I was searching for something and stumbled on this write up from some time back on Speeddogs. I miss seeing things like this now. It seems like everyone has resorted to videos or Facebook now. I hope that you enjoy this as much as I did.
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Light Frost

Saturday 4:45 a.m. your alarm goes off once. Unlike a work day when you hit snooze at least twice your up and at’em cause its time to go load the hounds. You brush your teeth while your mind races trying to remember everything you need to make the day a success. You put on your favorite pants, your lucky shirt, and that new pair of thick socks you got for Christmas. Unplug the collars throw them in the bag, put on your boots and out the door. Hop in your truck turn it on to see frost on the windshield. To most people that’s aggravating because they either have to scrape their windshield or turn on the defrost and wait. For me however a light frost makes me clap my hands and rub them together really fast in excitement, as I have seen my father do many times in the same situation before we head out,.. or if the Braves were winning a ballgame. A frost means no wind, and moisture on the ground. These are things a houndsman likes to see in the morning.
As you pull up to the dogpens you can hear the hounds squalling and barking. They aren’t barking because they are spooked, or a cats going by their pen, or a siren is going off in the distance,.. they even know they aren’t being fed. They are barking, and jumping because they know they are getting ready to go do what they love to do. What they live for, what they were bred for. I don’t know how everybody else does it, but when I load, I start with old seasoned veterans, and let them in first. Then the young dogs. You always have that one young knot head that wants to run around the truck a couple times before he jumps on the tailgate to be collared up. Now it’s time to head to the club.
You text your buddies as your pulling out of your dog pens to let them know you’re on the way. Of course one of them has overslept and is just now getting out of bed, and then you got that one buddy that’s already creeping around the blocks trying to catch a volunteer in the road. You pull up to the hunt club gate or the normal meeting spot and see nothing but dog boxes and antennas. It’s the little things that can make a houndsmans day, and I know speaking for me this is one of them. No matter how much you can debate this I will always believe the comradery between dog hunters is much more than any other style of hunting.
After a good 10 to fifteen minutes of degrading each other’s dogs, trucks, and significant others.. A quick game plan comes together and back in the truck for the turn out. The chatter starts on the radios and the day has truly begun.
Everyone tries to find a good hole to cast in. Preferably one that’s still tore up a little bit, or if you’re on a ditch there’s some water strung on the bank. I don’t care who you are or how modest you may be, but you want to be the first one to jump just as much as you want to have the first hound in a crossing to be yours…say what you want to about that. Sure enough the hounds get to trailing a little and then they fall on him. At first probably 4 or five hounds, but in short time you got a wad of 60 head tied to him. If you’re a smoker..At this point your chain smoking cause they sound so good you don’t even want to take a leak.. and it’s cold.. and your excited.. and you know dog on well you gotta go! The boys are quiet on the radio till the old deer straightens up and starts to head out the block. Every body starts hooting bout where hes gonna cross and what hound gonna be toting the mail when he does. Now with the GPS invention you have a couple buddies that are giving play by play announcements to the point that you have already cut your radio off so you can hear that early morning drive one last time before the inevitable hound split happens and all chaos erupts.
The old deer makes a loop right on the edge of the road instead of crossing. The heads up speed demons hit the the road looking, and the old true and steady’s take the track every foot, breath for breath and made the U turn just like they spose to. The speed demons file back in the woods and they start to light it up one more time! Except this time they are coming back to the road and heading towards no mans land exactly where you don’t want them…like they always do when all the dogs are on him and it right first thing in the morning. Everybody lines the roads horns blaring. Just as I start to hear the hounds I notice about 75 yards in front of me I see the broom straw parting and the myrtle bushes shaking. The bushes stopped moving right on the edge of the ditch in the cutover. I start to see steam rolling up like somebody just took the lid off a pot of boiling collard greens. Bout that time I noticed a flicker of horns as the sunlight started to peek over the short pines in the east block. Heart was pumping and the dogs were pumping too. So I did what I was supposed to…I jumped up and down hooped and hollered and turned him back, then I squalled the hounds right back in his butt. I bet yall thought I was gonna say I pulled the rifle out and rolled him up. But I didn’t say anywhere in this story that deer season was in. This story is about what I enjoy most. Running hounds….
Have a good one this weekend, be safe and enjoy.

Good Stuff Right There !!!!!!!!

