# Hunting with hounds



## Homesteadwi5 (Mar 16, 2008)

Was just wondering if there was anyone else on here who hunted with hounds?We hunt blueticks,and plotts we run them on bear,bobcat **** and coyotes.


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

Not anymore. Used to hunt ***** a little, and did quite a bit of hog hunting. They changed the hog laws around here several years ago, and I kinda lost interest.


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## Homesteadwi5 (Mar 16, 2008)

I was born in Fla. (dad was in air force) we lived up by the border of ala. we killed a few big pigs when i was a kid up in the blackwater river area.


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## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

My hound is a bit young yet but we are working on it for *****


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## hiswife (May 30, 2008)

we have staghounds and terriers, we hunt everything from mice to coyote


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## wildhorse (Oct 22, 2006)

We use old English and a bluetick for **** hunting.


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## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

Growing up I had a bluetick hound and a Black&Tan hound. Thought they was the best dogs in the world. Would tree squirrels in the daytime and just about anything at night. Then after high school I joined up with a **** hunting club and found out my dogs had some very bad habits. Ended up getting some high dollar walker hounds and never did get them darn things trainned to hunt **** only. Gave it all up and have never had a real good ******* since. Now occasionally I have a squirrel dog and hunt squirrels only. Right now I have a Jack Russell terrior pup that I hope makes me a good squirrel dog.


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## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

I grew up hunting with hounds. Blue Tick, Red Tick, Running Walkers, Red Bone, Black & Tan, and a few Treeing Walkers. The great dogs plus swamps and big briar thickets of south Alabama, plus miles upon miles of open pine timberland gave deer hunting it's best days in these parts. With only a party of four, you could cover 10 -12 square miles or more. Find a big track on a logging road, lay out the drive and put your standers out and turn'em loose. Seasoned hunters who knew the woods placed themselves on historic stands that for generations would produce that buck jumped from miles away. "Hole in the Ground", "Reedy Gap", "The Chestnut Log", "Red Wine Bridge" were lengendary places to wait in the cool mornings for the sound of the pack and the old mossy back slipping ahead of the dogs. Smart bucks were lengendary as well. I once watched from a hilltop as the hounds neared a big powerline. The music of their run was indeed music to my ears, and as I was just thinking about what they might be running, I saw a huge 10 point break the cover and stand for a few moments in the clearing. After him came several does and yearlings who didn't stick around at all but charged across the clearing for the woods on the other side. The big buck just stood there, frozen in place. The dogs were about a minute behind the does and they broke the cover with their heads up, running on the wind without having to check the ground for scent. The buck just stood there motionless as the pack passed within 20 yards of him. Once they entered the woods on the other side, he simply walked back the way they all had come. The does went into a wet weather bay and lost the dogs. I laughed a bit at myself for not having been in the right place at the right time. Although the buck was only 150 yards out, I wouldn't try one that far with triple ought buckshot. I walked back to the truck, and when the dogs were silent and I knew the race was over, I found my hunting horn and played a few tunes that after 20 minutes had all the dogs scrambling to load up and go again. After a succesful drive, the hunters all shared in the cleaning and butchering of the deer. It might only be one, but usually it was a couple or more by 1 p.m., which is when we usually called it a day. We'd divide the meat up in piles and each person would draw a straw and have his pick. Handshakes all around and deer steak for supper. It was a great way of hunting that was as traditional and inspiring as it gets for a young person growing up in the south. After about 1980, the commercialization of hunting, the advent of leased lands and hunting clubs, and the urban populations annual migrations into the rural areas ended dog hunting for deer with it's new, selfish, and gadget shrouded ways. At present, a rural person who grew up hunting the open land around him is faced with locked gates, no hunting signs, and passionate, greedy confrontations with out-of-state yuppies who wouldn't know a tug boat from a bull with a bugle in his b u t t. But that's life I guess and the slickers don't live in the country year 'round, so the best bucks are still there for the taking. Just a different time and a different way.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

foxfiredidit said:


