Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 958

Bayou Coonhunter held our HTX hunt Friday night. Three dogs showed up to hunt; Jamie Miller’s Rock dog, Donald’s Kacy female, and I had Blueduck. Blueduck has one pass toward the second deg HTX, so I figured I’d just go ahead and get the HTXII. We cut Kacy loose first and Jamie judged her. Three mins into the hunt she treed. We made the 75 yard walk to her, and as soon as we hit the tree with our lights, he was looking back down at us. Donald cut her loose again with about 50 mins left to hunt. She treed just as time was running out. We made it to the tree , but couldn’t find the coon, but she got her first pass. Next was Jamie’s turn to hunt Rock. He struck in and eventually drew a fault for not opening, but he never quite trying. Time ran out for Rock without a pass. Next was Blueducks turn, and Donald was the judge. I cut Blueduck down a ditch headed to the east. Forty mins and no telling how much ground he covered, he struck in. Cold cold track, Donald put the 8 on him two different times. With only mins left in the hunt time, Blueduck trees. On the way to the tree, I could tell something wasn’t quite right. When we got there, the Horse Flies were eating him up. At first I thought it was yellowjackets. I was happy he stayed tree, but I have never seen Horse Flies so thick. We didn’t find his coon, so he didn’t receive his pass. Three hours of hunting and treed the only coon in the first 3 mins. This was a tough hunt.

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BigCountry
Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 958

We had some much needed rain yesterday, which also cooled things off quite a bet (72). So I loaded up, and headed to the woods. It wasn’t completely dark when I got there, but I cut Ole Blueduck loose anyway. At 150 yards, he opened. I figured it was going to be a cold track like I been having the last 3 weeks. Wrong, not this time. He left there rolling, headed east, then turned back north. When he had gotten close to the Steel Bridge road, I took off to head he off, to keep him from getting in some bad stuff. I beat him there and turned the coon back. He headed back south and at 400 yards he made a big loop, coming back to the Steel Bridge road. He had crossed Wall Bayou and was coming to the road fast. I cranked up the ranger and took off to head him off again. I crossed the bridge and stopped at trail that came out to the road. Before I even killed the ranger, I heard Blueduck locate about 50 yards off the road. I got out the ranger to make my way to him, but he shut up. That aint like him at all, maybe the horse flies were after him again. But I could hear him whining in the same spot. When I got there he was in a fork of the tree. I got him out the tree, then started searching. I could see the tree pretty good, but never could get him to look. So I lead him out and called it a night. What a nice night, what a good race for a change, I wasn’t sweaty and was almost chilly to the way to the truck.

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Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 958

Donald and I had a great hunt Monday night, made 3 trees and 3 different dogs, and looked at all 3 coons. That was 1000 times better than our Slam Hunt Saturday night. Donald and I draw out together on a 3 dog cast. We scored 0n 2 coons and still had a dead cast. You don’t hear of that very often. I made some mistakes, for sure, but Blueduck made some also.

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Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 958

Update on my puppy. First of all, I changed his name from Bourr’e to Pedro, another card game name. I haven’t been posting anything about this pup because I wasn’t sure if he was going to get the lead vaccine or not. I picked this pup because he was the one off by himself checking things out, and not playing. Well I guess that’s not always a good thing. In my earlier post, I stated how hard he was to leash break. Let me say this first off, I have never mistreated, beat, or wiped this pup. And with his personality, I never will. Running loose or in the pen, he acts like any other dog. But, when I put a leash on him, he completely loses him mind. He acts like he has been beaten to death. He will either pull as hard as he can to get back in the pen, or lay down, and be almost drug to get him moving. I can’t speak for anyone else, but if I can’t tie a dog at the tree or lead it out the woods, I have no use for it. No matter how good they turn out to be. I can’t tell you how times I had to stop myself from getting my rifle and putting an end to this. But for some reason, I keep working with him. It has almost become a challenge I am determined to WIN. I started tying him out for a few hours every evening. When I first started this, he learned what was coming, so he would go hide in the dog house, and I would have to go drag him out. Little by little he started getting better. Wish I could tell you he is the perfect dog now, but he’s not. He still has a long ways to go. With him being so shy and scared, he’s way behind on the other parts of being a coondog. I have showed him 3 or 4 coons, and he is barking at them, but doesn’t have the boldness that I like to see. Monday night I turned one out for him and he actually trailed it a pretty good ways. He is also trying to load in the truck, and in the ranger. I intended on hunting/training him alone from the start, but that all has change with the way he acts. He will go with the dogs as far as they go, but hasn’t treed yet. I haven’t tied him at the tree yet, but I am leading him out the woods without too much problems. I know a guy that wants him for a yard dog if I decide I can’t handle it anymore. I really don’t think he will ever be the kind of dog that I want.

