A historical question: really carefully formulated LOL

[paulus 26]

found this from 2006 http://www.thehuntinglife.com/forums/topic/12674-fashions-in-lurchers/

[fredthefrog 169]

nice one paulus

[Sirius 1,391]

wasnt it Brian Plummer who started catching foxs with a dog called Merle?

[paulus 26]

wasnt it Brian Plummer who started catching foxs with a dog called Merle?

he only thought he did :laugh:

[Sirius 1,391]

wasnt it Brian Plummer who started catching foxs with a dog called Merle?

he only thought he did :laugh:

 

That cant be right, its in a book with pictures and everything :laugh:

[paulus 26]

wasnt it Brian Plummer who started catching foxs with a dog called Merle?

he only thought he did :laugh:

 

That cant be right, its in a book with pictures and everything :laugh:

do you keep them in the fiction or non fiction section

[Ideation 8,216]

Don't know if it' been said, but i think maybe it partly changed when the price of furs rose, and started to be a commericaly viable thing to harvest. Before that, foxes weren't worth killing i guess, only if they happened to get up in front, or if they were damaging livelihoods etc. Also there was a point post ww2 where food became more available and folk had to rely on the dogs less as a source of food, and more as a source of pleasure / sport? Also i wonder if mixy had much to do with it? Or maybe that was too early? And finally i would say that foxing with lurchers has taken off since the ban, as now every idiot and his rude boy mates, wants a bull x to look hard and smash da foxes innit blud, and all that nonsense.

Edited April 30, 2012 by Ideation

[Country Joe 1,411]

Had my first Lurcher 1968, in South west Scotland in my area never heard of anyone hunting Foxes with lurchers, and never heard of anyone lamping, Hare was the main quarry, followed by rabbit in daylight,

Most Dogs here, were collie crosses and Lurcher to Lurcher matings, Dogs with a bit of Deerhound in them were also popular.

Saluki, and Bedlingtons were rare, and I never saw any Bull crosses.

The taking of Foxes with Lurchersi think started here, when Lamping kicked off.

[skycat 6,173]

Some interesting answers here: thanks very much. I was thinking of doing some articles on the historical use of lurchers and realised that you never read any old accounts of taking fox with lurchers. The lamping thing makes a lot of sense: when my dad used to lamp back in the 50s no one even thought of taking fox with fast dogs. It just wouldn't have occurred to them at all: lamping was purely to put meat on the table then, but I do think that the big increase in fox numbers has a lot to do with it: so the next thing to consider is exactly what caused the explosion in fox numbers?

Edited April 30, 2012 by skycat

[paulus 26]

Some interesting answers here: thanks very much. I was thinking of doing some articles on the historical use of lurchers and realised that you never read any old accounts of taking fox with lurchers. The lamping thing makes a lot of sense: when my dad used to lamp back in the 50s no one even thought of taking fox with fast dogs. It just wouldn't have occurred to them at all: lamping was purely to put meat on the table then, but I do think that the big increase in fox numbers has a lot to do with it: so the next thing to consider is exactly what caused the explosion in fox numbers?

the land is now owned on the whole by smaller type farmers rather than the old large estates. and theres nowhere near the amount of keepers and underkeeps doing anywhere near the amount of fox control that there was. dont forget the fox was targeted with vigour on those estates, just look at the game tallies for one day on them large old estates it was huge. then more recently we had foot and mouth whole areas of the countryside went unchecked for months. the rabbit population has increased aswell.

[Guest vin]

Channel 4 8pm tonight..all about Mr Fox..should be interesting.

[Simoman 110]

Agree with Paulus plus we have a much more wastefull society now that is condusive to urban foxes and a boom in population, i wonder how many cubs go through life without having to make a kill, purely scavenging off retails parks, KFC car parks and bins?

[Hoker 79]

lamping in the 1950s i thought it was more of a 70s thing be hard to pick up a lamp an battery in them days

[chartpolski 23,111]

lamping in the 1950s i thought it was more of a 70s thing be hard to pick up a lamp an battery in them days

 

I know lads that lamped in the 50's and 60's.......... you could allways tell a lamper by the way his Barbour jacket pockets were rotted out by the battery acid from the motor bike batteries !! LOL !!

 

Cheers.

[chartpolski 23,111]

Walsh, Sheardown, Plummer, et al;....Did they actualy DO a lot of work with Lurchers; or were the dogs just an apendadge to help them sell books ?

 

Cheers.