wolfman73

i had been hunting some private land with huge bean and CRP feilds ( about 500 acres)here in VA. During muzzle loader there were deer seen every morning..i mean every morning..i thought i was in paradise....the land owner told me some neighboring land owners ran dawgs when rifle/shotgun season opened and the hunting would be ruined..i thought yeah sure..i had been on plenty dog hunts back in Sc and never gave it a second thought...Sure enuff , I went the other day and not deer one in site by 10 am....hmmm..i figured it was coincidence so i made my self go the next 4 mornings....saw 1 doe..i went from seeing 10+ deer a morning to zip in just 2 weeks after gun season opened..i went again this morning and actually heard the dogs let loosed and 30 minutes later 4 big walker hounds came into veiw..i fired a few shots to scare them off but it didnt phase them..they just loafed on down the woods. Man I feel bad about how i used to not care about adjacent land owners when I went on buddies dog hunts..sometimes you have to wake up and smell the roses..a hard lesson learned for me......

i was soo angry..i totally understand the conflict that has been ongoing with dog hunters vs still/stand hunters... i enjoy them both but I see the need for them to be very spread apart now.

IL-Cornfed

It's certainly a different style of hunting. Here in the Midwest they don't allow dog hunting, HOWEVER, they do allow deer drives and after you have 20 to 30 guys form lines and attempt to push and move every deer from the draws they hide in.... the aftermath is about what you describe from the dogs! Nothin a guy can do about it, just try to adapt and overcome.

bigbulls

I have been invited on a few dog hunts so speaking from experience... I friggin hate running dogs. I would rather hunt a 20 acre high fence operation than run dogs. If there was ever a hunting method that should be illegal it's running dogs for deer.

You spend more time chasing after the dang dogs and regrouping than "hunting" and once you start running dogs you may as well forget about seeing any deer unless everyone else in the county is also running dogs. Absolutely worthless way of hunting.

wolfman73

yeah..i have been on 10 or so dog hunts from invites...i killed 3 deer in a 2 hr span..two back to back....using buckshot..i thought it was cool at the time...but after the 6 or 7th time it got kinda old..the thrill was gone and the buck fever i love so much had left...

its been about 5 years since I have done it and i turned it down this year...

Im justing getting into bow and smoke pole hunting and im finding it much more full filling than rifle hunting.

I woudnt want dwag hunting banned..to each his own you know? but they need to be more respectful and keep the dawgs under control off others land. easier said than done i know.

iSnipe

I'm not in favor of using dogs to hunt. There is no hunting using dogs here. It's also a style of hunting I wouldn't want to participate in. I do hope the places where hunting using dogs is allowed, that they get to keep those rights. Although at times I find myself not liking a particular style of hunting, I'm not going to knock it bad enough to where I want it gone. Any right a hunter has now, call it fortunate. There's enough antis out there now trying to take our rights away as it is. Too bad they don't take that same time, effort and energy and place it into humanitarian projects... or at least purchase hunting licenses to help wildlife conservation out. They don't realize our license money goes for projects like that.

iSnipe

crm7290

Isnt driving deer illegal in Illinois? I know you said midwest, but I read the regs the other day online and deer drives are illegal in Illinois. That or a interpreted the law differently than most would?

WNYhunter

I love my hounds, beagles that is. I can't relate to the dog hunters disrupting everything but man I know about pushers. I hate it. Typically from what I have seen these guys could care less about your hunt. They walk through everything and after a few days the deer hold tight. Due to an unfortunate accident this year to the ring leader of a locale pushers group, they haven't been out. And let me tell you, 3 weeks into gun season and deer are on their feet roaming around. 1st time sence I have been hunting (26 years) to see a deer browsing at 10 am.

deerchump

I believe they are only illegal on public land. You can drive deer on your own land.

halfbakedi420

hopefully they will never do away with a blood tracker...i hate the runnin of the dogs idea too, there are communities that do it, but they are literally fillin the freezer for a year. so to each his own.