BigGameHoundsmen.com

Hello Everyone - !

This is just a quick introduction. What I lack in hunting experience, I make up for in interest! I bought a bluetick pup back in August - my first hunting dog and my first dog ever. I am training her to be an in-house dog. At 4.5 months old, she's fully house trained, know 'sit', 'down', 'stay' (kind of) and 'come' (a lot of the time). I have her off-leash in the 'woods' 1-2 hours, most days of the week. She's constantly following trails, but never fully takes off on me and comes back to check-in after a minute or two. She's lead me to a handful of deer, but has never treed anything in 'the wild'. Other than basic obedience, I have not started any training with her (e.g. scents, treeing, etc...). Any advice about how to begin would be much appreciated. I am also in the market for a Garmin Astro 220 + DC30 collar - I posted a topic on this in the 'Equipment and Products' forum. If you live in Canada, any information on how to buy one would also be very much appreciated.

Thanks for reading,

Get her on some drags and caged/released game. Game makes good.
Sean

Going to start her on raccoon. What's your preferred brand of coon scent?

Live! A drag bag. grawes is pretty good. I make my own. Coon fat and feet pads mixed with urine and dung ground into a paste. Take fresh coon skin get it wet and let it soak overnight. Wring out juice and add to paste. Works as trap lure too.
Sean

Sounds lovely. Have you ever tried straight urine? Know anywhere to get tanned hides?

Straight urine is not what you want. You can dry them and mail them to a fur handling company. Do a google search for it. They will give you a quote to buy them or tan them for you at a price. Or, sell them to your local fur buyer if you have one.
Sean

Pictures of my pup. Little over 7 months old. 46 lbs and counting...

Welcome to the site bullj. What part of Ontario are you from? I'm just south of Ottawa.

I go to school in Guelph. Very green in regards to raccoon hunting, but I'm hoping to get my pup out in the woods this spring.

Any coon hunters out there in south western Ontario willing to show a newbie and her pup the ropes?