DEER HUNTING WITH DOGS

[beaglewoman]

My, My, My, the Anti's, most my Anti's are dead, got a few Great Anti's and several Uncles. BeagleMan has a lot of Anti's.


Seriously though there was a work day at the new dog club that we joined this year. Actually I went and joined the club while BeagleMan was gone fishing one day. Yes, I did put the membership in his name. I had to work today but BeagleMan went and found me a nice place to put me a tree stand, we had found one place we liked, but with all the rain it is under water. It has been a while since this area was hunted, so I hope to get the chance to see some nice ones from the stand. Lots of water, and a few high places he says. We will be going back to clear some shooting lanes and put out some corn. Also he got the dog pen there ready for the beagles. Just incase some one else on the club picks up the dog, they can drop it off at our dog kennel there at the clubouse/campgrounds. I think that we will like the new dog club. All of the properties around the club are also dog clubs, and next to them is more dog clubs.

[NY Bearhunter]

?..........

[seapower]

It's a serious question in my view. Not alldoghnter's are as most are percieved. We don't all ride around in 4 wheel drives tearin up the place, no teeth and tossing out beer can's. I dog hunt deer, rabbit and bear.I have 2 stand's of beagles, one for deer, the other for rabbit. The rabbit dog's have much better noses and have more discilpine for the task at hand. I may not even shoot a rabbit the whole year, but I run my dog's very often. They very, very seldom catch a rabbit on their own. It's myself and my dog's it's, not about the kill, that's the easy part. Deer hunting the same thing, I may kill 1 or 2 deer top's over my dog's a year. Most year's,0, I take the meat it takes for my family still hunting mostly. Again it's not about the kill, that's the easy part.
Bear hunting is another story, I handgun hunt bear. Yes I use hound's, again I take very few bear. I killed 1 in 12 year's, most year's I'll have 8 to 10 opportunities to take one but I don't, again it's not about the kill, that's the easy part. It's about the hunt, getting in close to a bear that is on the ground in the thickest cover you can imagine. When I say close, that's what I mean, alot of times I can literally touch the bear. The type of thick I'm talking about is when it's so close, if you trip you'll never hit the ground. Gone in many times crawling in on my knees and elbow's, through a tunnel that the bear and hound's just made. When you in that close and tight, if the bear makes a break, I lay flat on my stomach in the hope that the bear will run over top of me without taking a bite. Not many of you guy's (and I've seen this so many times in the past), that call yourselves bear hunter's with a 7mm Mag shooting a bear at 300 yards, or a "stump hunter" using a 12 gauge with slug's at 25 to 100 yard's. Have the nerve to "go in" with me on a 500 to 600lb bear that is bayed up on the ground. I've hand to finish off way too many bear that have been wounded by you yahoo's. Because you were afraid to go in and finish what you started. When your in close like the way "we" hound hunter's are, you don't have many that get away wounded. Another point about getting in close as opposed to shooting at distances, I've seen so many 400 to 450 lb bear get shot, that when they are trailed out, they end up being 100 lber's. We are very selective, try when at all possible not to shot a sow, only mature boar's. I can pick out a sow from a boar at a distance,but not many more can. I've been around them for many, many year's. I've not hog hunted with dog's yet, I do hog hunt, just haven't had the opportunity to hunt with hounds. If given the chance to hunt them with hounds I would prefer to live catch them. We're not all the un-ethical blood thirty drunk's we're protrayed to be, some of us actual do enjoy the hunt. So Mr NY BearHunter, if you get nose to nose (literaly) with bear on a regular basis,likeI do. Heck that's the reason I do it, I love the adrenalin rush. Then please respond, we might have something in common. If not let it be, it's how we do it "down" here. By the way my taking one in 12 year's was my choice, I wanted a particularly big boar, up close and on my term's. That's exactly the way it happened, couldn't have written the script better. I have finished many other bear, but don't consider them, kill's. I was just doing the reposnible thing, that's hunting. Yes all bear (or any game taken for that matter) are eaten, excellent table fair that bear is. Frank

[beaglewoman]

Nauti made a comment about hunting turkey with dog in what ever state you mentioned, NY. Then he decided to delete the comment.

[beaglewoman]

Seapower, I have never bear hunted. Sounds like extreme coon hunting, kind of. Sounds exciting. I would love to experience it. Post some pics of the hounds hunting if you have any. I would love to see. What breeds do you hunt bear with?
I too find myself in tight places sometimes following behind my coon hounds. I love every minute of it, no matter how thick, or how wet. Seeing them hounds on that tree makes it all worth it. I do not always kill the coons. I do however fancy a fight every now and then, just to satisfy the dogs. One of my young dogs who is a little faster than her nose caught a fresh coon on the edge of a pond, and ran the coon down as he fled through a cut over. That was a real nasty fight for a few minutes, it seemed to last forever till i could get there and dispatch the coon.

