Rooster,
I am sure you are going to get a response. I imagine he he just had to run down to Circuit City to get a new keyboard. He probably burnt his up, with his rough draft.

I figure it is going to go something like this though...

It was a cold icy morning in November when I realized I was a FOXHUNTER. There were icicles formed on the 2x4 wire surrounding the hunting grounds.When the sun finally peeked through the horizon,the reflected light through the icicles formed a sort of aura around my favorite casting area, over by the 50 gallon feeder. I knew this morning was going to be a foxhunters dream. To my suprise...a young strapping male COYOTE crept up to the feeder. I sat there in awe, as he nibbled away at the cheap dogfood in front of him.I soon was interupted by my foxhounds; baying, and barking in my dogbox. I just knew they had caught a glimpse of this magnificent creature I was watching partake in his morning meal. I investigated their strange behavior, and found that they were simply eyeballing a racoon, who was perched in a small sapling. The racoon was enjoying my honeybun I had warming beside the fire barrel. That's okay though,.. the wondertful thing about foxhunting is...As long as I properly secure the GATE behind me, I can enjoy a breakfast down at the IHOP while the chase continues on.

I was ready to send my FOXHOUNDS! I thought for a minute though... I had a plan.. to see what I was holding....I quickly rushed over to the feeder and said, shoo young strapping COYOTE!..SHOO!!! get out of here, I say!!!! But like the young fawn in the movie; "The Yearling," he did not want to leave..A bit confused,.. I finally realized...he must have been hungry. He soon left the feeder. My plan was now in action... I waited about 10 minutes before I casted my hounds to see which ones were my trail dogs.

As usual my hounds were in full cry before their feet ever touched the ground from the tailgate...And I knew the foxhunt was on!!They busted through the 150 year old, oak tree thicket like it wasn't even there!Luckily the leaves had fallen, and the well beaten trails were like small I95's!! It was going to be a sightrace for sure!!! What more could any foxhunter ask for?....I will let Mr. Emerson finish this story, my E key is sticking on my keyboard. Did you know tha the letter E is the most commonly used letter in the alphabet? I did'nt either..eh?

That was fabulous! I think you know him!!

LMAO, YOU'RE A RIOT!!!

Thats the funniest story I've ever read!! I had to print it out for others to read.

A true masterpiece.

HA,HA,HA, WoodDuck that is the funniest thing I've ever seen on this website!!! It tops his fishing trip!! Put that one in The Chase Magazine!!!(BARBER)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I agree that is the funniest thing I have seen on this site yet. Scott are you the poet from the carolina group that comes up to VA. deer trials and takes all the plastic? If not he has some serious competion this year. Great post.

No, I am not the infamous poet, but I do know him well. Glad you real FOXHUNTERS enjoyed the post. I am sure I will get ridiculed from others. I guess I pretty much summed up foxhunting, heck... if I believed what I wrote to be a true foxhunter, I could finally put myself in the same class as.....
Larry (PoorSam) Sanders
Wilson Winslow
Louis Jordan
Ronnie Ownley
Marvin Brown
Matt Winslow
Rob Winslow
Hunter & Bobby Harris
Poon
Barber
Danny Porter
Bubba Casper and the list would go on for a little bit, but not too far. Not many of you guys left out there, but I definitely get why you guys get a little irate with people who label "foxhunting" in conjunction to a post like I just submitted. Like Poon said... they have no clue. I have experienced it first hand, and know it is a classification you work very hard for. Not saying, the pen master, of all pen hunts, doesnt know his pen dogs!Outside FOXHUNTING is a whole different ball game (FOXHUNTING), and I understand why some people are getting bent out of shape,... just trying to clarify it from a outsider, looking in. As if it is going to do any good, at least yall undermeant what I stood!!!!!!!!!

