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-- Before you go to your next UKC event consider this. (http://forums.ukcdogs.com/showthread.php?threadid=928543723)

Before you go to your next UKC event consider this.

https://m.youtube.com/results?sp=mA...e+been+for+that

I quit the hunts for last 4 years and wished I did 15 years ago. At least I got to be there for my kids high school years. Life is short consider John Anderson

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Here kitty kitty kitty

Its not really that hard to do both. Family/Hobby time is not that hard to figure out if you want to.

I can’t redo it but wished I put family way before hobby.

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Here kitty kitty kitty

I think if we will be honest there is/was a time in every coon hunters life when our wives and children were cheated because of our passion to coon hunt. My confession: 24 years old, wife and child, pastoring a church, Principal/teacher at small school, drove a school bus and coon hunted 6 out of 7 Nights. Tried to get 3 hours sleep a night. How much quality time did the Church, My wife and son get? Now at 72 I still coon hunt but on a completely different priority. I had to completely walk away for a while, until my wife said I think you should get a coon dog if you'll promise to never be like that again. With very few exceptions I have kept the promise. Now my hounds are a way to talk to folk about Jesus.

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Tom Wood

Makes me look back on my life and wish I had done things differently. I’ve heard people say they wouldn’t change a thing if they could re-live their life.. I can’t say that…. I would do it a whole lot different.

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Vernon Dalton
Rutledge, Tn. 37861
(865)-805-8232

quote:

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Originally posted by Vernon Dalton
Makes me look back on my life and wish I had done things differently. I’ve heard people say they wouldn’t change a thing if they could re-live their life.. I can’t say that…. I would do it a whole lot different.

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Dave Richards Treeing Walkers Reg American Saddlebred and Registered Rocky Mt. Show Horses

It is no different from any other hobby. I include my family and enjoy my time together with them. I have no regrets when it comes to hunting. Why should I feel sorry for spend time in the woods, relaxing after work? I have never neglected my family and always provided for them to the best of my ability. I don't waste my time sitting on a bar stool, drinking, and don't enjoy watching sports. I don't begrudge my wife and family for having hobbies. God has given us hounds to enjoy and I do. It is just one part of who I am.

Coon hunting is a wonderful sport to share with our family. I have never understood not taking them along. I have carried mine many a night through the woods. Now they go for hunts with friends. I am so happy to see them enjoy a sport I have long loved. Coon hunting has been a blessing to me.

I quit coon hunting for 15 years. Started hunting again 2 years ago when my kids showed interest. Nothing more satisfying then enjoying a hunt with wife and kids. My 8 year old son went with me last weekend to his first UKC hunt. Hunted with a great group of guys. My son absolutely loved it. If you treat it as a hobby and keep priorities in line it can be a great thing. Just my opinion.

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Brock & Kendra Montgomery
217-273-2874

Support a youth hunter. They are the future of our sport.

I guess I'm lucky. Generally I have to talk myself into going coonhunting as much as I should if I'm going to own a dog. At least for me its like how many hours can I stand around in the dark listening to a dog barking? There are a few really nice nights a year, but a lot of times it's weather, bugs, and bad movement nights for whatever reason.
I'm simply not torturing myself to prove anything or show my dog can do it in any conditions. In a nutshell coon hunting never defined me and that's where a lot of people get hung up. Who they are as a person gets confused with what's on the end of their leash and they are so desperate to maintain that reputation..they make decisions that prioritize that feeling over anything else.

For me its not that enjoyable that I'm going to miss anything important or make anyone feel like I'm choosing the sport over them. I owe the people in my life a whole lot more than I do an animal that would trade me for a dog biscuit in a heartbeat.

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The fun is over once you pull the trigger

Ron Ashbaugh
CROOKED FOOT KENNELS

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At 72 I had this discussion with my Wife, Daughter, Son and Pastor just a couple weeks ago. I actually handled the coon hunting part pretty well in the past. I put that to the side when my kids were active in high school sports. It took second fiddle to what my family wanted to do. It also showed in the quality of dogs I had vs the quality I could have had if the dogs were #1 in my life. But there was something beside dogs my Family took the back seat to. That was me WORKING. At 72 working still is #1 but that will change in the near future. I work with a Son, Daughter and two Grandsons. But I leave my wife of 54 years everyday to go to work. My dealings with my family that works with me is sometimes form a business viewpoint. I want that to change.
At 72 here is what I want in my life. God 1st. Wife second and I want to be with my Family not as a boss or coworker. But as a family member sharing love and what we enjoy. We enjoy hunting and the outdoors. But I want to go to a hunt not driven to sell something, but driven to have a good time with the family members that go with me. I want to share the outdoors from a perspective of the love we have for it. Not testing a new gadget and everything has to be perfect for the test. I have a Grandson that is almost 30 that only hunted with me during some visits down here during the summer in the past. He is now down here living near me and working with me. We talked yesterday about him getting a dog and starting to hunt. I explained how it could take away from his family time. He said like I said when I was 30 that it would be balanced with family time. Thing is time for some can be short and you better always remember the Family.

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www.ConkeysOutdoors.com
"Boss Lights"

Bruce everything we do takes away from something else. Coonhunting is a dying sport. I would encourage him to hunt and take his family and friends with him. If coon hunters don't start getting more people into it, this sport will be lost.

when i was younger dark could not come faster enough.. left wife an 2 wonderful kids at home.. i missed alot in there life... me an my wife has now been married for 50 years.... i have 5 great grand kids... they all play sports ... coonhunting comes second to them.. now at 70 i found a different dog to hunt a mt. cur.. tree 2 be back home at 9.00..lol

From 17 to 31 it didn’t get dark fast enough . It cost me several relationships as I would work second shift , hunt all night , sleep all day and repeat lol . I lived to coon hunt . I hunted 6 nights a week up until my 2nd daughter was born . I still hunt pretty hard but I very seldom leave my 2 girls (1&3) to go hunting . I go after they are asleep and tend to be in earlier because at 9am they are waking me up lol I think my wife has some resentment toward me for laying out every night all night most of our relationship. I’m doing right by these 2 girls and that’s what matters . It took them to get me lined out lol but I enjoy coon hunting and hope I can follow dogs until my legs can’t carry me !

I don't regret a single night I spent coonhunting over the years. Even the years i spent 350+ nights a year somewhere in the backwoods. My daughter competed as well, and now uses it as a teaching tool for her grade school classroom. the "cool" teacher who competition coonhunted is big news with her students. My son took the love of the outdoors it taught him on to become a Calvary Scout in the US Army. Im 51 years old now and still in good physical shape, which i directly credit to all the time i spend and spent outdoors and the miles and miles i walk/walked.

ive said it before and ill say it again. if you want to see an old man (or woman) lose 20 years off his/her age, let their dog locate first on a night hunt cast. it works every time.

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GRNTCHGRCH ROBINSON'S ENGLISH LOOSER
NTCH OZARKS REBEL BATTLE CRY
CH OZARKS REBEL RACKET (My forever favorite)

birthplace of UKC WORLD SHOW CHAMPION CINDERELLA