Get Ready For Some Deer Dogging In King William County

My great uncle called yesterday to discuss our hunting plans for later this month.  When we do get together, we'll be hunting whitetails using a method that gets little coverage in the mainstream outdoor media and which hunters from many regions of the country never get an opportunity to employ.

My uncle, the husband of my grandmother's sister, hunts in a club in King William County, VA where deer dogs and buckshot are the order of the day.  Club members and guests gather around a map before the hunt, and the majority of them are assigned "stands," which are spots along trails and in the woods, some marked with signs and others with various landmarks such as a pile of old pallets or simply a clearing or hedgerow.  Meanwhile, one, two or three club members load the dogs into boxes in the beds of their pickup trucks.  These individuals will "drive" the dogs, which will in turn drive the deer to the other hunters.

The dogs are "put in" at designated locations on the vast tracts of land hunted by the club.  Some parcels are owned by club members, and others are farms or paper company land with hunting rights leased by the club.  The dogs take off through the woods, with the drivers yipping and whooping behind them, and attempt to sniff out bedded deer.  When they "jump" one, it's on.

A deer takes off with a pack of baying hounds in hot pursuit.  If a stander is in a good spot and is lucky, the deer runs by.  If he's real lucky, the whitetail is far enough head of the dogs that it is moving at a slow trot.  Often though, the deer is tearing through the brush at full speed.  The hunter has about one second to raise his shotgun, decide if it's a deer he wants to harvest and fire.

My uncle reported killing two deer last Saturday, and he said the club's season tally as of yesterday was 56, including deer killed by more conventional methods during muzzleloader season.  I shot my first buck while hunting with the club a few years ago, and my other uncle got a small deer when he and I were guests at the club last year.

Deer hunting with dogs is not for everyone, and my guess is that the reason it's not covered much in magazines like Field & Stream and Outdoor Life is that many hunters view it as unethical.  That argument has its merits, as shooting at running deer can lead to wounded whitetail, and the use of dogs in the view of many does not constitute "fair chase."

But, in counties like King William where not only hunting with rifles but even shotguns loaded with slugs is illegal, using dogs is the only realistic way to put a significant dent in the whitetail herd.  The method also gives older hunters, who may not be able to climb into a tree stand or walk great distances to track deer, an opportunity to hunt as long as they can sit on a bucket and look down the barrel of a shotgun.  One club member I met years ago hunted into his mid-90s!

This type of hunting also fosters a camaraderie that is difficult to match.  Club members gather for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and my impression is that to many of them the meals are just as important as the hunts.  The building where the operation is based started as a tiny cabin sometime in the last century, and over the years club members have added bunk houses, bathrooms and a massive "skinning shed" in the back yard where they check and process their own deer.  During the off season, club members take turns caring for the dogs, which live in pens at the site year round.

I've picked up some of the funniest and best hunting stories I've ever heard on trips to the club, and I'd love to re-tell some of them here.  I'm not sure where club members stand on publicity, so I'll have to ask around when I join them later this month before I write any more.

In the meantime, take a look at the record-setting buck shot recently in Maryland.  And take advantage of whitetail movement in this cold weather and get out there and hunt!

Comments

[Moose]

Hey Matt thanks for stopping by my blog. I put up a story about dog hunting after reading yours. We may not be the media giants like Field & Stream and Outdoor Life yet but who knows as blogging continues to grow we may.
-Moose-

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