Inconspicuous hunting rig ideas?

[Msbobcat]

Guys
If I posted this in the wrong area my apologies.
somewhere on here there was a few words wrote about hunting vehicles that didn't attract attention.im kinda in that position where I don't need the dogbox telling everyone I have hounds.
Anyone else in that situation? Kinda thinking about a below pickup rail top for a truck or an all wheel drive suburu wagon or something similar?
Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated

[barksalot]

I have done it for years. Several years ago I had a Subaru station wagon with a two speed 4WD. It would go anywhere that you could lead a billy goat. LOL I now have a Jeep Cherokee 4WD. An 'Easy Loader' plastic dog box fits perfectly in the back. The more ragged it looks the better. When you park beside the road, people think that it is just an abandoned break down. BTW I have a truck with dog box and rigging rack that I use most of the time. But the Jeep is nice when you want to go unnoticed.

[david]

A topper on a pickup helps a lot, and is what I use, but as I mentioned else where it is too hot for hot weather.

I have known of guys that cut the top out of a topper in the middle, and used the top of the box inside for the dogs to stand on for rigging.

Back in the eighties I knew a government hunter who did not want people knowing what he was doing. He only used three hounds. He made a behind-the-cab toolbox looking thing that held his three dogs. He had no vents showing, it was vented on the side and in the back. The only door showing was the lid.
There is no way you could know he was hauling dogs unless you knew him. And even then you could only guess because the box was always in his truck.

[Dan McDonough]

Delivery van is one. Also, Toyota made a station wagon that is a 4x4. Those are tough to find but not that tough and they get pretty good gas mileage.

The age old practice of parking a half mile or more away from your turn out spot always works well for me but I like to run with the dogs when I can.

[pegleg]

Horse trailer. Or any suv with a divider or two in the cab. Just pray you don't have any trashy pups it can get ripe after a few skunks. I don't hunt much from a vehicle but here a white truck with a white box works good unless they get close. I have been mistaken for border patrol or Leo often. I do use a suv to transport dogs and it has advantages. Heating or cooling. Direct contact etc. And it isn't hard to find one cheap to build a box in and bed line the interior for less then a dog box.

[cajunl]

Old tool box cut with dog boxes underneath. You can never tell dogs are in there with the tailgate up.

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[scrubrunner]

Hmmm, stranger in woods, hidden dog hauling compartments, better hope a local hunters dog don't come up missing. You will not outlive the suspicion of being a dog thief.
I know when I see somebody in the woods trying to hide dogs in their vehicle I/we keep a close eye on them and spread the word what we saw so other hunters keep a close eye on em too.
Might cause you more attention than an over the rail dog box.

[Mike Leonard]

I have never worried too much about it but I am pretty much like Pegleg if I don't ride a horse straight out from the place I haul in a trailer.

Years ago I knew an old trapper/hunter who use to drive around in a big old Oldsmobile sedan. He couldn't off road big time but where he hunted he didn't have to much and when he did he had an old International Scout. He use to have 3 dogs with him all the time, one that laid up front with him, a cur dog, and 2 hounds in the back seat. I saw him come back home many a day or night and pop the trunk on that old Olds. and be just loaded with fur. Coon and bobcat, and most of the time people just thought it was some old guy on a Sunday drive. LOL!

[david]

[Msbobcat]

David,you hit the nail on the head.

[rockytrails]

David right again. That old Olds sure would be comfy.

[david]

Another method I have seen was something that just looked like those box covers some people have covering their pickup bed. The thing I don't like about that is that the dogs can't stand up all the way. I know they lay down a lot anyway, and I have seen smaller dog boxes where dogs can not stand up, but it probably would not be good in hot weather.

My first hunting rig was a station wagon. I built a box to fit the back and loaded dogs at the tail gate. It worked well, but I suppose the dogs were visible through the window from behind.

[barksalot]

I go to the woods with my dogs to get away from the crazy that this world seems to be turning into. The less attention I attract the better. My world is about half way between the world described by Scrubrunner and the one described by David.
Another [sort of selfish] reason for stealth is that hunting for me is more about dog performance than taking game, therefore I would like to keep keep my hunting territory private from the game hogs.

[scrubrunner]

I know where y'all are coming from, David I hunt the Nat forest a lot, its a hundred miles east of the area of the state that I think you are most familiar with. You can run into all types in the Nat forest. The dog hunting culture is not as prevalent in this area anymore, we have a large influx of northern city people. I have been ridiculed a couple of times for having dogs in the back of my truck in a dog box. One woman told me, she'd like to stick me in there.
P.S. I just got home from the woods. Put 4 dogs in front of the truck at 10:00 pm they left the road running a fox at 10:20, sent 3 12 month old pups to them, put fox in a hole at 2:30. Was a fine race, pups had trouble keeping up tonight though, have done better the last few weeks. It was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face tonight though, maybe that's why.
As good of an excuse as any I guess.
Sorry for getting off subject. I'm as bad as my preacher, I told him onetime if I had a hound get off on as many side trails as he does I'd shoot it.

[macedonia mule man]

Msbobcat, Im from louisiana but go into ms every week. I think mine and your hunting area overlap. Almost everyone up there has some type hunting dogs or stock dogs. Heavy hog, fox, coyote, rabbit and deer dog territory. Over in south east ms they have outside field trials in the Forrest without any trouble that I know of. I've never known anybody to have go incognito to haul dogs. My dog box stays on my truck 24-7. If I stop to do some shopping it never fails somebody wants to talk dogs. When they find out what I'm hunting I always get advice on who I need to be hunting with. I never tell them iv already hunted with that person and he didn't catch anything either. Draw a line from Natchez straight across to the ala. Line and there are probably as many hunting dogs as you will find in the USA. They have to be hauling them and I've never heard of a problem.