Ever try it? What did you think? Was it as good as with standing?

We can't do it in TN, but I have recollections of it from my AR deer hunting youth.

It was an interesting sport when done that way, and you felt like you were doing something out of long ago.

I grew up hunting this way in Eastern VA and I have mixed feelings about it.

It is efficient in terms of moving game and getting shots in thick cover (we have lots of old grown up cutovers) and moving nocturnal animals around in daylight.

It is exciting and actually sort of pretty to hear the dogs chasing after a deer. After observing numerous deer being chase by dogs, I really don't think it bothers the deer that much. They sometimes get way ahead and then lope along or jump in water to get away.

The down side to me is that it brings out rather boorish behavior in some hunters. That is they hunt from the road, drive around on the road like madmen trying to beat each other out to cut off the deer for a shot. Some drive jacked up 4 wheel drive trucks and make deep ruts on the land they hunt or when they are chasing dogs.

This often intimidates locals in the area and polarizes them against hunting. This crowd often drives on other peoples land to retrieve their dogs while armed and annoys landowners.

Dogs running through others property in itself can also be a bother as well.

Don't get me wrong, not all clubs who hunt in this manner have members that act this way. Some are very careful about catching their dogs before they leave the property they are allowed to hunt on...usually leased from a farmer or timber company.

Also, dogs aren't people so if they get away they may not return for a couple of days or they can be hit by a car.

If a dog won't chase deer they sometimes get let out on the side of the road somewhere to fend for themselves.

So I've seen the best and worst of it so to speak. Ultimately with shrinking properties available to hunt and the behavior of some in this crowd I believe it will become illegal to hunt with dogs.

I've benefitted from hunting with dogs even though I wasn't part of the action.

While living in Mississippi I became a member of a hunting club out west of Starkville. One part of the hunting area was designated as a dog area.

On opening morning of the dog season, I took a stand on that part of the property overlooking a small green field in an older stand of pines.

I knew they had let out the dogs as I could hear them, plus one of the dogs came running thru the green field. Directly, I could tell the dogs were on the trail of a deer and it sounded as though it may be headed in my direction, so I got ready.

A few minutes passed and a doe stepped into the field, stopping to smell where the dog had passed previously. I took the shot and she expired a short distance later. A minute, or so later, the pack of dogs appeared barking until they arched the downed deer. Once there, they quit barking. The handler appear a few minutes later and that was the end of that hunt.

This experience is the wealth of my knowledge regarding hunting deer with dogs.

I've had a number of hunts completely ruined by dog hunters here in VA. The problem with it is that dogs can't read and don't know when they cross property lines. And the hunters that use the dogs seem to turn them loose in areas where they know the dogs are going to run where they aren't wanted. Here's the latest example:

Last year I was hunting on a limited quota permit on the Cavalier Wildlife Management Area in Southeast VA. This area butts up against the NC state line. I had walked in about 1 1/2 miles from the access road before daylight and was set up along an old logging road that ran into NC. You can't drive in the VA part of this road but you can in NC. There is a gate that seperates the 2 states.

About a half hr after daybreak I watched a couple of trucks drive up from the NC side to the gate and turn about a dozen or so dogs loose and then watched the as the hunters encouraged the dogs to cross into VA. I was only about 100 yards from them and was wearing blaze orange so they knew I was there. Dogs are not allowed in the Wildlife Management Area at any time. I personally watched as the dogs went on the hunt and I heard a several deer take off through the heavy brush. I didn't see the deer and even if I did, I couldn't legally shoot them if the dogs were running them and on a personal ethic level I wouldn't shoot one under those conditions anyways. So basically my hunt was over.

I confrontd the "hunters" from NC, since their truck was still parked at the gate. All they did was shrug their shoulders and say "We can't help it where the dogs run". I later talked to the Game Warden and he said that as long as the dogs were released in NC, he couldn't do anything since they were NC dogs and dog hunting was legal there. All he could do was try to capture one of the dogs and fine the owner if they tried to recover it. He also told me had personally captured 3 dogs from the NC hunters and they never came to get the dogs. They just abandoned them to the Game Warden rather that have to pay the fines.

