An Issue that Seems to Dog Me Hunting With Hounds
I was checking out the Hog Blog like I do often and saw Philip’s post about hound hunting. Unlike him and many of the native tarheelers I hunt with, they grew up with the hunting of deer with hounds. When I moved to the state I was surprised to hear about this tradition but had no opinion either way about it.
I must admit that for many of the reasons and issues Philip has raised I certainly have a somewhat negative view of the practice. Should it be outlawed? Certainly not I think it is an important part of the culture of this part of the country but a tighter reign on the renegades that abuse the sport need to be put in place. I also must admit that I’ve never been on a hound hunt for deer and I would like to at least experience it once to see what it is all about. I have only seen it from the side of having dogs running over my lease and putting added pressure on the herd and increasing the likelihood of more nocturnal movement and less movement during the daytime lessen my hunting experience.
When ever this topic comes up you’ll hear that there is only a few bad apples given the rest a bad name by not respecting property rights, hunting from the road, racing 4 wheelers and trucks up and down public roadways to catch up with the chase and maybe that is the case.
I have found another trend and that is more and more people are getting out of the sport because of the costs associated with keeping the hounds and getting land access. My concern is that from what I see these are the good hunters who we need to carry on this tradition and I’m afraid the bad apples are staying in.
We have enough people that want to end all hunting that we really don’t need to be fighting amongst ourselves on such issues.
[...] Moose Droppings wrote an interesting post today on An Issue that Seems to Dog Me Hunting With HoundsHere’s a quick excerpt I was checking out the Hog Blog like I do often and saw Philip’s post about hound hunting. Unlike him and many of the native tarheelers I hunt with, they grew up with the hunting of deer with hounds. When I moved to the state I was surprised to hear about this tradition but had no opinion either way about it. I must admit that for many of the reasons and issues Philip has raised I certainly have a somewhat negative view of the practice. Should it be outlawed? Certainly not I think it is an im [...]
Pingback by Blog » Blog Archive » An Issue that Seems to Dog Me Hunting With Hounds — January 17, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
Darn it, that was a good post.
Now I have to get off my soapbox and think about fixing the bad apples so we can all enjoy hunting.
Comment by Rex — January 17, 2008 @ 3:09 pm
Moose,
Thanks for the link and the comments…
I think if you were to randomly call 100 people from my little old hometown of Hampstead, NC, and ask them what they thought of deer hunting, you’d probably be surprised by the high percentage of negative opinions.
But if you ask what bothers them the most about it, I would wager a new hat that the predominant theme wouldn’t be killing those beautiful animals, or the guns, or even more controversial topics like bait piles. It would be the guys in the big trucks with big guns, lining the highways every Saturday and on holidays… or racing those big trucks across roads, private land, and the landscape itself in pursuit of the dogs. It’s a common complaint every year in local newspapers, and in every discussion I have with locals when I go back to visit.
So yeah, there’s a problem there, and it’s hurting all hunting…not just the houndsmen.
The other problem you mention is equally critical, though. The guys who can’t afford the dogs or the land leases are getting squeezed out.
Maybe Rex is right… it’s a dying way of life.
On a brighter note, if you get a chance it is definitely worth a go. You may or may not like it all that much compared to still hunting or sitting a stand when it’s all said and done, … but the excitement and anticipation while it’s happening is hard to beat.
Comment by Phillip — January 17, 2008 @ 5:16 pm
Nothing wrong with dog hunting at all when it’s done properly. Moose and I frequently see the arguments over at a hunting forum based here in North Carolina. For the most part, I “think” everyone wants to do it “right” but unfortunately as time goes on and more land is lost to development, the odds go up tremendously that “something” will go wrong in the eyes of the general public. I’ve dog hunted a time or two both here in NC as well as SC. I must say that my SC hunts were much more enjoyable as we hunted off of roads that I never saw a house from all day. Hard to imagine that type of dog hunting causing any harm.
Comment by SouthernAdventures — January 18, 2008 @ 6:06 pm
[...] thought that with all of the discussions going on right now about dog hunting at the Hog Blog and Moose Droppings, these old shots would illustrate the heyday of dog hunting as well as possibly spur some great [...]
Pingback by Photos from the Shooter - The Series Continues - Lowcountry Hunting - Helping hunters to have successful Lowcountry hunting experience — January 29, 2008 @ 3:46 pm