Originally Posted by
10 ga
Here in eastern Virginia, USA, hunting deer with dogs and hounds has been traditional since the earliest colonial days. The favored dogs are hound breeds but some use hound/cross dogs. I have never heard of a "deer indicator" dog. For us the dogs are usually hunted in packs of from 5 to 20 dogs that match well in speed and ability. Sometimes single or pair/couplet of dogs are used in small areas and these are often dogs that hunt silent and hunt "wind" and not cold trail, like Elkhounds and Mountain Cur and retriever/hound crosses, but open when the game is jumped or sighted.
Just exactly how does a "deer indicator" dog go about indicating deer? I don't mean to be a smart a55, but have never heard of it and have no idea how it is done.
And just what kind of deer do you have there? We have "Whitetail" of course and Sika are naturalized in some areas.
Thanks, 10 ga
Hey mate,
Not taken badly at all, its the opposite side of the world so can't expect people to understand the rules and all that!
We have pretty stringent laws here and there are definitions on what breeds can do what. The way you talk about using dogs is known here as "Hound Hunting" and that has it's own licensing requirements and is completely separate from indicator breeds.
I don't hound hunt but they are allowed a maximum of 5 dogs I believe and they must be either blood hound or beagle although I think that they have brought in a new breed this year. Hound hunting can only be done on sambar here.
indicator dogs include breeds such as German wirehaired pointers, german shorthairs, vizsla's, weimaraners, brittany's and a few other related breeds. The idea is that they hunt along side you in the bush and you work into the wind giving your dog the best opportunity of scenting a deer. When they do they will point at the deer, similarly to how they do on birds and that is what we call "indicating" This hopefully allows you to get a look at the animal that is there before they are aware of you and if its the one you want to shoot it!
As I said they have been only allowed on sambar but now we can also use them on red deer and fallow deer. we are also allowed them on chital and rusa but there are no feral populations of them existing in Victoria these days (My state). We also have Hog deer but because they are endangered and they are strictly managed as is, it is illegal to use indicators on them.
I'm hoping to start up a guiding business in South Australia next year although all I have access to at the moment is deer behind wire. My goal is to train up a GWP and use it guiding so that I can guarantee success to clients as I wouldn't do it unless I thought I was going to be able to provide an opportunity for them.