Registered: Jun 2007
Location: jacksonville, nc
Posts: 2856

i posted this once and it disappeared.
I was wondering where the conversations on fox chasing are. i never hear anything about it. my grandfather and i, as a preteen, went a few times every week. we'd turn the dogs loose and wouln't see them again until the next day when they would stagger back into camp. i didn't care for it then but now my dogs have taken to chasing fox and i find it fun to listen to them. i did a search and all i could find are the ones where people wear funny hats and ride horses. i'm looking for the coon hunters of fox chasing.

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Registered: Dec 2013
Location: PA.
Posts: 1738

My grandfather hunted fox by day, coon by night and did it all with the same dog and for the most part that dog knew what time of day it was and what he should be chasing (or so Pap said "the dog did seem to trail some awfully long legged coon") Those were the days but they're gone nobody does that anymore. I think it's became a sin for a coon dog to chase fox LOL

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: jacksonville, nc
Posts: 2856

yea, my grandfather's dogs were almost always out of hearing. they used a funnel like thing that they put into their ears to help them hear the dogs. that was their version of a tracker. they ran so long that they would wear all the hair off their under leg area and it would be wet. i don't know if they chased deer or not because there were very few deer back then. at the time i didn't see the fun in what they were doing.

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Registered: Sep 2005
Location: top of the hill in ILL.
Posts: 5695

in the early to mid 70;s I kept a pack of 10 to 15 hounds..then there was 6 or guys around with packs of fox hounds...had a lot of fun sitting around the fire drinking coffee fortified with a little sour mash ,listening to 15 or 20 hounds put that old fox through his paces was the best music I ever heard....old fox hounds that cant run with the pack anymore would drop out and go tree coons..hunted one for 4 years that amazed me.he pounded fox for eight years of his life till he started treeing coons.i hunted him 4 winters on coon and never seen him ever mess with another fox after I shot out the first coon to him.....not a super great coonhound but by god he could hold his own with dogs that were bred to be coondogs...

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Registered: Oct 2013
Location: Maryland
Posts: 2633

We had a few but they died off. The one main one was a pretty old fella when I met him back in the 80's. He had a letter that he carried around in his shirt pocket and it was hand signed by a former governor of Maryland in which he was given permission for life to run his foxhounds on Point Lookout State Park.
Just about every year some new robo-cop acting park ranger would arrest him in spite of the letter and then have to turn him loose and go get his reprimand.
I do remember this...all of his dogs were big, loud and could move a track. Those guys didn't like gray fox much because they just didn't run like the reds. Few people today know that reds were not native to North America. They were brought over from England in the old days for the sport.
We do still have a lot of the ones that do it on horseback but that is more of a social gathering.
I had a beagle that was a good fox dog if you wanted to shoot one...she didn't try to drive them to the next county, they would just make a big circle and if you stood there long enough you would get a shot. I never really tried to train her to do it. It all started when one day she ran a rabbit a long ways and when it finally came back around...it was a big red one.
I have done a lot of fox hunting by accident with some coon dogs.....

Edit: I have always heard it said that a gray fox will climb a tree if he's pushed hard enough. In this area we do have a lot of gray fox, at night with a caller we can easily call up three or four in a few settings.
I don't know just how hard hard enough is, but I can tell you that over the years {40} I have had some coon dogs that could thoroughly put pressure on a gray....but not once did one ever climb.

Last edited by msinc on 04-08-2015 at 01:16 PM

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Registered: Sep 2005
Location: top of the hill in ILL.
Posts: 5695

I have always heard it said that a gray fox will climb a tree if he's pushed hard enough.......that is true...grey fox are more cat like...reds are more canine like...20 years ago I treed one with a young clover bred female..the grey was 20 foot off the ground in a tree that was straight up no leaning tree..i shot it out and beat her with the fox till I couldnt swing it no more...hunt that feamale for ten more years..never ran another fox....

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Registered: Oct 2013
Location: Maryland
Posts: 2633

"hunted one for 4 years that amazed me. He pounded fox for eight years of his life till he started treeing coons."

There's a whole lot of coon hunters with both small and big name coon dogs that can say the exact same thing!!!!!!

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Registered: Sep 2005
Location: top of the hill in ILL.
Posts: 5695

heard that...

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Registered: Jul 2011
Location: tennessee
Posts: 2441

i aint ever treed a fox but i had a cur run one in a holler log one night, that cur was flat putting the pressure on that ole fox and i reckon he either had to go in a log or get caught. i hate it when my dogs run a fox,i rather them be hunting a coon to tree.

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Registered: Jan 2007
Location: Al
Posts: 3069

I think the first Walker Coon dog Lester Nance hunted he got from a fox hunter, if memory serves me right .

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Registered: Sep 2005
Location: top of the hill in ILL.
Posts: 5695

that is correct ..I have an old full cry around here somewhere.that has a article on Nance that says his first walker was a coon treeing fox hound...

