Tanner,
I got what you were aiming at and it is more than just the Garmins and such, a lot of things have changed.
I think one of the things that thrills me most after all these years of plodding along on a horse watching the ground for tracks and sign is how your subconscious starts to kick in and you can really feel some of that primal drive that had to be so important to the survival of our relatives.
My wife and I were out checking the cows the other day and we were in lower sagebrush country that is cut by a lot of erosion from run off the continental divide so there are many sand washes to be crossed. When it rains these can at times be treacherous at best and we do have a lot of quick sand in our area. I had my horse go down twice last year in quicksand but lucky I was able to bail and get him out with both of us only sustaining minor scrapes and bruises.
Elk, deer, and range cattle and horses learn to smell the moisture in the clay even under the dry looking sand and will avoid these places so we always try to cross only where the free ranging animals cross. We were coming back in and had to cross a fairly wide wash on what we know as the Largo. Watching ahead and letting the horses pick their way something out of the corner of my eye not really anything more than a blur of an impression on the ground caught my eye. We got across and I said let's stop I saw something. My wife asked what was it? And almost without thinking I said a large sow bear track! What down here? sure enough it was a good big sow with a fairly small cub cutting thru the country I am sure looking for some green grass.
Now how a person's mind can do that amazes me, but I have found that there is a lot more out there than the direct eye picks up a lot of the time. but it takes spending a lot of time just outdoors and not inside like most folks watching the boob tube all the time and it proves that the( old ways) are still there, and I guess that is a part of the wonder of it all.
Mental struggles
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- Babble Mouth
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Re: Mental struggles
MIKE LEONARD
Somewhere out there.............
Somewhere out there.............
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- Open Mouth
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Re: Mental struggles
I have used game cameras in the past.. I had the kind that would send the pic to my computer.... I've drove roads and looked for tracks even in the snow a few times lol.. During the summer I've been known to drag the road going in and out of my camp with my buggy... but what I like most is riding a good mule or horse through roadless country with my hounds on the ground.. I'm very blessed to have miles and miles of wilderness to hunt in and a good day is when I make a 20 mile circle and never have to pick up the garmin for any reason. Its not for everyone and to have any success in this country you have to have alot of free time.. And like I tell all the guys starting out with me or just wanting to hunt this way that you have to love the process..
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
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- Tight Mouth
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Re: Mental struggles
"....... you have to love the process.."
You just said it all, Cowboyvon!
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You just said it all, Cowboyvon!
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- Bawl Mouth
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- Location: Virginia
Re: Mental struggles
This has been one of the most enjoyable topics on here in a while, with a lot of very experienced men sharing their feelings with a passion that shows. Thanks to you all for doing that.
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- Tight Mouth
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Re: Mental struggles
Kind words are always good to hear. The topic, "mental struggles" is the story of my life. A post on this forum is a lot like a cat hunt, you never quite know where you will wind up or the path you will travel along the way. As I try to " hunt and peck" my way through this, I am reminded to be thankful for the magic of technology, sharing our experiences on this forum is just one example we enjoy. We sorta drifted into some thoughts on locating our hounds into homing instincts and handling. I would like to share a story about a pair of hounds we had about 40 yrs ago. This was back in the " technology dark ages". If today's modern equipment had been available I would never been able to acquire these hounds. They were both good hounds but had odd homing habits. Lady, was probably one of the most determined hounds I ever hunted. She had a good nose and was a good road hunter until she smelled a cat, she would either jump the cat or hunt him until the sun got too hot the next day. You could call, or blow your horn all night, to no avail. The boys that had her, hunted about 30 or40 miles from home, and usually had to leave her in the woods. We hunted, in those days right around our home, and have been fortunate enough to be self employed, and could easily go back to where we turned her loose or she would come home. Sometime after we got her, Lady stopped at a neighbors house, on the northern end of our hunting area. Ms Mae Richardson was a very kind lady that lived alone. I don't know what she did to and for that old hound, but they became best friends. If Lady's exhaustive search for her cat ended near home she would usually come dragging in, sometime late in the day, but if it ended near Ms Maes, you could bet I would be getting a phone call. Aggravating, you bet, but this old hound jumped many cats. Numerous times Lady would leave us, on what we thought was a track too old to jump, we would just leave her and hunt on, some times we would jump another cat, have a good race, and may even catch the cat. She would join the race if we were in hearing, but many times we would find Ole Lady running her cat by herself, we would turn out to her and enjoy a race. Like I stated earlier, she was very determined, but any time the hounds were about to catch a cat, we call it "tackin an dodgin", Old Lady would come to the truck ,but if the cat got a break or got a little distance ahead, she would rejoin the race. In the several years we had this old hound I never saw her put her mouth on a bobcat, I can't recall ever seeing her near the kill area, but she caused many cats to run their last race. I wish I had this aggravating old hound today. With today's ability to locate and correct she would have been something else. lady was a very kind and good handling hound unless a faint scent of a bobcat entered the picture, then "all bets were off" with Lady. I've rambled too long . Some day I'll tell the rest of the story about Red Charger, the hound I got with Lady. He, too had some odd homing habits.