You just can't take a day off from this board or you really get behind. Sorry guys, I was foxhunting yesterday. I'd write you a detailed account, but Scott already has.
Great writing ability. We could use you on staff here at the Igloo City Sports Review. Also, a very good question, Russell, to kick this off in the first place.
Russell, to answer your question -- because that's what I prefer to do.
I've hunted in that block and the adjoining country for 32 years. I've lived beside it for 25. It's thirty-sq. miles -- that's the good news and the bad. Allan hit it partly on the head. If you're gonna hunt in big country, you have to get around on shanks mare and I'm too old, fat and asmthmatic to do that well.
If I could run an itty-bitty gray fox and only have to use a couple hundred acres of the block, it would be a much better deal. Unfortunately, we don't have grays or even many reds. So it's coyotes, which is great, but you burn a lot of gas in a day; you run over a LOT of people's land in a day and some days you see a few crossings and some days you don't.
I still field trial. The trials up here are all in pens. Like all pen running, the aren't perfect but the hounds get seen and they are running coyotes and fox -- not goats.
There was nothing better than some of the great outside field trials 20 years ago. However, any I know of these days have a lot of off-game running. I still hunt outside occasionally and I still hate hounds running off-game. Mine are not bullet-proof enough to knowingly expose them to deer running. 'Nuff said.
I can go to a pen, see what my hounds are really doing and get some very hard running on them in a relatively short time. I do not have to worry about our better blacktop roads and the morons driving 70 mph down them. I do not have to confront that green-peacer with the acre and a half a burning desire to make my area conform to Toronto and I don't have to worry about the overbearing superiority complex that burdens a lot of outside foxhunters.
I'm just an ordinary foxhunter who runs in pens a lot of the time and sometimes doesn't do it all that well, BUT I enjoy what I'm doing.
I don't know the specifics of gray fox hunting but I've seen some of the country in N. Carolina. You have a lot of blacktop roads and a LOT of new houses built in the country.
I appreciate what it takes for you to stay outside and I'm pulling for you. I've had hounds that could find a fox or coyote in big country, would not run a deer, would come home if necessary and didn't require a shocking system or tracking collar to help them (because none of us hillbillies used them or even knew about them back then).
I don't run my hounds outside enough now for them to be good outside hounds or to call myself an outside hunter. We have hunters up here who run outside all the time. Some because they love it and some because they're too cheap to pay pen fees. I imagine some guys in your country fit into both categories.
Anyway, nice hearing from you. I'd love to hear some of the specifics on outside gray fox hunting and what you have to do to train your hounds to handle the problems you must face.
But, boys, don't try to tell me you're the only real foxhunters left on the planet. I was doing what you're doing (with variations for game, topography and climate) when some of you big-league foxhunters were cr-pping yellow.
I appreciate what you do. I don't really care what you think of how I hunt. So, let's all do what we do and enjoy it.
Yours in foxhunting.

Eric you're off just a bit.... these guys aren't claiming to be the only foxhunters left.... they're just saying you ain't one.

Kyle, No, You're a little bit off. I'm just saying, who died and left THEM in charge?

I worked for and on ocassion went hunting with one of the men Scott talked about. Wilson Winslow told me one thing that has stuck in my mind and I believe to be pretty true. People like him are fortunate while others of us are not and have to work for a living. He told me one day while we were running a grey in his bean fields "Eric a working man cant be a true outside foxhunter." That man hunted harder than most of us work. It was a full time job and he had the pack to prove it. I am rambling but one more quote i remember was "When I go foxhunting I treat it like war. I want to get after one piece of game and run him to his death. Its either him or me and most of the time it was him." Most pen hunters and field trialers dont feel this way. They just want to hear a good race. That to me is the difference between outside foxhunters and field trialers (pen hunters).

Dont feel bad Mr. Emerson I am just a lowly DEER hunter I am more despised than you are. And I like your stories. With the way things are going in our area in ten years the only hound running here might be in a pen. So I feel for you and hope it dont happen here

John if you run in the pen...by Eric's Definition you're a foxhunter too..., but we both know that ain't right. I, like you, am just a lowly deer hunter that runs in the pen some and attends a few hunts each year, but that does not make me a foxhunter. I will never be in the same class as Poon, Wilson, or the Hoggard boys. I imagine there are guys out west that Eric insult's by calling them foxhunters when there are in fact real coyote hunters.

FIRST OFF, I'M NOT MAD, THIS IS A SIMPLE DISAGREEMENT/DEBATE BETWEEN US AND THIS IS ALL IN FUN, BUT IT IS MY HONEST OPINION... WHICH I THOUGHT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THIS SITE.

