This is a type of hunting that I have done my entire life. Ever since I was a little boy I have been “dog hunting” with my grandad, then on my on, and now with my own two kids. It is a traditional southern hunting style that couldn’t or wouldn’t work other places like it does here. It is also a type of hunting that just isn’t what people think. Most folks think that you release the dogs, and they just run bewildered deer everywhere to the slaughter. That is just not the case at all. Deer are not like foxes or hogs, the dogs can’t catch them, and believe me, hitting one running is far more sporting than using corn to bait one in at 100yds.
After WWII, the mechanization of farming made a ton more land available for farming, and subsequently made the deer habitat largely nonexistent. My granddad, his brothers, and others used dog out of necessity. They would go weeks without seeing a buck, does were off limits. As time past, less and less farming was done, and the deer habitat and population exploded.
Today, is a totally different atmosphere than even I as a teen remember. In 1994, our club killed 94 bucks and 6 does, and I only remember 3 pieces of property ~400 acres, that we could not hunt, for 60,000 acres. Today that this definitely not the case. Our land totals are 20%, our total hunt days are half, and kill numbers are more like 45 bucks to 55 does.
Today was the first day of our season that I went dog hunting with my boys, and I specifically told them to enjoy this now, because it will be gone most definitely sooner rather than later. We can hold on for 5-10-15 more years, but once it is gone, it won’t be back. The way of a lot of lost southern traditions.