> I grew up hunting with hounds. Blue Tick, Red Tick, Running Walkers, Red Bone, Black & Tan, and a few Treeing Walkers. The great dogs plus swamps and big briar thickets of south Alabama, plus miles upon miles of open pine timberland gave deer hunting it's best days in these parts. With only a party of four, you could cover 10 -12 square miles or more. Find a big track on a logging road, lay out the drive and put your standers out and turn'em loose. Seasoned hunters who knew the woods placed themselves on historic stands that for generations would produce that buck jumped from miles away. "Hole in the Ground", "Reedy Gap", "The Chestnut Log", "Red Wine Bridge" were lengendary places to wait in the cool mornings for the sound of the pack and the old mossy back slipping ahead of the dogs. Smart bucks were lengendary as well. I once watched from a hilltop as the hounds neared a big powerline. The music of their run was indeed music to my ears, and as I was just thinking about what they might be running, I saw a huge 10 point break the cover and stand for a few moments in the clearing. After him came several does and yearlings who didn't stick around at all but charged across the clearing for the woods on the other side. The big buck just stood there, frozen in place. The dogs were about a minute behind the does and they broke the cover with their heads up, running on the wind without having to check the ground for scent. The buck just stood there motionless as the pack passed within 20 yards of him. Once they entered the woods on the other side, he simply walked back the way they all had come. The does went into a wet weather bay and lost the dogs. I laughed a bit at myself for not having been in the right place at the right time. Although the buck was only 150 yards out, I wouldn't try one that far with triple ought buckshot. I walked back to the truck, and when the dogs were silent and I knew the race was over, I found my hunting horn and played a few tunes that after 20 minutes had all the dogs scrambling to load up and go again. After a succesful drive, the hunters all shared in the cleaning and butchering of the deer. It might only be one, but usually it was a couple or more by 1 p.m., which is when we usually called it a day. We'd divide the meat up in piles and each person would draw a straw and have his pick. Handshakes all around and deer steak for supper. It was a great way of hunting that was as traditional and inspiring as it gets for a young person growing up in the south. After about 1980, the commercialization of hunting, the advent of leased lands and hunting clubs, and the urban populations annual migrations into the rural areas ended dog hunting for deer with it's new, selfish, and gadget shrouded ways. At present, a rural person who grew up hunting the open land around him is faced with locked gates, no hunting signs, and passionate, greedy confrontations with out-of-state yuppies who wouldn't know a tug boat from a bull with a bugle in his b u t t. But that's life I guess and the slickers don't live in the country year 'round, so the best bucks are still there for the taking. Just a different time and a different way.


 Yep, sounds like you were writing my lifes history. I hunted that way most of my life. Folks that have never tried it, don't know the excitement of a pack of hounds telling the whole world they were running a big buck and headed your way. Back then there were not many deer, around here anyway, which made the hunt even more exciting. Posted signs, an old man once told me that when or if a landowner finds out there are deer on his property, a posted sign would soon follow and up to now and in my opinion, his words are true. Eddie


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## rabbitdawg (May 24, 2008)

I run cottontails and swamp rabbits with my Harrison Hare Hounds.
Have sent some up north to use on snowshoe as they are perfect for that.


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## mink (Feb 10, 2005)

i run snowshoe hares up here in new york. its a fun sport for the long winters we have....mink


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## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

I hunted snowshoe with my dad up in Wilkerson's Pass, Colorado at about age 12. The snow was probably 4 inches on the ground and those rabbits were next to invisible. I actually wasn't hunting as I had made a deal with my dad if he let me go on that trip I would carry all the rabbits he could kill. I don't know who was worse at being on the job, me or the dog. I was amazed by the Colorado high country meadows with the big boulders sticking up out of the ground, finding a porcupine skeleton near a small rock shelter and collecting the quills as souveniers, and just exploring as we walked. The dog was not exactly your made to order rabbit dog either. She was princess, a family housedog with some grit, and about half dauchshund and half feist. Yep, long and short legged. I still recall seeing her after a rabbit in areas where the snow got deep. She looked so odd trying to jump up and over the snow with each bound. Fortunately the snow wasn't that deep in all the areas so she got us 8 rabbits jumped and circled back to the gun. We came to a meadow near to an isolated weathered old barn with double doors. The myarid of tracks on the ground told my dad a herd of sheep had recently been brought through there headed for the lower elevations. About that time the Colorado weather stayed true to form as the sky clouded up and a big snow began to fall. He told me to go to the barn and stand in the door in case the weather got so bad he couldn't see, he'd call and I could answer back if there was a whiteout. He stayed there and tried to call the dog off a track and I made my way to the old weathered barn in a very increasing snow storm. I got there, worked the latch, opened the door, turned to look outside for dad and the dog, only noticing that the interior was almost pitch black. I assumed it was deserted. Finally I saw the dog, and he turned and they were coming toward the barn. I decided to open the big old door a bit and take a better look inside. I pushed the door around to the outside and turned back to go in.........and I was met by the most frightening thing that ever met my eyes up to that point in my life. There was a full grown cougar.........NO, not alive, but dead, hanging from a rafter not 5 feet behind where I had been standing, strung up by the back legs and skint of it hide, the head still had the fur on, wide eyed and the mouth was wide open with all the teeth showing at about my chest level !!!! The sight of a naked cougar hanging upside down, with it's eyes on me and a mouth full of shiney white teeth about scared me outta my wits, hell, it did scare me out of my wits!!!!! I screamed, I fell, I tried to crawl away, I didn't want to look, and by that time he was there and saw what happened. I got away with my life intact, and he was laughing pretty hard. The only time I ever would see a cougar, albeit dead and skint, and the only time I've ever hunted snowshoe. ----, some good times around a dog hunt. I appreciate you reminding me of that. It's been almost 50 years ago now.


