 Dead On! Deer Anatomy and Shot Placement for Bow and Gun Hunters. Tracking Techniques for Wounded Whitetails.

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?

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.

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.

Dead On!’ outlines steps in deer search 
 
by outdoors columnist Ed Noonan, The Daily Gazette, November 8, 2012

 
I recently read a book written by a local hunter who has collected what  he has learned after 34 years of tracking wounded deer. This book not only  contains all of his techniques for tracking wounded whitetails, but also  information on the deer’s anatomy and the proper shot placement for bow and gun  hunters, something we all should revisit from time to time. I act ually read  this book several weeks ago while sitting in a blind, turkey hunting.

The book is titled "Dead On!" and was written by John Jeanneney of Berne  and published by Teckel Time Inc. The soft-covered, 110-page book is based on  930 searches for wounded deer. In 1975, after losing a deer he’d wounded,  Jeanneney applied for a research license from New York State Dep artment of  Environmental Conservation to investigate the feasibility of using leased
tracking dogs to find wounded/dead. The following year, DEC issued him a  Scientific Collector permit. John and the late Don Hickman of Pleasant Valley  founded Deer Search, which extended across the state. Today, leashed tracking  dogs are authorized in 21 states.

Deer Search is a volunteer organization that seeks to reduce the number  of deer that are wounded and left in the woods to die during the hunting season.  They use specially trained dogs to fi nd wounded big game, impossible to track  by eye. I’ve been on a couple of these searches, both of which were successful,  and the handlers and the dogs were outstanding. Here are three telephone numbers  all hunters should carry along with their hunting license: Mid-Hudson Valley  (845) 227-5099, Western New York (716) 648-4355 and ithe Finger Lakes (585) 935-5220.

The contents of John’s book share what the author and all members of Deer  Search have learned since the organization’s inception. This book is not on how  the dogs fi nd the deer, but rather things deer hunters should know and apply in  big game hunting to lessen the number of wounded deer and bear.

 "Dead On!" begins where it should, with choosing the shot. Obviously,  when the trigger is pulled or the arrow released, it’s done with the intention  of a quick and clean kill. Being a responsible hunter is stressed throughout  this chapter. Also included are checks that should be made by the hunter prior  to the shot, along with when, and when not, to take it. These include detailed
discussions of what can happen from the time an arrow is released to when it  impacts the deer. One of the problems John has seen is shot placement too far  back on the deer, resulting in intestinal and stomach wounds. As for the  distance, especially of a bow shot, it should be a personal thing that only the  bowhunter’s abilities can determine. I’ve always preferred 35 yards or less 
— that’s my comfort  zone.

Jeanneney stresses using "enough" gun in this chapter to help eliminate  wounded deer. I know that a .223 and .243 will kill a deer with the proper  bullet and its placement, but there are many things that can happen that even  the best of shooters cannot control. Why take the chance?

Chapter 2 details and illustrates a wealth of chest-shot inform ation. A  deer is tougher than most think, and Jeanneney includes descriptions of the  differences of the damage of an arrow and its chest shot wound. Also, I found it  interesting that in over 900 calls for help finding a deer, only once was for a  heart-shot deer. Blood trails will tell a lot about where the deer was hit, and
this chapter details how to determine lung shots. On TV, I notice the bowhunters  will often emphasize pass-through shots and hold up the arrow, which I believed  was a good sign, but I found out in this book that a pass-through chest shot may
seal almost immediately because the deer’s chest muscles slide back across the  wound after the arrow exits.

It’s important when reading the chapter devoted to the deer’s anatomy to  make special note and memorize the size and location of the vital areas.  All of them have very detailed descriptions and are shown in drawings and  photos. Deer aren’t as big as you think they are.

The term "gut shot," is often used by hunters whose shot was behind the  diaphragm of the deer, and in the chapter devoted to this area, readers will  learn this shot is almost always terminal, but not immediately. Pay close  attention to the discussion of how to determine its signs. These include the  amount of blood and its color. If it’s an intest inal hit, you may see food  fragments of what the deer ate, and even make the determination by smelling the  arrow. Once it is determined that it is a gut shot, the author explains when and  how you should track the deer.

 Leg and muscles wounds, which often will seal up quickly, and the deer  will recover from them is also covered. However, anytime a deer is defi nitely  hit, regardless of where, a responsible sportsman must put his or her very best  effort into finding it. Unfortunately, these deer, especially those who lose  their leg or the use of it, will not make it through the winter.

Therefore, it’s important to read this section and learn the signs of a  leg wound. An immediate sign after the shot is that the deer repeatedly falls  down when retreating, or you can actually see a leg fl opping. Once determined  that it was a leg hit, start trailing immediately and follow the proper  techniques and things to look for when tracking this deer.

As a hunter who prefers to knock down the deer where it stands, my aiming  point, whenever possible, is the front shoulder, but I only do this when hunting  with my rifl e or slug gun, not with a bow.

Chapter 5 is devoted to "High Back Shots" because what you think is the  perfect shot is not always the case, especially when deer jump up and run off.  You’ll enjoy the story Jeanneney tells of a hunter who thought he killed his  buck instantly and took a photo of the downed deer immediately with his gun  resting in the buck’s rack. And I think you know what happened next. He never
did find his shotgun. Read this chapter carefully and learn the signs of a high  back hit and its physical characteristics.

Are you a neck shooter? This chapter begins with something I learned a  long, long time ago: You either drop the deer immediately or not at all.

When these shots are taken with gun or bow, the key is to know the signs of  how good/bad the hit was, all of which are outlined in this chapter. They  include physical characteristics, head and jaw shots and how to identify them  and then how to track the deer. However, the final thought in this chapter, and one I totally agree with, is "Don’t take head and neck shots intentionally."

Chapter 7, "After the Shot," is one we all should read every year before  we head for the deer woods. It includes some very good advice on when to wait  and when not to wait, to begin tracking after a shot. What is stressed is that  there is no "one" rule for what to do after the shot. Waiting a half-hour or  more after the shot is not the rule of thumb in all cases when you shoot the  deer with a bow or a rifle. You will learn in this chapter that the answer is:  "It depends." Within these seven pages, you will learn the effects of the  initial shock factor, chest shots, leg and shoulder hits and the exception for shots to the stomach, liver and intestines.

And speaking of the initial shock factor, you probably have noticed by  now that "arrow" is mentioned more than "bullet," and this is because with  firearms, "the corridor of damaged tissues is much broader and shot placement is  not as critical."

I found the last two chapters, 8 and 9, on blood tracking and what to do  when the blood trail ends, very informative for all of us, regardless of our  hunting experiences. These include how to look for the blood, follow it,  determining the direction the deer has taken, marking the last blood, and a  whole series of methods you can use when the blood trail ends without finding a dead deer. And be sure you carry in your hunting pack all of the gadgets that he  recommends. You have to find your deer, which, of course, should include a Deer  Search telephone number.

I think that John Jeanneney’s "Dead On!" book belongs in every deer  hunter’s library. To order your book, you can go to 
www.born-to-track.com.  The book sells for $13.95.