I've never shot a deer being run by dogs and I never will. If someone wants to use dogs on privaye property, that is their business but they don't belong on public ground where they can interupt someone's hunt. Feel free to disagree if you want, but that is my viewpoint.

My recollections on it were mostly positive and it was my first real deer hunting. It was a club in AR down on the big river. The place was like the wild west. Maybe, I don't know, 5000 acres at least. Woods so big you needed a compass to not get turned around. I think I recall indian mounds back in there. And bear in there too, though not generally known at the time. It was just an impressive place, and we didn't have those worries about property lines, adjoining landowners or bothering other hunters.

I guess it compares some to pheasant hunting, with "walkers" and "blockers". You had stands scattered all thru those woods and the walkers with the dogs would drive the deer in hopes one would come within range.

Anyway, I could go on too long with this, but what it amounted to is, I never saw a deer or got a shot. I think it just took too much luck in something that size. Too many diections for the deer to go. Even back across the levee or swim off across one of the bayous or hide out in a no-man's land of a swamp.

Now let's see. That was about '70. Last time I was there all those woods were gone...

I'm assuming you are talking hunting with hounds?
We hunted deer with hounds and also "jump" dogs like fox terriers and other mutts.
With the hounds we were usually hunting big country with heavy cover in the coastal canyons and woods of California. As a kid it was pretty boring sitting on a stand (usually a high knoll on a ridge) waiting for the dogs to jump but when they got on a track some of my fondest memories are watching for the deer to break cover and hearing 5 or 6 blueticks and redbones in full song.
That kind of ended when the city folk started buying up ranchettes and didn't like dogs chasing deer through their property.

I have gone on two hunts with dogs in Alabama and did not enjoy either of them. It probably had more to do with the people I was hunting with than it did with the acutal pursuit of the deer with dogs. Far cry from what Archibald Rutledge wrote about.

I can see that hunting deer with hounds would be just as fun as hunting bear yotes cats is.

Thats a blast.

Up here if a hound doesn't run or runs what is not to suppose to. They are shot they are never just let go.

Just an observation. Hunting deer with dogs is one of those methods that a person pretty well has to grow up doing. At least that is what I gathered from the folks that I have talked with that hunt that way.

I have never tried it, and seriously doubt that I would want too. I have only been coon hunting one time in my life, and got no kick out of setting around a fire listening to dogs barking. Lots of folks love it I am just not one of them.

My normal idea of using dogs when hunting anything is pointing/flushing dogs for upland game birds and retrievers for waterfowl, and it is good to have a dog handy that can blood trail deer and hogs.

As screwed up as CA is, the one thing they haven't taken away is deer hunting with dogs, yet!

Yep, grew up doing it. Mostly using jump dogs like cattle dogs, terriers and such. Lots of thick cover here. We usually do 3-4 man hunts with two shooters waiting in spots with the wind in their faces. The deer smell and hear the dogs coming and usually get out pretty far ahead.

The other two problems: hard to judge trophy quality on running deer and most folks aren't used to shooting(and leading)running deer.

When I began deer hunting at age 12 it was in Arkansas from my grandfather's farm. We hunted with beagles as did all the locals. My grandfather's farm was the gathering place where all of the men met to plan the days hunt. I never killed a deer being run by dogs. My kills came from deer that circled back after the dogs ran threw. However, I saw many that had been killed in front of dogs over the 9 years I hunted there. I even raised a beagle that turned out to be one of the best deer dogs we used. I can well remember the pride I had in that pup during his first year when he was leading the pack that ran big bucks killed by 2 of my cousins and 1 of my uncles. The beagles would merely keep the deer moving much like the deer drives I have participated in on hunts in Indiana, Iowa, and Kansas.

Now that area is no longer a dog hunting zone and all the old farm places from my youth have been purchased by people from the other states. I used to wander in any given direction for as far as I wished and would never see a posted sign. Any of the locals I would meet would ask me which one of the Newman boys I belonged to and offer to give me a ride back to my grandfather's place at the end of the day. Now every 20, 40 or 80 acre farm is posted and most of the men from my youth are gone.