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## Homesteadwi5 (Mar 16, 2008)

We just picked up a new beagle this spring he did pretty good runnin the snowshoes before the snow was gone.


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## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

I really like Beagle hounds. They have all the qualities a good hound should have, plus "economy of force".....as we used to say in the military. The best one I ever owned was "Reload" named after the fact that I was switching my deer hunting behaviors away from the big hound types I had run for years. I started with Reload, my first Beagle, and ran him with a Black & Tan, a Blue Tick, and a Cur that I liked. Reload had just as fine a nose as my old trail dog Buck, and he could stay up with the bigger pups when pushing a buck. Actually the only reason I had been thinking about using Beagles was that a fellow gave him to me, and he was one of those small type, barely 12 inches at the shoulder when full grown. Anyway, I was riding down the road when Reload was 10 weeks old. A bunch of does and yearlings jumped the road in front of us. I stopped the truck and found a well used game trail where they had run. I put that 10 week pup on their track and he opened right off the bat. That was so funny to me for some reason, to see a 10 week old pup, barely 1 1/2 pounds & right by himself, running full bore and at full cry, after some deer who were 100s of times his size. Reload stopped when he came to a small pine about 4 inches in diameter that had fallen across the trail. He was too small to get over it, but he tried. I scooped him up and he was one of my best ever deer dogs after that.


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## TedH71 (Jan 19, 2003)

I started to get into hog hunting with dogs when I had to relocate to KS. Their hunting laws are quite different than Texas so I've had to put a hold on it. I prefer cur dogs because they're not as noisy and get more game than hounds. Hounds are good for people who hunt large tracts of land because if you hunt a hog with a hound, the hog will run for a long time and you would be in for a long foot race. You won't have that with cur dogs. With that being said, I still like hounds, lol! I prefer plotts but they're rare in KS. Same thing as blue ticks. Oh well.


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## Homesteadwi5 (Mar 16, 2008)

I've hunted with some fine curs towned one myself, a kemmer did a fine job on ****,and bear but didn't have the nose for bobcats up in these northern winters.


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## TedH71 (Jan 19, 2003)

Let me see if I can download a few pics of hounds/curs....

Decker rat terriers harrassing an alligator snapping turtle (looks like a snapping turtle)










Walker hounds baying up a bobcat in Oregon










Blue lacy cur dogs chasing a feral hog in Central Texas










Your typical unregistered cur dogs baying up a feral hog in the Piney Woods swamp










Blue lacy pups praticing on a small feral hog in a pen


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## Homesteadwi5 (Mar 16, 2008)

Those are some great pics.Gotta love them hog dogs


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## pointer_hunter (May 8, 2004)

I have a German Shorthair now, but owned quite a few ****/bear dogs back in the day. My primary breed was Blueticks but I owned a few plotts, black and tans, walkers and redbones. At one brief moment in time I was owned by bloodhound. ---- thing latched on to my leg, drug me out of the truck and tried having his way with me. My uncle couldn't do anything to stop him, something about wetting his pants from laughter? I never was right after that, felt dirty. Ah memories....I'm off to take one more shower.


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## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

Not the kind of hunting you're talking about, but I am training my Ridgeback pup to hunt pheasants. I know, I know, why train a hound to hunt birds when I could buy a bird dog? "Cause I love hounds, hate bird dogs, and a Ridgeback will hunt birds, so, best of all possible worlds for me.


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## Gregg Alexander (Feb 18, 2007)

I hunt Blue Gascon Hounds on ****, Bobcats. Hunt plott's on hog's.


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## Colleen in WI (Aug 20, 2002)

Yep--we hunt bear with plotts. My late father-in-law bred plotts and had some very well known dogs. My brother-in-law also runs bobcat with plotts.


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## Pops2 (Jan 27, 2003)

Elizabeth
i talked w/ Matt V about ridgebacks and based on our experiences and the personality & style of the ridgeback & it's historical usage as both a hunter & a stockdog; he agreed w/ me that they are more of a curdog in type. there is no reason you couldn't train it to hunt fur as well (assuming the dog wants to).


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## Pops2 (Jan 27, 2003)

ted
gotta love the cur dogs. i wouldn't mind trying a decker/grey lurcher. you can keep the walker's though.


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## littlejoe (Jan 17, 2007)

Cool pictures, TedH71!

I don't know anything about hounds, but I've hunted with stockdogs. Mostly heelers, and blackmouthed curs. both are from what I know... double tough. Willing to fight anything.

Coyotes were always game at that time. They paid well! The dogs considered badgers fair game too, always tried to skirt around one if I seen it first.

Raised a couple of pups that were from a RH female and a cur. Absolutely great dogs that met their demise too early!

None were ever a trailing type of dog, but if something was in sight...


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