Rick Ennen
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Turtle Mountains, ND
Posts: 1023 |
A Frito pup...
Charlie put on a show last night in his first UKC hunt. We hunted a big ranch property in the pretty Heart River Valley of western ND. Above the valley is dry buttes and grasslands but down in the valley its timber, fields and pastures.
First cut, I struck Charlie in third and the dogs took the track right out from in front of us and drove it down along the river until about out of hearing where it died out. We started walking and I started the eight on the dogs. Charlie broke it with a single bark just before time ran out. We had walked a half mile or so and the other dogs started coming in. Not long, and I heard a dog jump into the river, swim across and take off running back up stream. Frito did this a couple weeks ago on the Sheyenne River to great effect, and now his son, Charlie, was alone, on the run, across the river...
The other dogs struck again back in the direction from where we came so we walked back. After a lot of barking, some treeing, etc. by the other dogs with nothing coming of it, the still of the night fell again across the valley. We stood joking around for several minutes with the clock running and me wondering what Charlie was up to. Then, back behind us, like a thunderclap, we heard Charlie load up on the wood with two big locates, destroying the peace and quiet. The guide said he sounds like he’s got to be back somewhere on this side of where we parked and first cut the dogs.
So we headed toward Charlie. The five went by really, really quick. We passed where the guide said he was treed. We passed the parked trucks. We walked down the length of a shelterbelt. We then crossed a corn field. Then, we walked through the woods along the river. Finally, after about 35 minutes of level, quick, easy walking we stood on the river bank and Charlie, of course, was hammering a tree on the other side. The guide knew where we could cross on a submerged rock bridge, and we made our way to the tree. “All can shine,” I said and it took less than a minute to count two coons in Charlie’s tree.
The other dogs were also handled and we walked back toward the trucks and promptly cut the dogs with 40:29 left on the clock. The other dogs almost immediately were struck in and spent probably 10 minutes working a track around and around in front of us after something. No telling for sure what it was and it didn’t result in a tree. Charlie hadn’t opened with the other dogs and still wasn’t struck. The other dogs eventually wandered back in and got their due reward. We stood for several more minutes chatting on the road and all was quiet again except for a barking yard dog off in the distance. One of the spectators with apparently better hearing than me turned and pointed up into the hills above the valley. It took me only a second to concentrate and recognize the voice, ole Charlie, so I put him down for 100.
We shuffled up the road again with an inkling we were in for another walk like the one we just completed. I stopped the cast and this time Charlie had clearly rolled it over so down for another 125, he went. Sure enough, the guide’s landmarks flowed by where he guessed Charlie was treeing. We topped the last crest where the rolling prairie flows out flat and wide and we still weren’t to Charlie. The guide mumbled something about porcupines out here, and I shrugged it off. Lions too, I thought. Suddenly, I saw the shape of a stack of round bales on the horizon. Then our lights lite the bales and Charlie went silent. Someone asked if I heard him anymore, so I stopped to listen. Yes, now I could faintly hear his muffled bawling, and I knew what Charlie was going to do (delete his tree points, lol). We bolted forward and the other dogs arrived as Charlie dragged this big, old, fighting-mad boar coon out of his hiding spot. We handled the dogs and our hunt time ran out.
Charlie’s first UKC hunt, and a first place win. Cool!
Last edited by Rick Ennen on 06-18-2012 at 03:35 AM
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06-03-2012 11:34 PM