In the fall running deer with dogs was a part of the social fabric of the South. I have very fond memories of those years. The soft light of the single bare light bulbs in my grandfather's 100 year old house that did not get electricity until 1958. The sounds of the screen door screeching and banging as men entered the house before daylight. The drawled greetings and muffled voices of hunters and the yelps and whines of dogs gathered there. The smell of wood smoke from the King heater in the living room and the Prince Albert hand rolled cigarettes my grandfather and most of the old timers smoked. The aroma of coffee brewing, eggs and bacon frying and biscuits baking. The sun coming up across my grandfather's east pasture. The rooster crowing. The nip of the crisp Ozark mornings. The cold of a old rock wall against the seat of my Levis as I took the first stand of the day. How slick my brown jersey gloves felt holding the stock of my rifle and how cold my toes were in the shearling lined rubber boots on my feet. The feeling I had as a child being included in the activity of men I worshipped.

Now in the 50th year of my life I miss the old days and the old ways. My deer hunts are no longer steeped in tradition nor begun with a social gathering of so many friends.

Perry

I do not like the idea. I have had them ruin hunts on public land for me.

More so than the above I have an ethical problem with it. I like to kill an animal quickly, cleanly, without pain, or fear when possible. This sentiment comes from training, courtesy of the tax payer, where I have been pursued by dogs. The sound of dogs on your trail immediately causes you to fight the urge to try to outdistance them and think through what you need to do. Facing an attack dog also takes some nerve.

So, in short, I find it to be a pursuit you cannot really control (so rude to others) and one that induces fear and panic in your prey (unethical).

Just my 2 cents.

The only problem I see about hunting with dogs and it's a huge one, is encroaching on other's property by the dogs and/or hunters. Today up here in Michigan you're lucky to find enough property in one contiguous piece in the southern third of the state to even run a rabbit with beagles any more. Coyotes is almost out of the question if you're an ethical person and don't want to trepsass on private property. It has never been legal to run deer with dogs anywhere up here. If a club or person doesn't have an absolutely huge piece of property to run deer with dogs so they never leave that property, I can see where down the line it will be outlawed.

I've never hunted deer with dogs but I don't have a problem with it. From the anti post in here, it apparent that most of the ops don't know what they're talking about. The idea is to MOVE the deer, not DRIVE the deer. When I lived in Memphis, down in Mississippi, the favored deer hound was a walker/beagle cross. While up on tree stands, I've seen deer drift along a couple of hundred yards in front of the dogs, stopping to browse. Kinda like they do when hunters "sneak" through the woods.
'Course with some of the "hunters", it's always something. If not coyotes, then 4 wheeler, or dogs, or clumsy hunters, or whatever. It still surprises me how some "hunters" can go on PUBLIC land and expect to treat it like their own private place.

Perry, the picture you paint is as good as if not better than any hunting tale I've read in a long time. You tell a good story.

I've got some memories like that too. Mine go back that far and farther. I'm twenty years older.

I just remember it as a pleasant experience and an interesting form of hunting in a primitive, traditional sort of way. The only real down side I saw was, I think it was a bit inefficient. I get a lot more deer the usual way by letting them come to me instead of someone else move them and hope they come my way (and btw beeman was right, it's "move" rather than "drive").

An analogy we do use sometimes is where one hunter waits on one end of the woods while the other walks thru from the opposite end. We call it a "drive", but that's not really what it is. We only do this when we're desperate for getting a deer. I can't recall a single time where it ever worked.

It's on the same principle as we visit the farm and I walk the trail alongside the woods for no special reason and someone standing off aways says, "look at the deer, there they go". Of course, if anything disturbs them, they move.

With wild dogs, you get the same effect. I once had a deer almost collide with me when it charged out of the woods with a pack of wild dogs after it. And I've had dogs chase deer right thru our camp at night when we were sleeping.

I have done it when living in Alabama and had a friend who owned a large plantation and lots of trained dogs.
It seemed the only way to hunt some of the really swampy areas. Not something I would want to do on a regular basis, but something interesting to try out.
I'm not really a dog guy. I would not be interested in hunting bears or leopards that way either.

Who hunts leopards with dogs? Do you by chance mean cougars?

I don't have any problem with running deer with dogs, but its illegal in Pennsylvania. I have a real problem with people (especially hunters) calling running game with hounds "unethical." A huge problem. Getting chased by a dog doesn't cause a deer anything more than a mild annoyance. Most of the time they barely break into a run.

