Registered: Sep 2010
Location: Longview, TX
Posts: 119

That sounds like about as good of a day as I could imagine, go 48.

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Jamie Carter
Longview, TX
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Registered: Sep 2013
Location: tylertown,mississippi
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Jamie, that race last night was a good one. The last 25 laps was a dog fight between Jimmie and Harvick and I'm glad Jimmie got the win. Hope all is good over your way, take care.

The 2 we treed last night, on the first drop they hit a hot track quick and smoked it a little over 200yds and Bo hit the tree and before we got to them Briar got on the wood with him. The 2nd drop BO went to the right but Briar came back and hit the trail so I fired up the 4 wheeler and eased up the swamp some more. I had put some corn in a feeder last weekend so I got Briar close to the area and he hit a track and started opening here and there. He made his way up Black Branch and in the meantime Bo had came treed 337yds the other way. Briar worked that track good and it wasn't a hot one either. He was in water and some bad thick swamp bushes and did a good job on a bad track for a 8 month old pup. He located 5 times at 159yds but didn't stick. I kept waiting on him to crawl back on it but he didn't and eventually came out to me. Loaded him up and went to BO's tree and got him and came on in. Was going tonight but rain has set in. My wife took this picture of Briar yesterday after I had swam him a while in the river and was giving him a rest. Good Hunting coming with this one!

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Registered: Apr 2014
Location: oakvale ms
Posts: 2007

Steve, sounds like your recovery is not all bad. I see your out riding the river in that nice looking boat and got all those crawfish laid out on the table with all the trimmings. Making me hungry. I'm glad you were able to get ole Bo and Briar out and tree a couple coons. Man that Briar is a good looking rascal. I tried to call you earlier tonight, but I only have your work phone and your probably not using it right now. Looks like we are going to have a lot of rain this week. Take care.

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Registered: Sep 2008
Location: jasper,al
Posts: 751

glad to see you finally made it to the woods. man that pic of them crawdads made my mouth water

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Registered: Sep 2013
Location: tylertown,mississippi
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Took BO and Briar to Black Branch Swamp tonight even though I knew it would be flooded as it has rained close to 3" the past two days. I rode up the swamp about a half mile and stopped and cut them loose. As soon as they hit the woods I heard them hit water, it was everywhere. Briar struck in at 275yds and BO soon after. They worked it down the branch but they were struggling with it. They got to around 500yds and it broke down on them. Watching the Garmin BO was going on down the branch and Briar was going east, away from the branch trying to pick the track back up. It pleased me to see Briar wasn't just hanging around with BO but was doing his on thing. Briar made a big loop and came back to me. I had just loaded him on the 4 wheeler when BO threw a big Locate and went to treeing hard. He had slipped on out of the swamp bottom and got out of that water and found where he went up. I unsnapped Briar and headed BO's way. Went through a lot of deep water that came very close several times to going over my hip boots. BO was treed on the side of a hill on a bushy water oak but I found the coon pretty quick. Briar didn't come in to the tree but was off to my left 107yds when I noticed he wasn't there and checked the Garmin. I started back with BO on the lead and it wasn't long and Briar caught up with us. I loaded them up and came on in. Finally got well and now with all this rain I need a boat and a dip net to catch the coon. As bad as it was I had fun just getting out. Hoping they are wrong because they say its supposed to rain everyday through Sunday.

MR. Jack I tried to call you back yesterday morning and this morning but just getting a recoding that your mailbox hasn't been set up. Will try you again tomorrow around lunch. Thanks for the compliment on Briar. He is a nice looking young hound and I believe he's going to make a good one. Good Hunting!

Myers, I hope your having some good hunts over your way. Yaw probably getting a lot of rain too. Take Care.

