Crossing with a bloodhound

[sourdough]

I have had silver bullet syndrome many times. The side affects are blurred vision, slurred speech, slower reaction time and inability to operate a motor vehicle.

sourdough

[Roy Sparks]

Brent,

The hound you pictured here looks like a hound Nico fetched from me. If its the same hound, and it certainly looks like he is, he's a littermate of the sire I described earlier which will make him 50/50 Bloodhound Bluetick. I never made the initial outcross but a friend of mine retired from the Dog Unit of the police did the cross.

The sire I have matured late.In fact his offspring started a lot earlier and turned into very useful hounds at an acceptable age. The sire at +/- 5 years is only starting to settle and is a supprisingly good hunting dog. I dont want a kennel full of hounds like him though.If his crosses are all functioning to my satisfaction then I may continue developing a strain of that type and see if they will be any better than my old stain of BGH. I might in the future cross one off my BGH sires to an outstanding bitch that is part bloodhound and see what happens.

These guys that have brought in these French Blue's have not impressed me yet with anything that will out perform our old strain of Southwestern BGH we have from Terrel Shelley and Richard Holcomb.

Thats a fact. We have often had to come in and hunt a problem cat these guys have failed on with their hounds and we always seem to get the hides under salt.The remarks from the ranchers is almost always the same " Hell these dogs are different , when can you come again ".

When I desire to import again for new blood I know where I'll be visiting. I dont have the kind of money to spend that some of my colleagues have to do trips all over to look at and buy hounds.Good luck to them , but hell I know they sure have brought in a bunch of trash. Fancy bloodlines , pedigrees from yooha to Jupiter , field trial this and that, and yet after all that money spent on trips and importing hounds many times over from different breeders they got nothing I desire.

If there were to be some sort of challenge showdown on performence my buddy Trevor Filmer and I would be standing alone waiting for the high noon bell, the street will be empty but we will be side by side.Long live those South Western bloodlines.

If I could manage a trip over I want to go visit Benny G and let him point me in the right direction. I'll be looking for a top proven bitch in pup to an outstanding sire.

The dog must be a "hound" preferably from a strain developed by a hunter who depends on putting food on the table on what he and his hounds are capable of bringing in to provide for the family.

Roy Sparks.

" Quality , Performence , Results "

[nevadalionhunter]

I agree with the guy a feww post back that said he dosent like to mess with the old tracks that the dogs cant move, and that is where i was wondering if the bloodhound cross would help. i have dogs already that will open on tracks 2 and sometimes 3 days old when conditions are right. but even a night old track that you start in the bottom of the canyon and trail for a couple hours before the dogs cross out over the top where the sun and some times sun and wind have been working on it for a couple hours and you have nothing but solid rock to work with. those are the kind of tracks i was thinking about. Now this will open a whole different can of worms all together, as far as hunting in the snow is concerned. i agree it dosent take much of a dog or much of a hunter to catch lions in a fresh snow in normal conditions, but i do hunt some snowy country here in northern nevada when we have it and when it is to muddy to get around in the low country either we head south or we go high to the snow. and now days i have less and less hunters that are interested in hunting on horses and would rather ride in the truck or on a snowmobile. when you start turning dogs loose in that dry powder snow at -20F it takes a dog with a super nose to run a cat in those conditions, especialy if you add the slightest breeze that has drifted the track in. I have had guys work for me over the years that hunt in the wetter snow conditions and have nice dogs, and when it comes to a night old track here the dogs act like its not even there. i also had a guy from arizona, whos name i mention in this to save him any unnesasary embarasment. that i used to hunt with down there on a regular basis and he caught alot of lions in that desert country. he came up and hunted with me for a week, and left here very humbled. the fact was his dogs wouldent open on a night old track either. in these snow conditions. I prefer the dirt to the snow any day, for the fact that most of the time it is so much more enjoyable to hunt in. i dont care for the blowing snow and wind and snowmachines. That being said i have owned several great dogs from arizona i think it just takes them time to aclimate to the snow conditions. any way hope i didnt offend anyone with my opinons or spelling for that matter, i am just sitting here watching the wind blow and drinking coffee.
Ryan,
to put it plain and simple my original thought was wether or not the bloodhound cross would move an older track or a track in worse conditions.

