Fox dog

[Swamp Valley Kennels]

hi, i'm trying to get started in fox hunting. how many would think that an 8 year old treeing walker thats been on coon all of its life (even has a 1st place win in UKC back when it was 2) would make a fox dog? I'm in western wisconsin and have a crap ton of red fox and a limited amount of grays. but grays don't run as far or as long and tree up so i prefer to run grays but which should i run? 2 hours north of me where we bear hunt theres a red fox hole every 30 feet and its all public land, but we don't go up there much. help me out please lol thanks!

[BLOODY REDBONES]

give the old coondog to a youngers or a person who has less. then get you a redbone or biggame breed walker if you are going to gun hunt fox.the redbone or b/g walker will also run bobcat and you can trun them in on a bear as pack dogs. if you only want to hear the hounds run and push the fox as fast as they can go.then go to speeddogs.net and get a good one for $200 or a pup that you can start at one of the pens for $25.00 a week. fox dogs start fast so take it out of pen as soon as it starts and put the dog in the woods. i used redbone and b/g walkers like house,finley r,yadkin r and kill about 100 a year in maryland before all of the roads.

[lepcur]

That's how it was when I went there several years ago for the training season, I don't know how many reds we saw every a.m. or p.m. the little ones were all over the place playing. If you want a run go for the reds but you better have the dogs in good shape because they won't stop unless the dogs hole it and I would suggest getting some running dogs and even for the greys you would be better off with the running dogs or at least with some of that blood in them.

[Swamp Valley Kennels]

which breed of runnin dog do you suggest is the best? the only running breeds i know are running walkers, julys and triggs. what should i do if the red runs in the hole? do you suggest i buy like a jagd terrier to go in after it or just try shootin the fox on the run and if it gets in a hole before i get an opportunity should i just pull the dogs off? thanks

[david]

hi, i'm trying to get started in fox hunting. how many would think that an 8 year old treeing walker thats been on coon all of its life

Swamp, twenty or thirty years ago I used to read of the "Northern" style of fox hunting. I have never even known anyone that did it. But the idea was to have a single very slow hound. The dog would give voice and go just enough to make the fox get up and move around. The fox would really feel little if any fear but would just be a little annoyed that this dumb dog keeps moving into the foxes resting space for some reason. The men hunted for fur, and used a high powered rifle in farming areas where a fox could be spotted moving along terraces or fence lines, etc.

The old coon dog might work for a strategy like that, if you could even get the thing to take what he has been broke off all his life. I actually think a beagle would be perfect for this style of fox hunting. Otherwise, forget about using a coon dog for fox. Use a fox hound. Compared to coon dogs or bobcat dogs, you can get a pup or a started fox/coyote dog for very cheap. Even registered ones with papers going back a couple hundred years. there has got to be some cool fox hound site out there full of guys ready to get you tuned up and set up with a fox hound. Or figure out where the closest coyote running pen is near you, and go hang out there a little.

[Mo hunter]

No experience personally but there is a great book from High Lonesome books called "Hounds in the Hills" by Edward Briggs which covers a lot of fox hunting with hounds and is one of the few things i've read where they are actually harvesting the fox. Basically the Northern style of fox hunting David referred to. Hope this helps.

Here's a link.

http://www.high-lonesomebooks.com/cgi-b ... 22884.html

[BLOODY REDBONES]

swamp valley beagles are good but they have trouble in getting through the county to find the fox and can't run in snow or deep water/mud swamps and can not be turn in on bear as you also hunt. running walker,july hound(which are running walkers born mostly in june/july/august and some are b&t) and triggs push the fox to fast to gun hunt. you will kill some but the fox will be flying.also any trail fox hunter will tell you by the age of 3yrs if ran hard that they are breaking down. this is why most of the southern boys get them gone by 3 and some by 2 yrs.so if you stay with redbones or the b/g walkers i told you.you will have dogs that can do it all anywere on fox and add other game. also the hounds will last a good 8 years guning. p.s fox dogs running walker,july,triggs get very hard to catch.thats why people run in a pen.

[Alabama Cathunter]

Swamp, I live and have only hunted in south Alabama and North Fla. but down here a treeing dog cant push a fox hard enough to put him up a tree in most cases! you never ever say never, I have learned that. I hsve been fox hunting since 1978 fox dogs in a pen will burn out in about 3 years but hunting in the wild they will last till 7 or 8 or some maybe a little longer. I also hunt cats with those same dogs and most cats dont tree down here they had rather run till they cant run anymore then they want to fight but I here of people treeing them as well as fox up north. I would strongly suggest you find a hunter that is in your neck of the woods and do what they do. After all remember when in Roam do what the romans do! good hunting Robert

[lepcur]

Most the serious grey fox hunters in the west use tree hound and trigg crosses, 1/3 trigg and the dogs usually start to tree @ 1 1/2-2 years old and they'll work well on bear also. I tree afew fox out here with these leopards I hunt but don't get too serious about fox, I mainly hunt bear and when the bear season ends I mess with the fox and cat. Mike

[bearhunter611]

I know a guy here in MI thats treed a lot of grey fox, and he uses treeing walkers. I feel that if you have a dog that can push a cat up a tree it'll send a grey fox up too. I've only treed one grey out of the few that ive run, and typically the reds I run hole up because theyre getting pushed to hard. If you find a tree dog that pushes a track slow run em both, but if your dog pushes the track fast run greys. otherwise you'll probably just end up in a den some where.