OK, I SEE THAT YOU'RE JUST A BIT THICK HEADED BUT YOU DO UNDERSTAND WHERE WE'RE COMING FROM, A LITTLE BIT. AND I SAY "WE" AS IF I STILL HAVE DOGS. I DO NOT OWN A FOXHOUND NOW, I SOLD THEM IN JANUARY. IT TAKES AN AWFUL LOT OF TIME HUNTING AND SCOUTING SEVERAL DAYS A WEEK, GAS $ DRIVING BACK AND FORTH. BUT THATS WHAT IT TAKES TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT IT, NOT TO MENTION THE DOG SENSE AND FOX SENSE "YOU" HAVE TO OBTAIN TO TRAIN YOUR DOGS WHAT TO DO, WHEN TO DO IT, AND WHEN NOT TO DO IT. ROADS, TRAFFIC AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, TIME IS THE KEY FACTOR I SOLD OUT. I SAW A DIFFERENCE IN MY YOUNG DOGS PERFORMANCE WHEN I STOPPED HUNTING 3 DAYS A WEEK TO ONLY ONE OR TWO. A GOOD YOUNG PROSPECT WAS "SHUCK'N THE CORN" AT 16 MONTHS OLD. THE LAST YEAR I HUNTED I COULDNT BRING OUT OF THEM IN THAT AMOUNT OF TIME. IT SEEMED TO TAKE QUITE A BIT MORE, AND THEY STILL HAD 50+ FOXES IN THEIR MOUTH IN '07. NOT ENOUGH RUNNING TIME TO MAKE THEM REALLY EXCEL. SURE, I COULD'VE KEPT THEM, CARRIED THEM DOWN TO ONE OF THE LOCAL FOX PENS AND RAN THEM ONE NIGHT A WEEK, BUT THATS TOO EASY, IT REALLY ISNT HUNTING. HECK MY WIFE COULD'VE DONE THAT. BUT THAT WASNT A BIG ENOUGH CHALLENGE. SO, YES, I GAVE UP OUTSIDE "FOXHUNTING" OF 12 YEARS FOR FAMILY TIME WITH TWIN GIRLS BECAUSE IT WAS TOO HARD TO DO WITH EVERYTHING ELSE GOING ON IN MY LIFE. I'VE EARNED THE RIGHT TO CALL MYSELF A FOXHUNTER. NOT JUST ANYBODY CAN DO IT. I'D ALMOST BET IF YOU WERE TO HAVE TAKEN MY HOUNDS HUNTING, YOU WOULDNT HAVE PICKED UP HALF THE FOXES... FOR NUMEROUS REASONS. ITS ALOT MORE THAN JUST THE DOGS. BUT I'VE ALWAYS SAID, I'M NOT SWITCHING TO PEN RUNNING WHEN OUTSIDE HUNTING IS OVER, AND IT IS OVER FOR ME. NOW YOU ON THE OTHER HAND, HAVE EARNED THE RIGHT TO BE A GOOD HOUNDSMAN, A "COYOTE" HUNTER, AND FIELD TRIALER. YOU MIGHT RUN A FOX OR TWO, BUT WHAT IS THE GAME YOU RUN 90% OF THE TIME?
COYOTES WOULD BE THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION. I DONT HAVE A CLUE WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO CATCH A COYOTE ON A CONSISTANT BASIS. I HAVE CAUGHT SOME, I THOUGHT THEY WERE RUNNING AND EDUCATED GRAY. IT SURE DIDNT TAKE A WHOLE LOT TO APPREHEND HIM THATS FOR SURE BECAUSE BELIEVE ME, MY DOGS WERE FAR FROM THE BEST!
I WOULD NOT CLAIM TO BE A COYOTE HUNTER AND WOULD EXPECT SOMEONE FROM OUT WEST WHO HUNTS THEM ON THE OUTSIDE ON A DAILY BASIS TO BE A LITTLE AGGRAVATED IF I CLAIMED TO BE A COYOTE HUNTER. THE TERM AMERICAN FOXHOUND IS THE ONLY THING THAT RELATES US, WHICH IS A GOOD THING. KYLE STOTESBURY SAID IT RIGHT A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, "CALLING COYOTE HUNTING FOXHUNTING, IS THE SAME AS CALLING COON HUNTING BEAR HUNTING, ALL BECAUSE OF THE SAME BREED OF DOGS. EVEN THOUGH IT IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT. I RESPECT WHAT YOU DO, ITS NOT MY THING. BUT HUNTING, TRAILING, AND RUNNING A FOX TO DEATH IS, AND THATS NOT WHAT YOUR DOING. YOU COYOTE HUNTING ON THE OUTSIDE WITH THE OCCASIONAL RED FOX RACE, AND COYOTE RUNNING ON THE INSIDE, WITH THE OCCASIONAL RED FOX RACE.
WELL I'M DONE FOR NOW. FYI I HAVE SWITCHED TO BROKE RABBIT BEAGLES, WHICH I AM TRYING TO HUNT THE SAME WAY I FOXHUNTED... FOR THE MEAT. AND I AM NOT AS SUCCESSFUL. A NOTCH OR TWO UNDER MY BELT IS ALL. BUT HAVING FUN WITH THE CHALLENGE AND CAN RUN 7 DAYS A WEEK AT THE HOUSE. SO IT WONT BE LONG BEFORE I'LL BE ON TOP.....HOPEFULLY
HAPPY RUNNING, HUNTING

