WEBVTT - Ep. 266: This Country Life - Deer Hunting with Dogs 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:08.680 Welcome to this country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:12.760 from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:14.720 I want you to stay a while as I share 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:19.280 my experiences and life lessons. This country life is presented 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:23.279 by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:28.280 the best outdoor podcast the airwaves have to offer. All right, friends, 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.880 grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:42.120 stories to share. Deer hunting with Dogs. Deer hundred with 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.520 Dogs has faded from the spotlight over the past thirty years. 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:49.360 That at least it has around here. There's some great 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.400 stories and lessons and cutting a pack of Houds loose 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:56.120 and listening to them putting a white tail through his paces. 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:58.480 We're going to talk about some of them, but first 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:08.400 I'm going to tell you a story. This story comes 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.200 from a fellow, y'all hear me talking about all the time, 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.479 my older brother Tim. I'll have him on here one 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.720 day telling stories himself, but until then this will have 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:24.320 to do so in Tim's words and my voice. Here 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:31.959 we go. It was nineteen seventy and I was twelve 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.320 and finally big enough to deer hunt by myself, sort 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.440 of I'd always wanted to use a rifle, but rifle 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.400 hunters at the time were looked upon like they were 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.679 sort of nuts. I grew up deer hunting with a 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.080 brown and a five that held a buckshot and slug 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:54.720 combination that I lost many hours of sleep over trying 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.640 to get the right combination in the magazine. We used 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.520 dogs back then, and if they ranted deer Bobby, I 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:06.639 needed buck shot first for close range, then slugs in 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.720 case I missed up close three double all bucks shot, 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.560 followed by two slugs in case he was still amongst 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:18.120 the living. Them rifles will shoot a mile son, you 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:22.160 don't need one. They're dangerous. You could shoot a deer 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:25.959 miss and kill someone over in the next county. That's 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.600 what they told me. That's what my dad told me. 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.280 So there I was stuck with buckshot and slugs to 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:38.720 deer hunt with until I was married, except for one time. 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.520 It was December deer season and way before the Curse 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:45.720 of Leaks Land, when you could hunt anywhere on Timber 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.440 Company land that I wanted to go deer hunt. Dad 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.720 said his friend Raymond was going to run his dogs 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.200 and he would put me in a spot on the 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.360 Upper Potlatch Road. We were at Uncle Jim's house talking 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.440 about all of it, and Uncle Jim asked me if 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.840 I wanted to use his thirty thirty. Well, I thought 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:06.080 to myself, I am a rifle man and I need 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.880 that Winchester thirty thirty. I'll show these old folks I 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.040 ain't gonna kill nobody. And I looked at Dad and 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:17.720 he said, you need to toke that shotgun. I started whining, 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.239 I come from a long line of winers. Dad caved 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.919 in and Uncle Jim let me have that thirty thirty. 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.440 A short while later, I was sitting on a pile 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:30.120 of logs on the side of the road on a 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.840 Timber company road close to Crane's Lake when Raymond's dogs 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:39.840 jumped a deer and they headed in my direction. Dad 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.160 was parked about one hundred and fifty yards behind me, 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:46.520 sitting in the truck, letting me quote unquote hunt by myself. 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.160 And as the dogs got closer, I stood up with 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.480 my thumb on the hammer of that lever action rifle. 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:58.040 Soon enough, a humongous eight point buck jumped out in 0:03:58.120 --> 0:03:59.880 the road right in front of me, no more than 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.400 thirty five yards away. I pulled that hammer back and 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:07.560 sent one to him. I missed two things that day, 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.960 that buck and my opportunity for my first deer with 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.120 a rifle. If I killed anything, it had to be 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:18.640 someone in the next county. But if I did, we 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.240 never heard about it. But I had to listen to 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.960 my dad all the way home, son, if you just 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:30.200 used that shotgun, you'd killed that big old buck, on 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:35.160 and on and on. I come from a long line 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.599 of folks that will say I told you so, and 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:44.839 he did for the rest of his life. And according 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.840 to my brother Tim, that's just how that happened. Now 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.000 I can testify myself to that last statement of Tims 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:56.000 that I read. As our father got older, he soffered 0:04:56.000 --> 0:05:00.200 that into saying, how son, you'd do that anyway you want. 