Good read

I agree Kevin. Days like that is the reason I collar them up and turn em loose.

Ok Tim this is not funny! The hairs are standing up on the back of my neck and I now thinking about calling in sick tomorrow.......

Hey Hurley, I agree. Let me know when you call in sick and I will too. That is if you don't mind my hounds following yours through the woods.

I love running hounds as much as anyone, but am I the only one that sees the problem with the end of this story? It's great until he says he is running deer out of season....I'm guessing he must be in Florida because to my knowledge that is the only state that has a training season for deer hounds. With everything we are facing from the opposition I would like to think this stuff doesn't happen in other states but unfortunately I know better as I have seen it happen several times this year from clubs beside mine in the last couple weeks. If we are going to keep this sport alive we need to make sure that our fellow houndsman are abiding by the laws that are already in place and not encouraging illegal actions. We can't be out making drives under the excuse of fox season is in, because people know better and it's only going to push this sport closer to its end.

It has been and still is Perfectly legal to run deer in closed season in NC refer to page 43 of 2017 hunting regulations.

Maybe I misread this on training dogs in NC on page 43 of the hunting regs as I don't live in NC but it says on page 43 of the hunting regs under training that it is illegal to run or chase deer during closed season except when under control of the owner. Does under control in NC allow them to be free cast?

Yes it does. Also Any hound cast with a transmitter collar is considered to be under control of the owner. And in reference to the original post. Tim Cherry is a resident and hunting club member in the state of NC.

Wow. I didn't see that coming. First off I do truly enjoy the chase as much as anyone but I try to be a responsible houndsman and I try to follow the rules and laws that are presented to me by my club and the State of North Carolina.
Now secondly, this post was to address the lack of quality posts on speeddogs now as opposed to 3-4 years ago. Most everyone has gone to Facebook to communicate but I'm an old dinosaur and prefer the old ways better. This includes the social media and the way we used to be able to hunt and run our hounds. Dang I miss the good old days of running in the Tulls Mill block.
Now one more thing. Anyone that knows me, knows that I love to talk and tell stories and listen to stories about an outstanding hunt or chase. But I was not the person that wrote this wonderful description of a hunt that was just awesome in my opinion. I found it while searching for something else and I liked it so much that I copied and pasted it so other hunters could enjoy it as much as I did. I wished that I could write a story as well as the original poster but I'm more of a talker. Lol. And anyone that has met me or hunted with me knows that I'm telling the truth.
Al, I appreciate you setting things straight but it's sad that some people can't read a story and enjoy it for what it is, without trying to tear down a person or my favorite pastime or sport.
So now that all of that has been addressed, please take a few minutes to read the story titled "Light Frost" and tell me that it doesn't bring back good memories or make you wish that you were loading up to go turn em loose.

Tim Cherry
Goldsboro, NC

Bill, in case you didn't get it the point of this very well written story was that you can have an awesome day hunting with your hounds without a gun or even killing a piece of game. The older I get the more I realize that. I hunted two weekends this past hunting season and never took my gun from behind my seat. I had my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter riding with me and I couldn't have a better time than I did with her enjoying the sport that I love so much. But I'm sure that if I had to explain this to you, you probably will not understand what the story truly was about. Only a person that has experienced it can really appreciate the feeling that the person who wrote this story was trying to express.

Tim Cherry
Goldsboro, NC

Tim,
I want to apologize for coming across wrong. I do understand what the story was about and enjoy days like that as much as anyone. The older I get the less it has become about killing deer than hearing a good chase. I was wrong on my interpretation of the deer hound training law in NC. We are not allowed to run deer outside of deer season here in Virginia yet I have seen a lot of clubs and young people lately running them outside of this season under the guise of fox hunting. When you call these guys about dogs for sale or talk to them at field trials they have no problem telling you they run their dogs on the outside every weekend year round and how they smoke a deer, yet do the seem to care the image they are portraying as law breakers. I want the future generations to experience thwith article you posted 1st hand, not have to read about it because we can no longer run our hounds.

No problem Bill. But just a a little FYI about the lengths I go to run my hounds on deer. It's against the law to allow a dog to chase a deer at anytime in the county that I live in so I joined a hunting club in a county that's it is legal. It's a hours drive one way for me but it's worth it to get that feeling that's described in the story that I posted on here. Good luck hunting and I hope that you and your hounds stay safe.

Tim Cherry