Funny how running deer with hounds is so controversial when the practice has been here far longer than the use of food plots, feeders, bait piles, attractants, deer stands, etc,…were ever thought of.

There's a lot of things that we did then that are frowned upon now.

Anit's go after the low hanging fruit, one thing at a time.

Used to, when you went virtually any type of hunting you took a hound with you. People had a hound or two or more laying around or penned up. Before the days of mass city folks invading the woodlands on the weekends.

Dogs chasing deer in Texas not good if you love your dog!

My dad and his buddies all had coyote hounds and they ran them at night all year long when weather was suitable. Well long about 1980 or so they started getting them shot and killed by deer hunters during deer season. That pretty much ended their coyote running during deer season which was a great time of year to run hounds.

They still hound them in Louisiana.

My first Louisiana buck came by running deer with hounds. I was an invited guest while I was attending trade school (1975) in the state. I had never heard of this and showed up with a 25-06 rifle instead of a shotgun. I had them post me way away from where they expected the hounds to drive the deer. They said they wanted me to be close enough to hear them and be in the middle of it but I insisted. As fate would have it the hounds ran wide and a 21" wide 8 point crossed the pipeline I was sitting on. Made a running shot just as he entered the woods so I had lots of trees for a backstop. I was the only person who got a deer that day. I miss hearing the dogs run.

I used to have a problem with dogs. There have been several times that I’ve seen neighbors dogs running deer while I’ve been hunting. Dogs have sniffed around my feeders while I was hunting. One dog snarled at my 4 year old grandson in my front yard.

I talked to the neighbors to no avail.

Then when that dog came up missing, I got a visit from a sheriffs deputy. I asked him”What dogs?”. He smiled, finished his coffee, and left.

Haven’t talked to the neighbors in years but also haven’t had a dog problem. However, they started shooting pistols
on weekend mornings during deer season. No problem. I have my own range and started shooting early weekend mornings after hunting season. We will see what happens this year.

I was scouting a piece of land near Weatherford some years back and it was in season and suddenly a good size buck comes running out of the bush. I had a .40s&w Browning Hi-power on me and grew up hunting with a hand gun and am very comfortable taking a deer with one. I dropped the guy with a single shot and he was still tumbling to a stop when my dog comes charging out of the bushes behind him. Unbeknownst to me she had jumped out of my car and decided to go exploring. Needless to say I experienced quite the pucker factor and was hoping to God that no one saw what happened.

Not opposed to hounds and deer but not my thing. We get plenty of dogs on the ranch throughout any given year, some owned and some likely strays. Most cruise through because they can smell hogs or gut piles at our dump site. All have been friendly and have been shown the road back to the neighborhood they likely came from.

I've learned that nothing works better at getting deer moving when they would otherwise stay hidden in their beds than a group of hounds. But to be perfectly honest, deer will usually ignore them until they get right on top of them.

Case in point. I've shared this photo before. A small buck is visible in the background between the two middle pines as a bobcat passes by.

We are in Texas so I assume private land? Seems like dogs must have crossed a property line…

A property line? Many were crossed! When hounds get after a coyote he’s not going to hang around, he’s gonna go somewhere. Dad would meet up with a few to several hunters who had fox/coyote hounds. Each would have a dog box in the back of their pickup with a half a dozen to a dozen hounds each. Wonderful salt of the earth gentlemen. We’d meet up on a cool, clear, still evening when scenting conditions were good and turn a few hounds loose after dark. They’d strike a trail, work it and put the coyote to running. Then they would turn the rest of them loose. And buddy it would be on till daylight the next morning. It will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck listening to hounds giving it all they have barking every breath in hot pursuit of a coyote. Friendly competition among hound owners seeing which hound was in the lead doing the best.

So you just want to run around all over everyone’s place cause you hunt dogs and dogs go where dogs go I guess? No small wonder that way of hunting has died out.

Still legal in Arkansas as well. Have had dogs run deer by me several times while deer hunting, and the dogs a little ways behind...of course the dogs did not belong to members of my lease. It sure will piss you off and ruin a hunt.

The controversy isn't the hunting part...it's the trespassing that inevitably happens when the dogs and their owners cross other folks property.

People learned it was far easier to let deer find a feeder than having to spend a lot of energy to find deer.

My uncle use to run coyotes with hounds, I went with him a lot of times, we hunted most of the night until daybreak, the hounds would bring deer by us sometimes.
Some people were raised up hunting deer with dogs, it was just a way of life with them, I can understand, especially in the thickets of East Texas.
Now we have to deal with hog doggers, it’s disappointing setting in the stand with one of my grandkids and here comes a deer hauling but with hog dogs behind it.

A dog running deer on my ranch better be very very fast and know exactly how a 330 conibear works.

My place in Mississippi gets dogs run across it often. I grew up hunting deer with dogs. Haven't intentionally hunted that way in years but I have shot a few in front of their dogs, mostly though I just watch them come trough and look for the ones slipping around getting out of the way of the packs. The seasons are split some times dogs are allowed others they are not though not enforced as well as they should.

When I hunted in Maine if you saw a dog chasing deer you better shoot it or get a ticket if a GM was around. In Arkansas it was "music" for some hunters to listen to the beagles sounding off chasing deer or rabbits.

Old bucks are known for circling back from a group of hounds chasing a doe.

It reminds me of a time when if you lost a sporting dog that wasn't "trashy", meaning it wouldn't chase deer, you would likely get a call in a day or two from someone who had found it. If it would run deer, you might have to wait until after deer season.

And yet, not a season passes that someone here doesn't create a post asking desperately for someone who has a dog that can track a deer.

Quote: "And yet, not a season passes that someone here doesn't create a post asking desperately for someone who has a dog that can track a deer."

A tracking dog doesn't just randomly chase any deer. Quite a difference!

Nothing wrong with using a dog to track a deer, the use of dogs for running deer has been ruined because of dog owners not respecting property lines, plain and simple if you have to ask yourself "is there a chance the dogs may cross the property line" don't turn them loose. To much time and money is put into feed and plots, nothing more disturbing than having a hunt ruined by someone's dogs spooking everything on your property.

That scary thing is he allegedly teaches hunter education.