[bad moon]

just make sure you find a boodhound with the right qualaties. i looked for a long time before i found one who made the cut. now we are just waiting on the results

[Brent Sinclair]

Roy
Where are you from??? I assume you know Nico Lourens from saying he got the hound from you.
Do you do leopard hunts with Trevor or just raise hounds? .
I have heard alot about Trevor and had the pleasure to meet him at SCI , Nico Lourens introduced me to him in the past...I called and met with several of the top Leopard outfitters before making a move on who to book my clients with.
Nico Louren's name kept comming up with every call I made, and I wanted a houndman as well not just a PH that had dogs...
There were alot of my clients that had hunted with Nico in the past and that is what got me turned in his direction..
He has taken some huge cats, many are top SCI .
I decided to book my clients and hunt with Nico Lourens, because he came highly reccommended.
I did alot of reaserch to find the best.

I know several of the leopard hound outfitters not on a personal basis but through a few years of talking to and corisponding with them .
Nico has some of the best hounds I have personally ever seen and hunted with.

I thought I knew what a good hound was until I hunted with his hounds.
I have hunted several areas in Canada and the US , snow, bare and dry ground as well, but Nico's hounds are far above anything I have known, some of my leopard clients I book and hunt with Nico are houndmen and they are amazed at his hounds and their ability to catch cats that have been hunted by other PH's and unable to get them caught.
The hound in the photo was purchased from a friend of Nico Lourens ,he told me his name but I do not remember it, I know he was not a PH but had some pups...It may have been Theo Vronkhorst but most of Theo's hounds are from Nico's or Wade Lemon bloodline..
I think he came from close to Botswana but not positive, I will call Nico and ask him,I usually remember the names of the guys but not this one...
I could be misteaken but I think Danny told me the hound was 1/8 bloodhound and Bluetick...I put B&T in the post ,,just partial to mine I guess..but I also have some Careron Blueticks now that Nico and I bought to take over for the leopard hunts.
I will let you know who it was that Nico got the hound from as soon as I talk to him in a couple days.
Good hunting
Brent

Brent,

The hound you pictured here looks like a hound Nico fetched from me. If its the same hound, and it certainly looks like he is, he's a littermate of the sire I described earlier which will make him 50/50 Bloodhound Bluetick. I never made the initial outcross but a friend of mine retired from the Dog Unit of the police did the cross.

If there were to be some sort of challenge showdown on performence my buddy Trevor Filmer and I would be standing alone waiting for the high noon bell, the street will be empty but we will be side by side.Long live those South Western bloodlines.

Roy Sparks.

" Quality , Performence , Results "

[Roy Sparks]

Hi Brent ,

The first leopard Nico ever saw caught with hounds was on his property in the Northern Transvaal by my hounds in the 1990's. He had a couple of blueticks himself he used for tracking wounded game, but at that point had very little knowlege of hounds for any other application.

After seeing this he started hunting bushpig with hounds and in due course was in contact with me often wanting trained hounds to use on " Caracal ". Well eventually I got in a jam financially and sold him two trained hounds and thats how he got started , but I think his main objective was to pursue the leopard hunting with hounds the caracal story was just a smoke screen.

In fact it was my brainchild to conduct leopard hunts in a formal manner for clients with trained hounds as early as 1993 with the help of Trev Filmer. I was the first to introduce it in Zimbabwe in 1996 , the year I was mauled and the movie made of the mauling. After the outcome of being taken seriously for a ride by the client , PH and Ken Wilson of Sportman on Film , I declined to do further business with that outfit in Zimbabwe thus opening the door for Warick Evans , and thereafter the rush started which included Nico.

Hereafter I conducted my hunts in Namibia a country vastly more demanding on hounds hunting these cats. I have hunted over two hundred leopard in Namibia and through these successes with my hounds the quota was raised from the lower hundreds to 250 per year. I was also the first to introduce it to that country. We accounted for a record breaker with an 18'' skull in 1998 and one that bettered that in 2008 with a skull of 18 1/4'' with Brad Smith of Texas.

