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Why are you packing

Why have you been and are currently hunting a bluetick? In reading through my other thread about will the bluetick breed die out, I got to thinking maybe now would be a good time to tell everyone why you're hunting blueticks. Weather you've been doing it for 60+ years or just getting started. Weather Uncle Earl got you hooked or the Big Country dog opened the door. Weather your dreams are to accomplish something that ain't never been done or just because they have traits you love. Just why are you packing a bluedog?

Tell us how you really feel

Hmm .... looks to me like the Bg Country dog & Mr. Cannon may have been your inspiration for starting this thread?

To answer your question, even a sorry ole blue dog needs an owner. What better fit than a sorry owner like myself owning a sorry blue dog?

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Home of:
A couple blue haired potlickers

Gone but not forgotten:
Nt Ch Fanny's Midnite Blue Annie - aka Sodie Pop R.I.P. - I will miss you old girl

Nt Ch Becky’s Midnite Blue Hank - R.I.P. Old Boy, thank you for the memories

Gr Nt Ch S&E's Midnite Lite Blue Snow (Co-Owned with my good friend Harry Eidenier) - We had a blast following you ole girl!

This would be a good post for the Bluetick page instead of "Bluetick: Stud Dog and Kennel Promotion". Anyways I'll tell you why I hunt Blueticks on my next post.

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BigCountry
Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

Why on the stud page

Because first I think more people get on here, but mainly because it should directly affect breeding of dogs. If the people only want chicken and I'm making hamburgers, I'm in trouble. I think it would be a great article in the blue book. Have about 10-20 old-timers tell who how and why they started chasing bluedogs and held on to em.

Me, my grandpa started with blueticks, then dad, then me. Some traits have changed some different bloodlines brought in, but still ole true and blue. Hunted with some outstanding walkers but night in night out, whether in a comp hunt or out enjoying the night air, my blueticks suit me. Perfect heck no, faultless never, and heck even plum stupid some nights. But many more nights than not when that sound comes from down in the timber, chase is on and then oh yeah that dog comes treed, I still feel like that kid. Full of excitement and pride knowing that one of my friends has accomplished their job. And done it well.

My daddy took me hunting from the time I could follow him, but he never coonhunted, Jerry Clower, with “John Eubanks, the professional tree climber” and “Where the Red Fern Grows” got me wanting to coonhunt. I had yard dogs that would run a rabbit as far as you could see him, and tree possums, squirrels, and a coon every now and then. Man when you treed a coon, it was like killing and 8 point buck, it was a big deal. I even tried to get my daddy’s running walkers to tree, with no luck. Oh but I wanted a Bluetick coonhound so bad. In my eyes, a bluetick was the only real coon dog there was. Bought my first Bluetick in 1977, I was 15 years old. I didn’t have a drivers licenses at the time, but Daddy let me use his truck to drive to Sorrento Louisiana to pick her up. She was a grade dog, almost completely white if it wasn’t for a few ticks here and there. She was the most beautiful dog I had ever seen. She learned to tree on kittens at my sister’s house down the road. Every now and then she would catch one and bring it home. She never hurt any of them, but the poor kitten would be completely covered with dog spit. She treed her first coon at 6 months old. From that day on, all I ever wanted to hunt is a Bluetick. It still amazes me to hear and see a dog tree a coon. Out of all the trees in the woods, what makes them pick the right tree? Some think it’s a simple answer to that question, but it’s just amazing to me. Hope it always is !!

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BigCountry
Tommy Gayle
985-233-1016

I had most every breed there is growing up then I got into walkers. Boy oh boy could they do it in style. For a while I thought there was no other breed. After a good many years with them i got to hunt night after night with a real nice bluetick that could track as fast as any walker I ever seen and he was real accurate so I got a bluetick pup off him and I don't miss them walkers no more. I have really enjoyed the blueticks and plan to keep enjoying them.