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:06.200 But if it was me, that translated into, if you 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.000 don't want to hear about this for the rest of 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:09.640 your life, you'd better do it. The way out of 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.039 deer hunting with dogs was at one time the way 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:26.440 people in my part of the world hunted deer almost exclusively. Camps, fed, 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:28.880 and cared for packs of hounds all year for the 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:33.320 opportunity to cut them loose. When firearm deer season opened, 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.760 any number of dogs from groups of two to pens 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:41.760 of twenty plus would be managed and conditioned throughout the 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.560 year for the big hunt that happened at the beginning 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.599 of each November. Second Saturday of November would see the 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:52.080 majority of the state's modern gun deer season opener. Now, 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.760 but there was a time when it opened on Mondays 0:05:55.200 --> 0:06:00.520 and schools did not. Deer season was eagerly in anticipated 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.320 this Christmas, and while I can't testify to the rest 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.960 of the school districts in Arkansas, I can vouch for 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:11.000 the Warren School district yours truly was serving a twelve 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:14.919 year sentence a being force fed everything I wasn't interested 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:18.560 in learning about, aside from football and girls, and those 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.120 two exceptions were not necessarily in that order. But getting 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.120 out of school for deer season was something we could 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:29.320 all get behind. It was a hunting culture and recognized 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.560 by the community of folks who lived there as a 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.760 social norm. Church was on Sunday and the men folk 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.160 were hard to find around town on opening day and 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:43.000 the week of deer season. You didn't have to be 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.880 a hardcore hunter either to participate in the opening gun 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.919 deer hunt. There were a few who didn't participate. My 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:52.719 maternal grandfather, find A Sly, who I've spoken about on 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.400 here before. He was not a hunter. He was fully 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.120 in support of anyone who did it. He just never 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.800 got the hankering, But the rest of us we got 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.760 his portion and took up the slack of anybody else. 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:08.960 A lot of the big camps back in the day 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.040 would have dog pins where they kept their dogs year round. 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.520 Some would serve as a caretaker throughout the year by 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.440 feeding and watering them and taking them on hunts during 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.080 the off season to keep them in shape, or members 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:25.200 would take turns with that responsibility. They weren't shooting deer 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:27.880 during the off season, just keeping the dogs up to 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:31.480 speed on what was expected of them and training new 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.560 ones that they were acquired and brought into the pack. 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.119 I was never a member of one of the big 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.720 camps where members were from all over the community with 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.040 a big pen full of hounds out back. It was 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.120 always a small family camp of in laws and brothers 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:52.240 and nephews and cousins. Females were as welcomed as any 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.160 of the rest of us. They just chose not to 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.880 hang out at the camp outside of family night when 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.280 everyone brought food, and we all gathered for any evening 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:04.560 a fellowship in vitals. That was their choice. Now, we 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.800 didn't continue to practice running deer dogs, more or less, 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:10.720 dropping out of that practice in the mid nineteen eighties. 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.080 Now you back up over two hundred years and you'll 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:18.080 find records of settlers and adventurers roaming through Arkansas. Was 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:23.119 some kind of utilitarian k nine that assisted in hunting game. 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:26.840 You regular listeners of this channel may have heard about 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:31.360 a settler from Kentucky living in Arkansas around eighteen eighteen 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.720 who had a dozen hunting dogs, one of which he 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.920 gave to a German novelist who sailed to the New 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.640 World to seek adventure, finding a lot of it right 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.440 here in the natural state when it was in its 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:51.640 most natural state. The Kentucky and gifted Friedrich Gerstoker one 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:55.839 of his hounds during his hunting adventures through the region. Now, 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.480 the man claimed the dog was an excellent turkey dog, 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.800 and it would chase turkeys until they flew into a tree. 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:05.480 Then he treated the turkey by barking until the hunter arrived. 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:08.280 And Old Gerstalker took that dog and cut him loose, 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.640 and he jumped a deer, chasing him clean out of sight. 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.400 Frederic never saw him again. Now more than likely that 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:18.720 dog went back to the last place he saw his 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:23.360 original owner and trailed him back home if hunting in 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.600 familiar territory. Many hunting dogs would return home if they 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:29.960 separated from their hunters. And don't feel bad for old 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.679 Gerstalker on losing that dog. He eventually ended up with 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.560 a more faithful hound that stuck by him through some 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:41.839 interesting times, and his name was Bear's Grease, So I'm 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:47.200 familiar now. In the late eighteen eighties, a native North 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:53.080 Carolinian and current at the time Arkansas US Representative Poindexter 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:58.680 Done hunted with a renowned Mississippi bear killer, Robert E. Bobo, 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:02.000 and his famous past back of fourteen dogs, and they 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:06.280 were hunting here in Arkansas. After a successful four day hunt, 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:08.920 taling over a ton of bear and deer meat, it 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:12.840 was apparent to everyone involved that Bobo's hounds were just 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:17.320 as advertised. The politician offered Bobo a section of land 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:21.640 that's six hundred and forty acres for his fourteen dogs, 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:27.320 and Bobo declined. Bobo's hunting partner, Jim Dunn, no relation 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.559 to the representative traded six of his dogs to the 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:34.160 legislator for half a section of land, or three hundred 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.560 and twenty acres. The old Jim Bow later sold that 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.720 ground for thirty five hundred dollars, which is north of 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:47.360 one hundred thousand today. Those were some good dogs. If 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.120 you've listened very long, you've heard me expound on a 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.760 few dogs of my own, currently my coonhound, old Whaling. 