Love these weekday hunts!!!!

Tommy's gyp, Terri, at the den at the end of the  second chase.

Terri was all the way inside the hole!

10couple out. There was a hard  hoar frost still covering the ground when we drew some tall grass alongside a ditch at 9:05am.The temp was rising quickly from the low of 24 degrees F of the night before.Winds were to be out of the SW, which would facilitate a quick warm up to the low 50s for later in the day.  \

We had a shotgun start when one of Bobby's hounds, Repo,  made the find at 9:07am. The fox had been laying in the tall grass only a few feet from where I was standing when you see the video start to roll. Since I didnt expect it, I didnt get the camera on until Charles was almost to the woods edge. But you can see where the hounds run him out of the grass and down the edge. 

This fox liked running in the open, and I got very lucky and captured him covering a wide expanse of wheat, with  the hounds coming up behind him, a little while later.   Right before I tally ho'd this fox over the open, another fox was viewed in the same field.  He crossed the same road our pilot did, but he was ahead of our fox, and crossed about 50  yards further north.  This manuever would ultimately  put an end to our chase. After another good 20minutes of running,  our  hunted fox circled back , crossing over the line of the other fox, causing a  long check in the open of a different  field than the one in the video.  We left the pack alone and tried to allow them to sort it out since none of us actually saw where the other fox had  gone once he crossed the road.  But  after 10minutes, when it was clear that the pack had begun to trail the wrong line heel,  we broke them. It was 10:22am.

a still from the video, when the hounds checked after being confused  by the lines of two foxes.

No worries! At 10:27, hounds hit the line of hunted fox # 2, when we drew an area about 3 miles to the NE.
This red gave us a memorable chase for the next  2 hours.  He ran the open often, but I never got quite as lucky with the camera again although I was able to film the hounds many times.  This fox also liked running in the open.  At 12:10, when fox # 2  made a spin in some woods, the pack split.  Just when we were thinking about getting them, too.  Dang, I had blankets that needed washing !

But Diana was looking out for us, because at exactly 12:30, one fox went to ground with 5 1/2 couple  at the earth.  Both Marilyn and Lark were there. I took pics of the newly dug out den once we had the hounds loaded. ( had to get them in the hound truck quick, cause we didnt want them to hark to the other bunch that was still running!).  But I did get  a pic of Tommy's little gyp, Terri, right after she emerged from being totally inside the earth.

By the time we caught up with the other 4 1/2couple, they , too, had just denned their pilot in a hole alongside a pond. By 12:48, we had all hounds loaded.  What a lucky break!

Today's chases ranked up within  the 5 best of the season so far. A MUCH better day than yesterdays' hunt!

The first chase of the morning, which ended when a second fox, not being pursued, messed things up.

the end of the first chase, and then a short view of the hounds running the line during the seocnd chase. By then, I didnt much care about taking any more video, as I didnt think I could get anything better than I already had!