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Coon movement revisited and "new" nite hunt observations

Gang,

what a week!! Pleasure hunting Sun-Thur was excellent with good numbers of coon treed.. Laid the dog off Friday night to be rested and hit the woods Sat.. Hunted Marcellus, MI.. Big change in conditions and coons.. it was flat tough up there!!!

My cast early treed three coons, unfortunately I only had one.. The other dog had two and won the cast handily and did a very nice job.. I forget Tom's last name, but he had a very nice hound.

We split treed within 5 minutes of casting and scored two coons, like 150 and 250 yards split.. Recast and Tom's dog got another one late about 600-700 yards in deep.. Mine grubbed and grubbed an old track for the entire rest of the hunt and never got treed.. Insanity..

Late round was another three dog cast.. two circle splits, a hole and finally got one. Three dogs that can flat tree a coon down in excellent coon country for an hour and we could only come up with one coon.. Things got a lot tougher for sure..

That made 11 cast wins to finish the dog to Grand.. I made him nite champion under the old system with two firsts and a second..

Won 7 out of 11 or 12 nite ch casts to get him up to 7 wins.... Lordy, I lost 6 casts in a row before I got number 8.. 6... three of them by 25-50 strike points, had enough coons treed, just not a good enough strike position.. two by not being able to find his coon at the end and flat just got beat..

He would have been finished after the 5 cast wins under the old system because there would have only been one cast in each of those hunts.. For my dog and myself, the new system was much more difficult and we had to pay several more entry fees.. This last win also qualified him for the tournament of champions for next year.

So those folks that think it's super easy to make a Nite Ch or Grand Nite Ch sometimes it is.. But generally you have to put some time, effort and money into it to get it done.. I only had two bad casts in the entire journey here.. Two.. The rest of them whether win or lose have been quite fun, enjoyable and hunted with some excellent handlers and dogs..

The level of sportsmanship has been far above the level when we hunted back in the late 70's, 80's and 90's.. Maybe some of that is because I'm a little less driven to win as well .

I figure at the very least i've got $2500 into finishing this dog to Grand after entry fees, Gas,food, maintenance, hotel rooms and travel.. I only put two wins on him local, the rest were all on the road in other clubs.. Three of his wins were UKC slam hunts and one paid quite well as it was a $100 entry and that helped off set a bit of the cost, but not nearly enough..

so those "cheap" Grands and Nite's aren't really that cheap and you still have to lace up your boots and sometimes beg your friends into handling while you play truck driver.. I put 8 of the wins on the dog and Earl put two and Nick put one.. Their winning percentages were a lot higher than mine.. Hmmm.. Yes the handler makes the difference sometimes!!!!

To sum it up.. The coons didn't move worth a hoot in southern lower, mi Sat night early or late.. The new rules sure aren't that easy to make a dog Nite Ch or Grand Nite Ch under, you still have to win your cast 13 times now.. Have to, no other way..

Grand Night Champion

Congratulations on finishing your dog, sound like a good one. Dave

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

Congratulations!
Feels great to accomplish the goals ya set for you and your dog I bet.

Thanks Pam and Dave. Glad to have it done and be retired from the Nite hunts! Would have liked it a lot better if I could have finished with a bit better cast win ratio, but....

I’ve got a pretty decent country coon dog, who can win at times. Not a bang up score card type of hound. Too tight mouth and will take the time to trail a bad one up.

Larry Hall

He sounds like my kind of dog, can win in the hunts, but a coon dog in the Winter time. I love a dog that can trail one up and have the meat, not really interested in the hot nosed pop up tree dogs. Dave

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