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.520 But before Whaling, there was Anna, my black laugh. Her 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:01.520 retrieving abilities were so to none. She was the solid 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.160 of a hunting companion as you could have, and that 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:09.000 pealed in comparison to her duties as a member of 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:12.160 the Reeves family. I know I've told this story before, 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.160 but it's a story I like to hear myself, and 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:19.280 it fits when I'm talking about the value of hunting dogs. 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:21.520 And it was a gift to me from a very 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:25.520 good friend who received her as payment on an overdue 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:29.320 tree planting job that my friend, who wasn't a duck hunter, 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.520 had done for a guy who happened to be a 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:37.440 professional dog trainer. I recapped that portion only to emphasize 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.200 the value of this dog, as I fully trained to 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:43.680 work in retriever her bloodline was impeccable, and her demeanor 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:47.400 and personality was what anyone would want in a dual 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:51.960 purpose hunting family pet. She wiped out that four thousand 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.120 dollars over to my friend, and he in turn gave 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.760 her to me, where he knew that she'd be put 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.679 to good use anyway. I had her a couple of 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:02.760 years at this point, and lots of people that hunted 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:06.440 with her at my brother and I's guide service. One guy, 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.839 particularly from the start, right after his arrival with his 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.800 group to our camp, wanted to buy her, and I 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:15.800 repeatedly told him no over and over again, to the 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.559 point that after two days of it, I began avoiding 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.480 one on one conversations with him for having to hear 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:26.280 his pleas for me to sell her. That always told 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.320 me to never put a price on something that I 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:32.400 didn't want to sell, because someone would pay it. I 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:34.600 found that out on the day they were leaving, when 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.400 that cat came up to me and said, I am 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:42.439 asking you again to name your price for Anna. Frustrated, 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.240 I blurted out, six thousand dollars. That's what it'll take 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.920 for her to leave here with you, And that joker 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:50.440 never batted an eye. He said, will you take a 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.680 personal check or do you prefer cashiers? He got me. 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.600 I was a deputy sheriff at the time, working on 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:02.880 a poorly equipped and overworked, underpaid department, and six thousand 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:07.080 dollars was nearly a third of my yearly salary. And 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:11.040 he was serious. But I wasn't. I crawfished on him 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.680 and I told him no, escorted him to his vehicle 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.440 to get him gone. Dogs are valuable. Good was even 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:20.920 more so. So I get it. When represented done offered 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:24.839 that section of land from mister Bobo's dogs, I doubt 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:35.160 that I'd have made that deal either. Dear dogs, at 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.160 least in my part of Arkansas, were a big percentage 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.760 of the running walker breed, the cousin of my hound, Whalen, 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.319 who's a tree and walker. I remember introducing my wife 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:47.640 Alexis to my dad when we were dating, and at 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.160 his house, his cow dogs were across the road and 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.160 the pen raising all kinds of ruckus. When we pulled 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:56.640 up and Alexis asked my dad what kind of dogs 0:13:56.640 --> 0:14:00.880 he had, he said, running walkers. She said, running walkers. 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:03.400 They need to make up their minds what they're doing. 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:09.040 But those dogs were just about the standard for all 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.480 deer camps in our area, with the exception of being 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.280 the folks who'd feed anything, they would chase and barket 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.760 a deer, and the beagle folks, which is what our 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:23.200 little camp did for a few years. Tim's brother in law, 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.560 who has looked upon as being a brother to us both, 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.160 Joe Bryant, was the keeper of the beagles, and before 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.560 we built the structure that is the current being our 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.560 deer camp, we hunted out of an old army tent 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.080 that I described in detail back in episode one one 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:44.360 aptly titled deer Camp Real original I know. Anyway, if 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:48.000 you were running dogs, you were the designated as the 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.440 captain of the hunt, and you decided when and where 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:53.680 to cut them loose depending on where the folks sat in. 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.040 The stands were located along the wind direction, and the 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.640 most likely avenues of escape at the deer take from 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.240 the barking hounds. This type of hunting is foreign too. 