BigGameHoundsmen.com

I would love to see discussions on fox hunting. We got every kind of hunting on this site but fox hunting, and I have never seen it anywhere else... not that I browse alot of forums. How many fox hunters are out there?? Here in CA, I bear hunt 'til season closes around Xmas, then run foxes 'til spring. It is a blast and keeps my hounds in shape til the Elk Creek field trials in March.

I run a few when the snow is only a few inches deep around here. It is a blast running them, their tight little circles keep the hunt pretty manageable. Can hunt in some small swamps and never need to hop in the truck/snowmobile. Also, I like the dog work needed to figure out their bazillion tracks on a cold track.

But once the snow gets deeper they generally hole up pretty quick on us so we switch to coyotes.

Also, a ton more coyotes than fox in our area, I would say we actually have more bobcats than fox too (which I run in the winter too). My grandpa, uncle, and dad used to run fox all winter but once the coyote numbers exploded the coyotes killed/pushed most of the fox out of our country.

So sort version of my ramble : Love running em, but get distracted pretty quickly by other critters.

Also, I think their pelts don't get enough credit, love having a prime tanned red and grey hanging on my wall.

I run some fox now and again, They can be quite challenging depending on where you hunt.

Hounder- I generally get foxes that beeline for the county line. very uncommon for one to circle for me. how big are the (tight) circles? Iam very curious to hear about your experiences. Sometimes with those foxes on dry ground I'd swear its a bobcat, but I'm new to the hound world.

Pritchard- how do you keep your hounds from runnin fox in bear season. that must get old quick

BWHunter4, I get that question all the time and the short answer is this. As long as you don't hunt your dogs on the ground loose, its easy. They won't pull off a stinky ol' bear to run a track no bigger than a nickle. The problem comes when bear season is over and the fox hunting starts. They get used to running down wind of the bear track, but a fox track they gotta strattle and stay close. So basicly bear hunting ruins good fox dogs, but on the other side of the coin, fox hunting hones their skills, so the bear hunting comes easy after that.

As for running tite circles... are you running red fox or grey fox?? The grey fox around here always run a tite circle. Some times they take off and run a mile, but then they set up and run tite circles again.

Hounder, I'm with you on the managable hunt. Sun morning we had one going and we built a fire in the road and listened to them bay for an hour. We never left the fire.