Paul Frederick
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Nov 2012
Location: Laurel, IN
Posts: 1478 |
Sorry it has taken me all day to respond guys. I just haven't had the time until now to sit down and put the numbers up for each event.
Here are the stats for each hunt. Please note that the pre entered number is not entered into the total. I just added up how many actually hunted/showed over both days to come up with these numbers:
Grand American, Orangeburg, South Carolina
Pre Enter NH: ??
Friday NH: 323
Saturday NH: 291
Friday Bench Show: 73
Saturday Bench Show: 68
Total NH: 614
Total BS: 141
Overall Total: 755
UKC Winter Classic, Batesville, Mississippi
Pre Enter NH: 885
Friday NH: 357
Saturday NH: 344
Friday BS: 122
Saturday BS: 95
Total NH: 701
Total BS: 217
Overall Total: 918
Autumn Oaks, Richmond, Indiana
Pre Enter NH: 670
Friday NH: 298
Saturday NH: 233
Thursday BS: 156
Friday BS: 129
Saturday BS: 232
Total NH: 531
Total BS: 517
Overall Total: 1048
UKC World Championship
RQE NH: 5024
RQE BS: 1411
Zone NH: 677
Zone BS: N/A
Finals NH: 104
Finals BS: 153
Total NH: 5805
Total BS: 1564
Overall Total: 7369
This gives you an idea of how many dogs are hunting in each event. Putting the World in here with the other hunts is kind of unfair to them. The RQEs alone make up 165 separate events held over 8 months during the qualifying period.
By looking at this you also don't get the "feel" of how big the hunts are. I can't make a guess as to which one (GA, WC, or AO) is the biggest in terms of spectators. I was at all three and there were a lot of people at all of them. I also had a great time at all of them. I'll be heading back to the Grand American in January and I'm very excited to be doing so and the same goes for both the Winter Classic and Autumn Oaks. Of those three, if someone asked me to pick my favorite, I would have a hard time doing so. They are all in completely different areas of the country, with different terrain for hunting, and, though a lot of people inter lap, there are a ton of different people at each one.
I have personally thought for a long time that every serious coonhunter should make an attempt to go to all three of these events. People can type on here all day how long "whichever event you chose" is the best, but you can't really understand until you are standing in Orangeburg, Batesville, or Richmond seeing it for yourself.
Also, you can't account for the feel of the breed days either. Whatever breed you chose to hunt, you ought to make a concerted effort to go to "your" breed days when you can. There is nothing like seeing hundreds of English dogs at English Days and being surrounded by people who fancy the same breed of dog you do. I've been to many of them both before I started working for UKC and since and I can't even begin to describe the sense of camaraderie that is happening at those events. I guarantee if you go to your breed day event, and introduce yourself, you will make some friends that will last a lifetime. The same is true at the GA, WC, and AO as well. I can name people from each of these places I am looking forward to visiting with.
I hope this helps you with your question. I know I threw a lot in there at the end that doesn't really pertain to the numbers at each event, but I hope someone will read this and decide to make the trip to one of these hunts in 2014. If you've never been to a large event, you really have no idea what you are missing!
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Paul Frederick
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10-28-2013 04:09 AM