[beaglewoman]

NYbearhunter, I had never heard of hunting turkey with dogs till you mentioned it. I searched and found this site. Says it is legal in 29 states i think.

http://trkyhntr.home.att.net/

[Glenn W]

Originally Posted by beaglewoman

NYbearhunter, I had never heard of hunting turkey with dogs till you mentioned it. I searched and found this site. Says it is legal in 29 states i think.

http://trkyhntr.home.att.net/

It used to be fairly popular here in Va. for Fall hunting. The dog is used just to find, flush, and scatter the turkeys. The birds will instintively regroup where they were flushed in a hour or two. A good blind or cover is necessary because the hens and Jakes will usually show back up first and mill around. It's actually very fun hunting and used to do it 30 years ago when a friend of my dad's had two good turkey dogs.

[seapower]

They are very simular, I just chase BIGGER COONS. Same breed's but of bigger stature and heart make bear hound's. Alot of bear will "tree" mostly the smaller one's (under 400lb). Larger boars generally don't and a sow in the 250 to 300lb range can be the "baddest" thing in the wood's. She's small enough to be fast and strong enough to do real damage. When a bear of any size decides to "bay up" with it's back to a tree or in a thicket, that's when the adrenaline start's. You know you gotta go in there, not alway's with the bear being happy to see you. Again I take very few. I'm there to getin and start a "race", be there for an inexperieced hunter who want's to go in (so that he doesn't make a mistake. Mistake's at that time can be costly), or to finish one in close quarter's. Again I'm not about the kill. They are some of the most majestic, beautiful and tasty critter's I've ever seen. I have the utmost respect for them. The best "races " are the one's that you get in there, tie the dog's back. The bear takes off, give em' a good head start and start all over again.
And no for the "ones that haven't done it", the bear isn't traumatized for life. I've seen them yawn and fall asleep just above the dogs ,in a crook of a tree. Seen big boar's lay down with 9 hound's swarming around them and take a nap. They have have teeth, claw's and the body to do damage to any hound that does not learn the game quickly. I for one love to bear and hog hunt with a handgun, both are up close. And I'm after something that is just as capable of hurting me as I am of them. It is what it is, it's life at it's best to me. Now on the other hand you would be the "baddest" man alive, if you could make me jump out of a perfectly good working air plane. Only 2 thing's fall out of the sky!!! Go figure. Frank

[NY Bearhunter]

Seapower: I always stay on top of the bear association news and I see NC, has six bills being sponsered by The Humane Society and your own Legislature to stop bear hunting with dogs,big problem for all of you, hunter beware big time.

The bear harvest reports for NC, where really good, 2006, for last year but no break down on the way they where killed.

Certain ways of hunting that are used on alot of game including bear and deer just don't make sense to me, i.e. bear traps at a bait site, snares and using dogs...

But, your right I should not condemn dog hunting until I at least try it out first hand, it just seems like you miss so much of the hunt, if not all of it, then you walk up to a bear and just kill it, not very sporting, don't care how close you are to them or what type of weapon you use.

I have been hunting bears for a long time and have hunted them just about everywhere they exist except, down south which I have to change real soon but, NC isn't down south, I really don't know just what to call where you hail from, when it comes right down to it but,you do have some really good bear hunting.

I have killed alot of bears, no need to say how many, and I have killed bears from 200 lbs up to 717lbs and everything in between, thats not counting the mighty Grizz. I have killed all of my bear with a compound bow, no guns at all, I have been charge, attacked, knocked down, run over, crawled along side by, knocked out of a tree a few times, been in ground blinds when they attacked the blind, spun around in a chair blind, had two cubs sit in the same tree stand with me, had my muck boots ripped off a few times, been left in a tree stand over night by an outfitter with bears all around me more than I would like to remember,and if that isn't enough I was fighting for my life when I used my climber and tied myself to the tree for safety when the bear climbed the tree after me and proceded to destoy my climbing stand with me in it and strapped to the tree, the moral of the story is; never tie off when hunting bears, I would rather die from the fall then to be ripped apart and thats coming to you with first hand information. I have hunted bears from pop ups, chair blinds, over bait ,up trees,hiding in the bush along trails, spot and stalk and even have dug pits to hide in along trails, tracked many wounded bear in bush that water couldn't reach the ground, I have had bear sit on my back trail waiting for me to return, I have hunted bait sites that were controlled by wolves try that one on for fun not to mention wolves always following you to the bait sites, and the hardest hunt was in Northern MN, hunting deep bogs and cedar tickets that you have to use a flash light at high noon with the sun shining bright and have that monster come up on you at six paces up a tree eight feet off the ground its the time when you remember your old prayers. So yes, I have been up and close and very personal with bears, but no dogs, ever.

So I can relate to you about the thrill of the hunt for sure no doubt about it, only real bear hunters can say what we say and I really believe your passion is true, I just don't understand why, besides that, look at all of the action you have missed. When I hunt the Big G, I always have a back up with a gun and a big one at that, I'm not totally nuts.

[NY Bearhunter]

Beaglewoman:

Glenn W, is right, they use the dogs to flush the birds, this is done in PA, plenty of info on the Game commission web site.

Question; I have heard that beagles bark on the constant, is this true.