bryant1

I hunt with beagle/walker crosses and walkers in north Florida. Hunting with hounds is a way of life around here and alot of the hunters in my county and surrounding counties hunt this way for deer. The terrain here is usually very thick pine timberland and hardwood bottoms-traditional dog hunting areas.

We use cold nose hounds that can trail a track off the road (while barking) that can be up to 12 hours old. We normally look for tracks before daylight and start putting dogs out once we have enough potential buck tracks. We only shoot forked horn bucks all season, so it works for us better to put on potential buck tracks and trail them instead of casting dogs in a block to jump deer. Our county has a very high deer population for Florida and we don't want to run does all day long either.

In other parts of the south they drop alot of standers off in the potential deer crossings, but we stay close to our trucks so we can be mobile quickly when the deer/dogs cross out of the block.

Dog hunting clubs here range from 40,000-90,000 continous acres, so dogs very rarely get off our property. This is the number one problem with dog hunting in other states.

If you ever get to dog hunt and get in a good buck chase, it will get you hooked quickly. The adrenaline rush you get while running dogs is greater than hunting out of a stand to me. To hear the dogs running a buck your way and then hearing a deer running through the swamp to you is very exciting.

I took a relative of my wife's that has never dog hunted this past year. He's strictly a trophy deer hunter from north Ga. and never has dog hunted before. We got on a good buck race and the other standers missed him when he crossed out of the block.
We got around the next block and the buck turned coming our way, I told him to get ready and watch 30 yds in front of us- I knew he was going to come there and cross. I heard the buck coming and motioned to him. The buck hit the road and stopped, and he missed him.

I asked "did you hit it?" but I knew that he didn't. He was visibly shaken up and couldn't even speak. He finally said "I was shaking so bad that I think I knocked down the tree limbs 3 feet behind him. He was hooked to say the least. He said "In all the times I have taken nice bucks, I have never been that shaken up before." I laughed and said "I know the feeling, now you see why I don't sit in the stand when I can hunt with dogs."

NC Buck Slayer

If you dont have access to hunt places where there are natural food sources, the baiting is your best bet.

Bloodsaw

"it has its place, but it usually leaves an area worthless for years to come for any still hunter ( unless you like sitting all year and watching 3 or 4 deer tops "


If you are going to quote me, do it right, u failed to add the USUALLY part. and yes in my experience the area is usually not worth hunting after dogs have run the place. and this statement is not meant if u run dogs once or twice a year, but more pushed towards if you run dogs in the area often every year.

I know one thing, i wouldnt hunt an area the evning after dogs had been through( or even a few days after ), but thats just me.

this was not an attempt to blast dog hunters, because i sometimes enjoy it myself.

OhioBowhunter

it is illegal on my end but guessing by what begals are used for (bears mtn lions and everything else) they would work fine for deer

Mojotex

Here's how we did it ---- I was introduced to hunting deer with dogs when I was about 12-13. That'd be about 1960! We hunted thousands of acres of swamp land in Louisiana, not far north of N.O. It was tough hunting for sure. We'd stand pipe line and high voltage power line ROW's, or woods roads ... and hope we'd have a chance to get a shot as the deer crossed the lane. Standing in the swamp was more or less useless because the underbrush was just so thick. In Alabama, where I moved to in 1973, we dog hunted deer near Rockford on gobs of acres of timber company land. Back then all it took was getting a free or very low cost "permits" from the timber companies. Usually 12-20 guys hunted together. Three or so would bring their hounds (4-6 each). Several others would use their 4x4 trucks, jeeps, Bronco's, K-5 's, etc. to put out standers. Standers would be set out about good daylight, encircling a hollow, usually on timber roads. Then one or two guys would walk into the bottom, pushing ahead of them 4-6 hounds. I do not know of a single time deer were not jumped. The dogs would drive them out of the bottom, running a few hard ahead. Some of the deer would often peal off and ease out along the way, and every now and then deer would lay tight then once the dogs ran past running other deer, they'd slip out the back ... more or less.

Usually 3-4 drives like this could be made in one day, moving to a new hollow each time. A good day was 3-5 deer. Not many "doe days" back then as I recall. If it was a buck, it was going to be shot at !! The meat would be split up among the hunters, with the shooter usually getting a ham or back strap.

I had several beagles back then, and 4-red ticked "English Coon Hounds" that had taken to running deer. Those English hounds were beautiful, deep chested and could (and would) go fast forever. One cold Saturday morning my dad, brother and I showed up about late. Dad was a HS football coach and he was too pooped to get going at 4:30 a.m. and drive the hour it took us to get to the gathering place. The group was already gone on the first drive. We decided to just head out into the woods and find a good place to sit until the bunch came in for lunch. I set up over looking a creek bottom, on a ledge overlooking the creek. About 7:15 I heard what turned out to be 3-8 point bucks walking in that creek. They passed directly in front of me. I shot at the biggest one. He dropped. The other 2 broke and ran straight towards where my brother was supposed to be set up. I kid you not, within a 1 minute, he shot twice. He killed one of the other 2 - 8 pointers. So, here we 3 were with 2 good bucks down to drag out .... no dogs to round up .... no meat sharing ..... and headed home by 10:00 a.m. DUH ! That week, I called one of my buds and offered dogs. He was excited to have them. I kept the lone beagle to run rabbits with ... and never hunted deer with dogs again. I must say I enjoyed hearing the puppies run, and the social aspects of "dog hunting". But I much prefer how I hunt now and don't expect to ever go back to hunting deer with dogs.

aharley1

My game cam has pictures of Beagles about 1:00 in the afternoon. By 3:30, two does were at the feeder. Go figure.
As far as the feeder goes, I spend about 3 days in the stand to 1 when I see deer. The woods are so thick here that you can't go thru them to track a deer. you have to hunt openings. Other parts of the country have woods that you can drive a truck thru. Ours ar emore like jungle.

hometheaterman

I agree with the others. While you may not do it I don't think you are exactly right. Guys I hunt with run dogs all morning and will also go sit in a stand in the afternoon and don't seem to have any issues killing deer out of the stand either. I've never done but it quite a few guys I hunt with do it often. I've also seen deer in fields where dogs had run in the afternoons while we were trying to catch the dogs so I don't think it bothers them too much.

vapahunter

Bloodsaw, that is the exact quote as it was put in the blog. It is the part I was commenting on. If that section is wrong then please go back and show me where. I am sorry if you don't like me taking your quote verbatim but I really don't care what you think as i commented on what you wrote.

Bloodsaw

You leaving out the usually part changed how YOU could reply to it, making you sound more valid, as if i didnt give exceptions. Doesnt matter though, i shouldnt have even replied the first time.