Deer are very spooky animals. They stay alive that way. They spook all day and night at anything and are always on the lookout and constantly moving from most anything, even stuff they just suspect might be a threat.

I once was sitting in a stand and had two does right under me. They had no idea. I could have jumped down on them. But, they were intent on following truck sounds on the blacktop about a mile away and when the truck slowed to make the turn unto the gravel road towards us but still many hundreds of yards away and way out of sight, guess what? They reacted and retreated back into the woods behind me from whence they had come. It doesn't take much, is the lesson.

I also notice that I never see deer and coyotes on the same morning. The deer are unto them.

Running or walking away from dogs or other threats are just like breathing if you're a deer. Hunters with dogs is just a typical day in the woods for them.

quote:

Originally posted by Topgun 30-06:
Who hunts leopards with dogs? Do you by chance mean cougars?

Well, actually, quite a few folks on this forum do. Until just recently, it was the preferred method of pursuing leopard in Namibia but has been outlawed in the past few years. In Zimbabwe, leopard hunting with dogs is still legal on comunal and private land, but not Parks Concessions. The hunt starts similar to most other leopard hunts by baiting, but instead of building a blind once a big male hits, the dogs are brought in and off they go.

quote:

Originally posted by Topgun 30-06:
Who hunts leopards with dogs? Do you by chance mean cougars?

No, meant leopards. Have seen several videos and seen a couple hunts advertised here a couple years ago. I think its pretty much stopped at this point.

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by Topgun 30-06:
Who hunts leopards with dogs? Do you by chance mean cougars?

No, meant leopards. Have seen several videos and seen a couple hunts advertised here a couple years ago. I think its pretty much stopped at this point.

Still legal on comunal and private land in Zim.

In addition to the other drawbacks mentioned when hunting dogs, most of the shots at deer that are produced are running shots. We all know what a high percentage of one shot kills running shots yield.
We used to have a club in MS that was huge. Another club, several miles over ran dogs. They regularly dropped their dogs off on a road just on the other side of our land. The dogs would run deer from three other clubs before getting to their own turf. This seriously pissed a lot of people off, and I can attest that these guys had no love or shortage of supply of dogs...
As has been stated, there are certainly ways to do it right, but in my experience, it is usually done by people hell bent on doing it "wrong".

I have never "Hunted" with dogs.

It is not ever been in my Texas Deer hunting culture.

As I have never done it, I am not going to comment on it.

I have however, just this last deer season Hunted WITH my Dog. [Rusty the WONDER DOG ]

He was excellent at finding deer I shot, and pigs I shot that ran into thick brush, or that were shot at last light...

quote:

Originally posted by daniel77:
In addition to the other drawbacks mentioned when hunting dogs, most of the shots at deer that are produced are running shots. We all know what a high percentage of one shot kills running shots yield.
We used to have a club in MS that was huge. Another club, several miles over ran dogs. They regularly dropped their dogs off on a road just on the other side of our land. The dogs would run deer from three other clubs before getting to their own turf. This seriously pissed a lot of people off, and I can attest that these guys had no love or shortage of supply of dogs...
As has been stated, there are certainly ways to do it right, but in my experience, it is usually done by people hell bent on doing it "wrong".

When dog hunting in Alabama, put my rifle in the truck and pulled out my 10 gauge shotgun. Loaded it with #4 buckshot and headshot the deer like running rabbits. As long as they were within 40 yards-- could pretty well kill them. Did not shot past 40 yards.

I grew up deer hunting with beagles in Northwestern Louisiana. Back then there was alot of timber company land that anyone could hunt on. We would get one hunt in and then spend the rest of the day trying to recover the dogs-no tracking collars then.

I have also hunted deer with Pit Bulls. They would only run deer by sight and then only for a couple of hundred yards and stop. We never had a problem getting the dogs and could make multiple hunts in a day.

Somehow, wing shooting whitetails has never appealed to me. I know people do it and enjoy it and I have no problem with their choice, it is just not something I want to do, just like shooting deer from a box blind overlooking a timed feeder is not something everyone wants to do.

quote:

Somehow, wing shooting whitetails has never appealed to me.