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Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 958

Last night me and Donald took a ride over to Gum Swamp. This was our last chance to get them tuned up for the Uchtman Memorial Hunt this coming weekend. We got there before dark, and I sent Blueduck in, toward Wall Bayou. He struck a hot track 75 yards off the road, and the race was on. He ran that coon hard and fast, making two road crossing, then on out into the cutover. The coon made a big loop then turned back, headed right back to towards where we struck him. When Blueduck was 40 yards off the road where we cut him, he treed (Still Datylight)in the cutover. We made our way in there and found him on an eight inch Tallow Tree, that went up into a mass of vines. We shuck trees and pulled vines, but never got him to look if he was there. So we made our way back to the ranger and drove around to cut Kasey loose. This little female has something that I don’t know how to explain. Donald says, she’s and “Ole Man type of dog”, because she is so easy to handle and trees so many coon really close to the road. She’s gunna tree and she gunna have a coon. Trees a lot of coon other dogs pass up. She does this over and over and over. She may be the most accurate dog I’ve been in the woods with since the late 80’s early 90’s. She aint gunna threw rocks in your face when she leave, but the next time you see her, she will be sitting under a coon. Might be 20 yards or 800 yards off the road, but she will have a coon! Well Donald sent her down Wall Bayou to the south. At 200 yards, she crossed over and started swinging back towards us. She was getting close to the old road that runs on the back side of the bayou, so we road around to cut her off if she tried to cross. We stopped about 200 yards from her to see what she was going to do. Five minutes later, she struck a hot track and was headed straight to us. She treed when she was 50 yards from us, on the side of the road. We drove up to her and parked. She was treed on a Pin Oak 10 yards off the road. I found the coon as soon as I stepped out the ranger. Once again, she just seemed to make a coon in a place where you wouldn’t think one should be, and with no walk again.
“The Ole Man’s type of Dog”

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Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

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Registered: May 2015
Location: redstick
Posts: 299

I need one or two of them before I start enjoying laying around waiting on a Coon dog to take Ann place