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- Bawl Mouth
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Re: Mental struggles
I enjoy the modern technology, first the telemetry collars, now the garmins. In Florida if your hounds get on someone property that complains about it you can get a citation to appear before the judge and the cases I have heard about, it's not cheap. Also do not want to go back to wondering where a lost dog is at, not even knowing where to look, leaving a shirt where I turned it out and going back for days to see if it has returned. No sir I don't want to go back to those days, l don't have time for that anymore because I have to take my wife fishing pretty regularly if I want to keep her happy. And I do want to do that!
The training aspect is not only a lot easier for me I think it's a lot easier on the dog.
I bought a good little foxhound just like Mr. John did from a man that lived a long ways from our hunting grounds. If she got a whiff of fox scent she was there till she figured it out or the sun got to hot to stay. I bought her in the woods one morning about 10 o'clock with her grubbing on one. The man said what he'd take for, I handed it to him and told him to go on home I'd get her up. I enjoyed her and she jumped quite a few fox for me in the short 10 months that I had her. I had to leave her in the woods one morning, when I went back that afternoon to get her she was where I'd turned her out but she had been gut shot and died that night. If I'd found the man that did it that day I'd probably have killed him, if I found out who it was now I might shoot him in the leg.
My hunting area is closed right now is why I'm on here rambling. Mr. John, hope you get to feeling better and go ahead tell us about Red Charger.
The training aspect is not only a lot easier for me I think it's a lot easier on the dog.
I bought a good little foxhound just like Mr. John did from a man that lived a long ways from our hunting grounds. If she got a whiff of fox scent she was there till she figured it out or the sun got to hot to stay. I bought her in the woods one morning about 10 o'clock with her grubbing on one. The man said what he'd take for, I handed it to him and told him to go on home I'd get her up. I enjoyed her and she jumped quite a few fox for me in the short 10 months that I had her. I had to leave her in the woods one morning, when I went back that afternoon to get her she was where I'd turned her out but she had been gut shot and died that night. If I'd found the man that did it that day I'd probably have killed him, if I found out who it was now I might shoot him in the leg.
My hunting area is closed right now is why I'm on here rambling. Mr. John, hope you get to feeling better and go ahead tell us about Red Charger.
Re: Mental struggles
Foridacathunter, please keep on rambling. Nothing better than old dog stories. They are like a fine wine and get better with age.
I'm a hound raised kid who remembers the old days where you'd drive for hours looking for lost dogs. Check roads and lay out coats looking for them. Most times you got them back from a phone call a few days later or they'd wander into the yard. A tracking collar was like stepping into the future. I don't want to go back to that although it was a more laid back time and people were considerate. It's a different world now and this technology let's us keep doing what we love and let's us get back those dogs quicker and safer. I think we lose a little dogmanship with new technology but with our wolf problems in WI, I'd never run any without them. You'd get a lot less phone calls with dogs returning now.
