Thanks for the good words, guys.
MG - He's 16 weeks and we've been working with him several times a week, since we brought him home at 7 wks, on artificial tracks. He's tracked 2 easy deer so far as well. He's from European hunting bloodlines and has taken to the tracking right off.
Blackstick - Yep, I agree 100% about the OBR helping us out. I started to see a big difference 3 yrs ago, then my area got hit with EHD bigtime and set it back a couple years. Last year was good, this year better as far as I'm concerned. I've been hunting these areas for 11 years now and am seeing continuing improvement.
Interesting followup to the buck.....This morning I took a walk through the edge of the bedding area - about 1/3 mile from where I killed him, on the other side of a 40 acre briar patch. I generally stay out completely until spring shed hunting, but as I'm done buck hunting I thought I'd take a little sashay through the core area. Found a dozen or so cedars tore up from 4 inches up to the one in the picture - that's my Widow MA 64 inch bow and that cedar is an honest 11-12 inches in diameter. I guess I know where some of the bark in his burrs came from!
R