"Release the hounds!!"

I love it. I won't straddle the fence about it. I am fortunate to hunt with a good group of safe hunters who have enough landand good enough relationships withthe surrounding landownersthat we canhunt without encroaching on others. That being said I do believe it will eventually be heavily regulated and one day might be gone all together, I just hope it will be a long time from now.

As far as ethics, fair chase, blah blah, blah. Dogs are just another tool in the hunters tool shed and has been there since before any of us were hunting. Hunting will never be fair, deer have a brain the size of a pear, for hunting to be fair they would have to have a lot more than that. Like maybea brain capable of complex thought capable of detailed communication with other members of its species(no, random grunting, bleating, and snort-wheezing do notcount). As it stands the deer have exceptional senses, that's about it. Which we as hunters counter by using the most technologically advanced camo, scent spray, treestands, food plots, trail-cams, fiber optic sights, range finders, aerial photos, topo maps, bait piles,every kind of deer call possible, decoys, and the list goes on and on and on and of course all of those things are deemed "fair".

Ancient cultures hunted with dogs, native americans used them as well, because theywere and still are a great tool. I am a hunter, I love to bowhunt, blackpowder, shotgun, rifle, deer, turkey, rabbit, doves, ducks(occasionally), I love it all.To those that think hunting with hounds is a walk in the park and is like shooting fish in a barrel, I say you have never hunted with hounds, it definitely is not that simple. It is just another kind of hunting, it requires different tactics and strategies and a good knowledge of the land and deer, some of the most knowledgeable guys about deer you will ever meet are good dog drivers. You want to know where they like to bed, what they are eating now or in January, where the bucks like to hole up, ask a good driver.

Many that post about dog hunting don't really know the first thing about it and their posts usually say as much. Others think all dog hunters areslob hunters because of experiences they have had or "heard of". Slob huntersare slob hunters, it doesn't have a thing to do with dog hunting, there are groups of us that are not like the stereotype (drunk, trespassing, toothless rednecks, who couldn't hunt their way out of a sandwich bag) but acknowledging that wouldn't back up any of the mud-slinging. One member actually said "I hate dog hunting and anyone who does it." Well I don't hate you brother and I'm trulysorry you feel that way.

Having hunted in VA and NC(yesGates County too)for most of my life I have seen plenty of bad dog hunters and bad bow hunters and bad black powder hunters, slob hunters come in all breeds.And being a private landowner myself I have experienced both sides of the coin with dogs and their ownersand yes we did have some guys trespassing and running dogs where they shouldn't be and yesit took a couple of seasons but we got it under control with the help of the game warden and his ticket book.

I new the reponses this thread would get in the Bowhunting Forumbefore the second post hit the screen and after a 30 page marathon dog hunting thread last year I told myself I wouldn't touch this topic again but I must at least this time to say there are those of us out here dog hunting that are not trespassing, we are not drunken slob hunters, we do care about the image we put out, we are safe, and we can hunt with or without the dogs. We like to use them, not have to use them. I love hearing them bump and run and lose out and circle back and so on and so on. It gets my heart going, I've been sitting in a tree since Sept. 8 and have done plenty of still hunting and will do plenty more before seasons endbut this Saturday will be a welcome change.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...."RELEASE THE HOUNDS!!"

Over and out.