Many have since tried to immulate our success in Namibia but in all honesty they cannot compete.It takes another kind of hound and another breed of man to stick it out in those conditions. Last year we took 18 trophy males and one old female there. This included a high pressure hunt for 3 buddies from Texas all wanting a trophy male in 14 days. God willing we made it happen for them and it was all captured on film by Tim Gonzales of CSE outdoors ( Huoston ).

Trev has not been to Reno as he's not an outfitter and only hires out his teams and staff and accompanies them on the start hunt of the season and then returns home.If I had to choose one other houndman here in Africa worth his salt it would be Trev Filmer.

As you probably have learned the safari industry is a cut throat game with very few giving recognition to others. I have been to the Reno show twice myself and was disgusted at how guys who live practically next door to one another dont even greet one another there.

Well there a few facts to enlighten you , I've only hunted 233 leopard successfully with my hounds of which a little over two hundred have been in probably the toughest conditions hounds can hunt in in Africa ( Namibian High Desert and Pre - Namib ).

Nico's hounds were there as well last season but I believe it did not go to well as the guy he's involved with there + the 3 other local Namibians with hounds only caught 14 cats between them.

Zimbabwe is not a challenge for top hounds when compared to Namibia , and anyway most those guys run there cats off bait.

Take a look at the pictures Tim Hubbell sent of my hounds yeaterday ( Liontracker ).

Also I have been an outfitter here in SA since 1987 and also have a registered hunting company in Namibia since 5 years back.

Hope thats helped straighten out some grey areas for you.

Kind regards ,

Roy.

[Brent Sinclair]

Roy
That is quite a load of information, it seems there are afew grey areas....
It's interesting with all the time I have spent in Africa hunting and booking clients to hunt leopard and small cats with hounds as well as The Big Five and plainsgame over the years I have never heard your name mentioned before.
I guess I best pay more attention!!!

Thanks for the info...Brent

[Roy Sparks]

Hi Brent,

As I said the safari business is a cut throat business and I've been to SCI in Reno twice and seen the attitude there. Guys that have grown up and been to school together here in SA haven't the time of day for one another in that competitive arena. Let alone introduce their booking agent to another pro !! Nico is very competitive by nature and I have never really had to splash out on advertising and have had very little dealings with booking agents.

The farm Nico now lives on I actually introduced him to here near my hometown Tarkastad. I drove around with him for two days showing him properties till he settled on buying Comrey. He only lives 30 minutes drive from me.

If you ever want to hunt with hounds that will make an everlasting impression on you , you're welcome to come by and indulge yourself hunting with the team that started it all. We are now forced to offer small cat hunts as our Namibian hunting has been banned for leopard. I am organising a hunt for Craig Boddington at this moment for serval for his collection. I can send you information on our Khomas Hochland hunts , South Eastern Kalahari , South African hunting and obviously my hound hunts.

My partner Jan Westdyk and I have two registered safari companies ( African Rosette Safaris ) Namibia and South Africa offering the full spectrum including hunts over my hounds.We are looking at sub leasing concessions in Mozambique so we can continue our leopard hunting but will also be making a return to Zimbabwe and quite possibly Angola.

Regards,

Roy Sparks.

[Roy Sparks]

Brent , if you're in the mood, go to galleries at africahunting.com and look at the Namibian leopard my hounds have pulled out of that country - would be nice if you could take a peek.Let me know what you think of the quality.

Thanks - Roy.

[Ike]

http://www.africahunting.com/hunting-pi ... ds&cat=501

http://www.africahunting.com/content.ph ... rspectives

Was this the link you were referring to Mr. Sparks? I do recognize those black and white dogs in some of the photos, and it looks like both they and you have earned your way in Africa. A good buddy, Shawn Labrum, showed me the clip on the video where the leopard climbed on you and I guess I need to watch the rest of that thing (or get my own) now. Welcome to the board and your input is surely welcome!

ike

[Roy Sparks]

Thank's Ike, hope I can be of help in sharing a bit here and gaining from what I learn here as well. I never think I know it all , I like to listen,be observant and never think I have the best.That way I'm always opening myself and my hounds for improvement.

" Boast thyself not of tommorow for thy knowest not what the day or moment may bring forth ! "

Catch you later - Roy.