American Lurchers

[UphillDoc 278]

Lets see who all has them here, and how you are using them. With the variety of game/terrain here the possiblities are endless.

 

Heres one way I use mine. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

B.W., his coward friend that we took bear hunting, the Cowboy and I loaded up at midnight for a coon hunt. I wasnt going to take "Grace" (bullstag) but she loaded herself, and wasnt taking no for an answer. Im hoping I wont be sorry.

B.W. and the Cowboy have the same dogs as on the lion above. We hit the river, and a few minutes into it the dogs strike. They head down to the water and then cross the road up ahead of us about yds. They head up into the rock fields and are baying under a big shelf at a coon. The Cowboy left the Jagd at the house, so thats the end of that one. Coon 1 dogs 0. B.W. and I cuss the Cowboy for not bringing the Jagd, and he mumbles something about seed stock and pup trainers...LOL

We head on down river about a mile and the dogs blow up. We cut them loose and they head up hill, and within about 200yds it sounds like a jumped race. They top out over a knob and are side hilling towards a big chimney rock formation. (Its a full moon, and on the snow its almost as light as day) We all look at each other and say "lion?!" The dogs make it to the big chimney rock, and they are bayed up. We start to head up to them when all the sudden it sounds like there is a fight. After what sounds like a quick scuffle, the dogs are running again. Down hill towards us! In the moonlight I spot the lion out ahead of the dogs, and start running towards it to cut it off. (Dont ask me why, I just go green eyed sometimes... ) The dogs come around the rock pretty quick and "Grace" barrels out ahead of them. She is closeing on the cat hard, and it decides to jump into the first piece of brush it comes to. Its about 20 yds up the hill from me. "Grace" comes flying into the brush and pulls up treed! The rest of dogs come by just below the brush and quickly realize they overshot the cat. They circle around the brush and fall treed as well. A few seconds later, "Grace" decides thats long enough and jumps up and grabs the lion out. They come tumbling down towards me with the rest of the dogs in hot pursuit. "Grace" comes up with a deep throat hold, and is fixin to kill this thing. The rest of the dogs each grab a corner and pull it tight. As the whole mob comes down the hill towards us B.W. starts screaming "watch out, its coming down" to his coward friend, and the guy starts doing the funky dance he did during bear season...LMFAO Im hissing "Grace" up to kill it, while B.W. and the Cowboy are yelling at me to get her off. Cooler heads prevail and we get them seperated. Its about a 60-80lb cat and they have it gassed. We pull the dogs back and let it break. (The whole time our cameras are in the trucks... ) It heads down hill off the road towards the river. We hold the dogs back and check for holes. "Grace" has a couple cuts on one side and her face, but nobody is too bad off. After about 20 minutes we let the hounds go again. We decide to hold "Grace" until we see if it trees or not. They find it in a thicket, backed up and pissed off. We head down to them, and the coward says "take my camera" I say "I got one" he says "no take mine and get me some pics" I just start heading down and yell back to him "if you want pics, come on down" He comes down a bit, but never gets where he can see the cat...LOL We have to crawl in to get the pics, before we let it run again. (We are really wanting it to tree.) This time we give it about an hour. We cut the hounds loose again, and they trail about 2 miles down river and get bayed up again. This time I walk "Grace" in with me, in case its treed. Well the dumb thing is on the ground in a thicket again. When the hounds see us and "Grace" they decide its killin time. (We werent expecting that) They move in and "Rokon" grabs him by the neck and the others play tug. "Grace" wants in bad, but we get the dogs off pretty quick and call it a night. We see him leave the thicket after we have the dogs back about 50 yds, and we are hoping the cat learned a valuable lesson, and wont ever stay on the ground again. We walk out, with the Cowboy still mumbling something about seed stock and pup trainers.

 

Take care.

 

Maybe Dan Edwards can post the pics for me here soon.

[mackem 26,553]

Excellent read,I could almost visualise that

[Hoss1 3]

Doc, can't belive you don't post pics, but if ya need it done send them and I could do it for ya also. I hope to be haveing as much fun next year as you are now!

[P.Carter 0]

Good lad, hopefully you'll get more use and fun outta' 'em than everyone does on here.

Still in the process of convincing my mum, having dogs will keep me out of trouble, my old man used to keep 'em but he went out of the game years ago and my mum swore she'd never have another dog near the house.

 

 

All the best,

Paul.