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.080 You need just understand that deer being shot at ain't 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.760 necessarily the one being pursued. It's the deer on the 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.480 edges of all the commotion that slip away to avoid 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.760 the hounds. That usually wind up getting tagged. Also, they're 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.720 not likely to catch the deer that they're chasing. They 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:23.880 ain't a deer dog in the country that could run 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.720 through the woods and thickets fast enough to catch the deer. 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.360 And I bet on the deer being chased a hundred 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.720 times out of a hundred to live to see another day. 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:35.960 It defeats the purpose anyhow. We don't want the dog 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.360 to capture. We want someone sitting on a deer stand 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.280 and have an opportunity if we're shot at him. Here's 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.000 how it worked. The night before, we'd gather at the 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.040 fire after suffer to decide if we were running dogs 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:50.440 the next day. If we were, we all picked stands 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:52.520 and Joe would decide where he was going to cut 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:57.120 him loose based on our locations. After breakfast the next morning, 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.400 we'd all head off to our selected spots. They would 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:03.200 go back to his house and load the dogs, usually 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:05.960 about an hour or so after daylight, and at a 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:08.440 pointed time, he'd cut them loose and follow them through 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:10.960 the woods, hooping and hollering them on their way to 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.560 jump a deer. They was so much fun setting on 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.640 a stand watching the woods for deer, watching the clock 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.600 for the time to start listening for the dogs to jump. 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.480 We liked beagles because the land we hunted was relatively 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.200 smalk compared to the other camps, and beagles didn't push 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.760 deer as fast as the big hounds do. Also, the 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:34.960 race lasted longer, take a bigle a long time to 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:37.240 cover the same amount of ground as a big hound 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:41.000 and man, and it really sounded good. I remember one 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.400 particular morning that we had gotten a good frost. The 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:48.440 air was cold and crisping. Seven point thirty Joe was 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.920 scheduled to cut the dogs loose. I was north of 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:53.600 the camp, less than a quarter of a mile on 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.960 a stand we called the salt lit. We poured out 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.600 some rock salt from an old stump a few years before, 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.640 and it had leached into the ground, and deer craves 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:06.760 salted the fall live because of a sodium deficiency. They 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:10.119 create that deficiency about even plants hide in water and 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.760 protasting him throughout the summer. And they dug a hole 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:16.480 out around that stump about a foot deep and a 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.119 couple feet wide. So I was in a pretty good spot, 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.080 regardless that the dogs pushed them above by me or not, 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.520 and Joe had both dogs, Isy and Nooget on leeds, 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.480 and he left the camp heading east. He got to 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.720 the corner of our property and the neighbors which lay 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.800 east and south of our own. He pointed the dogs north, 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.560 cut them loose, pooping them up and getting them out 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:43.399 in front of him through a small thicket. Both of 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.000 them opened at once, and you could hear their voices 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.360 ringing out through the woods as they told us all 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.320 to get ready. They were trailing a deer. We were 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.000 all holding out for a big buck. But you never 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.720 really knew what the dogs were actually running. It was 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:00.639 a fifty to fifty chance if they were on the 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:02.800 trail of a buck or dough, and really the percentage 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:06.399 was higher that they were chasing the dough. That was 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.399 still during the time when shooting the door wasn't actually 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.879 considered a sin, but it was frowned upon to the 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:16.160 point that the older hunters wondered if you'd ever make 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:20.680 it past Saint Peter because you had killed one. Unfortunately, 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.639 we've all learned that having a more balanced ratio of 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.240 bucks and doze makes it a better and healthier population 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.359 of deer. Anyway, from over half a mile away, the 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.680 cold air allowed me to hear Joe's faint hollering and 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:39.240 a beagle strike. Game on bigles travel about as fast 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:41.879 as a man can walk through the thickets, over logs, 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:46.080 and crossing creeks, and whatever's going to happen ain't necessarily 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.520 going to happen fast. There's gonna be plenty of time 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.320 for the anticipation of trying to figure out if the 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:56.360 dogs are coming towards you or away from you. Are 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.240 they running or pushing a buck by you? It's someone 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.080 else going to shoe first. All of these things are 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.120 going through your head at one hundred miles an ire 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.200 while you're watching for movement, straining to hear a limb 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:11.720 breaker or leaves crunching from an approaching deer. This morning 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.680 was no different, except five minutes into the race, I 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:19.920 heard the dogs turn toward me. A short while later, 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.240 I heard the unmistakable sound of deer moving toward me 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.520 through the dense second