AR Deer Hunting w/Walker Beagles? Whatcha' think?

[meltingfeather]

Unless someone is hunting naked and strangling deer with his bare hands, they can't say **** about any legal tool choice someone else uses.

wouldn't that person be hunting by illegal means themselves?

[SaltwaterSlick]

In for a report on outcomes???

[CEO]

Did not see this thread the first time around and would like to hear how it all turned out. I went along on a hog hunt with dogs once, and while it wasn't my style, I can see the draw to it. I used to love hearing my grandpa tell stories of hunting deer on horseback with dogs. He told me my great grandfather once said, sitting on your butt waiting for a deer to come by is like a buzzard waiting around to be fed.

[Etxnoodler]

How did the hunt go?

[scoutman]

You are assuming it is easy or a sure thing, it is not.

[lovemylegacy]

Deeeer Greenscreen.....

I am leaving this evening to meet a group at my deer lease (2nd year member) to hunt deer with Walker Beagle hunting dogs on Saturday morning, the opening day of gun season in Arkansas (where I am part of a hunting club).

I am extremely torn, and feel that I recognize the ethical boundary of this type of hunting, but also understand that this is when most of the "meat" deer are taken each year.

I have already decided that I will be participatiing this year, and I am not asking to be chastised, but more interested in the general opinion of this type of hunting. The dog owner is 65 y/o, and has been breeding this string of dogs since he was a 10 y/o Arkansas boy (his words....).

What does the green screen think about hunting deer over a pack of dogs, that have been bred (for 3 generations) to not only chase deer but drive them towards the hunting party stationed out in front of hounds.

I wish I was going with you!

Who cares what these chumps think...go and have fun. 3/4 of the guys on TBH have never ran deer with dogs, they have no idea. Enjoy a dying sport while you still can.

Just for the record, I preferred Beagles vs big hounds. A lot easier on the deer and will give you a better shot

Have fun, give us a daily update if you can and take lots of pics. Its an sport worth experiencing. I hate the tpwd took that right away from us.

[LennyWayne]

“Deer Greenscreen”…….

I’d like to apologize for the delay in me reporting back on my “dawg hunt”, but I started a new job and time has been bit precious lately.

If you are reading this, you already know that I had questioned the ethics of hunting deer with dogs, and I am now prepared to share my thoughts.
The tradition of this event is remarkable, and the energy in the air on the morning of the first “race” could even better be described as intimidating.
The dogs barked uncontrollably, with each dog seemingly begging to be selected for the first hunt. The owner of the dogs, Tommy Huddleston, stood at the trailer kennel and carefully studied the personality of each dog. Eventually he muttered something inaudible, and while standing beside him, I asked what he said. He responded, “I said a prayer for these dogs. Wilma, well she’s my best dog, but this year she turn’s 10, and I sure don’t want to run her in the ground.” He continued, and explained a little history on each of the nine dogs that would race that day. It seemed that each animal had a “story”, and with that story was a personality that seemed pivotal in the group that it was selected to run with.
The first group of dogs were moved to the 1984 Jeep Scrambler’s catch pen, and in that group will be the leader, Wilma, the 10y/o Walker-Beagle. Tommy proceeded to load his dogs, petting each animal just enough to give it a bit of personal attention, but with a command of authority, implying control upon the dogs. Without pause, he explained to those watching, that he grouped this race to insure that we would see some action. It was his confidence in their ability that he was trying to implore on those of us that were new to the sport (and that was only the two of us, who were there from Texas), and his expectation that we would see deer that day.
As Tommy loaded the dogs, his nephew (Doug Mobbs) assigned each dog their GPS collar specific to their name, and handed out 2-way radio’s to those of us that would be joining in the race.
The energy of the event began to rise as the barking of those not chosen seemed to consume the universe, and it was contagiously exciting, and soon it was as if they were “screaming” so loudly to be let loose…. that it almost became eerie.
I was given a GPS dog collar to tie to the rack on my Jeep, radio in hand, and given a specific spot to “stand” for the first hunt. So I drove to this spot on the lease, and unloaded from the Jeep and took my stance at the specific spot where I was told to stop. Tommy and Doug had my coordinates, via the dog collar on the Jeep, and they radio’d me to stop when I was at the crossing.
I’m standing, holding my AR15 on a mono-stick, looking down a logging road, where I have 150yrds of vision in each direction. Looking through my bino’s, I notice an opening into the trees that was about 70yrds away, and I continued to scan the area. Eventually, I hear the dogs working their way through the Pine farm trees. I could hear them as they barked, but they seemed so far away that this novice assumed they must have gone a different direction.
Suddenly I was spooked by the crackle of my radio, and I could faintly hear Tommy calling my name….
“Lenny, they are headed right to you. Keep your head on a swivel, and WATCH that opening!”
It dawned on me, that the opening was that spot I saw 70yrds away, and I dismissed it a little (more involuntary, than voluntary), as I thought to myself, “He doesn’t know where these deer are going to come from, it’s the dogs that are chasing the deer, and they are going the wrong way”.
As I listened, I continue to watch both directions of the logging road, and as the sounds got louder, I noticed that my heartbeat was rising, and my chest began to tighten, and the excitement became practically unbearable.
I could hear the lead hound, later learning it to be Wilma, with a deep voiced vocal change, and something completely different than that I’d been hearing for the previous 10-15 minutes. It changed into a sound similar of that of a dog that has run a cat up a tree. This deep throated “cahooling”, followed by the yapping of the trailing hounds, seemed to now be going away.
My heartbeat began to slow, and the energy that had practically consumed me, also began to fade. I thought the hunt was over, when suddenly I look to my left, and what appeared to have been a ghost, darker than any deer I’d seen on this property, seemingly built like an NFL linebacker, and was sliding out of the opening in the trees. The creature only paused long enough to focus on my Jeep in the distance, and then quickly transitioned across the logging road, and into another set of trees.
I was stunned. I honestly could not have imagined that anything that dark, that thick, and that massive was living in the trees that I’d now hunted more than 10x. I will be honest and say that I have NO IDEA if it was a buck, a doe, or Sasquatch, but what I do know is that seeing “it” sent a shiver though my soul. It was such a severe surprise, I didn’t even think to look for the rack, and I didn’t remember to look through my scope, because what I saw, was unquestionably the alpha animal in the area, and worth every moment of that weekend.
As quick as that deer crossed the road, the race was over. Thus also was my initiation into the entire “dawg huntin’” experience. I will tell you that there isn’t anything that I can remember, that was as dynamically intense as hearing those dogs howl as they chased that majestic creature from its place of sanctuary and into the world that we hunters live in. I am certain that the animal that I saw was very special, and I know that it wasn’t taken the weekend of our hunt, and it is what brings me back into those woods every weekend, since that day.
In closing, I will say that I now understand the long held tradition of hunting deer with dogs, and will explain that it didn’t seem to guarantee that deer would be harvested, but enlightened me on the magic that happens when an animal becomes predatory and their prey becomes invisible. I enjoyed it, but I’m not sure that it is a preferred method of hunting for me, but it was something that I enjoyed, and feel that I shared in something that will soon become a “thing of the past”.
Wilma, an animal that is 70 years old, in a dog’s life, ran for more than 45 minutes without pause. She eventually came out and onto the logging road, when quickly I hear that Jeep Scrambler lumbering up the road with Tommy echoing a “Whooooooop” into the wind, calling the other hounds to the road and eventually collecting themselves beside Wilma.
It was something straight out of a Remington picture, an “almost” 70 year old man, lifting a 70 year old dog…. with both seemingly glowing with pride, and looking very special to me.

