Registered: Jun 2014
Location: PA
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I remember hearing an old wives tale about taking a dog that was tight on track and tying a bell to its neck in an effort to get it to open on trail more often. Any truth to that tall tale? Anyone ever try it?

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Corey Gruver
Greenville, PA
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Still sounds like an old wives tale!!

Never saw a still mouth dog become open mouthed unless it was on a sight chase perhaps.

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Dan

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Washington, NC
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No it did not make them open more but you could hear what direction the dog went and hear the dog if it was close enough.

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Bill Harper
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Old wives tale . The bells helped track the silent dogs and was used on birds dogs as well.
Now we have tracking collars !

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Registered: Aug 2003
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quote:

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Originally posted by Bill(Chew)
No it did not make them open more but you could hear what direction the dog went and hear the dog if it was close enough.

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: north ala.
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Used a bell for 2 years almost every night. I got to where I could tell which way he went, how far away he was and even when he struck. The other dogs knew when he struck as well and would cover him immediately but he never did open on track unless it was a sight race. And not every sight race. Usually if he opened on track it was a deer race. On a Coon he would just fall treed. And this never changed it was still the same every time!

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Registered: Sep 2009
Location: Monticello, Wi
Posts: 781

I once went hunting with a neighbor and before the hunt he stated that his dog was silent. I thought he meant on trail, but it turns out that he was silent on tree too. He hunted him with a bell and a blinking light in the State Parks and was very successful at killing high dollar coon. He was a silent pressure treedog.

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Registered: Jun 2014
Location: PA
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Fun stories gentlemen!

I remember as a boy, I hunted with a old man and a silent Bluetick female. That old dog could flat do it, and she was equipped with a bell.

That old man told me, as much as he liked that Bluetick female, he said her biggest fault (in his eyes) was she always got worked up in the kennel around his supper time, when his old lady would start ringing that dinner bell for him LOL

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Corey Gruver
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Last edited by Corey Gruver on 08-27-2021 at 05:36 AM

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We used bells for bird dogs to keep track of there location in the field and also on a few coonhounds that were hard to handle and would lay out etc.

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Registered: Aug 2011
Location: Emporia, Kansas
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way back then I had a pretty good ol hound that would go out about 3/4 mile to strike but if he had not hit by then he would come back and sneak past you .
out here most of our hunting is along creeks and rivers. I started using a bell on him so I could catch him when he done that to prevent those extra long nights. worked pretty good.

now I use a Garmin pro 550 plus. I like it better that the astro since it does not have all the extras to confuse me . LOL!

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Registered: Sep 2009
Location: Monticello, Wi
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quote:

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Originally posted by Kler Kry
I once went hunting with a neighbor and before the hunt he stated that his dog was silent. I thought he meant on trail, but it turns out that he was silent on tree too. He hunted him with a bell and a blinking light in the State Parks and was very successful at killing high dollar coon. He was a silent pressure treedog.

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Registered: Oct 2003
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 102

I have also heard that a bell on a collar helps keep coyotes away from a dog. That might be a good thing if you hunt one dog alone??

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