Affording hounds

[youngm]

I have always wondered what people on here do for a living in order to hunt the amount of time they say they do. to afford 2 and 3 thousand dogs and the time off work that it takes to run dogs like they should be run. are in construction, guide for a living farm etc.

[Unreal_tk]

I'd say its accumulated value is what makes it expensive. You don't need it all but its nice. I work in a sawmill. I work m-f 6-2 but I still hunt alot. Buying pups and raising them up is very expensive it doesn't cover the cost even close on a good dog. You buy a pup feed it and maintenance it with vaccines, wormer, vet bills. Then you have to put time in to train it, gas to take it out, truck maintenance. Not to mention dog boxes, kennels. It all adds up quickly if you think about it, and not all pups turn out.

[pegleg]

this very question has been asked in the past and the ways people find to follow hounds are wide and varied. it seems to stem from the amount of determination a person has to be a houndsmen more then the method of support. no doubt it can be very expensive but most hobbies cost something the biggest challenge is finding the time for work, family and then hounds too. the easiest method is to give up on running a large pack or even two like some of us less reasonable folks do. run a small pack of three or four reliably trained hounds of various ages and add replacements singly as needed. good luck!!

[cougarhound]

i work at a coal mine, i work four days on and then get four days off.

[poser]

I dont know if you can ever have enough money or time to hunt your hounds like they should be hunted. Full time outfitter but they have plenty on thier plate in other areas and most of us would go back to work after the first month of hunting for a living.

I think it all comes down to, we do what we can do with what we have. We all want these top hounds but reality comes pretty fast if you have a full time job and a family to raise.

Most of the houndsmen i know have a few jobs just to get by. We scrape by and at times offer about everything we have for sale just to keep going. Pretty pathetic at times but you will find out how committed you are pretty fast in this game.

Best of luck, jason

[rich h]

Retired now, but before that I worked most of my adult life in a underground mine. Many of those years my work schedule was a rotating swing shift with 5 days off in a row every 3rd week. Between the work we were blessed with strikes, lay-off's, and a 3 year shut-down. Plenty of time to hunt. Back in those days we weren't robbed at the gas pump like now. Dog feed was reasonable, and there was plenty of bear. I could often rig a hot bear track within a few miles of home.

Those of us living in good bear country could always make deals to hunt dogs for other people in exchange for a pup to offset costs. Hell, you could buy a decent nite champion coondog for $600. And if you got really desperate for cash you could even pimp off a couple bear baits to bait-sitters.

[B-N-Trees]

this very question has been asked in the past and the ways people find to follow hounds are wide and varied. it seems to stem from the amount of determination a person has to be a houndsmen more then the method of support. no doubt it can be very expensive but most hobbies cost something the biggest challenge is finding the time for work, family and then hounds too. the easiest method is to give up on running a large pack or even two like some of us less reasonable folks do. run a small pack of three or four reliably trained hounds of various ages and add replacements singly as needed. good luck!!

This just about sums it up, well said pegleg. I have watched a lot of guys come and go from this sport. It needs to be a passion made happen with determination you can't put equal effort into all your hobbies. But don't lose your family and job over it. I have a lot of support from my wife and kids and that really makes a difference. Nothing worth doing was ever easy and if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

[bob baldwin jr]

I guess I have the best of both worlds . Been retired now for 5 years . The good side is that I have all the TIME in the world the BAD side : I wish I was that comfortable when I was 40 . I can still get to the tree ,BUT you young Bucks will be waiting on me. Glad I have my son with me Retired Military and in a lot better shape than I

some of the guys I read about on here with MANY hounds , Unless you are a breeder or Trainer that is certainly not the way I would want to go . Right now feeding 5 hounds ,4 blue dogs ,1 english . All in various stages of years and development . For us that is the way to go . Could I afford more ? Yes but Why? Do I spend enough time with them ? I would tend to think so ,But who is to say .

I still do have a couple of part time jobs to pay for my Hounds ,Hunting Adventures and when the URGE hits me to get a new toy . Do I really HAVE to work ? NO , but I enjoy it .

Been lucky to have gone on several Big Game Hunts in North America. A few outfitters have become Good Friends . Like Hounding it is getting HARDER and HARDER for them to survive with-out having some other line of work going for themselves in the OFF -Season . All comes down to asking oneselves " HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT "

We all tend to seek out the things in life that give us PLEASURE Hounds to me are one of those things . The day it becomes a Burden or a Hardship is the day I will walk away from it but with FOND MEMORIES and a SMILE on my face

[bad moon]

straight graveyards as an underground coal miner worked pretty good for me if a guy cut down on sleep lots of hunting could be done. but as stated before strikes and lay off seem to affect this line of work a bunch.