Where I did this in Arkansas the woods were like the jungle, the shots real close and a shotgun would be ideal. Buckeye's 10 ga would be perfect. Back then, the Ithaca Mag 10. If I made a practice of this, that's what I would use for a place like that. You only have a few seconds to get off the shot, and you'd better be careful about target ID, with dogs and hunters somewhere around.

But, I never heard of an accident. I just really don't think too many deer were killed that way compared to standing or even stalking (stalking I rate as far less efficient than standing but more effective than with dogs). Btw, you do generally use a tree stand when hunting with dogs, unless you're with the dogs.

Anyhow, like I was saying, it all doesn't matter. Because it's all gone now. The glory of beautiful virgin hardwoods hundreds of years old means zip to those who only care about the almighty dollar. The world's oldest sport, hunting, means even less.

To get off my own topic here a little, when I hunted there in the '70s I remember this small pond in those woods, called Brushy Lake. You found it by following a dirt farm road thru a field and when you spotted out in the field all alone an enormous dead oak, this then marked the spot where you started walking several hundred yards into the nearby woods to find the lake. One day I was sitting there by the lake with a muzzleloader across my lap waiting for a deer, when I hear this noise like a 747 landing. I look around and it's a big flock of canvasbacks. They landed in the lake a few yards from me, spent some time, then moved on out. And it's one kind of duck I've never killed.

The last time I was there, I couldn't find the woods or the lake, and thought I'd taken a wrong turn or maybe even was on the wrong farm. And then I saw it. A big old dead oak out by itself in the middle of some endless bean field with no woods or lake in sight as far as you could see in all directions. Then I knew where I was...and I've never wanted to go back.

Several posters hit the nail on the head: Deer doggers continue to be their own worst enemies. They run up and down public roads to "get ahead of the dogs," and dogs run across land they aren't welcome, creating friction between still-hunters and dog hunters, and they routinely turn their dogs loose on land they don't have permission to hunt.

I've done it on a few occasions, but found it pretty boring. If the dogs aren't coming your way, don't expect to see a deer. It can be a thrill if the dogs are heading in your direction, but if you are surrounding a 200-acre block of pines, the odds aren't in your favor.

Many of the deer doggers don't know--or more likely, don't care-about the effective range of buckshot and routinely take 60, 70-yard or even longer shots because somewhere, someone managed to knock one in the head with a stray pellet at 80 yards. I find several dead deer while bird hunting after deer season closes.

Dogs run loose all year and no one really seems to care. I don't know how many times I've heard, "He'll come home when he's hungry." It's common to see road-killed hounds during deer season where I live and during the off-season, dogs are locked in kennels for the rest of the year.

It wouldn't bother at all if it was banned, or at least placed under more restrictions, but it's such a large part of the hunting culture in southern Virginia, it's not going to change any time soon.

I've seen every one of the bad behaviors listed in this thread done by hunters without dogs. We have road hunters, trespassers, and all manner of slobs in abundance here in PA. I've had them ruin a fair number of my hunts too. I'm not excusing the bad dog hunters out there, just pointing out that bad behavior isn't limited to guys who hunt with dogs.

I grew up hunting with dogs in eastern Va. and I hate it. Property rights are my main concern and I have seen enough violations to last a lifetime! Also any mature buck becomes nocturnal once the dogs come into his bedding area.Many who have dogs spend lots of money in their sport so when the deer come by"if its brown its down." If only those guys would hunt one on one with the deer and learn the challenge of taking a good buck that way I believe the dog hunting would fade out. Instead they lobby the state legislators to keep it going. With the growth of black powder and archery with the younger hunters there is a ray of hope. It is so true that dogs cant read signs but those that run them can for the most part. Since deer are creatures of habit and hunter run the same places weekly they know where the dogs will go so no excuse in my mind that they dont know where the dogs are going when losed.

Anyone that has hounds that won't rally to a horn or a whistle has some piss poor hounds. I'm not talking about whilst they are on a track. Also, if the hounds are properly trained, they will find you, you don't have to find them.
A friend had several beagles that would come to his truck horn. When we'd end up at the truck, he'd blow the horn a few times and next thing you know, here comes the dogs.

Back when i was a much younger fellow,in MS that was the way that it was done.

