The American Beagler Forum

I ALWAYS LIKE TO TALK TO GUYS ABOUT WHO STARTED THEM IN DOGS ,AND CAN YA REMEMBER THAT FIRST RABBIT YOU EVER KILLED ,
EVERYBODY HAD A INFLUENCE IN DOGS WHO WAS YOURS

My father got me started in rabbit hunting and beagles. I truly consider it a blessing that he introduced me to the outdoors. I am living proof that if you "take a child hunting you won't have to hunt for your child." My life could have taken a completely different turn if it was not for my love of the outdoors and the time spent with my father. As punishment when I was a child, there was no timeout or go to your room. There was Dad's belt and you can't go hunting this weekend. That was all I needed to hear to stay out of trouble.

My father has always owned beagles ever since I was a kid. Now that I am a man with a family of my own I cannot wait to offer the same opportunity to my children. The first rabbit I ever killed was on our family property. I was hunting with a 20 gauge single shot and my little legs could not keep up with my Dad and my uncle. They jumped a rabbit and yelled "coming to ya!!" The rabbit stopped about 5 yards in front of me. Let's just say that rabbit or what was left of it did not make it in the photo album.

I got my first beagles when I was about 5. Their names were Tom and Jerry, named after the cartoon characters lol...My dad bought them for me. My first hunting beagle was give to me by one of my best friends when I was 10. She didnt turn out to be worth a plug nickel, but never the less she was my first hunting dog. Then another female came after her, she was a grade dog, but she is by far the best dog I have ever owned. My dad was with me the first time I ever killed a rabbit, I was 12 then. I dont know who was more proud me or him. He isnt able to hunt with me anymore, but he still talks about that day like it was yesterday.

Great Topic ! It took me back to the good old days when I was a kid and had no responsibilites other than being a kid. Seems like those years flew by.

I guess I was a natural. As a kid we always had a family pet, usualy a poodle. As soon as I was big enough I started taking that poodle to the woods with my BB gun and shooting out chipmunks that it treed. When I was about 9 my folks got me an Irish Setter pup and I spent all my spare time in the next several years in the woods with that dog. She wasn't much of a bird dog but I shot several grouse and pheasants over her. I always wanted a hound so as soon as I turned 16 I saved up some money and borrowed my folks truck and drove accross the state to get a coonhound puppy. I have spent the last 25 or so years hunting everything that could be chased with a hound. My main focus was coonhunting but I have always had a beagle around, got my first one not long after I got that first coon dog.
Over the last few years I have begun to enjoy rabbit hunting more than coon hunting. Competition has all but taken over coonhunting. All of the coonhunters I know hunt in the night hunts. I have been to hundreds of night hunts over the years and used to realy enjoy them but the last few years it seems like every hunt I go on either the dogs are fighting or the handlers are fighting or both (I usualy don't enter a dog myself so the problem can't be me, lol).
I almost never have a bad day running beagles, I have had several nights coonhunting lately that were not much fun. I still spend as much time as possible in the woods with a dog, going bobcat hunting tomorrow, but running beagles is my main focus now.

ISNT IT FUNNY THE THINGS THAT BRING BACK MEMORIES THAT CANT BE REPLACED ---- THOSE YEARS OF INNOCENCE WERE THE GREATEST ,
AND I KNOW EVERBODY HAS HAD A BEAGLE NAMED SNOOPY ---LIFE IS GOOD

