Butch.... Well I am hoping that it was not deer hounds since it is illegal to hutn deer with ohunds in VA until the general firearms season. It is also illegal to use them on most if not all the public oands in VA that I know of as well. The dogs you heard might have been turkey dogs someone was useing.

If not then I feel your pain. I have hunted with and probably will hunt deer with dogs again. I dont make it a everyday practice however on a doe day espically towards the end of the season when everything is in hiding it can be productive and fun. I do feel that there are a number of groups that engage in using dogs in a illegal manner, I however feel that there are far greater numbers who do it legally.

I find myself leaning more toward the use of bird dogs when I am hunting with dogs... they sight chase and they ony run a few hundred yards before returning to where they jumped at to continue the drive. NO running around spending hours looking for dogs. I do however like the sound of a set of beagles in a good chase but most of the time I will go rabbit hunting to get that fix LOL

I guess my point is that while it sucks sometimes dont draw a bad eye toward it due to the acts of some....

I have been in your shoes recently... it was the second week of bow season this year. I was had just climbed up a tree with my new summit and was letting the woods get back to normal. I was on lucky enough to be in the woods on a job site we were working on at the time... I was left with 2 and a half hours until dark... prime time... well about 45 minutes of legal shooting light left and I hear these two beagles cold trailing way off in the distance.... well in a matter of 10 minutes they go right by my stand at 20 yards.. barking every 20 yards.... so I figure damn... my evening is shot.... I started to get down but figured I would sit there until dark just for giggles....Well at the end of legal shooting time I was packing up and had everything packed and was getting ready to lower my bow when I caught movement.. well I watched 3 of the biggest bucks I have seen in the woods work toward me. Well I could not see my sight on my bow so all I could do was watch them as they fed toward and around me.. I ended up staying in my stand a good hour past dark watching and listening to them feed around me.. I even had one of them straight under my stand eating... I had to look through the bottom part of my stand to see him

SO it goes to show you that that does not always mean the end to a day of hunting.. I have seen deer plenty of times later in the day after dogs have gone though...

As far as the two beagles they belong to a older fellow down the road and he lets the run loose all year... he isnt to happy they are devolping the property I was on as he has hunted it for years and still hunts all around it... I disagree with letting hunting dogs run loose all the time but thats just me.



p.s. are you going to be taking up Dave (vasavage) on his offer???