Beagles Hunting Fox

[francolin 449]

hedz fair play ,as long as you enjoy em thats what matter,what ever you hunt, hunting with a terrier in cover or a full pack of fell hounds, its still a sight to behold,some fine hunts were had as kids hunting pit yards and railway banks with a mix bunch of curs,some we borrowed from neighbours

[neil cooney 10,416]

Any truth telling houndsman will tell you that a good beagle will hunt with the same determination as any hound. They'll also wed to fox as quick as any quarry and I know of beagles going to ground more than once.

If you like a dig I'd wonder would a few beagles have the pace to pressure a fox to go to ground.

[MC CANCES GLEN 2]

love a dig

[francolin 449]

Any truth telling houndsman will tell you that a good beagle will hunt with the same determination as any hound. They'll also wed to fox as quick as any quarry and I know of beagles going to ground more than once.

If you like a dig I'd wonder would a few beagles have the pace to pressure a fox to go to ground.

neil the nose on beagle is second to none,thats for sure but depends on what you call a few and terrain there hunting i would think,we have pressed foxes to ground with terriers in the right cover when in urban areas,with the help of good lads placed around the cover ect,think its a diff game say on the open fell with a couple or two .

[neil cooney 10,416]

Your right Francolin, the beagle when used for foxes is more used for driving foxes to guns or lurchers. This IMO is not hunting with hounds proper. It's fox control pure and simple.

Foxes will go to ground quickly when their covert is surrounded and hounds put pressure on them. But let a fox break and then see are your beagles good enough to hunt him and put enough pressure on him to mark him ?

[francolin 449]

Your right Francolin, the beagle when used for foxes is more used for driving foxes to guns or lurchers. This IMO is not hunting with hounds proper. It's fox control pure and simple.

Foxes will go to ground quickly when their covert is surrounded and hounds put pressure on them. But let a fox break and then see are your beagles good enough to hunt him and put enough pressure on him to mark him ?

fair comment.

[pothunter 33]

a beagle can hunt as fast as the rest,they can only run as fast as the nose lets them-a beagle is already low to the ground and can run without stooping the advantage of a larger hound is when he views charlie then he can realy step out.I run 3 beagle harriers myself and witnessed the 2 bitches on there own course a fox each out of cover last season and the fox could not make ground turn after turn until they where lifted by a lurcher not a foot infront of the hound.The older bitch hunted a hare for over a hour on her own before catching it although it looked ok how do you know if it wernt sick ? there is foxs that just go to ground without much pressure and some who would rather run all day even under pressure and pass vacant burrows,but large numbers of hounds that can hunt do make a difference in putting foxes to ground.i find smaller hounds great in cover as they can run through the runs and under blackthorne and scrub better also through pop holes under sheep wire that the fox uses especially where the hedge has grew through the wire and the big hounds just cant get over the same.also a lot of foxes run to ground with large groups of lads doing cover are run in by the lurchers and not the hounds as some would let you believe nothing puts a fox under presure like a good lurcher up his pipe or a pack of hounds most of the time when under pressure from a lurcher he will squeeze into a small hole and even a pretty mideling terrier will dig him as its his ass your digging to.some may not agree but thats just my view.

[neil cooney 10,416]

I wont disagree with you Pothunter, a very good post. You watch your hounds and dogs closely.

[hedz31 1,308]

a beagle can hunt as fast as the rest,they can only run as fast as the nose lets them-a beagle is already low to the ground and can run without stooping the advantage of a larger hound is when he views charlie then he can realy step out.I run 3 beagle harriers myself and witnessed the 2 bitches on there own course a fox each out of cover last season and the fox could not make ground turn after turn until they where lifted by a lurcher not a foot infront of the hound.The older bitch hunted a hare for over a hour on her own before catching it although it looked ok how do you know if it wernt sick ? there is foxs that just go to ground without much pressure and some who would rather run all day even under pressure and pass vacant burrows,but large numbers of hounds that can hunt do make a difference in putting foxes to ground.i find smaller hounds great in cover as they can run through the runs and under blackthorne and scrub better also through pop holes under sheep wire that the fox uses especially where the hedge has grew through the wire and the big hounds just cant get over the same.also a lot of foxes run to ground with large groups of lads doing cover are run in by the lurchers and not the hounds as some would let you believe nothing puts a fox under presure like a good lurcher up his pipe or a pack of hounds most of the time when under pressure from a lurcher he will squeeze into a small hole and even a pretty mideling terrier will dig him as its his ass your digging to.some may not agree but thats just my view.

Good post mate

[timster 4]

Down in Cornwall (where there aren't really any hares) there was a long tradition of beagle packs hunting foxes. Many of these were sort of homemade anything goes scratch packs, with just a few couple - and often as not a few shotguns - but some of them were full, formal packs with liveried staff and organised meets. Don't think any of them were ever recognised by the AMHB - not sure if they would have had 'em, given they were hunting the "wrong" thing.

 

Not sure if any are still going in some form, but amongst the more notable of these packs in the past were the Constantine Beagles, the Fowey Beagles, the Lambo Beagles, and the Virginstow Beagles, just over the Devon border. There were a few others too, the names I've forgotten.

