We had several " guest "hounds join us, and whenever you throw a bunch of hounds together which havent hunted together as a pack for awhile, you can expect the unexpected.. And for the first 2 1/2hours, it was a bit nuts.
We walked hounds into the first covert @ 7:30 and they hit a cold trail right in the field. Much ado about nothing for the next 1/2 hour as the pack cold trailed all through the woods. . Sheesh.
At about 8am, someone on the road viewed a fox leave the covert, heading south. But the person got a bit confused and was incorrect with his directions.to those of us in covert. We walked the pack several hundred yards before the error was realized, and had to turn the hounds around and walk the woods back.
Marney opened on a fox going north, and seven hounds honored her . They took that fox out of the woods, across the road and on into the cannery woods. Meanwhile, a few more hounds opened on the fox viewed, and two more opened on yet a third.
For the next hour, we had hounds running everywhere. And the one directon we did NOT want them to go was west,towards theMaryland stateline. And eventually, that's where the bigger bunch went.
By 9am,we had all the hounds rounded up, and since alot of country had already been covered without a steady, setrtled chase, it was decdied we'd go and hunt the "little woods" across from the "Coon Dog Man". Last week, 5 foxes had been roused out of this small covert.
The first fox hounds jumped ran straight away to the highway, crossing wide open wheat fields. We tried to get to the fox in time to turn him back, but we didnt make it in time . We did succeed , however, in holding up the hounds. We went right back and hunted the same covert again, coming from a differnt corner. And again , we jumped another fox that ran the same path as the first, in the open. This one went to ground in a hedgerow 200 yads before reaching the highway. PHEW!
SO... we loaded the hounds AGAIN. And decided to try the " 80 acres." I sat upwind on the highway,watching the open fields between two large woods, as Bobby and Howard walked the pack in. Mr.Fred and Gayle were also on the highway, and all three of us watched in awe as 36 deer ( as best we could count!) left the covert the hounds were in, and began their run west, crossing alot of open country on their way to the next woods Right behind them came a fox and he was flying across that open almost as fast as the deer could run! Every few minutes, more deer would exit the woods and head in the same direction.
But the hounds could not pick up the line of the fox. Nor could they pick up the scent of another fox that almost walked on top of Bobby and Howard. (Howard has been foxhunting a long time, and he said that was the closest he had ever come to a fox -it literally almost walked right into them!
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| Two handsome bucks viewed during todays hunt. They were NOT part of the herd of 3 dozen deer that one fox ran behind! For $$ .I'll tell you Delaware deer hunters where these are! lol! |
It wasnt until 10am when the pack finally opened on yet another red that seemed willing to run. And he did run -for the next 2 1/2 hrs.making wide circles with many runs in the open. During the chase, Bobby and I had walked into one of the coverts the fox would traverse during his circuit. And just at that time, there was a brief split as 4 hounds came on an itchy-tailed fox (mangy). They werent our hounds, and neither of us had any tools with which to break them. We tried, unsucessfully. ( This fox didnt stay up long, and the 2cple quickly harked back to the main pack, which by now was across a paved road and running his northern end of the loop.) I had to lose the two large cups of coffee I had consumed earlier, so I told Bobby to walk back to his truck and go ( the long way ) around to the road where the others were sitting. I meanwhile, would walk on out of the woods, along a ditch next to the wheat field our pilot had been running earlier. As I got to the woods' edge, being downwind of the pack I could hear them well in the distance. They were still on the far side of the road. But as I stayed to the high weeds along the ditch that led to the road, I kept watching way ahead of me for the fox. And sure enough, here came Charlie, crossing back over the road, and headed right to me. I crouched on one of the wheels of some nearby pivot irrigation , turned on the video, and got him as he crossed back into the woods where I had ...well, you know. He never saw me. And I never touched the zoom, so the fox looks small!!! The hounds were a good minute or two behind him, but I mved a little closer to film them.
The next part of that video shows when the hounds are making their RETURN trip ( for the third time) over the road. I didnt get there in time to get the fox. But as you can see, he came out of the woods, ran the road down for several yards,and then ducked into the corner of the field.
The next images show the same fox headed (south) BACK over the road again ( 4th time!). It was now almost 12:30, hounds had been out for 5 hours,and running this fox steadily for 2 1/2 hrs. It was unanimously agreed upon that we would stop the pack at the road. The final part of the video shows us waiting for the hounds as they run the foxs' line up to the road. I had to turn the camera off because MARNEY was the front hound as they came to the road.( And as I have admitted before, she can be tough to hold up when she's hot on a line!)
HOWEVER, this does mean , ahem, that Marney was the first to FIND today , and in the lead at the end of the day. Way to go, my little hardhead!!
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