Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 2004

When I was about 8 or 9 years old our neighbor comes over and asked my dad to go over to his house and see a little wild pig he caught down by Laredo, TX...we didn’t have wild hogs in Edna, TX at that time...we went over a little later and saw his spotted wild pig...

Several years go by and one morning after I woke up I stepped out to see if I saw any game I could put my dogs on...first thing I saw a big spotted boar hog...he was circling the pig pen where we had a big red duroc sow...well I sic’ed my dogs on him and it didn’t take me long to figure out he could kill my dogs...he wasn’t no ordinary farm pig I was used to...my dogs were really good at keeping the other neighbors pig out...they could put the hurt on him pretty quick so I had to keep the dogs from hurting him to badly...

But this spotted pig was something else... I recognized this boar pretty quick...it was the other neighbors wild pig and it turned out our duroc sow was in season...my dad lets him in and went to let the neighbor know to come and get his pig...we had 10 or so piglets running around 3 or 4 months later...

About 15 years ago while I was in the area I measured the distance carefully even though both houses are no longer there..

Then I measured again today on google earth and the distance is 2.15 miles...the wind normally blows from the East to the West and that boar was directly West of us...
I always wanted to know the distance and that is pretty close if not exactly on the measurement...

How far have you seen you coon dog wind a coon?
Or a deer?

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Last edited by Reuben on 06-24-2020 at 01:44 AM

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Roughly 450 yards. That's the farthest I've personally seen.

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I saw a X bred dog I used to own come by me on a old hall road, the rest of the bottoms was flooded he stood up on his hind legs 2 or 3 times winding the air, he left the road not saying a word in about 8 or 10 minutes he fell treed in about 12 inches of water,approx 300 yards from me and he had the grease.....true story

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Obviously, there are a umber of things that enter into how far a hound can wind game. Weather, humidity, barometric pressure, wind and the olfactory ability of the dog. I had a female bluetick in the 80’s and early 90’s that many nights would wind a coon, either while walk hunting or strike from the truck, and sink in 300 yards or more and strike.

There are a lot of variables that come into play regarding winding game. Barometric pressure, moisture content in the air, topography or “the lay of the land”, wind conditions, the ability of the dog to follow that air scent to the game, etc.

I’ve always marveled at the amount of game a dog with a good nose and the genetic predisposition to make ultimate use of it can show you!

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Dan

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Great post, I agree with every thing you said. Dave

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

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Around 350 yrds guessing, but what I enjoy more is seeing is a dog winding tracks

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How can you tell if a dog is winding just the track? Not sure what we're saying here?

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Registered: Aug 2004
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I can wind one of those stinking hogs 300 yds.

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Registered: Sep 2009
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When hunting in late winter with snow on I'ved had dogs strike from the truck and see coon feeding in coon field 400+ yards away with no tracks in the snow between the dog and the coon. When leading dogs back to the truck and they strike a cold feeding track while on the leash it is often 50 steps or more to the track in the snow.
I believe Extreme Winding is a recessive trait.

Would you rather have a dog wind tree a coon that had been in the tree for 24 hours, but be one tree off or have a dog that didn't know there was any coon in the area and was 100% accurate, but only tree red hot coon that they seen climb

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When hunting in late winter with snow on I'ved had dogs strike from the truck and see coon feeding in coon field 400+ yards away with no tracks in the snow between the dog and the coon. When leading dogs back to the truck and they strike a cold feeding track while on the leash it is often 50 steps or more to the track in the snow.
I believe Extreme Winding is a recessive trait.

Would you rather have a dog wind tree a coon that had been in the tree for 24 hours, but be one tree off or have a dog that didn't know there was any coon in the area and was 100% accurate, but only tree red hot coon that they seen climb

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I’m not sure “winding” would be considered an inheritable trait on its own. From my experience dogs that strike from a moving vehicle often are dogs that are quick to strike on the ground when they have scent. That being said, I’ve seen dogs that were tight mouthed to silent on track that would strike from a vehicle.

It’s not that unusual to have a hound that never has struck from a vehicle learn to do that if hunted a lot with one that does. I’ve scene it happen with a number of hounds.

Like with most other things our hounds do, some become really good at it whereas others don’t. I’ve seen some really good ones strike from a rig at 30-40 mph and sink in 300-400 yards and find the coon. The majority of those tracks were pop ups. Sometimes there was no track at all. The dog would just fall treed.

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Dan

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quote:

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Originally posted by 2ol2hunt
How can you tell if a dog is winding just the track? Not sure what we're saying here?

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To answer your question, personally I want the dog that can wind coons laid up that other dogs do not know exists, don't care if he trees 1 tree over especially when I am pleasure hunting ( most of the time ). I love a coon dog that can do as you described, it's up to me to find the coon. You may get minused in a competition hunt, but you have a coon dog and that's more important to me than any points. The purpose of coon hunting is to tree coons, or it is to me, and if my dog can be one tree over on that cold of a track I am one happy camper. Dave

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

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Would any of you care to comment on how accurate some of these dogs are? If a dog can smell a track form over 100 yards where a coon passed 30 minutes ago( it might be a mile away now) he surely should know if a coon is 30 feet over his head or not.