[littletimmy 71]

Another good story. Come on dan get somemore pics up and the rest of you across the pond get your stroies up aswell

[the fezz 44]

great read mate please post some pic

[lamp+battery 98]

crackin read mate

[Running 7]

great read pictures would be the cherry on the cake

[whin 463]

good crack been to the states several times coursing hunting with hounds saw lots of saluks cold blooded greyhounds bear dogs lion dogs etc mostly the panhandle new mexico etc borders of arizona and mexico , had dozens of chases wish some times i videod them for folks in the uk but well such is life caught coyoted lions and bears havelina and by mistake pronghorn etc feral pig hunting was exiting but wet hunted the bottoms of the pecos river , used curs runing dogs a couple of old black and tan hounds and pit bull pionter crosses

[Dan Edwards 1,134]

Here is a pic of Grace after the lion fight and a pic of the lion in the tree lookin pretty roughed up.

[Dan Edwards 1,134]

I dont think the lion is in a tree actually but actually backed up under some brush. Hell, I cant remember really but it looks backed up on the ground under some brush.

[Kye 77]

Man, Doc sure does live the life dont he!...jammy begger!..lol.

 

I use mine for lamping, hunting at night (with no light), terrier work, like marking earths, catching bolters/drawing etc...use them on everything from squirrels, and rabbits and hares, to coyote and coon, and various other bits and bobs...great dogs, and i think they are very versatile.

 

Jay..

[UphillDoc 278]

Hoss1-I think you will have lots of fun with yours, and I wont be surprised if this time next year you are saying "I wish I would have gottten one sooner" I know I did...

 

P.Carter-Goodluck with convincing your mum. Many of my boyhood friends went astray, while I went hunting. All my children have come up following a dog, and I couldnt be happier with how they are turning out.

 

Whin-Were you hunting with D. Hise and company?

 

AdamR-Here in Idaho it is just a hunting liscense and tag bought over the counter. Nothing required to keep dogs. We have laws that prevent the likes of Peta from interfering with hunters in the field, but they are always a potential threat at the ballot box, though this is a very rural state and the "animal rights" folks dont have much influence here.

 

Take care.

[Dan Edwards 1,134]

Here is a good pic of Grace from the side view. She is a put together Gyp for sure and can absolutely fly for her size.

[UphillDoc 278]

Dan-Thanks for posting all th the pics. The last one of "Grace" is one of my favorites.

 

Here is another "Grace" story.

 

I decide to get some breakfast and head out with "Grace" (bullstag) and "Gator" (stag) to see if we can chase a jackrabbit or call in a coyote. The kids all have plans today, so Im on my own. I get to our first spot, and they get a jackrabbit up and running. "Grace" is pushing it hard, and "Gator" is hedging in from the right. They go about 120 yds and "Grace" has moved up to try to pick it up. The jack turns hard to the right and "Grace" misses, it cuts so hard that "Gator" over runs it as well. "Grace" is back on it and closing. "Gator" cuts the angle and they have it between them heading right back to me. "Gator" comes in hard and tries for it again, but it makes another nifty move and he misses. They head away from me and I can see its starting to make ground on them. They run it another couple hundred yards, but to no avail. It makes the thick sage and is gone. That was about as long and as exciting a jackrabbit race as I have ever seen them on. Its a good morning no matter what happens I figure.

I get to a bluff overlooking a dry pond that I want to try to call a coyote from. I sit down and start calling. The dogs hunt out a few hundred yards then come back and stay near me. About 15 minutes into calling I spot a coyote coming in from my right. The dogs have not seen it, but it has seen them. Im hoping it will challenge them, but its just putting the sneak on them. The dogs have moved down to my left about 40 yds and that pulls the coyote right in front of me. I have him in the crosshairs at about 60 yds, so I decide to just wing him and see what happens next...LOL I hit him in the hip and he rolls then gets up. The dogs come up to me at the shot. I face them towards the coyote that is trying to head out in the sage. "Grace" spots him and the chase is on. "Gator" falls in behind "Grace" and they head down to it. (Im hoping "Grace" will keep "Gator" out of trouble if he decides hes going to be brave.) They close on him pretty quick and "Grace" bulls into it and goes over the top of him. "Gator" nearly skids into it...he figures out real quick it aint a feral cat their after this time. "Grace" spins around and grabs the coyote by the back of the neck when it tries for "Gator" She gives it a shake and "Gator" thinks he wants to help now. He barks a few times, then grabs the ass and tugs, the coyote spins and gets "Grace" by the front leg. She lets go of the back of the neck and gets a deep throat hold. This makes "Gator" braver and he works into the chest and they stretch it out pretty good. I let them work it over for a few minutes, then take it back to the truck. (Where I left my camera) "Gator" is growling and biting it the whole way back, "Grace" keeps her throat hold until she is sure its dead, then never fusses with it again. We make 5 more sets and see 2 more coyotes, but none offer a good shot for the dogs to work, so I let them pass.

 

Take care.