 

Some actually ended up making the transition to mounted packs. The now defunct West Penwith Harriers (which shared Western country rather bad termperedly back in the 70s and 80s) was originally a fox-hunting beagle pack, that had a few harriers added to it, then a few mounted followers, and then became a fully mounted, fully harrier pack.

 

The Cury (a registered foxhound pack) started life as a foot pack with beagles too.

 

As for how they hunt, I've never been out with a beagle pack hunting the "right" thing, so can't compare that. But they did hunt a bit differently from foxhouds over the same county. There's a lot of tight gorse in Cornwall, some of it stretching over huge areas, and they could really push a fox in that much faster than their bigger cousins (who could be slow as carthorses in gorse at times). Once out of cover it did seem like they couldn't push quite as well for a long cross-country point, it's true, but then most Cornish country is pretty intricate, and long points were rare even for foxhound packs. And in that kind of mixed country a beagle pack (a full one, I mean, not just a few couple) could definitely push every bit as hard as they needed to, definitely to ground on occassions.

 

Were there ever this kind of organised, formal fox-hunting beagle packs anywhere else in Britain, or was it just a Cornish thing?

[milliken 791]

Down in Cornwall (where there aren't really any hares) there was a long tradition of beagle packs hunting foxes. Many of these were sort of homemade anything goes scratch packs, with just a few couple - and often as not a few shotguns - but some of them were full, formal packs with liveried staff and organised meets. Don't think any of them were ever recognised by the AMHB - not sure if they would have had 'em, given they were hunting the "wrong" thing.

 

Not sure if any are still going in some form, but amongst the more notable of these packs in the past were the Constantine Beagles, the Fowey Beagles, the Lambo Beagles, and the Virginstow Beagles, just over the Devon border. There were a few others too, the names I've forgotten.

 

Some actually ended up making the transition to mounted packs. The now defunct West Penwith Harriers (which shared Western country rather bad termperedly back in the 70s and 80s) was originally a fox-hunting beagle pack, that had a few harriers added to it, then a few mounted followers, and then became a fully mounted, fully harrier pack.

 

The Cury (a registered foxhound pack) started life as a foot pack with beagles too.

 

As for how they hunt, I've never been out with a beagle pack hunting the "right" thing, so can't compare that. But they did hunt a bit differently from foxhouds over the same county. There's a lot of tight gorse in Cornwall, some of it stretching over huge areas, and they could really push a fox in that much faster than their bigger cousins (who could be slow as carthorses in gorse at times). Once out of cover it did seem like they couldn't push quite as well for a long cross-country point, it's true, but then most Cornish country is pretty intricate, and long points were rare even for foxhound packs. And in that kind of mixed country a beagle pack (a full one, I mean, not just a few couple) could definitely push every bit as hard as they needed to, definitely to ground on occassions.

 

Were there ever this kind of organised, formal fox-hunting beagle packs anywhere else in Britain, or was it just a Cornish thing?

a very good first post there are alot of small beagle packs over here but as has already been said they are more for pushing foxes out of cover to lurchers than real hunting

 

robert

[Beagle 87 7]

The small pack i used to hunt with which ran 6 couple of beagles and 3 russells always did well on foxes,most Sundays they'd run foxes to ground which we would either dig out or just let them bolt out to the lurchers or guns. Probably haven't got the stamina of a foxhound but always did just aswell plus they'd catch a fox and dispatch it well compared to some hounds i've seen. Not a record beating score but we would have around the 100 mark most seasons

[alimac 882]

a beagle can hunt as fast as the rest,they can only run as fast as the nose lets them-a beagle is already low to the ground and can run without stooping the advantage of a larger hound is when he views charlie then he can realy step out.I run 3 beagle harriers myself and witnessed the 2 bitches on there own course a fox each out of cover last season and the fox could not make ground turn after turn until they where lifted by a lurcher not a foot infront of the hound.The older bitch hunted a hare for over a hour on her own before catching it although it looked ok how do you know if it wernt sick ? there is foxs that just go to ground without much pressure and some who would rather run all day even under pressure and pass vacant burrows,but large numbers of hounds that can hunt do make a difference in putting foxes to ground.i find smaller hounds great in cover as they can run through the runs and under blackthorne and scrub better also through pop holes under sheep wire that the fox uses especially where the hedge has grew through the wire and the big hounds just cant get over the same.also a lot of foxes run to ground with large groups of lads doing cover are run in by the lurchers and not the hounds as some would let you believe nothing puts a fox under presure like a good lurcher up his pipe or a pack of hounds most of the time when under pressure from a lurcher he will squeeze into a small hole and even a pretty mideling terrier will dig him as its his ass your digging to.some may not agree but thats just my view.

Yep good post fella, just 2 things, no beagle no matter how good unless in very tight gorse etc can hunt a line of a fox as quick as a decent foxhound, stooped head or not, As for the pop holes through netting any foxhound worth it's feed would pop over it with out thinking..

[wilbur foxhound 480]

alimac,did you have a terrier called tattie a few years back

[alimac 882]

Yes I did I gave him to gm when he was short but I'm guessing you know that??