Sure sometimes the dogs didn't come back or were hard to catch bit it was surely something to hear early in the morning.

After hunting with the same pack you would be able to tell by their howl what they were doing.
Cold trailing and such.

Sadly nowadays with so many tracks of timber land cut up,one would be hard pressed to find someplace to run then.

Sad but true to many it is a way of hunting that has met it's time.

The first deer i shot was with a 20 gauge behind dogs.

quote:

Originally posted by Shack:
Perry, the picture you paint is as good as if not better than any hunting tale I've read in a long time. You tell a good story.

You paint a very lucid scene. I loved reading it. You should try writing. PM me with your email and I will send you a copy of my guide on becoming a writer for free.

Even Wildlife Management Areas still hold "Dog Drives" in Alabama. Here is my experience with one such hunt.


Dog Drive in LA (Lower Alabama)

--------------------Ralph McLaney--------------

I heard a shotgun boom on the next ridge, then in a blur of brown, a buck raced down the hill through the pines. In what seemed to be muted slow motion my shotgun fired. My first round blasted bark as fifteen OO buckshot centered a tree as I struggled to put the bead ahead of the rapidly departing buck.

After several years of still or stand hunting for deer, I decided to check out the dog drive deer hunting scene at the Boykin Wildlife Management Area. Located near the town of Citronelle in Mobile and Washington Counties, this WMA takes in 18,185 acres of planted pine and clear cuts leased by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The area is open to archers for the entire deer season stretching from Oct 15 to January 31st. Several rifle hunts are scheduled and two weekends are set aside for dog drives.

The morning of January 7th dawned clear and cool at 38 degrees with a humidity level of near 80%. At the Boykin WMA headquarters a small army of hunters gathered. Some 270 hunters of all ages and description were patiently waiting to show their hunting licenses and get a deer tag. In the background the barks and snarls of uncounted blueticks, redbones and the occasional mutt sounded from the dog boxes in the crowded parking lot.

The Conservation Officer in charge stepped into the bed of a pickup to organize and instruct the hunters. There would be 5 groups, each consisting of 40-60 hunters under a previously selected huntmaster. Each of the five groups was assigned a section to stage drives with 15-30 dogs. Standers were to be no closer than 200 yards apart and not in sight of one another. This hunt would be for antlered bucks and does. If anyone shot a button buck - it would count as a doe. The daily bag limit was a buck and a doe or two does per person. To make the hunt go smoother, who ever shot a deer kept the whole deer.

The convoy of trucks departed in swirling clouds of dust. I followed my group down the narrow dirt track roads until we came to a large clearing from which the drive would be organized. As men, women, and boys emerged from the trucks, they brought out an assortment of shotguns, predominantly slide actions. Most of the guns were Remington 870's or Mossberg 500's. I saw a few Browning "humpback" autoloaders and one ancient Winchester model 1897 carried by a proud teenager. The two women in the group carried "youth" model 1300 Winchesters - the only 12 gauge reduced stock length slide action,(then), on the market. It appeared that my Remington 870 Express was the only shotgun that was kept in a gun sleeve as we climbed into the back of the trucks for the ride to our stands. I wondered how many of those well used shotguns ever had a pattern put to paper.

In the rush of the moment, my second and third rounds were unleashed before I remembered the Gunsite mantra "Front Sight - Press!" I found the front bead as the buck cleared a logging road. Swinging the tube just ahead and below his nose I fired the fourth load of Federal Premium 3 inch "double ought" from some 35 yards. The load centered the buck's neck and knocked him down. As the hounds caught up the deer bounded up in a death run. A short while later as the trucks laden with standers drove up two of the younger hunters went in to retrieve the deer from the swampy bottom.

It was 10am and the temperature was rising fast, so I left the group to check in my buck and get the meat on ice as soon as possible. The spike buck weighed in just over 100 pounds. It was after eleven o'clock by the time I had the buck skinned and gutted. Five other hunters were soon skinning deer at the racks and some 10 others were waiting with deer in their trucks. With the head and lower legs removed the whole deer just fit into the 178 quart Igloo cooler. The wind was now blowing from the south and with the mercury still climbing, I drove into town for ice and a cold Coke.