I starting hunting when I was six years old following my daddy or brothers but we wasn’t sport hunters like you see today, daddy was a resident cowboy on a old time type cattle ranch where everything was done horseback, no electricity, no running water and no access other then by horse back during the winter but a pickup could make it in there during the summer.
It was like living in heaven to any kid that wanted to hunt and hunting or cowboying was all I wanted to do, it was dam hard to steer me away from doing what I liked doing.
I had six brothers and sisters and daddy made 75.00 a month so any hunting we did was for meat for the table or hides to be sold once a year. There wasn’t any dog food to be bought or money to buy dog food so if we fed a dog we had to cook their food which was usually ground corn with some kind of meat, usually it was whatever was killed with the dogs. We didn’t keep sorry dogs or pets, if a dog wasn’t earning his way he wasn’t around long.
The first dogs that was good enough to make a impression on me of being something special was a Black and Tan male named lead. Lead was a good solid dog but even as a kid I knew lead was slow on track but Lead was honest and a good treedog.
Spot was a different deal. Spot was a half running walker and half redbone. Spot was gave to us when he was about 2 months old, at the time we had a pet deer, the deer pawed him on the head and skinned his ear up enough that screw worms got in there but we couldn’t catch him to doctor him so the screw worms ate his ear off so needless to say spot was a red spotted one eared hound.
Spot treed his first possum when he was about 3.5 months old and by the time he was 10 months old he was already the best coondog at night that I had hunted with but during the day he would tree squirrels like a cur dog is supposed to but seldom do.
When spot was about 14 months old he started treeing gray fox during the day while he followed us horseback and a 15 minute fox race was unusual, daddy would usually time him and about 7 or 8 minutes was all a fox could handle before he would climb.
Spot followed us during the day while we was horseback spot was treeing squirrel and fox but during the night was where he really shined, it was treeing Coon, during winter when dogs would have to either run a coon or trail one for any distance spot would be treed for several minutes before the other dogs could trail into his tree.
Unfortunately spot was killed by a deer hunter by accident while he was a young dog. The deer hunter knew us and knew the dog, he came to our home and told us what he had accidentally done then went back to where he killed him to help bury him.
After seeing spot doing the things he did I took for granted that he was the norm for dogs so it didn’t seem like we could find a suitable replacement for Spot but a Bear hunter from Oregon moved in this country and brought his bear dogs with him and wanted to hunt with daddy some.
I should tell everyone that when daddy went hunting at night there wasn’t any part of the night left when he would make it back home, daddy would always hunt all night and then try the kill a mess of squirrels while walking back toward home. If you couldn’t handle that kind of hunt you wouldn’t make many trips following him.
After a few hunts the bear hunter gave daddy a pup, not only was she a pretty pup but she was a registered bluetick. We named her Bandit.
Bandit was around 8 months old going into the first winter and by the end of the winter she was showing us that she was going to be special, I still remember her tree style and her roaring bawl mouth.
Bandit wasn’t the kind of dog that Spot was, she couldn’t tree a fox, she quit treeing squirrels, all she wanted to do was tree Coon.
Sometimes the wind would get high while she was running and we would lose her, on those times we would usually be in the area horseback the next day and kill her Coon to her, if not we would walk back to kill it when it got dark then hunt from there.

After we hunted bandit for three years the loss of Spot wasn’t so hard to take then my Moma got sick. Daddy sold bandit for 100.00 which was more money then I had ever seen. The money was for Moma’s doctor bill.

I’ll still looking for another Bandit.

Ford model T

Love the old stories and not just hunting
Early 1920's $300 bought you a car
100 years later $300 is cost of a quality coon light
$10000 bought a nice house back then and nowadays some hounds sell for that and more
A time when hounds provided supper to $50000 comp hunts
Things sure have changed
Unfortunately I'm not old enough for all the "old days" memories but I do like to hear them
In reality 100 years isn't all that long and I'm not sure I'm looking forward to the changed the next century will bring
But good lord willing coonhounds of all breeds will still have a place in our future
Thanks for sharing

I don’t understand people’s reservations as to breed and color. I own a competition style walker and 2 blue ticks that I’ve pleasure hunted only. I’m not a competition guy and maybe I would be if they were more frequent where I lived. With that being said I enjoy listening to music. My old bluetick doesn’t get hunted anymore but I’ve had the best nights of hunting over her. My 6 yr old bluetick female is one of the most honest and accurate dogs I’ve ever seen. Will not touch trash and has never treed without one lookin down. She will not honor a slick that most walkers will pour their heart and soul into. The few that I’ve had are not competition style hounds. They will not be treed within minutes, they will pick up old tracks and sing the blues, but that’s what I love. I don’t hunt hounds for plus points or titles and there ain’t no pkc hunts near me so there ain’t no money to be had, I do need the next world beater neither. I hunt because I love to listen to a hound do what they was born to do.