BigGameHoundsmen.com

If so what traits do you look for in them?

The three best dry ground dogs I have owned were all three black n tan

A very good friend of mine (who is no longer with us) gave the best answer to this question that I ever heard. His answer was, "I HAVE NEVER SEEN A GOOD DOG THAT WAS WRONG COLOR YET"
His name was Willis Butolph who lived in Wellington Utah. When I first met Willis he had in his pack, Plotts, Black & Tan, Blue Tick, Redbone. Hope that helps answer your question.

Willis was right there!
Eddog, I have some real cool film of old willis tying up lions and packing them out.
My wifes uncle gave me. You ever make it to utah shoot me a message.

Hot shot, our family has run black dogs forever and still do. Just like most others some turn out and others well??? Amazing what comes out of the same litter, some awesome and some duds.
I just look for the natural dog that catches on quick.

My suggestion is to not limit yourself to one color of dog. There's half a dozen very good breeds out there that all produce excellent dogs. Why stick to one color dog and remove 80% of your options. Look for the best dog that will do what you want and forget about color. You'll end up with better overall dogs.

Black Eye. Thanks for your comments about Willis. You are very fortunate to have film footage of Willis tying up lions & packing them out alive. I never took a lion alive by myself until I had witnessed Willis do this in person along with Fred Noyse (I think I spelled freds name correctly) . I eventually bought a dark Bay Gelding from Willis that was an outstanding Mtn. horse and would carry live lions with no trouble at all, he might be in your films.
I must say that I am somewhat dissapointed to not see more written about Willis. Here was a man who was born at the turn of the century, in, I believe he told me MO. and traveled with his parents to WY. in a covered wagon and there lived in a sod house, then moved to UT. at the end of WW II to hunt lions. I met Willis in 1963 and at that time I asked him if he had kept track of his lion kills and if he knew who had killed the most lions. "Docummented". He told me that at that time he was on record with the Gov. at 450 + and that the one that held the record for then was Wiley Carrol who was ahead of him by about 100. Both Willis and Wiley were good hunters and I feel to have been very honest as well. Eddog

Willis was the real deal and honest about hounds.( His famous saying : Son if you need more than 5 hounds on a bad bear you don't need more dogs you need different DOGS.) Willis was out on Elk Ridge , well over closer to Bear's Ears one time and was having a heck of a time putting bears up, and he got word that this guy named DeMar Hutchings was just catching the heck out of bears right there in that country. He said I am not sure what I am doing wrong but I guess if I get another dog I better go see Buddy!

Hat's off to Old Willis : the age he was when when he really got started and all the game he caught there is no doubt he was one of the greatest.

Hat's off to a couple of other Utah Gov. Men---George Nay, and Kenneth Kiggins top notch and tougher than a boot, both shared many a campfire with Willis>


Some say Arizona is the center of western big game hound hunting. If you study hard you will find it is hard to dispute that the Bee Hive State holds that honor.

Just spoke with the wifes uncle the other night. He is Ken Kiggens son-in-law.

He told me that old wills hands were like the pads on a bear. When you shook his hand it was quite the feeling. Like you said Mike these hand full of fellas were a very rare breed!

Its probably one of truest honors someone can receive being good n honest at their lives chosen work. I recently attended a funeral for a man who was a swim coach and instructor. He had been retired for twenty plus yrs yet hundreds of people spoke of him in reference to the positive attitude he went about his work. Just brings it all back to the heart once in awhile. On the topic some of the best hounds I've owned or seen have been purebred BnT's. They do tend to be very natural from the right strains and easy to put a good finish on. I just haven't ran into many recently.

FullCryHounds wrote:My suggestion is to not limit yourself to one color of dog. There's half a dozen very good breeds out there that all produce excellent dogs. Why stick to one color dog and remove 80% of your options. Look for the best dog that will do what you want and forget about color. You'll end up with better overall dogs.

I agree to the extent that if you are asking will this or that make a dog, you probably dont have the experience to specialize just yet.

On the other hand I know that for my purposes I like closely related dogs performing their best. There's a certain reliability that comes from becoming experienced, picking a star and starting to try to duplicate it.