My dad was not physically able to hunt but a couple of my Uncles would take me rabbit hunting once or twice a year. In my late teens I got a female beagle pup and raised her. We were not really good beaglers then, just let her run loose until rabbit season then go out and expect her to hunt. I was blessed in that she turned out to be a pretty good rabbit dog. After a couple years I had to give her away because I was moving to take a job out of town.
Things never worked out after that for me to be able to have any dogs but I never forgot the fun of running my own dog. As my two boys grew up we never seemed to live in a place where we could have dogs but I would tell them that some day we would have beagles and rabbit hunt. We eventually got into deer hunting and they loved it but I still missed the rabbit hunting. I would tell them that the Lord would bless us some day with Beagles and they would love working with them so much they would like it better than deer hunting. They would just laugh at me and say there is no way rabbit hunting could be better than deer hunting.
Well, the Lord blessed us with a perfect place out in the country and it wasn't long until some good friends at Church helped us get some Beagles. These friends tried to get us into the Field Trials but we said we were not interested in that, just wanted to run our dogs and hunt during the season. They finally talked us into going one time to a Field Trial and things haven't been the same since. We have been hooked ever since and love every minute we get to spend running our dogs, hunting, and competing. I am real proud of what my boys have accomplished in a short time and there is nothing I would rather be doing than out in the field with my two sons and our dogs. Both boys have now become pretty good Little Pack judges and have some pretty decent dogs. They are Billy and Cody Adams and I am sure a lot of the readers have met them this past year and would agree with me that I have been blessed by the Lord with two good sons. I believe working with the dogs has helped keep us close and hope we have many good years ahead as beaglers. By the way, they are so into their dogs that they have not deer hunted the past two years and even though they don't like to admit it they will agree that dad was right about this being more fun!

My grandpa was the man that got me started. He was a die-hard fox hunter (no other kind of hound but a fox hound) he lived in Mo. and hunted just about every night with about 10 or 12 other hunters in the early 60's. On weekends I was allowed to go with him over night if I had been good that week and done good in school. He gave me my first set of hounds when I was three years old, I thought I was taking care of them but my dad really was. We would go out in the woods and build a big fire and set around it all night and when I would get tired I would get up in his pickup and go to sleep and every year I would make it a little longer into the night. They were all good men and I learned alot about hounds and learned to love and respect the abilities of the hunting hounds. A few times over the years we seen the fox as it ran by us followed by the hounds and that was always a treat. I never regretted the many nights I spent with those men (all dead now) I just wished I had not taken it for granted so much (really miss it now). When I was 18 I bought my first beagle (28 years ago) and I was really kinda scared to hear what my grandpa would say about a different kind of hound, so I invited him over and we took the beagle out and he watched the rabbit race for about a half hour before he said anything to me. His very words to me was: it just a miniature fox hound and it looks like fun, I never convinced him to call them beagles, it was always miniature fox hounds to him. That was okay by me and he always told others that his oldest grandson raised and hunted miniature fox hounds. He was a (great) houndsman and a wonderful grandpa and I will always be thankful to God and proud to be his grandson!
I'm now a grandpa myself and hope in the future to take my grandchildren (one 10 months, one still inside) out to hunt those miniature fox hounds (beagles). My sons loves our dogs and he is a little pack judge now and I hope my grandchildren enjoy it also, it won't because they weren't given the chance! I would love to think all good hounds and houndsmen go to heaven where there is an endless supply of rabbits to run!!!! Miss you grandpa very much! dboman

LOL this is old but it was part of my beagle journal Ive kept...

