BigGameHoundsmen.com

How's Levine's doing Kevin

I ment levi

I'm sure there are alot of fellars that should be mentioned, guy i got some of my dogs from has a damn good dry nose line. I think its those guys that no one knows that probably have the best lines out there.

The guy i hunted with 15 years ago had some damn good dogs and i know nobody knows who he is. Thats why I asked!!!

Before the public lands ranchers in the south west came under fire from the environmentalists and our own government, as well as, the general public, there were darn good dogs all over the country. But if it were possible to trace all of those dogs back to their roots, I think that we would find the same thing we see today. There are and were a few good, proven lines that everyone else picked from. Just like today, there were people that would mix and match dogs from different lines, and that caused the gene pool to be somewhat broader than it is today. When there are more dogs to cross back and forth with, the pool isn't as shallow.

Not trying to hijack this topic, but I do have a related question. Is there a difference between dry ground and simply bare ground? If so, then we might narrow the search for "dry ground" dogs. Don't know, just wonderin.

Papa,
They are one in the same. I could be wrong, and I am a lot of the time, buy I believe that the term dry ground was used to mean the absence of snow. In which case, bare ground is the same. n this pollitiacally correct world that we live in, "bare ground" is probably more acceptable.

Benny,

I agree with the term bare ground being more accurate. I heard Warner Glenn make the same distinction one time and he said just because there is no snow the ground isn't always dry. I have seen tracking go from several stages of moist or dry in a single day and this can certainly change the dynamics of the chase.

I was talking to a good friend just a little bit ago and he was telling me about his dogs working hard on a day old lion track only to be taken off at dark and then put right back on the track in the same place at daylight the next morning. Well although an additional 12 hours or so of age was on that track he said the dogs left out on it much faster than they had been trailing the evening before. It was cooler I am sure, more dew maybe, and the dogs were fresher but none the less it was the same track. Now anytime you are trailing a 30 plus hour old track on the bare ground you are up against some stiff odds for a lion can do a lot of things and cover a lot of ground in that amount of time. That's why a lot of bare ground hunters carry a rabbit's foot in the pocket of their leggins. LOL!

I agree with that for sure. I trailed a lion once till about 3 and it got hot and we just couldn't keep it moving. Next day they hit in the exact spot they started it the day before and moved out like it was night old. I would say there is a difference between areas like the southern deserts and the more moist conditions elsewhere when it comes to dirt hunting. Also the type of dirt as well. We hunt areas that are mainly gravel type dirt and tracks don't seem to last as long.

Trailing conditions of any track made will change throughout the course of a day, it's just more noticeable in the dirt with a older track. A track often goes from movin steady in the morning to slow peckin along mid day and back to movin good late afternoon. Dogs that get over heated with their tounge hangin out during mid day cant smell as well so they tend to quit! (I still consider that a catchable track) so if there is water close by it sometimes pays to pull em off, go cool em down for an hour and re-start. Gotta be a little more patient in the persuit is all. JMO

Little Rounder
old Nance topper ,The Nance blood of today sure makes some nice biggame dogs, but even Jeff will tell you they are not near as tough a dog physically or mentaly as those old Joker bred dogs like old Ace, Hank and Cindy.
White River King, White River Boone, White River Rowdy. These dogs would be the foundation for the strain called NANCE or WHITE RIVER today .....

I would agree with Jeff I huntd with that old Joker dog alot when I was young, I also hunted with quite a few of his pup's and they were definately some nice hounds.

Josh make some more will ya? lol

I'd say the best is the dog that gets it done on any given day.