[LennyWayne]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HneuBu6oub8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HneuBu6oub8[/ame]

[Phillip Fields]

Great write-up Lenny.

[the marshall]

I'm sure it can get the heart pumping, having another animal chase your target and seeing them scatter for their lives. I'm curious though, if it's more difficult what sort of preparation is needed? Do you have to scout? Trail cams? Temp matter? Wind direction matter? Because from the sound of it, all that is uneeded. Sounds like on any given day you can let the dogs loose and have a real life arcade (Like one of the games at Bass Pro Shops)

You are biggest sour **** hippie I have run into on the GS!

[TexasArchery_27]

I'm not a hippie, but nice try with the assumption. If you'd like to talk ****, why not do it in my PM? Why be "That guy" that just aims to belittle behind a keyboard in the main thread?. If you don't like my opinions that's fine. I won't ask for yours. The OP did request thoughts, which is why I shared mine.

[Mr Sid]

You are biggest sour **** hippie I have run into on the GS!

This made me smile.[emoji4]


Mr Sid

[Lawhunter]

Awesome write up

[TxDispatcher]

That's it. You're off the lease. At least wear your panties so I don't have to see your little pinkie danglin.

Back to the OP question. I grew up in the late 50's and early 60's hunting the Big Thicket with my family between Sour Lake and Lumberton off FM 421. My Grandpa ran redbone hounds. Somebody killed his dogs running a deer one time. His best friend found out who it was but would never tell Grandpa because he knew there might be a killing.

It was a lot of fun and brings back many fond memories. I killed my first buck slipping out away from hounds running another deer. After my Grandpa passed in 62, I ran deer with beagles as a teenager. I had one named Dilbert that turned out to be a great deer dog. We would get the family set up for the drive and I would take him into the palmetto flats. When he jumped, he would only run a deer about 5-10 minutes and then come back to where he jumped to find me. Sometimes I'd run along with him and bark just for the fun of it. That made for some great memorable hunts. My family still laughs and teases me about that. If a buck was killed or slipped by we could easily set up in another area and start another drive. Does were illegal to shoot back then. Anyone who doesn't think it's sporting has never been hunting behind hounds.

According to one unnamed poster on here I guess I should give up running rabbits with beagles because it's not a fair chase.

Beagles - YouTube

OP please take some video and pics of your hunt and campfire to share with the rest of us sportsmen.

Aaaaaaawww yeah!! Now we are talkin!! Thank you for that video! It's been 14-15 years since I've listened to that! Sure ain't nothing like it...quickly took me back down memory lane...thanks

[TxDispatcher]

And thank you, Lenny...excellent write up that had me grinning from ear to ear, I could see my grandpa jumping out of his old Dodge pickup, getting ready to let the .308 bark. Simply awesome read