I have been an avid fan of the beagle for over fifteen years. I had hunted with dogs, but it was not until I obtained my first hound that the fever really struck. It was around 1989 and I have Allen and Bobby Vest to thank for this. They had gotten rid of their dogs a year or so before, when out of the “clear blue” someone called them and said they had found their beagle. A dog they used to own still had their collar on it and they could not figure out whose dog it was. Luckily for me they decided they were not set up for dogs any longer and asked if I wanted the dog. Well being an animal lover I of course said yes. I got the dog that I named “Susie” and chained her up. I never even tried to see if she would hunt. About a month later I decided to just cut her loose and let her run around. At the time I was living at home, which was in a neighborhood in Gallatin Tennessee. It was about 11:00 p.m. and I figured I would let her run around the yard and get some exercise. It turned out to be a mistake that fortunately I did not live to regret and the start of my love for the beagle hound. I cut the dog loose and went inside and a few minutes later I heard the little dog fire in on one of those neighborhood cottontails and the race was on. This would eventually become the sound I love, but at the time with the picture of the little hound firing away through front and backyards of elderly neighbors after 11:00 pm, I was not feeling very good about it and I scrambled to catch her. It took me quite a while to catch up to her, but I finally did. On the way home with my little dog in tow, I was not sure what a good beagle hound was supposed to be. I did however figure that I might just have one. This was due to the fact that I did not think I would ever catch her and she had covered a lot of ground in a short time and was still going strong when I cut her off and got my hands on her. This was the beginning of the fever. The next day I called a relative of mine named Joe Lankford in Cooper Town Tennessee. Joe has always had beagles and he was the only one I had ever hunted with dogs before. Well Joe told me he would be glad for me to come on out and run the dog with his and do some hunting. I met up with Joe and we hunted the dog with his pack. She did a fair job and I from there I was hooked. I ended up with several of Joe’s dogs and hunted hard for a couple of years mostly with him. So I will also have to include a special thanks to his wife Beverly and there kids for putting up with me during those weekend adventures. After a year or so of this it was time for me to go away to college. Several months into my college career my mom laid down the law. She had all she could stand of taking care of my smelly hounds, which looking back I cant blame her. The dogs had to go. I ended up letting Joe have his pick of the hounds he wanted back and gave the rest away to a family friend. I am not sure how the hounds really were, but I was sure proud of them and always killed rabbits in front of them.

I had been out of the beagle business for several years when I ended up moving to Louisville KY after graduating college. Allen and Bobby Vest were getting back into beagles and here I was. They had a couple of litters of pups out of a really nice female they own from Earl and Patricia Bruner’s bloodlines called Bruner’s Lynn. I ended up with a couple of those pups and eventually purchased a AKC Blue tick out of Rufus Stewart’s stock. They were fair hounds and I got a lot of pleasure from them. Then as luck would have it I took a job that required a lot of my time. I ended up moving into an apartment, so I had to get rid of my dogs yet again. Well not all at once but eventually. Travis HedgePath of Gallatin ended up with probably the best one “Vests Tipper” and I am not sure of the mans name that ended up with “Vests Penny” but I heard he really likes her. I tried unsuccessfully to domesticate the AKC Blue Tick “Pine Mt. Bruner’s Blizzard”. For those of you out there thinking about taking a dog that has been a hunting dog all of its life and turning it into an apartment dog let me tell you, DON’T TRY IT, the dog destroyed my carpet, blinds, woodwork, couch and I did not even consider getting my deposit back. This is even after I covered up and halfway fixed most of the destruction. It was a nightmare and this dog left my company in a quick fashion.

I was again dog less for about three years, but the urge never left. I ended up moving in with my girlfriend and she supported the idea of me getting a couple of hounds to resume my hobby. I once again informed Allen and Bobby Vest of my intentions of getting back into hounds. They once again supplied me with the connections to make it a reality. I ended up buying a pup “Masons Krissy” out of one of their male dogs that I really liked “Pine Mt Chester” and a female named “Pine Mtn Gracie” which I also purchased. Well I had two dogs one decent dog and an unstarted six-month-old pup. Allen and Bobby came to the rescue again and offered to give me a young male dog bred out of “Vests Tipper” his name is “Vests Boomer”. This one I took without hesitation because it was a breeding I was planning before I ended up getting rid of “Tipper”. It was the beginning of hunting season and I went to it right away. I sent the pup to Earl and Patricia Bruner’s starting pen where she started on Christmas day. The other two I ran as much as I could. Before the end of gun season my pup had joined the pack and I was able to bag a few bunnies in front of her. All and all it ended up being a good season. My little pack of dogs has really turned out nice. I was enjoying my young pack but still had the need to add a good male with more experience. I was fortunate enough to find exactly the type of dog I was looking for and really fortunate that the guy sold him to me. A little over a month ago my pack was completed with the addition of “Pine Mtn. UnBob”. My pack consists of “Pine Mtn. Gracie” four years, “Pine Mtn. UnBob” three years, “Vests Boomer” two years and “Masons Krissy” ten months