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Registered: Sep 2008
Location: jasper,al
Posts: 751

im sick of rain. how bout you? been hunting but nothing to brag about. just got to keep plugging along. take care and good luck on your hunts and may the water not pour into your hip boots

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Registered: Nov 2005
Location: Iowa
Posts: 2961

Just grab Mr. Jack & head to Iowa. Sunny 70 in daytime, 40's at night & plenty of coon to tree. No deep water, unless your dog swims a river. 12 hours of 4 lane highway puts you within 5 miles of the fairgrounds. Sounds a lot better than what you guys are putting up with!!! Take care, Ron.

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Registered: Sep 2013
Location: tylertown,mississippi
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Ron, I would love to be headed your way with MR. Jack riding shotgun and a couple of coonhounds in the box but as you can see from the picture, it's pouring. When you live on the river bank and start getting this much rain day after day you have to stay home and be prepared to start moving things to higher ground. It takes my wife and me about 6 hard hours of getting things out of here. I wait until I know for sure the river is going to flood because its a pain moving it all out then bringing it all back. It rained me out from hunting last night and its looking to do the same tonight. I just took that picture a few minutes ago and lot more to come showing on radar. Yaw have a great hunt this weekend. Take Care.

Meyers, Yes, I'm sick of this rain too. Looking better for next week. It will still be flooded in most places I hunt but that should help get them back in shape quick, having to do a lot of swimming while they hunt for a track and higher ground. Take Care.

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Registered: Sep 2013
Location: tylertown,mississippi
Posts: 2552

Chris the lumber the houses are made of and the gates are all sinker cypress I pulled from the river here and cut into lumber on my Wood-Mizer sawmill. Pulling logs and sawmilling was a passion of mine that took hold of me the years I was out of coon hunting. Still is though I don't go after them like I used too. After big rains like we are getting now and the river get up high and roaring, when it went back down a week later I would be in the jet boat looking for any that may have washed out of the banks or got uncovered if river changed course and went through the middle of a sand bar. These are trees that were undermined 100's or 1000's of years ago by the river and as river changed course they were buried. Long before the AX Men came into this country in the early 1900's. Now the river moves back and uncovers them. The biggest I have got was 65" across the butt after I cut the stump loose. Stump was 9' across. Most are 80' to 120' long. The big one had over 1,200 growth rings and that is all heart wood as the outer sap wood had long since rotted off. Typing this up makes me want to sharpen the saw up! lol! I have a Stihl with a 42" bar on it. Its an adventure and a challenge when I go after one.

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Registered: Oct 2014
Location: Gilmer, TX
Posts: 158

It's a good night for typing up such things. It's raining again here too. I thought the wood looked like the cypress you spoke of before, so I decided to ask. It's great to have other hobbies, especially when it produces results as beautiful as that lumber. Your kennel looks like it will stand up to a good bit of weather.

Before I started coon hunting more seriously, I spent quite a bit of time writing. I've published some academic works of literary and philosophic criticism under my own name and some other things under pseudonyms as a ghost writer. I get strange looks and responses when I tell academics that I can't go to some conference because I'm coon hunting instead.

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Registered: Sep 2013
Location: tylertown,mississippi
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This is one that I pulled about 3 years ago. As you can see its in the outside bend of the river. Every flood the river was washing down 20' of bank or more. When the water went down this time this monster was laying on a clay shelf. It didn't wash down the river, it was buried in that bank where it had got washed down by the river and buried a long time ago.

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Registered: Sep 2013
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This is my wife standing by the stump with butt cut log still attached. This is off same sinker in the other picture.

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Registered: Oct 2014
Location: Gilmer, TX
Posts: 158

Monster is right. Did you use that backhoe to get it out of the river? Is that the one from which you cut the lumber for your kennel?

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Registered: Sep 2013
Location: tylertown,mississippi
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Yes we had to use track hoe as there were no big trees close to hang blocks in or I would have pulled it with the winch I have on back of my tractor. Its a Tulsa winch that came off a lowboy truck trailer and I had a 3 point hitch frame made for it. My PTO runs it and I have 400' of 5/8" cable on it. Hang enough blocks and you double or triple your pulling power but you gotta have a tree close enough to use. This time there wasn't one. No my lumber for the kennel came from another one. Color really varies from sinker to sinker. I feel it has to do with the soil or sand it was buried in and if it was under water or above and the length of time it was buried.