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sleepy

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 958

Got up Friday morning and hit the road at 3:45. First stop, picked up Donald, and on up to Kentwood, where I picked up Sleepy. (Two of the finest fellow you could spend the weekend with)Then on up to Ava Mo. to attend the Uchtman Memorial hunt. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies going up the interstate, with the two dog boxes, ice chest, and dog tails hanging out everywhere. Oh we had plans of bring all this Louisiana dog power up there, and coming home with all the silver and gold. Well, I guess it just didn’t work as planned. Sleepy (Redstick Ann) won their GrNiteCh cast Saturday night, but didn’t have enough to win Queen of hunt. Same thing with Bluduck, he won his NiteCh cast Friday but also fell short, and Donald (Kasey) had two enjoyable hunts but was in the same boat as Sleepy and myself. But I got to say, a great time was had by all. Got to see some old friends and made quite a few new ones. I will not even try to name all of the fine folks, but I got to visit with some of the most knowledgeable folks in the Bluetick World. Really some legends! I hear and read all the time about coonhunting being a dying sport, and as I looked around the clubhouse grounds, I see why. I would say that half of the folks there, were over 65, with the other half being, mostly people over 40. But there was more kids showing dogs than I have seen in the past. More kids are needed in our sport to keep the great tradition alive. I had heard that Tom Williams (hope that’s his last name, if not please forgive me) a fellow at the Ava club was from the North-West part of the US, and had done a lot of bear, and lion hunting in the past. I would give anything to witness a hound running and treeing a bear or lion, so I had to ask questions. Tom was more than glad to share his experiences with me. Tom told about the differences between coonhounds and big game hounds, and many hunting stories from the past. It was like I was a kid again around the deer camp. Friday night I draw out with a young male Bluetick (2 years old) named Big Larry. I won the cast Friday night, but I can tell you, if it would have been a different outcome if, how can I say this without offending anyone, if Larry was able to stay at the tree. Larry had first strike and first tree on both turn outs, but wasn’t able to stay. Blueduck got off alone and treed one giving me the cast win. Saturday night Larry got with a different group of dogs and scored 650. He opens good, moves a track, loud, and fast to get treed. I love a meek mannered hound. I feel sure we will be hearing from him in the near future, and I will be going to make an outcross at some point. A 12.5 month old female won Queen, hunted by a young lady, which I can’t recall her name. This was the young lady first cast win. Very impressive. Thanks to the Ava Missour Club for putting on such an enjoyable hunt, and a Special thanks goes out to Mr Gary Uchtman for allowing us to breed one of his fine females to Case.

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Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 958

Earl Guthrie and his son Matt came down from Mississippi to pick up their Case X Emmie Lou pup Thursday night and make a round to Gumswamp with us. Matt made his way to the pen, and nothing flat, said “That’s him, that’s Amos, Amos Moses”. I told him, he sure didn’t take long to pick a puppy, Matt told me,”I didn’t pick him, he picked me” . A very good name for a Bluetick from Louisiana, because Amos Moses was a Cajun. We then headed on over to Gumswamp, Earl and Matt had brought along their 14 month old female, E.Z. We made 4 trees and looked at two coons. E.Z. is going to make them a really good coonhound, and an unbelievable track dog. This little female is really good at picking up on the outs that a coon makes, and a very nice tree dog. Blueduck aint no slouch on a track, but she picked up most of the outs. Looking forward to hunting with these gentlemen again.

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Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 958

I started the thread on 7/15, to cover the progress of this puppy I named Blueduck. At the time, I had no way of knowing how this would all play out. Fortunately he turned out to be one of the best or the best I have ever own. He has been as straight as an arrow all his life. Opens good on a track, never barking in the same place, always moving, and a stay put tree dog. This past weekend, Blueduck finished to Dual Grand, I'm very proud of him.
Below are pictures of his progression.

First night we got him and his sister home.


First time to see a coon hide.


First time treeing a cage coon. 5 months old


First time to split tree 6 or 7 months old


First Coon Treed alone. 7 months old


HTX title Sept. 2016


Made NiteChampion Aug, 2017


Finished to Dual Grand Aug 2018

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Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

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Registered: Dec 2014
Location: Missouri
Posts: 26

Good looking dog Tommy. Congts

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Danny Williams

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Registered: Apr 2014
Location: oakvale ms
Posts: 2007

on the wins Tommy and finishing Blueduck to Dual Grand.

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 958

Thank you Danny, and Mr Jack. It was so enjoyable to see this young hound progress, and to be able to track his progressions on here with pictures, it was alot of fun. I guess after he reached 2-2.5 yo, he really started getting VERY consistent. And it was hard to see the progression, but two things I really noticed is when a coon makes an out, it don't bog him down, he picks it up and is always moving, and the other is his accuracy. When he trees, he got a coon.

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Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

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Registered: Jan 2018
Location: Baxterville, MS
Posts: 6

Congratulations on finishing Blueduck to Dual Grand. Reel nice dog, Matt and myself were really impressed the night we hunt with him. Would like to get together and hunt again.
Earl Guthrie

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Earl Guthrie
Little River Kennels

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 958

Anytime yall ready Earl. I'm booked up the next 3 weekends with running to pick up a puppy, and elk hunting, but I'll be free after that.
I'll be spending a lot of my weekends in the Delta this winter.

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Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

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