I CAN REMEBER BEING EIETHER 7OR 8 YEARS OLD , MY FATHER HAD SEVERAL DOG FRIENDS WE OWNED SEVERAL HUNDERDS OF ACRES MY
DAD PUT ABOUT 50 ACRES ASIDE FOR RABBITS . ALL OF HIS BUDDIES WOULD COME ON FRI NIGHTS BUILD FIRE AND LISTEN TO DOGS ,MY FATHER DID NOT DRINK BUT ALL OF HIS FRIENDS MAY HAVE A NIP OR TWO. ONE NIGHT ONE OF HIS BUDDIES HAD TO MANY NIPS AND COULD
NOT GET HIS DOGS AS THEY WERE DEEP IN ,HE TOLD ME HE WOULD PAY ME A QUATER FOR EVERYONE CAUGHT, THE OTHER NIPPERS JOINE IN AND ALAS IT PAYED ME ABOUT $3.00 DOLLARS BIG MONEY FOR ME ,LOOKING BACK HOW DID I CATCH THESE DOGS ? NO LIGHT AND PITCH BLACK BUT I BROUGHT EM ALL IN ONE TRIP.PRETTY COOL THINKING ABOUT IT NOW .MY DAD TOLD ME YEARS AGO I ACTUALLY
LEARNED HOW TO WALK HOLDING ON TO A BEAGLE & I GOT THE PICTURE TO PROVE IT .GREAT MEMORIES AND STILL MAKING EM MY 14 YEAR OLD CAN CARE LESS ABOUT EM ,TO BAD I SURE MISS THEM OL DAYS FROM LONG AGO, GOOD STORIES GUYS KEEP EM COMING IT KEEPS MY MIND OFF REDTICK , HEY WILL DONT OL BLIZZARD LIVE WITH YA AGAIN

My entire family on both sides were ALL hunters but my Dad is the one who taught me and he started me out on squirrels. I do remember the first one I shot and I think he was as proud as I was. Wish he was here now.

yeah the ole man is coming home ...he will stay outside though...lol i will reeally be able to keep the rex x star close for a while...blizz one way gracie one way and criss cross down the road....

We lived in Toronto during the week and went to the farm on the weekends. We had two beagles on the farm were my granparents lived. The first one my dad shot instead of the rabbit. The second one, Pogo, learned to hunt behind my dad with me. lol Dad, Pogo, Carolyn tromping through the bush. That beagle knew when it was Friday night and we were coming. She also knew Sunday night when we were leaving. She was allowed in the basement but not the house. I spent many hours tramping the bush with Pogo and my cousins. Pogo got old and sick and my dad sent her on her way. I learned to love and respect animals growing on the farm. When the end came, the end it was, no fuss. Now I have my own beagles and we regularly tromp in the bush althougn I don't carry a gun. I just love to watch the hounds work. Those are great memories I visit often. The time in the bush sure prevented problems. Wish I could get my neices out more but I do my best with them and hopefully have instilled some love of dog and bush in them. Carolyn

Don't blame me!!!!!!! It's all my dads fault.

He took me to my first field trial (Retriever) when I was 7 yo (in 1949), and I've been chacing after dogs ever since.

tom

i was about 8yrs old had an old 410 single shot,,me and dad were hunting,,i was mjust kinda wandering around mind not in it like it shoulda been ,,when i seen the rabbit hopping off .raised my gun and shot..aftern that i was hooked as i picked up my 1st rabbit,dad hugged me and boy was i happy.during this time i was thje rabbit dog,,i jumped on the piles and such soon we got dog i liked that better lol...i used to take them out by myself after about 12 yrs old for a day in the fiels life was good!

I am 3rd genneration hound man. And I am 72 with grandchildren that hunt with me. My 1st memmorys of hounds was fox hunting with my grandpa and A uncle then trying coon hunting with another uncle going squerrel hunting with A neighbors dog. Then working for a neighbor to pay for my 1st. beagle . Have owned 1 or 2 or more for 60 + years. I still get A rush when I hear My dog give that excited bellow when he jumps A rabbit. I killed my 1st. rabbit with A old single barrel 12 gage with A full choke at about 15 feet. there was nothing left to dress out. but lots of good memmorys.