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Registered: Oct 2014
Location: Gilmer, TX
Posts: 158

Your kennel has a nice, reddish cedar type look. I'm thinking that cypress has a much tighter grain than you'd get out of any cedar. I'll bet that stuff is heavy.

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Registered: Sep 2013
Location: tylertown,mississippi
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Very tight grain, 25 to 40 rings per inch. Extremely heavy when it hits land but you would be surprised how big of a log you can move around in the water with a peavey. Once it hits land though its like trying to move a concrete log. Full of water as cypress is like a sponge. Its termite resistant, and is the only wood that can get wet then dry over and over forever and never rot. Does not cup or warp and since its old growth wood shrinks very little. Needs to be air dried only, no kiln dry. At least one year per inch thickness. I would love to know the history these old logs could tell. To grow 1,200 years or more, they been through a few storms that might make Katrina look like a spring shower. Sad that we don't have the woods like the hunters had 100 years or more ago. No briars, privet hedge, scrub oak or thickets.

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Registered: Sep 2008
Location: jasper,al
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Man Steve you are one interesting man. Pulling them trees out of the river looks like it would be a fight. A test of willpower to say the least.

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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: SE indiana
Posts: 941

Like I said, this thread is the best read on this whole site. Dogs, family, hunting and good living. That's more important to me than world champion titles. Thanks for sharing Steve.

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Chris Powell
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Registered: Sep 2013
Location: tylertown,mississippi
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Myers, you hit the nail on the head, logging the river is a FIGHT. Some go 15 rounds and others you think will, actually have everything fall into place and the fight isn't nearly as bad as you were prepared for. These are pictures from 15 years ago and as you can see I was in a little better shape and my hair was black. lol! I'm a poor boy and when I started this river logging adventure I did it the only way I could at the time, THE HARD WAY. I had a friend of mine weld some 55 gallon drums together, end to end, then build me a frame connecting them but with a space between. A REDNECK PONTOON! I would pull up over a log, run a ratchet strap under the front and back, and suck it up tight and down the river I would go with a old 7 1/2 HP Mercury or 9.9 Johnson for my power. I rode on the barrels as you can see from the pictures setting on a horse, saddle blanket. Those were rough days. I didn't own a tractor, or sawmill, or jet boat. Just an old Homelite C-54 chainsaw, that barrel barge and a lot of determination. Could only move one 9' log at the time so most sinkers I found required 8 or more trips, sometimes for several miles depending on where I found them and where I could pull them out. The river here is shallow in a lot of spots and there were times it got real interesting when the end of those barrels or the log hit a snag in the river and came to a sudden stop. You didn't last 8 seconds on that horse blanket when that happened! lol! I sold some lumber over the years and sunk that money into better equipment, Jet Boat, Sawmill, Tractor, New Stihl Saw, ect. I started all this and my son, Shane was with me a lot helping, to get enough lumber for him to build a house one day. Him and his wife have about settled on house plans now so all that lumber we have got in my shop is about to become part of their home. Very Gratifying to me. Logging the River is no different than Coon Hunting, Its either in you or its not. Both require a ton of determination and love for what your doing or you won't be in it long.

Rowdy-Chris, Thanks for the kind words, it means a lot.

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Last edited by steve bankston on 04-18-2015 at 01:57 PM

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Registered: Oct 2014
Location: Gilmer, TX
Posts: 158

Great story, Steve. Where do you store all that stuff to dry out? If it takes about one year per inch to dry, I'm assuming you have to cut it into lengths and then store it for years before you saw into lumber.

Bayed a sow hog with some piglets yesterday evening just before dark with Wolf, Ann and Blue. Wolf showed his grit again and decided he was going to catch the sow when they bayed her. He wasn't sure how to go about, but he kept getting after her. I leashed the dogs and let the sow and piglets go. I need to start taking my cell phone to snap some pictures, but I'm afraid I'll mess it up or lose it.

