bluetick deer hunting

[teddyreynolds]

As a forester managing timberlands from texas to alabama ive had alot of opportunities to still hunt deer for the past 20-years; but six years ago my friend jim may introduced me to running blueticks on his 2,000 acre tree farm along little missiouri river in south arkansas, and now i have several blueticks of my own trained in unique manner.

The rest of my intro needs to be preceded by dizzy dean's statement, "if its a fact it aint bragging".

Zues my 3-year old bluetick buddy seldom if ever jumps trail; he produced the third largest typical deer in arkansas his first running year in 2009 (12-point; typical 168 B&K); in all my years of still hunting i never even glimpsed a deer that size. zues is both a gentle and fierce hunting buddy and jim may said it best, "zues never starts a fight but sure ends them".

12-point; 168 typical B&C

Zues' uniquness is in part he was raised with tame whitetail whom he loves as family which provides him unparralled focus on trail. zues also has extra heart, and when most dogs tire and start getting distracted by mid-afternoon from multiple runs, zues in passion and obedience continues until he passes out while running, likewise i stop his day when his gps cumulates around 20 miles.

Bluetick Zues

It doesnt stop here, zues is equally skilled at blood trailing as he is running deer, at 7-months age in summer 2009 zues graduated from blood trailing school several weeks early in cullins, louisiana because his trainer said he was already top notch and nothing more to teach...i guess best to end the bragging here for now.

[huntfish8]

Sounds like a preatty darn good dog. And that's a amazing buck.

[teddyreynolds]

In sw arkansas their are still quite a few folks that run their hounds on deer

[bearhunter611]

I've seen alot of dogs run speed beef before, just not on purpose. LOL. Ive always wanted to hunt deer with hounds, just think it would be different and fun.

[teddyreynolds]

Lol, its unique and fun in that your prey is never quarried and shooting on the run gets your adrenlin going, sometimes they top speeds over 40 miles per hour and you have 2-3 second window of opportunity. 3" auto 12 guage with double 00 buckshot works best with slight lead and empty the gun, pumps typically too slow. Good hounds will mostly run bucks.

[teddyreynolds]

...and we get onto our blueticks for treeing racoons, and as the hounds get older they tree racoons more, maybe by then they figured out they werent going to catch a deer, lol. With the older dogs we sometimes have to shoot the racoon out of the tree so they will get back on trail.

[teddyreynolds]

Here are a few updated pictures from this year deer season with Zues, Athena and two of their six month old pups Hercules and 3-Spot. Over two dozen deer were harvested in front of them this year.

[Gperkins14mms]

Never herd of such a thing!!! But lookslike a real good time!