Goin Foxin On Your Own

[snizle06 202]

A one man team has to stick to the shallow spots simple as that.

[johnrussell84 2,832]

Am usually always on my own had to ri g for help once or twice but I prefer on my tod

[dogs-n-natives 1,182]

Do any lads on here go digging on your own or do you always take someone to help I just ask cus I've bin goin on mi own and find it hellish hard work even thinking of packing in how do you terrier men go on ?

I go alone a lot,especially in years gone by... not really preferable, though preferable than not going for a dig if your terrier is ready for action then you must provide action, right?... you get to know places that are not too hard...but you go through the mill of proper slogs, long into the night, Ive left digs and gone back next morning to carry on... had some awful gruelling digs on my own absolute hell at the time... best bet is to have mates that you can call up if you get into a long hauler. You also find yourself trudging miles back to the motor for a pick axe, or a saw, or food or a torch lol but funny enough I got there in the end, each time, sometimes help arrives, sometimes not. They stick in the brain for years the bad ones!

 

I never once thought about giving up! Maybe its not for you? I always got a real sense of achievement when I finally got home and washed the dog down and got some feed into us both. I do it for the dogs! What happened that made you want to quit if you dont mind me asking?

 

All the best

[dogs-n-natives 1,182]

A one man team has to stick to the shallow spots simple as that.

Id need a LOT of shallow spots, to keep even 2 terriers busy for a season... thing is a lot of shallow spots up here can still take you 3/4 hours of real toil to get through layer of sandstone, or compact minerals. Then you try all the shallow spots again later and they are empty, so, being keen you drop in a bigger spot... and then look at the knocker box and think... oh f**k. Its all part of the game to me, nightmares become the dreams mate hahaa

[marshman 7,758]

Going out for a look in a minute on my own , I think I'll be doing this a lot more in the future . I do miss my friend that I used to dig with , he couldn't have passed in the summer could he typical of him lol .always handy to have a mate pass a shovel wait here while I go and get a better tool or just to chat about the day's events until the next time we went out , Oh well life moves on !

[johnrussell84 2,832]

 

 

Do any lads on here go digging on your own or do you always take someone to help I just ask cus I've bin goin on mi own and find it hellish hard work even thinking of packing in how do you terrier men go on ?

I go alone a lot,especially in years gone by... not really preferable, though preferable than not going for a dig if your terrier is ready for action then you must provide action, right?... you get to know places that are not too hard...but you go through the mill of proper slogs, long into the night, Ive left digs and gone back next morning to carry on... had some awful gruelling digs on my own absolute hell at the time... best bet is to have mates that you can call up if you get into a long hauler. You also find yourself trudging miles back to the motor for a pick axe, or a saw, or food or a torch lol but funny enough I got there in the end, each time, sometimes help arrives, sometimes not. They stick in the brain for years the bad ones!

 

I never once thought about giving up! Maybe its not for you? I always got a real sense of achievement when I finally got home and washed the dog down and got some feed into us both. I do it for the dogs! What happened that made you want to quit if you dont mind me asking?

 

All the best

 

 

 

 

 

Good post pal I had two last season which sticks one was a place we always thought nothing off never held an one day my russell dropped in while out bushing took me a wee bit to back paddle my steps at arriving first one bolted thought great but some rock had caved his entrance he pushed on five hours later got him deep into an old wall into a banking just rock after rock two mates came last half hour got the dog he jumped two ledges an straight onto the fox right were I had my hands. Second he was only 4ft in a farmers dump with everything ud imagine snapped spades etc he went to grun at half twelve in day got him next morning at 7.35 fox was dead and he couldnt get by it in the rubble I was sore for two days afterwards help came and helped that day the next went back and got him myself . Lucky to have good guys round me when needed but still prefer my own mooch

[northern lad 2,292]

My mate had a dig on not far from the back of his house one evening when his bitch dropped into a spot in a moss bog. He went and got tools and he openly admitted after the episode that the 4ft dig he had dug to get his bitch wasn't wide enough. Anyway he broke in went head first into the narrow dig to get his bitch and couldn't get out! Thank fk for mobile phones was his words. He rang the young lad that lived on the farm down the lane and told him where he was and come quick. Said it seemed like eternity and was shit scared because he was upside down face in full view of the action and was helpless. More scared for himself mind you lol.

An aquantence of mine did similar about 20 yrs ago( no mobiles then)his brother found him following day...too late,left wife and youngsters behind

[HPR 1,161]

Ive done alot of digging on my own i quite like it.it is a ball ahce when you get on a hard one but makes it all the more worth while when you succeed on your own.but sayinng that its good to have a crack when there a couple of ya.

[wilbur foxhound 480]

The problem with going out on your own is that when youre digging to youre terrier you wont always know if another fox has bolted or sneaked away,wf

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

When things arnt going plan and your on your own it sure is good to see a mate arrive you've phoned.15 miles from me there's a place that looks very innocent ,it can't go any more than 1.2 .I entered a dog earlier this season and got a mark of .9 ,lovely .About .6 I hit rock ,bed rock .I first thought it was a stone so widened the dig but no good .Bar bounced off ,my hands were stinging so I phoned a mate who couldn't get there until after work ,another 2 hours and told him to bring his breaker and genny.I could hear the fox below kecking and dog doing her war dance .When he arrived we got to it ,the noise would have been off putting to a young dog but luckily it was Blade my veteran .