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Registered: Sep 2013
Location: tylertown,mississippi
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I have a shop 5 minutes from my house on 27 acres that I own. Its in the hills and don't flood so that is where all my logging equipment stays. I sawmill the logs as quick as I can after getting out of the river, then put in stacks with stick spacers 2' apart for air flow to start the drying process . When you cut sinker cypress its red or yellow looking but within a few minutes after the oxygen hits the board it changes color to a greenish gray or blue gray. Notice in the pictures, some boards are already changing color. The boards we are stacking are the same boards that were just cut off that yellow cant on the sawmill.

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Last edited by steve bankston on 04-18-2015 at 03:33 PM

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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: SE indiana
Posts: 941

Steve. You are two humble. That homemade pontoon is high class. Blue paint, flames and all!

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Chris Powell
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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: SE indiana
Posts: 941

Oh yeah, I was going to tell you, Woodmizer is made about forty minutes from the house here. Dad had one. Now I just need a homemade pontoon and cypress!

You can follow my post along if you care to. It's called the Blue Dog project in the Blueticks breed board.

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Last edited by Rowdy on 04-19-2015 at 05:05 AM

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Registered: Sep 2013
Location: tylertown,mississippi
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Chris, my friend that did the welding thought those flames would look cool so he painted them on there but it didn't make it go any faster. When you went up river with that thing you had to watch the bank to tell you were even moving, it was slow going. It wasn't Jimmie Johnson fast that's for sure! Those Wood-Mizer Mills are very nice mills. I love the time I spend cutting those logs into lumber. I saw your thread the other day on the breed board and posted a reply. Great looking and great pedigree on your Jazz pup. I just saw you posted she treed her first coon. You will never forget that one. Awesome to see a 5 month old with the ability to get it done at such a young age.

Chris in Texas. I wear one of those coon hunting vest and they have a pocket up high that holds the cell phone. Get you one of those and a life proof case for your phone and you will be good to go. There will be a lot of times out there hunting that you wish you would have had that phone to take some pictures. Those wild hogs are bad news for coonhounds. A hound with grit like your Wolf pup will get cut bad messing with them. Be careful around them yourself, especially those sows with piglets.
You had posted you have done a lot of writing and published some of it. I might need some advise from you one day on publishing. I have always wanted to write a book and started one years ago but haven't got far as I wont make the time it takes to get my head into it and put it all down. Told my wife a while back that before my time is up in this world I wanted to write two books. One will be titled DRAG MARKS: LOGGING THE RIVER and the other will be, HOUNDS IN HEAVEN. The first one is obvious as to what it will be about. The second one will be an in depth look and explanation of the bond between a boy or girl and their hound puppy. How that bond grows over the years and the expectations for each pup over the years of their lives might change but the bond grows deeper and stronger and the affect of that bond and how they are a part of our lives, not just dogs. My time with my hounds is part of my Heaven here on earth. I want the book to be a powerful eye opener to anyone that reads it and thinks that a Coon Hunter just uses his mean ole hounds to harass those coons. We can't change an Anti's mind about us, BUT we can reach out to younger people BEFORE they form an opinion one way or another. Every kid remembers their first pup and the love and bond they had with it. We as Coon Hunters are no different and I feel our connection and bond goes so much deeper and stronger than anyone outside our sport could ever understand. I want this book to reach kids hearts like the book, Where The Red Fern Grows reached a lot of us so many years ago. I'm a coon hunter because of reading that book so many years ago as no one I knew coon hunted. If I could reach one person with a book that would send their life down the road to coon hunting heaven, then it would be a success.

CANINE FLU IN THE MIDWEST: On Fox News this morning there is an outbreak of a new Flu in the Midwest. It came from Asia and is in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana. 1,100 cases with 6 deaths. Yaw keep an eye out for it.

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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: SE indiana
Posts: 941

Is this the bond you are talking about?

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Chris Powell
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