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Donald Bergeron

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Most of these dogs or at least the ones I have seen and hunted with are VERY accurate. However, they can be a tree over at times due to the scent being stronger at that position due to wind current. At times they will be sitting directly below the coon, it all depends on the weather conditions. These colder nosed dogs with brains can be something to watch, I have seen dogs that could tree a litter of coons without putting their nose on the ground, when there were coons in several different trees spread out 20 to 30 yards apart. Dave

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

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quote:

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Originally posted by shadinc
Would any of you care to comment on how accurate some of these dogs are? If a dog can smell a track form over 100 yards where a coon passed 30 minutes ago( it might be a mile away now) he surely should know if a coon is 30 feet over his head or not.

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Dan

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Good post as it applies striking from a moving vehicle, my reply was dogs striking from the ground, winding coons already in a tree. I have found most dogs to be super accurate when doing this. Dave

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

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quote:

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Originally posted by shadinc
Would any of you care to comment on how accurate some of these dogs are? If a dog can smell a track form over 100 yards where a coon passed 30 minutes ago( it might be a mile away now) he surely should know if a coon is 30 feet over his head or not.

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Last edited by Rip on 06-27-2020 at 03:22 AM

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I, like most of us, have had or seen dogs that could wind coon scent from a distance, but once the dog leaves our sight it's very hard to assess what the dog is actually doing. All I can do is give a fairly accurate guess on what happened. Mostly all I can honestly say is the dog winded scent and ended up on a tree with a coon in it. I've also seen a dog wind a track and fly right by a coon in a tree only to tree another one a couple hundred yards on past the one setting up. It's hard to explain that one. I guess all I'm saying is once a dog leaves us, after winding a track, it's all a guessing game from there on in. I believe sometimes I think I know more than the dog when it comes to running track but I can't smell near as good as my ole hound, unless, of course, I'm a mile down wind from a hog farm, lol!

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Last night we had loaded up ready to call it a night and were looking for my buddies dog so we could leave. I had two dogs on 4 wheeler platform and my friend thinks he saw a hog run across the pipeline up ahead...his dogs don’t rig because he hunts his way and it’s never about the dogs...I am the opposite in that it is all about the dogs... I use every opportunity I can to help make my dogs better.

So wind was blowing away and so I ease ahead and my dogs blew up and went in the timber wide open...turned out to be a sow of about 100 lbs or so...

On the way home they fired up from in the box...it was a hot scent...From past experience if the scent in the air is strong it doesn’t matter if I’m driving 40 or 70 mph.

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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The two dogs I mentioned both have Kemmer blood, a father and son but the sire has more Kemmer blood and is colder nosed...the kemmer is of the gold nugget strain and they were bigger and of the houndier type...

Like someone mentioned earlier I also believe temperature, barometric pressure, humidity and wind conditions play a big role in scenting abilities...and it helps when the dog is colder nosed with the inclination to use it for winding and trailing...

Below is actual and one thing in common was that these dogs all had gold nugget breeding...at least 50 percent and one 25 percent...

On a big ranch the ranch hand calls and says the hogs are not in the woods...they are in the open country...some thick brush here and there but fairly open...I get there and put a few on the wheeler and kept the others close as we headed to the hogs...about half way there one of my dogs goes into the wind and so we stop and wait...he goes in about 100 yards and loses it and he tries again...still no luck and I call him back because the rancher wanted to go on...a quick glance tells me what could be happening...the hog scent is skimming over the thick brush and he was winding that...once he got in the thick brush he lost the scent...the breeze was perfect...so I knew exactly the
direction I needed to take...

On the way back the same thing happened except we turned into the wind...we crossed that thick brush and the dogs got interested...went a little further and the dogs ran ahead and caught a big sow and they then got on a hot track and caught up with another one headed towards the woods...the initial winding distance was at least 3/8 mile...

The other two dogs appeared to wind close to a mile each...

One winding scenario was channeling through the woods from an open meadow...he didn’t pick up his nose and head that way...I saw him wind something interesting so we turned and headed into the wind and eventually he rolled out to them...

Another was a young dog on deck and in the salt grass so it was pretty open...again he wasn’t wanting to go to them but I turned into the wind...

These dogs winded often enough...but perhaps we can’t count the mile range as winding on account their genetic makeup did not trigger the dog to go that mile on their own initiative...

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: May 2016
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Reuben your post abut the Hogs smelling ability had me thinking today. For over 2 years I have been mowing the Church Property. We have about 8 acres of cleared property we mow. This week is appears a hog decided to root up some of the property. The funny thing is where he rooted he discovered some buried trash. Plastic coke bottles and some plastic which at one time had bread and it appeared to be sweet rolls in the plastic. Now there hasn't been anything but mowing and rain on the property for two years that I know of. But that hog came on the property and either accidentally rooted up that stuff. Or used his nose to find it buried about 8 inches deep and rooted it up. If he could smell it that well after being buried several years. He had a heck of a nose.

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If I was guessing, I would say the hog smelled the buried trash. Its amazing how well a dog can smell, they have been taught to sniff out bombs under 8 inches if dirt and I say a hog can smell as good as a dog. Dave

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

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dave Richards
If I was guessing, I would say the hog smelled the buried trash. Its amazing how well a dog can smell, they have been taught to sniff out bombs under 8 inches if dirt and I say a hog can smell as good as a dog. Dave

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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