Long Day

[Ike]

I loaded up five hounds yesterday and took a couple guys hunting that I hadn't ever hunted with. At least one of them hadn't been around the hound game and the other probably had seen a few hounds run. The ground was pretty wet cause it had rained the afternoon and evening before, and we didn't find alot of game moving. However, we did strike a couple tracks which was one bear and one lion.

The bear was off the road and I had to put a dog down to see what they had; the lion had crossed a road we were on. On the way past the lion the first time, they just bumped and I missed the track--matter fact, I wasn't even cutting the road so it isn't fair to say I missed it. But on the way back by an hour or so latter Choco opened with a roar and the whole box followed. The breeze was coming off the hill on the lion's backtrail on the way back past which made me believe the scent was better on that passing.

Of course we all got out and looked for tracks on both rigs, and the newcomer or first time lion and bear hunter found where that lion had left the road. And he said, "I can't believe those dogs can smell that!" I laughed and told him years ago I'd laughed to hear that story but those two red dogs have shown me over the past five or six years that lions can be rigged (or they can rig them) about every trip to the field............

It was a successful day, as the dogs cold trailed for eight or nine hours and I got them all picked up and safely home............

gotta love it!
iike

[HoundDawg]

"It was a successful day, as the dogs cold trailed for eight or nine hours and I got them all picked up and safely home..."

Sounds like a good time, we got rained out over on this side of the mountain.

I guess we all have a little different definition of "successful day"...

Keep after 'em.

[Ike]

Well Dawg, it sounds like your day wasn't very successful if you got rained out but better luck next time......

Yea, success means lots of different things to different people dawg. Hal and I were talking some time back and we both decided that a successful day was when you find a track, let the dogs go bark at it or tree it, and then get all those dogs back safely home. In my opinion, if I leave one single dog on the mountain (and have to buy gas to fetch that hound the following day) then the day was not a total success whether they got treed or not.

I think too many times we all get to measuring the day by what gets put in the tree, or what we get to kill, or maybe even the photos we get to take. But as you know, this sport is about the man and his hounds and not a scoreboard. I think it was you on that little video clip that told the newspaper guy this sport is about the men and women and their hounds, don't know.

Last summer I invited Hal Mecham along to chase a bear and watch my rig dogs work. He had asked several times over recent years and I'd always found an excuse not to take him. But he loaded a couple of his bitches and we put my hounds on top to rig. Hal has been training and running hounds for over forty years, been around the best and the worst and seen most of what a guy is ever gonna see with hounds.

We got a screaming rig and a boar and sow track just after daylight, all the dogs rigged well but the track was going onto tribal ground so we moved on. Every time my old red dogs went off he wanted out to look for the track they were smelling and he found everyone of them from a a lion to a bobcat to old bear tracks. We quit without ever starting a track that day and I apologized for not getting us a bear run. He laughed and told me that he'd been to lots of trees and that didn't impress him, but watching my two old red dogs rig tracks did...........

So success is often viewed differently through a different set of eyes.........

ike

[HoundDawg]

"Hal and I were talking some time back and we both decided that a successful day was when you find a track, let the dogs go bark at it or tree it, and then get all those dogs back safely home."

Dude, I'm glad you posted this... because after I read that I realized something... I'm about the most successful hunter that ever lived!!

Hell, I'm the Dale Lee and Ben Lilly of finding a track, turning them loose, and getting them all gathered and safely back home!!

I should write a book!!

[Ike]

You should write a book, do a video and make a movie as well Brent! After I watched that clip about bears and lions fearing you, I knew you were actor/star material dude!

ike

[HoundDawg]

"Hal and I were talking some time back and we both decided that a successful day was when you find a track, let the dogs go bark at it or tree it, and then get all those dogs back safely home."

I thought of one minor flaw in you and Hal's idea. I know you guide for Labrum a bit, you might wanna be clear with the clients on what your idea of "success" is...

Because most hunters with a tag in their pocket probably have a slightly different idea of a "successful day"... But other than that minor detail, seems like a great idea!!

I did write a book a few years ago but the publisher said it was too graphic, and I did make a movie or two, but Kev's wife still has that footage on her camera!!

As for the lions and bears fearing me... who better than me? Never seen anyone else in these parts that gave 'em any reason to fear.

[Ike]

roflmao........some things never change, and you are one of those things dawg! But I heard about your trip to the doctor and we all hope you get better soon!

ike

[Borderpond]

I'm with you on that one Dawg. If a client pays to go on a hunt, I dont thin k they would consider that a "successful" day either. I would guess that 99% of the hunters I guided,bear hunting, wanted a kill to make it a "successful' hunt.If you take a guys money to get him a kill,then the dogs bark on an old track all day and you are happy because you have them all back in the truck at the end of the day, I would bet the hunter wouldnt be as happy as you were !!! Especially if he spent good money to go on a lion hunt. Now if it was explained to the client that it was just a pursuit or dog training hunt that he was going on, with no kill advertised ,it might be different. I havent had very many clients who were willing to pay to do that though.