Guest whitser Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 me and a mate are considering getting a couple of hounds. can any one recommend a good book on rearing and training hounds for fox? Quote Link to post
pointer28 1 Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 Hi, I don't know of any good books, but if you want to know abouth hounds, get out with your local foot beagles. I used to be a Master of Beagles and I find that it is far more about hounds and hunting that most of the foxhound packs. If you go beagling, you go for the love of hounds and hunting, a lot of people only hunt foxes because they want to ride a horse and jump hedges. Not all of course, but a lot. Quote Link to post
Guest whitser Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 we were planing to get a hound each and hunt them along with my springer after fox. i might try and get out with one of the county dublin hunts for a look. any advice you have would be appricated. Quote Link to post
pointer28 1 Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 Good idea, you won't find any dog with a better nose for following foxes. There is a downside however, if your guns miss a fox and he keeps running, it's very hard to get scent hounds to stop once their hot on a trail. Beagles will hunt a fox every bit as well as a foxhound, they're just not as fast and wouldn't kill a fox single handed like a foxhound would, but for general bushing work I think they are the better choice. Plus, they are easier to keep and eat far less. Gorgeous little dogs, real characters. Quote Link to post
Guest whitser Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 well we'll use them to run foxes to ground or bolt them to lurchers. dont really bother with guns. will they mark earths? Quote Link to post
pointer28 1 Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 Beagles would be ideal for that job. Most of them will mark earths once they learn the job. Another tip, get acquainted with your local pack of beagles. Whenever we have a beagle that isn't doing the job right for us i.e. hunting hares as part of a pack, we have to get rid of them and we usually give them to local guys fort hunting foxes and they find them ideal. The faults we would give them away for could be something very minor that wouldn't bother you such as hunting foxes, which is a complete no for a registered beagle pack, or they might be a little independent minded and not stick with the pack. But trust me, they are usually perfect for foxing. Quote Link to post
waz77 15 Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 Ive been giving this some thought,i work terriers and often struggle to find foxes to ground and considered a small pack of beagles or harriers.How many do you think would be needed? What about public liability insurance? Would beagles get to ground after their fox? And how much land do you think is needed to make it worthwhile? Any info much appreciated By the way Whitser theres a book called Beagling by Jeremy Hobson and one called Beagle and Terrier by Roger Free which mainly concerns rabbit hunting but gives you some idea Quote Link to post
pointer28 1 Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 2 or 3 would be grand to get you started, they are a pack animal really and don't work their best on their own. There are exceptions of course. The more you have the harder they will be to stop so keep that in mind. Usually they will run a fox to ground pretty quickly but if you put up a strong dog fox on the prowl a long way from home and he doesn't know where the local earths are there is always a chance that he will just take a straight line home, so be prepared for lots of running. With a registered pack, we always had public liability insurance as part of the registration process. Theoretically, a beagle could get to ground after a fox in a big earth, but its not really their thing. But as before there are exceptions. My cousin once dug to 3 beagles, a Jack Russell and a Whippet in a huge old earth. I'd say the quarry was deaf by the time he dug to it. I don't know about amount of land, you could quite happily hunt small coverts if you were pretty sure that you were going to stop the fox when he left it. The only time you'd need large amounts of hounds is in huge forestries where a smart fox will just run around in circles but even packs of 40 to 50 foxhounds can have troubles in those circumstances. Stay away from large forestries like that, you'll spend all day waiting for your hounds to come back and probably get nothing. Very boring days sport. Quote Link to post
deerhound working 3 Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 me and a mate are considering getting a couple of hounds. can any one recommend a good book on rearing and training hounds for fox? i use six beagles to flush foxs for my deerhounds i have great crack with them and they will mark to ground Quote Link to post
waz77 15 Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 Nice one cheers pointer,i was thinking maybe 5-6 hounds,ive got about 6000 acres of permission and working on some more but i dont know if id be able to hunt it all so im a bit worried about not having enough land to hunt every wknd,dont want to keep going over same land all time or it'll never hold Quote Link to post
waz77 15 Posted February 24, 2007 Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 Im terrierman for a mounted pack of harriers but hunting beagles on foot is a different prospect,its good to hear others experiences of doing it Quote Link to post
bullmastiff 615 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 we were planing to get a hound each and hunt them along with my springer after fox. i might try and get out with one of the county dublin hunts for a look. any advice you have would be appricated. You'll probably find the hounds and springer will go in to the copse on a scent, then the hounds will come out on their own!!! Springers aren't really pack animals (with exceptions) and will quite happily work on their own, going into any bit of cover after an interesting scent, it just would'nt keep up. Quote Link to post
pointer28 1 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Beagling is great craic! It's a real purist form of hunting, the reason we only hunt hares is we share country with the local foxhounds so we don't want to interfere with their sport and, hares tend to run in a large circle so its a lot easier to keep in touch with your hounds. The followers also tend to have far more interest in the actual hunting than a lot of the mounted followers, most of our followers will know our hounds by name and tell us "brazen went over that hill" or whatever. Whereas in my experience of mounted foxhound packs, a lot of them have no interest in hunting and only hunt to ride horses. Quote Link to post
beagles 0 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 well we'll use them to run foxes to ground or bolt them to lurchers. dont really bother with guns. will they mark earths? mine starting to go in earths just to add i run my beagle on fox and hare but i can normaly tell what hes on by the way he acts if you get me ? but we run a few [banned Text] ground this year doin very well Quote Link to post
mavphill 0 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Im terrierman for a mounted pack of harriers but hunting beagles on foot is a different prospect,its good to hear others experiences of doing it is there any impact from the english law? or are you covered by the game birds protection. Quote Link to post
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