and third growth hardwood and pine 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.880 saplings that limited my view in some places to less 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:33.440 than twenty yards. The limbs and bushes shook as the 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:35.359 deer brushed up against them, and I knew it was 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.400 only a matter of seconds. Before whatever kind of deer 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:41.200 it was, stepped into the opening in front of that 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:45.520 salt licked stamp. My rifle, let my shoulder, and every 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:47.800 bit of my senses tuned to what I was hearing 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:52.439 and almost seeing. The expectation of a big buck stepping 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:54.240 into the opening right in front of me had my 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:58.000 heart pounding in my ears. I could hear Joe a 0:19:58.040 --> 0:19:59.919 lot better now as he and the beagles made their 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.440 way to my stand. All the while, the deer that 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:07.119 was so close and still unseen, stood within easy range 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:12.719 but still in the cover of the thicket. My imagination 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:14.800 started to run away with me. Had I not heard 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.480 what I knew to be a deer getting close. It 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.440 wasn't like I had never heard that sound before. No, 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.119 I was positive I'd heard a deer walking. But did 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:26.840 it go back the way it came I would have 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:30.440 been towards Joe and the dogs. I started to doubt 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.840 everything I'd observed up to this point, when all of 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.200 a sudden, a dough in a year and broke out 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:41.040 of cover and stood looking at me from fifteen yards away. 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.399 I let out a sigh disappointment, and saw my breath 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:51.359 in the cold air drift right straight to them. It 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:53.439 was clear to me then that they'd smelled me as 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.520 they'd gotten closer and stopped just short of breaking out 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.400 of cover to weigh the odds are whether to continue 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.240 go back toward the racket that had pushed them there 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.720 in the first place, lowered my rifle, and they shot 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:07.879 across in front of me, headed west in a bigger 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.000 hurry than they'd been in just a few minutes before. 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:14.399 The beagles were getting closer now, and I could hear 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:17.520 them clearly as they followed the scent trail of two 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:20.159 deer that they just ran out in front of them. 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:23.119 It was funny listening to them and hearing them is 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:25.679 just as plain as day, and then hearing their barks 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.200 and balling muffled as if they were suddenly one hundred 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:38.560 yards further than they actually were. When I saw them 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:41.280 coming down through the woods, I saw the reason why 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:45.280 they're barking sounded different. The timber had been cutting there 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.080 the previous spring, and that it had been a particularly 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:52.119 wet year. The loggers had put those big flotation tires 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:54.840 on all their skidders, and some of the rusts that 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:58.720 they left were really, really deep, and they caused those 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.000 little beagles to drop out of sight when they reached them. 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:04.840 It sounded like that falling in a well, only to 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:08.359 pop up on the other side, unfazed and determined as 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:10.760 ever to gain some ground on the animal that they 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:14.399 couldn't have caught if they'd been riding a motorcycle. It 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.560 was hilarious and in a lot of ways, much better 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.520 than killing a deer. I caught the beagles and was 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:25.200 still laughing when Joe got there. We laughed about that 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:30.879 together for a long time afterward too. He's gone on 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:33.960 ahead of the rest of us, but we're gonna laugh 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:37.159 about that again one day when I seen him, and 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:42.720 I really look forward to that time. That's a little 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:44.840 bit about deer hunting with dogs. It may not be 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:47.800 the preferred way of hunting these days, as we opt 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:50.960 for the most covert ways to get within range of one, 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:55.960 but it definitely has a place, especially in our legacies 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:59.560 as hunters and sportsmen and women. The stories we tell 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.880 about those days are important. They are important to hear 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:07.920 be remembered, more so for the folks that involved than 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:11.520 any of the deer ever taken. We got some extra 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:15.920 video content dropping Monday, November fourth, on the Meat Eater 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:20.280 podcast network YouTube channel of me and my pal and 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:26.200 colleague Austin Chili clever ad. Like I always say, don't 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:30.720 be cool, be chilly. I think you'll enjoy it. Now. 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.879 Something even more important is A Meat Eater's partnership with 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:38.160 on x and donating twenty thousand dollars to hurricane relief 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:41.080 for our brothers and sisters who are still reeling from 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:44.040 the effects of the hurricanes. If you'd like to help 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:46.520 through our site, you can donate through the link that 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:50.000 Reeve's going to include in the show description. Man, it's 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:53.479 important and we really need your help. Thank you all 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:56.120 so much for listening to this Country Life and Clay 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:59.680 Bow's Bear, Grease and Render shows. We truly appreciate it 0:24:00.680 --> 0:24:04.160 very much. Until next week, this is Brent Reeves sign 0:24:04.240 --> 0:24:06.280 and out. Y'all be careful.