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| During the first draw, right before our hounds found. |
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| The open hardwoods!! Cant wait to hunt here on the horse!! |
.. Tommy, Bobby and I were invited to bring our hounds to a meet in Sudlersville, Md, located about 40 minutes north of our regular hunt country. Our hosts, Mr. Buck Clough and Dale Kinnamon unkenneled 5 couple of hounds into the covert next to Mr. Clough's farmhouse at 9:15 am. Our visiting hounds numbered 6 1/2couple. A novice car follower viewed a fox away and across the road he was parked along, but his tallyho over the radio left us all puzzled as to exactly which way the fox travelled. A long cast ensued with hounds failing to find this fox . The woods here are very large, open, hardwood stands and the surrounding fields -mostly planted in winter wheat- have a slight roll to them ( hey, we have pancake-flat terrain with briar-choked, cutover softwoods, so this was a big deal to us !). 4 couple began to cold trail out of the woods and up into a field. All of mine were a part of that bunch, so I stayed with them. When nothing came of this, I brought these hounds back into the woods and caught up with Bobby. We had all of our hounds with us, while Tommy and Dale were about 200 yards deeper in the forest with all of theirs.
Minutes later, our hounds opened : old Reno first,and then the rest of ours honoring her in a unified chorus. In an instant, they were off and running with Tommys' and Dales' harking. It was 9:55am.
This fox made a quick swing through the woods, then was gone away over the same wheat field where I had been watching those 4couple trail earlier. Reynard ran the open for at least a 1/2 mile, crossed a paved road and entered a woods on the other side. From there, he headed east through that covert, crossing another paved road at a church,and continued on through yet another large covert before breaking into the open behind a farmhouse. Here, he ran hundreds of acres of cutover cornfields before going to ground at a large earth in the middle of one of them. It was a fast chase, ,covering a lot of open ground in only 35 minutes. Yikes, this was going to be an interesting day if this was any indication!
Bobby and I hiked the 3/4 mile to the earth from the nearest road but by the time we arrived about 5 couple had drifted into surrounding woods. ( The road was downwind from the hole, so blowing and calling was pretty much an exercise in futility until we got within a few hundred feet of it ) . Bobby walked out with the hounds we had, while I went after the others. My Marilyn had been at the hole as we approached it, but by the time we got there she had followed the others into the woods. The rest of my bitches walked out with Bobby. It took 15 minutes to coax the other hounds out of the woods. ( Our hosts' hounds didn't ' know me and didnt want to follow me out. ) All were accounted for save Marilyn and Bobby's Repo by 10:45am
The others left to go draw another covert about a mile further downwind. Since Marilyn and Repo would not be able to hear the pack and hark, I stayed behind and walked the country around that fox den for the next 1/2 hour until Marilyn decided to appear. There was no sign of Repo anywhere. Bobby and I hurried over to where the other hounds were running the second pilot of the day. We had all of our hounds (save for Repo) in the truck and were eager to get them turned back out.. Just as we drove up to a culvert where the other hunters were sitting, Reynard II popped out into the road right in front of us! How convenient! The pack made a check in the road , we let ours out, and they were back in the chase ( and after our hounds had caught quite a breather while Bobby and I were searching for Marilyn and Repo.) The thought occurred to me that might not sit too well with our hosts, but I was relieved to find it didnt matter to them at all, thank goodness!
All hounds were now on ( except for Repo),and they chased this pretty red fox acxross open wheat fields and into and through several large woods. ( There is alot of country here!!) At around noon, as we were positioned downwind of a covert where the pack was running, we viewed two foxes breaking away over the open and coming right at us . The first fox , although headed twice, perservered and crossed over the road where we sat, running in front of Tommy's truck ( the green truck in the video- you have to loook hard through the dirty windshield to catch a glimpse of him ) . The second fox was not as bold. It turned away and ran back towards the covert, running the side down until we lost sight of him. Hounds were coming on, but then hit the line of the retreating fox alongside the woods, thereby cutting off the loop this fox had made in the field in front of us. By the time we got "around the block" (one big-ass block!) to catch up with the pack,they were once again checked in the middle of a road. ( According to our hosts', their foxes are known for running the middle of the pavement. ) Hounds were not able to follow the scent down the blacktop and after a long check it was decided to load them and put them on the fox that had bravely crossed the road in front of us at least 20 minutes earlier.
They struck right away, as the video shows. But this fox had a good 1/2 hour lead and when the pack emerged on the far side of the woods after crossing the field in the video, they emerged into another cornfield and could not pick up the scent over that stubble. There was an irrigation lane bisecting the open. On one side was this corn stubble. The other side was planted in wheat. The hounds were trailing over the corn stubble, headed right for the lane. It was now after 1pm.
A short discussion went sort of like this:
Bobby: "should we get'em?"
Me: " He's too far ahead.and they cant smell him over that corn...."
Bobby:," yeeaaahhhh, but..."
Me: " If they hit that wheat and they get up on it better... then ????....."
Bobby: " yeah, we'll let'em go on then.."
[Lead hounds cross over the lane, cant smell any better on the wheat. they all trail back over into the corn stubble. Milling around, slowly moving back toward the lane]
Bobby: " hhmmmmmm, I dunno know..."
Me:: "They're not getting it.. Sh*t or get off the pot, Ireland. They're almost TO THE LANE . [Once they hit that wheat,we wouldn't be able to get in front of them] Whatcha gonna do ??? "
Bobby: "OK! LET"S BREAK"EM!!!"
( drives like a maniac down the lane in an attempt to get to hounds before they hit the wheat field again)
Me: " Blow the [ truck's] horn, BLOW THE HORN!!!!"
Which succeeded in getting hounds' heads'up.
And with much hilarity, mission accomplished.
End of story.
(We got invited back next week!!)
I went back to the church after the hunt to look at some very old headstones in the cemetary.This was especially sad:
This headstone was carved in 1865, but look how clear the writing is...
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