BigGameHoundsmen.com

Just wondering if anyone knows much about Nighthawk B&Ts? It is dry hot and windy out here. Looking for a hound that can hunt bobcats out here. Must be cold nosed, smart, and fast. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Flatlander where in Texas are you located? I live in Cotulla. I don't have any dogs to sell but might could help you find some. I am going to be making a breeding in August although I'm probably not selling any pups. If She has alot I will but I have a good number of them spoken for already.

Levelland, close to Lubbock.

I am assuming you are talking about Nighthawk Kennels, owned by Alan White. He is keeping alive the old Nightrider blood line that was started in the 50's, I think, by Hans Wagner in Iowa. The hound I have pictured is mostly Nightrider on the sire's side, and I wouldn't trade her for anything, or any other hound. She started rigging coon on her own in the back of my pickup going to and from hunting spots.

Michael,

You are right about Nightrider Kennels and Alan White of Decorah, Iowa. He has been keeping the old wagner type hounds going for many years.

Hans Wagner and Col Joe Bloodworth of Signal Mountain, Tenn had a lot to do with the modern black and tan coon hound.

Note:Early in the twentieth century, Hans Wagner from Tennessee, decided that the heavy set, Black and Tan was too slow on the trail, Wagner found this unsatisfactory. He and several others sharing his views started breeding a lighter, faster, shorter-eared Black and Tan Coonhound. All of the desirable characteristics of the old Black and Tan were maintained, but a dog more suited to competition was produced. Today, both varieties of the Black and Tan can be found.

Hans Wagner started registering Black and Tans in the 'teens...1913-1918 something like that. He took the best he could find that met B&T breed standards and if they made his grade, he got them registered and built up a strong foundation of dogs that caught a lot of game, like the ones below from 1914. That is a younger Hans Wagner on the left. As you can see from the pic some of these dogs were high-tan and had a fair bit of white on their chests...and it blows my mind to this day that some B&T men look down on those traits when they have been with the breed from the beginning and were put in there often times by the real pioneers of the breed.



What set Mr. Wagner apart was that instead of just breeding to the best dog there close by him, he actively searched all over the place for the best Black and Tans to buy and/or breed from. For instance, take his most famous dog, Nightrider, he (Wagner) was still living in Iowa when he travelled to Tennessee to purchase Black Buck and Tennessee Jenny. Old Nightrider's sire and dam. They were coondogs of great reputation in the East Tennessee hills. He later went back and purchased a son of Jenny (Rube). These Tennessee dogs bred back to his stock he had collected from all over the midwest and bred up in Iowa that he'd had going since the teens became some of the hottest B&T stock going.The cross that produced Nightrider was made in 1932.



....and it was some years later (1941) that he had the opportunity to move down to the Chattanooga area to manage another store and bring his dogs with him. He stated he was excited by the chance to raise pups and hunt his dogs in a milder climate and loved the rail connections there around Chattanooga for shipping pups all over the country. Wagner lived down there at Signal Mtn Tennessee for a long time and raised a lot of top hounds like Wagner's Rebel Gunsmoke shown below.

What does everyone think about Alan White's line of hounds? I have seen some older posts on here but would like a fresh idea...

Good?

Bad?

Does anyone hunt them in the Southeast?