we call it running dogs when we go to the pen

Scott I appreciate the association with the names you mentioned above me in your post but I have a long way to go before I will ever have a pack of foxdogs that would be able to be mentioned with the likes of the Poor Sams, Wilson Winslows,Poons, and the others you mentioned. Those guys earned the right to be mentioned as some of the best that have put down behind a grey. I have had the chance to hunt with Poor Sam on several occasions before he sold out but none of most of the rest. He was one of the best houndsmen I have ever been around. I am almost in the position where I will be able to hunt three days minimum a week soon. As Rooster said that is what it takes if you want to able to catch greys on a regular basis. My drive is the love of running game to catch and raising hounds that have what it takes to do so. There is just nothing like it and not many races you will ever here sound like it either when they are right up his hind parts bout to sink tooth in him.Hope to see you at a deer trial this year to meet you face to face. I think you and the poet would have a good weekly poetry battle if ya started, your pretty good.

Russell, I am more than a little thick-headed. For the most part, we are jockeying words and like that great Canadian songwriter Hank Snow and great outside grey foxhunter, Chris Barber, both advise -- I'm moving on.
I understand the time, effort and money you put into getting a pack of hounds that would do what you wanted.
Do you REALLY think that if you switched to pen running and your goal was to beat the Hoehners, Sonny, Ducote, JW McGee, the Huffmans, the Corbett's and the rest -- you could do it with any LESS work, ability or funds?
If your goal was to win outside trials, would it be completely effortless and painless to out-do John Fields, the Purvises, Barefoots and the rest?
Do you really believe it's harder to catch gray fox consistently than reds or coyotes?
We all have our preferences, abilities and time allotments. I'm sure lots of pen runners wouldn't consider me or my hounds representatives of that branch of foxhunting either.
I understand that by foxhunting, you mean outside gray foxcatchers. There, however, has always been a generic term that we all referred ourselves as -- foxhunters.
I might not meet your standards; you might not meet mine. You can pick your friends but you can't pick your family.
Good luck with the beagles. They are amazing little hounds, not my thing but I admire what they can do.
And, like Forrest Gump -- that's all I have to say about that.

First off I am not a Fox Hunter. Please do not call me one. I am a Coyote hunter that uses American Fox Hounds. I have the write to be called a Coyote Hunter, because I have hunted on the outside fo 39 years, and my hounds have pulled down over a thousand Coyotes, Yes over a thousand, over the 39 years I have averaged 40 a year. I had my best year in 1980 I got 69 that year. I am sure that my hounds would look silly trying to run a gray fox. I have tried some fox dogs here on coyotes and none of them worked out, it takes a totaly differant dog and style of hunting, I was glad to see that Rooster and Kyle have the sence to know the differance. I would say Eric has the write to be called a coyote hunter for all the years he hunted on the ouside. This is my opinion and dose not count for much, if anything. Hope you all have good running where ever you run.

I NEVER MET WILSON IN PERSON, BUT ONE OF THE GUYS I USED TO HUNT WITH KNEW HIM GOOD, I ALWAYS HEARD HE WAS A DARN GOOD HOUNDSMAN AND FOXHUNTER.

HE ALSO USED TO START HIS FOXHOUNDS ON DEER IN THAT PEN, THEN BREAK THE ONES WORTHY OF KEEPING OFF. HE SAID "IF THEY CANT PUNISH A DEER, WHY DO I EVEN WANT TO CARRY THEM FOXHUNTING?" AND AS MUCH AS I HATE TO ADMIT IT, HE'S GOT A POINT.

My old thick lips will drive a red fox to the ground in 20 minutes to be sure!!!!Am I a foxhunter???

Look forward to meeting you too Danny. I won't be battling with the poet though...he's too witty for me!

He dont know the poet like we do, does he Woodduck?