Our hounds hunt better....

...when it's just OUR hounds!  Today's forecast was for rain to develop in the afternoon as a warm front moved our way. Fridays forecast  sounded like a total washout, while today we supposedly had only a 50/50 chance of  light showers. I'll take those odds to hunt, any day.

Tommy brought 3couple, Bobby brought 3 couple( he left Part-Time home!) and my 2 couple made for a small pack of 16 hounds. 

When I was about 15 minutes away from the meet, my cell phone rang. It was Bobby calling to tell me that a fox  was sitting on a dirt pile 200 feet from him, " just waiting for us!".  I  told him that as soon as Tommy arrived, release the hounds and go!!!!   I'll hark mine when I get there. 

As I pulled around a corner only a few hundred yards from where they started at Danny's Pond , the radio crackeled: "STOP RIGHT THERE , HOUNDS ARE COMING RIGHT TO YOU!" .  I slammed on the brakes, jumped out and dropped my tailgate. It was perfect.  Moments later, I followed the pack   as they swept through the woods parallel to the road and  right alongside me.

We had a total of 3 foxes over a  2 hour time period., covering an impressive amount of territory. This first red ran the woods  from Danny's Pond to Dead End, making some large circles  for 45 minutes before turning his mask west.  Now he changed course and headed west via Douggie Grey's branch to the  Beaver Dam. A check of about 2 minutes followed. This is where we all agree that the first change over in foxes occured, because the route of the pilot changed completely. This one ran  farther  west, going   up through Wickie's woods and on to the "Little Coal Woods" and "behind Millers" .  He spun around there, crossing back and forth over a large power line cutover for awhile and then decided to break covert on the south side. He ran in the open  behind Milllers for   several hundred yards, then ducked back into the Coal Woods.  He made that swing 3 times. During the second time around,  as the hounds ran the foxes' line over the open, a group of about 10 deer were running single file across the same field, alongside  the hounds, but a  couple hundred feet away. It was cool to watch  -  the hounds were oblivious to the deer.

After the third trip, Charles sought safe haven in a huge woodpile in the cut-over section of the woods.   It was around  9:45.  Tommy had an 11 am doctors appointment. Ok- so we'll walk in and get the hounds ( it's about a 1/4mile walk to get to the edge of the woods, and then  we had to pick through the mess of the cut over timber....and did I mention the water??  )  JUST as Bobby and I were only a couple hundred feet from the pile, the hounds opened again.  Did they flush that second fox back out -or was  this another tag-team switch in progress?



The log pile where fox # 2 switched over to fox #3

 When Tommy viewed the fox  cross from the Coal woods , over the open and through power line cutover, he was certain it was a bigger, lighter colored fox.  And this fellow also ran a very different pattern,  leaving the Coal Woods, crossing the branch and making a run behind Geisels chicken houses.He returned to the branch very quickly, and then ran up and down it, parallelling Almshouse Rd. Finally, he broke covert, crossed   the road, and went into the Slaughter Woods to the south. But within seconds of getting inside that covert , he was viewed by a car follower crossing right back over the road, to return to Miller's ( "behind Miller's" is all open fields)

Ok- NOW, it was 10 am..  Hounds were running so much harder  than they had yesterday and I knew it killed Bobby to  ask Tommy, "what do you want to do, big brother??  This is a perfect time to get them..."
But he was right.  And so we did.  We had a long view of this last pilot as he made his way across the green wheat- I tried to video, but I've decided that if the video isnt exceptional, I'm not going to bother posting. ( I've been told by someone that the videos are boring). And I couldnt get the fox in focus....

We havent hunted the Coal Woods and Millers yet this year, but we will definitley be back here .  And soon.
And without any time constraints,  Charles James!