yesterday's Fox chase

[perk]

I decided to post a story for all to read instead of just PMing it back and forth with Dads Dog Boy this time. Yesterday morning I got up around 4:45 to go hunting. I wasnt meeting my buddies to go hunting until quarter to 6 and we were hunting 4-5 m,iles from my home but it always takes a while to get all of the collars on between shocking and tracking collars. I was taking 14 myself although a couple are puppies yet running, Loading them is normally pretty easy as I let them out the pen one by one and no matter where my truck is they go jump on the tailgate and wait for me to come collar them, but I had 2 of my better gyps in heat and I had to fight them everytime I went to ease a different dog out the pen, apparently they dont understand me when I tell them they are in heat and cannot possibly go this time, and my truck was next to the pen where the gyps were in heat so all the males ran to the pen with the gyps instaed of getting on the truck. I love gyps at least 46 weeks a year, but hate them the other 6. Anyways I meet one of my buddies where we were hunting, I told him I would ease a few off into this cutover and if they hadnt jumped in the first 15 minutes for him to go up the road to another little spot no more than a quarter mile away. My dogs struck right off the truck and went to trailing. I wasnt the happiest because they were right in between 2 houses, i wanted them to go a little deeper to strike, as they trailed towards the one yard, i was wishing i went to the other cutover first as I didnt want to make anyone angry by having a chase in their yard at 5:45, luckily they knocked off and drifted on into the big cutover before it became a full blown chase. I know of 2 litters of young forxes that raised there so i assume thats what they were fooling with, they have gotten big enough now to run you 5 or 15 minutes before going in a hole. Then there was mostly silence for the next 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile my 3rd buddy had arrived with some of his hounds, he put on his shocking collars and pulled up the road a little farther. The dogs got to hitting pretty good where I was as well as up the road where he and my other buddy turned loose. Some of theirs faded back to mine trialing and it wasnt long before I heard some of theirs in there with mine trailing. i heard one of the dogs jump and start running alone in the cut over, it was going to be my buddies half walker/half july Buckskin, my dad who was down the path started hollering to get the dogs to pull to Buckskin, well that didnt happen because about that time I heard about 4 dogs fire up, it was gonna be my 3 Allen, Kitty, Weeds, and my buddies old Dan, and when Dan hollers out the dogs better be getting to him. With in 30 seconds all that was on the ground in the cutover was piling into this chase. I turned the 2 dogs I held on my truck loose, I hold them because they are young and very untrustworthy, and with 2 deer behind every tree and 3 deer behind every bush, ya gotta hold the young ones that cause trouble. So I turned loose my 2 young half triggs Cecil and Skeena. Cecil went to the chase and in no time you could hear his big boomning chop going to work. Skeena didnt join in, in fact all she ever ran or hit on has been a few deer and a bear, and she is gotta find a new home because she will frial a deer and not even go to a fox chase 5 feet away from her, I'll let a local deer hunter have her and see if she suits him, she does have a great mouth when she runs though, i hate to let her go. My buddies came up the road to where we were and sent the young dogs they had held to the chase and they were there in no time. The dogs were piled up on the fox big time, and he left the thicket I was in and crossed a big creek, They headed into an area I call the stump field, which is a little taller than the cutover they left but is still extremely thick. I could hear them running great, I started to them when they made another move, they crossed an old CC road and headed up a thick creek to where an old fox pen is, It has been closed for 6 years and the fence is torn down. They settled in some thick stuff around the cabin. I was still on the hunting road I was on originally although it would have been a 20 minute walk to where they were running now they sounded like they were right in my pocket, My dad and one buddy had went into the old fox pen, and my brother was somewhere in the woods between that CC road and the fox pen. He was way closer than me but he could barely hear them they way the land lies, and I could have shut my eyes and imagined they were right on top of me, man the sound was carrying great, I could hear a few dogs really putting on show at times, Cecil wasnt shutting his mouth, My buddies dog Onyx was squalling and his voice was carrying exceptionally well, My other buddies female Dole was doing great as always. It was a steady roar, and you had to really know your dogs mouths to pick them out, much less do it at this distance. There were dogs with clear chop mouths, tennor choppes, hooting mouths, dogs who seemed to cluck, and a few who always roar out like a lion, many was it a thing of beauty. Multiple times I started to go back to my truck and pull to the fox pen, as much as I love to hear them, I love to be in the action where I can see them as well but My dad radio'd and said they were coming back to the CC road, and my brother soon told me they were between him and the CC road, being kinda lost now he had nothing to do but follow in the direction of the dogs. They were coming back towards the thicket I was in and I could hear my Red Dog driving him, his name is Bones but I rarely call him anything bud Red Dog, he only opens when he is on the front end, and he knows how to cut to get to the front if he cant do it honestly, but he was doing it honest today. He is more of a red fox dog, he likes to run heads up and I mean he raws he head back and nose up when he is on a hot track. But he isnt a terrible grey fox dog either, just no where near my best at sticking with a track in the thickest stuff. He was coming along with the rest of the pack with his big chop mouth, he opens everytime his foot hit the ground, i couldnt see them but they sounded packed up tight enough you coulda put a single blanket over all of their backs. They knock off abrubtly before they got back to where i was and soon the dogs went to baying at the hole. My brother made it first, asked him was the hole on the hillside just above the creek, he was couldnt believe i knew exactly where the hole was, I told him later I had seen the hole numerous times and thought that they had raised a litter in there the last summer, and just figured thats where he went in. I got to the hole second and my dad and buddies drove around and came in a gate on the other side of the CC road that drove within 100 yards of the hole. Most of the hounds were there, 8-10 were treeing and digging and the others just milling around standing and looking. When everyone got there we led the ones who were preoccupied with the hole out and the others followed, most of them normally hand exceptionally well, keywords are most and normally in that sentance though. today we didnt have any problem getting them out though. The clock said they ran about and hour and twenty minutes give or take, and we had exactly 0 misses the entire race, start to finish. Seemed like a great way to Rejoice and enjoy Gods beauty and music on a sunday morning.

[Big N' Blue]

Great story, Thanks for sharing!

[Dads dogboy]

Perk,

Amen, and thanks for sharing with all of us!

Gods Cathedral and a Hound Choir are awfully hard to beat. Generally the front row is not occupied with Hypocrites either!

Thanks Again, A Great Story told extremely well, I could hear old Bones driving him right to me!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy

[beaglewalkerhunter4]

Perk, what a tale, I sure do like hearing about a good fox run. sounds like them dogs got their excersize ey?

[Matt A]

Perk, Where in Va are you located? I live in Va. and cat and fox hunt also