--------------

Some how, the swirling dust of Southern backroads had parted the veil of time - if only for a moment. The faded memories of hunters, dogs, blue steel, red hulled buckshot loads, teeth chattering cold rides in old pickups, sweaty anticipation, and yes the Music of the Hounds all seemed to blend gently in to the present.

Here is an interesting online article complete with a black & white photo archive of how a Traditional Southern Hunting Club still follows the age-old traditions of Deep South Deer Hunting. Hauntingly old and refreshingly new, the images of horses, hounds, shotguns and neckties show how it was, and still is...

http://gardenandgun.com/article/call-hunt

I too grew up in Arkansas in the 60's. There were few deer in the NW part of the state. When I got out of school I moved to SW Arkansas and deer were plentiful. I worked for a wholesale grocer and we delivered more dog food than people food in the 70's and 80's. We had open hunting then and property lines were not a problem. We shared the deer. In other words if I killed a deer in front of your dogs we split the meat. Then Texas lease cost got so high the State was over run each fall with Texans who could not afford the leases and the Timber companies wanted lease money so in 1987 Arkansas passed a trespass law. Dog hunting took a sharp decline after that.
I think it may revive some though. Our deer in this area are becoming very nocturnal. I seldom see a deer in the daytime. I used to see 6 to 10 at a time grazing behind my barn but never see one now. I disc up a strip next to the woods and get plenty of tracks though. In order to kill deer we will have to go back to the old fashion deer drive or use dogs.
Of course we have had a few hunters go nocturnal too.

quote:

Originally posted by PWN375:
When I began deer hunting at age 12 it was in Arkansas from my grandfather's farm. We hunted with beagles as did all the locals. My grandfather's farm was the gathering place where all of the men met to plan the days hunt. I never killed a deer being run by dogs. My kills came from deer that circled back after the dogs ran threw. However, I saw many that had been killed in front of dogs over the 9 years I hunted there. I even raised a beagle that turned out to be one of the best deer dogs we used. I can well remember the pride I had in that pup during his first year when he was leading the pack that ran big bucks killed by 2 of my cousins and 1 of my uncles. The beagles would merely keep the deer moving much like the deer drives I have participated in on hunts in Indiana, Iowa, and Kansas.

Now that area is no longer a dog hunting zone and all the old farm places from my youth have been purchased by people from the other states. I used to wander in any given direction for as far as I wished and would never see a posted sign. Any of the locals I would meet would ask me which one of the Newman boys I belonged to and offer to give me a ride back to my grandfather's place at the end of the day. Now every 20, 40 or 80 acre farm is posted and most of the men from my youth are gone.

In the fall running deer with dogs was a part of the social fabric of the South. I have very fond memories of those years. The soft light of the single bare light bulbs in my grandfather's 100 year old house that did not get electricity until 1958. The sounds of the screen door screeching and banging as men entered the house before daylight. The drawled greetings and muffled voices of hunters and the yelps and whines of dogs gathered there. The smell of wood smoke from the King heater in the living room and the Prince Albert hand rolled cigarettes my grandfather and most of the old timers smoked. The aroma of coffee brewing, eggs and bacon frying and biscuits baking. The sun coming up across my grandfather's east pasture. The rooster crowing. The nip of the crisp Ozark mornings. The cold of a old rock wall against the seat of my Levis as I took the first stand of the day. How slick my brown jersey gloves felt holding the stock of my rifle and how cold my toes were in the shearling lined rubber boots on my feet. The feeling I had as a child being included in the activity of men I worshipped.

Now in the 50th year of my life I miss the old days and the old ways. My deer hunts are no longer steeped in tradition nor begun with a social gathering of so many friends.

Perry

We are within a year of the same age and grew up in very different regions albeit exactly the same culturally parts of the US. I have similar memories.

There are a number of writings here that are works of art.

I don't know which one's best...

1 of the clubs I am in usually has a dog hunt the last Saturday of deer season. In 5 years I have never seen a deer but usually have the dogs around me. We use a 1,700 acre tract with about 30 standers situated on the tract's internal road system. Usually about 10 deer are killed during the morning drive which may last 1.5-2 hours. To the best of my knowledge there have been no trespass problems. It's a lot of fun but you would probably need 10,000+ acres to do it every saturday during the season.