This topic site is slow--let's talk about beagles.

[Mike Leonard]

I have heard of prefessional lion huntrs using beagles in their pack. I know some have great drive and a nose but didn't know how they did on cat.

Anybody out there seens this?

[pegleg]

no never have but I wouldn't say it couldn't work some are persistent little buggers full of hunt but most are BORN rabbit dogs and that might get some old.

[Benny G]

Hey Mike, does this count? My youngest son used to have beagles and I let my pups run loose until they would start covering too many miles. They all learned to trail rabbits summer and winter by running with beagles. All I had to do was show them lions and start the transition from small game to big game. Benny

[Big Mike]

I havnt heard of any. I have often wondered if some guys didnt cross them into hounds to get that smaller sized dog. Anybody hear of any crosses??

I do have a beagle story. A friend got one just for a house dog. They had a lab as well. The lab would walk a circle around their fence line. That little beagle would hit the labs track and trail the same circle the lab walked for hours, opening all the way. I thought it was quite amusing but their neighbors didnt.

[Bluefloyd]

I dont know about lions, but I watched my buddies short beagle put the pressure on a moose one day. the dog would run it down, get whacked around and run it down again. It would run deer so hard that it could not walk the next day. (it was a tree huggers dog that did not believe in shock systems, or trash breaking)
Those little dogs have a lot of heart and desire. I guess its all about if you can channel it the right direction. And less than a foot of snow of course.

[Arkansas Frog]

when I was a teenager on a farm [Lord that was a long time back] guys I hunted with would buy every beaGLE crossed to a treeing Walker because they made good coon dogs, small, easy to keep up, they would watch for a straight legged Beagle that really hunted hard and breed it to a Treeing Walker.back in N C they still use Beagles as deer dogs,don't know where it is legal or not but they do it.

[sourdough]

I don’t know how many times I have been asked, “Are those beagles?” I’ve been asked so many times, I think I own beagles! On bare ground they are fine, but in that deep powder snow the stilts come in handy.
I think the beagle to be a fine hound with an extraordinary nose and great cold trailing desire. If you have never owned one or watched a beagle being what they are, you have missed a truly fine animal. Now I am talking a well bred hunting beagle. They are an amazing little hunting dog as are Dachshunds. They are only limited by their physical make up, definitely not their nose power or competitive drive.
I saw a blue tick male a guy owned that was only about 24-25 inches tall at the shoulder, a great cold trailer on lions. Who knows?

Sourdough
P.S. I just thought about the basset hound having seen plenty of them wandering the streets following their nose.

[allnight]

im new to running my own hounds so i just put together a pack of dogs.i used what ever i could find i bought a beagle for rabbits. but he didnt show much interest.turned him loose with my pups on a coon and hes been a coon fighting dog since.he even strikes off the box and has struck a few bobcat. only problem is he strikes every thing from deer to mice.but shure is fun to watch him put the death grip on a coon.and he will work all day i lost him for 2 days in the mountains got him back fed him and went back to hunting the next night.I really learn alot from all of your post's thanks

[poser]

Haven't heard of them bein used on lion but i know a guy here in Utah that use to use a beagle on a trap line and would catch bobs that missed the traps on a consistent basis. He musta been a gritty little buggers his ears were shredded.

Another guy in Oregon had two littermates.....plott x beagle.....lol picture that one. Anyway he said they caught more bobcats then any other dogs he had owned.

[walkerdog]

My first beagle would road with the hounds, he rigged deer, and rabbits off the quad. You would turn him loose and let him chase rabbits. He would do it all day. He trailed out a deer at camp that turned around and tried to chase him down and stomp him My wife has her little beagle she just lets him run loose on the property and we just sit back and watch him trail constantly. He always has his nose to the ground, he's not too quick though you can usually see the rabbit running 100 yds ahead of him. My wife keeps saying one day she will go out and get one for him. He's never had anything shot for him but he keeps going all day. Yesterday he bayed up a smaller wild boar. I would say about 80 lbs. He bayed really good. If my wife knew she'd be pissed though!

[jeff]

Haven't heard of them bein used on lion but i know a guy here in Utah that use to use a beagle on a trap line and would catch bobs that missed the traps on a consistent basis. He musta been a gritty little buggers his ears were shredded.

Another guy in Oregon had two littermates.....plott x beagle.....lol picture that one. Anyway he said they caught more bobcats then any other dogs he had owned.

Hey Mike I have not heard of any being used on lion but I feel these two mixed up beagles would love the scent of a lion and give them a run for their money.

Poser,
Here is a couple littermates(Beagle/Plott) that were from a accidental breeding and were about to be culled but I wanted to try the cat/bear chase out and they gave them to me,Their momma was a cold nosed beagle and their papa was a 12-13yr old cascade dog out of doug and junior woods (U.P. MI.)stock from years ago,

[cobalt]

This a pic from 1987. Buddy Boy was 7/8 beagle and 1/8 walker. That dog taught me more about hunting and hounds than any other influence in my life. He was 12yrs old in this pic.

[beaglewalkerhunter4]

never seen one on a lion. I gotaa beagle walker cross, hell on coon and fox and rabbit of course. Goin to the Poconos with her next winter tryin for a bobcat. Shes got a decent shot of grit a ton of drive and is perfect sized. About 20' and 35-40 lbs. She is my first hound and she has taught me all i know. I have hunted her with a pack of straight walker coondogs and she was right with em. I would be interested to see how one would do on a lion or bobcat. Maybe this spring I'll see how she does on on bobs. Also i have a full beagle pup and I'm going to try him on bobcat as well.

[B-N-Trees]

I grew up with beagles. And it was because of them that my mom never let me have real hounds as a boy. She didn't like them sleeping in her flower pots and she hated their mournful howls. I thought they sounded lovely, but when mom ain't happy nobody ain't happy. So I had to live vicariously trough friends with hounds for many years. We moved to Colorado from East Texas where we hunted cottontails and swamp hairs with these little hounds. When we came to Colo. my dad took a job that allowed us to live in the mountains in a secluded area. The beagle back in Texas was never confined, it just ran rabbits all day or laid around the yard (in a flower pot or some weird spot) and so like in Texas we let her run loose in Colo. to trail rabbits through the mountains. Standing out on the porch at the house she could be heard trailing somewhere on some mountain just about anytime of the the day but she'd always come in for dinner late in the afternoon. We'd often tease when we heard her trailing rabbits that she was out trolling for lions... and so was the end of her.

Another beagle that we had we let run with a friends lion hound pack. He did well and was even at a few trees. But the two draw backs were snow over 12" and trashing on deer. So I had to start leaving him home.

I don't have enough time now but latter I will post a good story about a German man we knew and his favorite beagle. Its a good one.

[Dads dogboy]

Mr. Mike.

As I have posted before one of the Most famous and sucessful of South Texas Cat Hunters of all time was Mr. Ira Woods. In his later years he hunted a pack of Beagles.

His success is still talked about today with reverence by some very good hunters themselves. We are told that Ranches he hunted did not have any Lion problems that Mr. Ira took them as they came, same as Bobcat!

CJC