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Registered: May 2007
Location: fairmont wv
Posts: 11948

don't know of any fox hunters around here anymore growing up my granpap kept serval was a bunch of fox hunters there were serval fox shantys around then when the old gen passed away it went to nothing i may be wrong but think it's still a big thing in va

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: jacksonville, nc
Posts: 2856

i too think more fox chasing is done in va. i went to biggamehounds and read every post there on fox chasing. i learned that red fox go away and gray fox go in circles and up a tree. mine will chase both. i prever the grays though they have treed only one, i think. when they jump a red they go out of hearing and i can get only the slightest signal on my marshall collars. they come back and mess around and go out of hearing again. when that happens i get concerned because i don't know when i'll get them back. they left friday night and didn't get back till 3AM. you guy might give it a try. if you're not into shooting eyes and like to hear your dogs go, consider running a fox.

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Registered: May 2007
Location: fairmont wv
Posts: 11948

quote:

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Originally posted by croatankid
i too think more fox chasing is done in va. i went to biggamehounds and read every post there on fox chasing. i learned that red fox go away and gray fox go in circles and up a tree. mine will chase both. i prever the grays though they have treed only one, i think. when they jump a red they go out of hearing and i can get only the slightest signal on my marshall collars. they come back and mess around and go out of hearing again. when that happens i get concerned because i don't know when i'll get them back. they left friday night and didn't get back till 3AM. you guy might give it a try. if you're not into shooting eyes and like to hear your dogs go, consider running a fox.

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Registered: Apr 2007
Location: Coats, NC
Posts: 269

check out this site........Speeddogs.net

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: jacksonville, nc
Posts: 2856

thank you terry. i've been there and it is helpful but over all it's about virginia and field trials.

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Registered: Feb 2007
Location: Wagram
Posts: 243

Standing on a sawdust pile as the foxhounds dug out a red fox. Laying on the hood of a 53 chevy pickup as a kid counting stars while the foxhounds ran a gray fox in a cotton field. Watching a gray fox move around the tree too pee on my Dad as he climb the tree to make the fox jump and ran some more at daylight. Wish I could go back and be there with my Granddad and Dad and those foxhounds. Granddad received a letter( that I still have) in the early 60's from a fellow from out of state that wanted to bring his hounds to chase the red fox that had only one hole. GET IT!

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: jacksonville, nc
Posts: 2856

I used to go fox chasing with my granddaddy. I became his driver because he was too old. And now, as I'm getting ready to go hunting I can almost see my granddaddy as he did the same thing. As I recall, his dogs never treed anything so he never went into the woods on foot. My dogs, after being kissed good bye by the fox, will frequently find something, usually a possum, to tree. When they do, they might be very deep with no roads or trails. Last Friday night I didn't get home until 3AM Saturday.

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Registered: Dec 2012
Location: Big Swamp
Posts: 216

Virginia has a lot of fox, or used to anyway, I was there from 1980 - 87, probably hunted and trapped more fox in that time period, both red and grey than in all my years before and after, I got to know some guys with large tracts of land in Manassas with the bull run river running through their property, I had an old GMC Jimmy with 36 inch tires to cross the river with, hunted and trapped both sides, One November took a 30 day leave and got right at 80 fox in that time, a couple of bob cat and quite a few beaver from the river. Somewhere I've got a pretty cool picture of them all hanging on the back of an old horse barn, I never did see or hear of anyone running them with hounds then, maybe was just not happening in that area, sure was a lot of fun,

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: jacksonville, nc
Posts: 2856

i've always run fox at night. got to thinking about possibly running during the day. that would be so much better because it would be easier to see the fox and to find the lost dogs. do folks run them during the day?

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Registered: Oct 2013
Location: Maryland
Posts: 2633

During the day is the only time they did run them around here...fox hunters that is. Of course all the coon hunters ran them at night...those that were man enough to admit it!!! Not intentionally.
The dedicated fox hunters always went hunting at first light and ran until the afternoon, ate lunch and gathered the dogs before it got dark. That last part didn't always go quite as smooth as they wanted it to.

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Registered: Feb 2010
Location:
Posts: 37

here in Maryland there were fox hunting with hounds and horses in there little red suits, and still today. there were guys who just liked the sound of hounds and would run at night. they builded a fire and would bet on who's hound came back into hearing first. when rut was in those red males would run for hours. I don't know if any are left today. then there were guys like me. I was a fox/gun hunter. that being said I cut the hounds ( 1 to 3 ) and let them go until I heard them strike. then I would fine a good spot and wait for the hounds to bring the fox back to my gun. the red would make bigger circles and not kill would go to hole. the grays would make smaller circles and tree if not killed. I never used running walkers because a lot of they would stop hunting and go to truck/home from the gun blast. I used cross and had one of the best red bone fox/cat dog you every seen that came from east ten that was from a bad coondog buy. have not been able fine any redbones that have mouth,speed,nose like that in the last 40 years. I don't know of any of the guys that gun hunt fox today but wished I did. plenty of fox gray/red in Maryland.

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Registered: Feb 2010
Location:
Posts: 37

sorry there were also trail hunts 1 day and 3 days with judges that had dogs pick up for not hunting. all running walkers in these hunts. they do a lot of this hunting in south va,eastern nc,sc,ok and mo today in compounds. I have always liked the outside running.

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: jacksonville, nc
Posts: 2856

my dogs haven't been running fox lately. They seem to be tracking them and just can't heat up the track so they go for an hour or so and hopefully they'll cross a road so that I can catch them.

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Registered: May 2015
Location: IN
Posts: 2760

We don't have many fox anymore, several groups around here that run coyote with hounds

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