Last cast

DRS

Old Mossy Horns
We almost did not hunt today. What the heck! Wasn't raining here at 4:30 so we went to load up. Got them loaded by 5:30. Headed east. Cast at 7:00. Dogs jumped right out the box. It was on. Had a deer almost jump into the truck, of course I didn't have my shotgun. Then they split up and deer and dogs running three ways. Two packs running into each other and losing out in a major swamp. Took a little bit but the trail dogs got it going again. Third pack of dogs caught up. The others are smoking one. My kennel partner makes the last cast, turning the caught hounds to the pack. Mean time, the pack is running a decent buck, we try and cut him off. Kennel partner has his young children with him, before he can get ready the buck jets out 20 feet away. A good buck, for the area. I go around, run into another hunter, he said it's a good buck. Hounds take him across a hundred acre corn field. Kennel partner is on the opposite side, hounds heading his way. Dogs 400 yards out he sees the buck slipping toward him. Bam! Truck door slams,Daddy! Buck gone. He turns my way and crosses to far for a shot. I load the hounds, didn't want them to get where they were headed. We round a few more up. I ask where is Buddy. I had a "?" Less than 20 minutes after he cast him to the pack. The "?" still in the same block. He said he had a signal, good, until he said it was where I had the "?". What! Well, that's strange, for multiple reasons. The main one, Buddy don't stop. Well, my kennel partner puts on his hip boots crosses the big ditch and walks up a smaller one about 200 yards, easier than beating that thick brush. He thinks there is not enough water to drown him, he is not hung in a bush. Oh no! There is a leg sticking out over the spoil from digging the ditch. He climbs to the top. Buddy is dead! Looks like he had been squeezed and dirt all over him. A little higher and he sees the den right over the spoil hill. Now my friend gets concerned. He quickly unbuckled the collars. Said he wondered what broke ever stick he heard. He didn't want to leave Buddy but he thought he better get out of there quick. Especially, being unarmed. The hard part was telling his 3 and 5 year old that Buddy was not coming home, that a bear had killed him. We are grateful that my friend was not attacked too. Buddy was a good hound and had a great demeanor. We owe many a race to him, for finding the deer. Going to miss him for sure. All I can say is he died doing what he loved. I can handle what happened to him better than someone shooting him or getting hit by a car. This was Buddy's last cast. Here is Buddy, last year.received_2803179493286437.jpegreceived_395519188199392.jpeg
 
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timber

Twelve Pointer
Couple of the guys here think a bear got 2 of there deer dogs Christmas week. They stopped moving tryed to tone them but still nothing. They were about 500 yards in the middle of a cypress swamp cutover. So much water couldn’t get to them. They found out after the fact they were on a bear earlier. Couple days before that a group bear hunting had 3 dogs cut up close to there by a bear. . No way of knowing if same bear.
 
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YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
Sorry you lost a good one. Mentor had one of his best ones killed by a biggin last month. Lungs were hanging out as she laid there still alive but ice cold and in shock. Nother guy I know lost 2 of his best a few days after that over in Tennessee. Like you said, Buddy died doing what he loved ...and what he was born to do! Sure beats dying from starvation, mistreatment, a bad driver, or a disease that has them withering away until ya gotta put em down. I’ve always loved dogs of all types. Wasn’t until I started hunting with houndsmen that I found a whole new level of love for dogs and can empathize with a hunter ive never met about a dog ive never hunted with.
 
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wildcat3

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Hate that Daron. Like you said, I can handle that better than other things we worry about or just vanishing and never being seen again. It's hard to lose a good one.
 
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bshobbs

Old Mossy Horns
Its always the great dogs that get taken out to soon. You cannot get rid of a sorry dog, they will beat you back to the truck. Most of the good dogs I have lost were on the highway.
 

DRS

Old Mossy Horns
Its always the great dogs that get taken out to soon. You cannot get rid of a sorry dog, they will beat you back to the truck. Most of the good dogs I have lost were on the highway.
That is so true. I told my brother that yesterday, when he was hunting with me as a guest. He has never killed a deer in front of hounds. I know he liked it though. He is amazed at what they do and how they handle. He is 58. He has hunted with me in the past maybe once a year some years none. The past couple years he has went considerably more. I sure it hurt him too.
 
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nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I have bear and hog hunted quite a bit I can tell you real quick for dogs that aren’t used to both a chance encounter with either I’ll take a bear over a hog any day.

With bears you have that better than average chance it will be small enough to be a runner, then most likely the worst they will do is tree it. With a hog he can’t get away, if it is hot it ain’t going to run far. Then all you can hope for it is either little with no cutters or big and broken off or you are screwed. I still have images in my mind of what hogs have done to dogs. It ain’t pretty.
 

YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
I have bear and hog hunted quite a bit I can tell you real quick for dogs that aren’t used to both a chance encounter with either I’ll take a bear over a hog any day.

With bears you have that better than average chance it will be small enough to be a runner, then most likely the worst they will do is tree it. With a hog he can’t get away, if it is hot it ain’t going to run far. Then all you can hope for it is either little with no cutters or big and broken off or you are screwed. I still have images in my mind of what hogs have done to dogs. It ain’t pretty.
Yeah my mentor hunts with some guys in Tennessee every now and again. He got a call the last day of Tennessee season from his buddies. The dogs did their job and they had what they thought was a big bear bayed up. When the guys got to em, it ended up being a wild hog. It was 225. Just like you said, broken off tusks was their saving grace. The hog roughed the dogs up a bit but the man that killed the hog said if that thing still had his cutters, he wouldn’t doubt it would’ve killed some, if not all, the dogs
 
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timber

Twelve Pointer
Deer dogs running bear here is something kinda new. Last few years the bears just started spreading out. There had been a few pockets of them for a while. We have had bears west of us and East but for years they stayed out of this area. Seems now some blocks of woods run more bears and coyotes than deer.
 
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