I'm a hound raised kid who remembers the old days where you'd drive for hours looking for lost dogs. Check roads and lay out coats looking for them. Most times you got them back from a phone call a few days later or they'd wander into the yard. A tracking collar was like stepping into the future. I don't want to go back to that although it was a more laid back time and people were considerate. It's a different world now and this technology let's us keep doing what we love and let's us get back those dogs quicker and safer. I think we lose a little dogmanship with new technology but with our wolf problems in WI, I'd never run any without them. You'd get a lot less phone calls with dogs returning now.
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- Tight Mouth
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Re: Mental struggles
Thanks again,Scrubrunner,Nolte,and David. I only hope others will find time to share some of their experiences with us, please. Only thing better than re-running a good race is having a new one! Scrubrunner& Nolte mentioned leaving a coat where you cast or put a hound on the ground , this reminded me of a time when several of us old boys, young, & broke ,used to have to hunt together in order to have enough hounds to make a decent pack. Most of us couldnt buy enough feed for more than one or two. One night, Old Georgia Boy,probably the craziest one of the bunch, left a good coat for a " not so good" hound, to return to . Naturally, the next night, we told our young wives we had to go back to pick up Georgia' s hound and coat, but we would come right back, "right". Old " not so good" was right where the coat was left, but the coat was nowhere to be found! Evidently, some one must have taken it. Old
Georgia, said he wouldn't have traded his coat for truck full of old Joes. One of us suggested, it might have been better to have left his "drawers" instead, of his coat. But we all agreed, that while it would totally solve the problem of, " garment theft" it would probably repel any living thing from hanging around the area, except, possibly a desparete buzzard! On a serious note, Mr J.W. James, an old hunter ,from many years ago, before the days of plastic and paper feed sacks used to keep several burlap or " croaker" sacks in his dog box and leave one at the turn out spot, when needed. Some times he would drag the sack up and down the woods road in the vicinity , before leaving it at turn out spot. His thoughts were almost any hound especially ,a puppy just being started would trail the drag to the sack at the turn out spot and stay with the familiar scent of kennel mates on sack. Seemed to help, as I remember.
Georgia, said he wouldn't have traded his coat for truck full of old Joes. One of us suggested, it might have been better to have left his "drawers" instead, of his coat. But we all agreed, that while it would totally solve the problem of, " garment theft" it would probably repel any living thing from hanging around the area, except, possibly a desparete buzzard! On a serious note, Mr J.W. James, an old hunter ,from many years ago, before the days of plastic and paper feed sacks used to keep several burlap or " croaker" sacks in his dog box and leave one at the turn out spot, when needed. Some times he would drag the sack up and down the woods road in the vicinity , before leaving it at turn out spot. His thoughts were almost any hound especially ,a puppy just being started would trail the drag to the sack at the turn out spot and stay with the familiar scent of kennel mates on sack. Seemed to help, as I remember.
Re: Mental struggles
I do the same on lost hounds. Often it doesnt take much to hold them. But urinating on tires or a strange mules leg also helps. I never gave alot of thought to all the scents a hound has to keep track of until I had a going dog trail a horse I had been riding often miles in the wrong direction. I doubt it'll happen with that hound again but may with another
Re: Mental struggles
This is a great thread and with all the experienced houndsman responding I feel like I should probably leave it.....But I started hunting one hound about 2 years ago. I raised him from a pup and we hunted alone for the first year and a half as I didn't know anyone who hunted around here. I basically only coon hunt and have permission from a few farms in the area to exterminate the coon pop. (I never shot a coon on these properties when I was by myself....don't even bring a gun!) Anyway I didn't have a Garmin or shock collar this whole time. Well I ended up hunting with some other fellas who also only have one hound but they do have garmins that tell you where all the property lines are. In this area there is a lot of areas that are owned by people that don't live in the state. These areas don't have cows,agriculture or houses on them and the areas a lot of time are small. Long story short......technology shrunk my hunting spots! Sometimes ignorance is bliss!
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