The urge to get out, out ways any rational thinking sometimes like the time I foolishly entered a dog in what we call a swallow hole ,where run off from fields goes and end up god knows where .Was lucky to have escaped that day with a lesson well learnt.Started raining when I was waist height with the old knocker box packed up on me .Dense sand has a way of muting even the loudest dog .Digging on I was only 2 ft from him with the hole getting wetter and wetter as the run off started .Broke through and lifted a very wet dog hold of a very wet dead fox .Going back days later the rain had washed all the backfill in and created a hole of about 9 ft deep which ,had it took longer, I would have been in .

Used to hunt a tip near us years ago now long since filled in ,always a definite for a fox but the tip was a sand quarry first and foremost with sheer faces of sand up to a field on top .Foxes loved to dig in these pits with many single holers .This particular day I'd met a fellow hunter doing the same so we went round together .I was a bit concerned at his Russell off the lead but was ,back then ,too young to have voiced an opinion .Sure enough round a corner was a pile of kicked out sand at the base of a sheer face maybe 20 ft high and in goes the Russell .Nothing could be heard for ages and panic set in a bit to be honest with the realisation of what had happened .Being the hands on lad I am I crawled in a bit and could faintly hear the dog baying away to the right of us but no higher than we were .It was decided we would stupidly follow the hole .Tunnelling in a metre or so I riggled in and that's when the lights went out with 5 or 6 tons of sand on me .Couldn't move ,couldnt breath extremely cold ,nightmare .If it wasn't for the other lad, S .Hollerhead I'd still be there now .

f**k was I glad to see him when he pulled me out having dug like a madman it transpired .The column of sand was only ,I say only, about 3 ft on me but kept filling as he dug he said .With me now out full of sand ,ears mouth trousers the lot we still had the dog to find .If I'd not been in the hole we would have lost the dog that day but she appeared ,Steve grabbed her and we departed in a sorry state.If I hadn't met him it could well of been his last dig .

Apologies for such a log post lol.

[THE GENERAL 1,982]

 

 

My mate had a dig on not far from the back of his house one evening when his bitch dropped into a spot in a moss bog. He went and got tools and he openly admitted after the episode that the 4ft dig he had dug to get his bitch wasn't wide enough. Anyway he broke in went head first into the narrow dig to get his bitch and couldn't get out! Thank fk for mobile phones was his words. He rang the young lad that lived on the farm down the lane and told him where he was and come quick. Said it seemed like eternity and was shit scared because he was upside down face in full view of the action and was helpless. More scared for himself mind you lol.

An aquantence of mine did similar about 20 yrs ago( no mobiles then)his brother found him following day...too late,left wife and youngsters behind

Sorry to hear that lad. Wouldn't think its a nice way to go, terrible for his family.

[fireman 10,935]

 

 

My mate had a dig on not far from the back of his house one evening when his bitch dropped into a spot in a moss bog. He went and got tools and he openly admitted after the episode that the 4ft dig he had dug to get his bitch wasn't wide enough. Anyway he broke in went head first into the narrow dig to get his bitch and couldn't get out! Thank fk for mobile phones was his words. He rang the young lad that lived on the farm down the lane and told him where he was and come quick. Said it seemed like eternity and was shit scared because he was upside down face in full view of the action and was helpless. More scared for himself mind you lol.

An aquantence of mine did similar about 20 yrs ago( no mobiles then)his brother found him following day...too late,left wife and youngsters behind

Sorry to hear that lad. Wouldn't think its a nice way to go, terrible for his family.

 

I read about a lad many years ago who did that (might even have been your pal),but i'll tell you what it stopped me from ever digging in on a bank on my own ,sad old do for sure but others learnt from their mistakes mate ..

[dytkos 17,818]

 

My mate had a dig on not far from the back of his house one evening when his bitch dropped into a spot in a moss bog. He went and got tools and he openly admitted after the episode that the 4ft dig he had dug to get his bitch wasn't wide enough. Anyway he broke in went head first into the narrow dig to get his bitch and couldn't get out! Thank fk for mobile phones was his words. He rang the young lad that lived on the farm down the lane and told him where he was and come quick. Said it see.med like eternity and was shit scared because he was upside down face in full view of the action and was scared for himself mind you lol.

An aquantence of mine did similar about 20 yrs ago( no mobiles then)his brother found him following day...too late,left wife and youngsters behind

 

Wan't Jimmy R was it mate? PM if you prefer.

 

Cheers, D.

[fox digger 1,086]

 

 

 

My mate had a dig on not far from the back of his house one evening when his bitch dropped into a spot in a moss bog. He went and got tools and he openly admitted after the episode that the 4ft dig he had dug to get his bitch wasn't wide enough. Anyway he broke in went head first into the narrow dig to get his bitch and couldn't get out! Thank fk for mobile phones was his words. He rang the young lad that lived on the farm down the lane and told him where he was and come quick. Said it seemed like eternity and was shit scared because he was upside down face in full view of the action and was helpless. More scared for himself mind you lol.

 

An aquantence of mine did similar about 20 yrs ago( no mobiles then)his brother found him following day...too late,left wife and youngsters behind

Sorry to hear that lad. Wouldn't think its a nice way to go, terrible for his family.

I read about a lad many years ago who did that (might even have been your pal),but i'll tell you what it stopped me from ever digging in on a bank on my own ,sad old do for sure but others learnt from their mistakes mate ..

Happened to a chap down here about 3 years ago, made the sunday newspapers..... Very misfortunate and a very well know dog man,

[northern lad 2,292]

The guy was called Fergie,it was on some waste land in eccles Manchester,I never knew him that well,just a nod when our paths crossed out with the dogs,his wife was a close friend of mine from school,lovely woman,absolutley devastated her....RIP Fergie