[bob baldwin jr]

Bad Moon : I Don't know how you guys handle that underground Mining deal . I took a tour once of a nickle mine up in Sudbury Ontario ? once took a ride down the shaft maybe a couple hundred feet looked around about 2 minutes ,Heard a noise and decided it was time to leave You have my Admiration . For all the PLOTTS in UTAH you could NOT get me to go back down there again

[Glen]

I work and live on a cattle ranch. When work is done it is time to run the dogs. That is the only way I can afford the time to keep them in shape by roading them on the ranch, but if I have a chance to go hunting then I will get mabey 3 hours sleep at the most. I am usually good for twice a week when bears are moving good, other wise it is not worth the loss of sleep. I once got to tired on the way home and wrecked my truck!!

[plottpappaw]

i work as an a class lineman for a power company. BUT i train two or three young dogs a year and a litter of puppies and what i make off them usually covers the majority of my expenses. sometimes i get a dog withs plans to keep it and it has a fault i can't stand and even though its an above average hound i will sale it and buy another. my wife also works and hunts with me so she's always wanting to go so i hear no grief out of her. i save my change all year and cash it in when season comes in and catch about all the overtime i can stand until kill season. i work m=f 8 to 430 and have paid vacation. i go everytime i can and even if i can't go the guys i hunt with keep my dogs while i work during kill season.we can run to train from aug to oct and jan to april kill season is oct to jan. figure 5 months training season 3 kill. 34 saturdays holidays and vacation it all works out. i only keep four dogs too.

[ferjr]

I got 10 hounds, 5 blueticks, 4 plotts, and 1 walker. I work at a Taxidermy shop, which does not give me near enough time to spend with my hounds, fortunately my dad who is also my best friend is retired and can give my dogs the attention they need while I am working. I am lucky, I have a great dad who enjoys my hobbie as much as I do and I also have some really great hounds that are always ready to please, they get the job done!

[Hunter]

I work at night... I use the term work loosely. My wife and I have a farm. I also do a little bird taxidermy and I dig roots. Ginseng paid out good last year at $680 a # so that helped big time. It's nice to set down in a patch and dig while your dogs work out a track. Sometimes I will admit it's hard to leave a big patch because your dogs went out of hearing. I've had the big numbers of dogs and finally figured out that out of 12 dogs 2 or 3 were doing 90% of the work and I was just feeding the rest for cheerleaders. I have 1 grown dog, 2-1 yr olds and a 7 month old pup. Plus a half Mtn Cur X Plott that runs loose at the house along with a little fiest. I have 6 dogs that I feed but, only 4 are MY dogs. I was blessed when I married my new wife. Her dad was a big farmer and coon hunter. Her brother is a BIG bear hunter so she is used to being home alone while the guys are out hunting. I still have to keep her happy and she stands my being gone. However, she is frugal and about blew a gasket when she found out that I paid $1000 for a new shocking system. She didn't really give a "big flipping shit" (her words) that I saved almost $300 bucks. She can't understand why anyone needs more than 2 guns. It used to be 1 gun but I pulled out two shotguns and showed her that you CAN shoot 2 guns at one time. Before I went on night shift I worked a 11 am -9pm shift. It was awesome in that I could get off work, swing by the house, grab a dog, kiss the wife bye and hunt until 3 or 4 and still get home and sleep several hours. It also helps that my wife is a dog person but, we butt heads when it comes to culling. It's all about happy mediums in ever aspect of life. Money, family time (with or without), work and doing what you NEED to do and what you would RATHER be doing. Sometimes that Rather gets blurred with NEED and I have to get bumped down a notch by the wife but, it's all good.

[Steve White]

It's a lifestyle that has to be accepted not only by you, but your family if married. Then it is really no problem. Everyday I return home from hunting, or fishing. I see the same cars parked in the bar parking lot. I know they spend more on booze than I do on dogs. To each there own I guess. I know if it were not for my wife helping with the dogs it would be tougher. But then I would also expect her to work more, and keep a cleaner house!!!

I have been a guide for over 20yrs, and also do many other things to supplement the income at times. Allows me to schedule things around working with the dogs being self employed. Again the wife helping out makes it easier.

One may have to give up the finer things in life, but is there anything finer than listening to dogs on trail?