houndsmen

[foxhound]

Very bummed!!!    Was headed to one of my spots that always has good coyote sign. There were three trucks along the road with their four ways flashing. Two yotes on the roof and "hunters" sitting in their warm trucks waiting for the dogs to do the work. I just don't see it as sporting or challenging. Sorry if I offend anyone. I just don't agree with their methods.

[Misterjake23]

I feel ya foxhound....I'd be upset myself.

[Hern]

I have Coyote hound hunters in my area too.
Back in the '60's-70's and 80's Fox and Coon hound hunting was popular and a tradition in many families. I had alot of those guys around in those days. Lots of competition back then. Coon hound hunters, Fox hound hunters, trappers and very few of us predator callers.

I love to go along with the local guys and chase Coyote. I enjoy the hound work and get excited when they are coming at me.
The hound guys work hard. 365 days feeding, training, keeping hounds in shape then actually going hunting. Lots of dedication to own hounds. Lots of work and love of the game.
Not offended, not really a hound guy and sorry you lost out this time.

foxhound, get to know your competition. Any and all competition. Stop and talk with them.

[foxhound]

I respect the amount of time, money and hard work that goes into raising and training a good hunting dog. I know several people that hunt coons with dogs. I don't take issue with people using dogs. It's the group of guys here in NWPA I have issue with. They drive around back roads until they see tracks, turn the dogs loose and monitor their location with GPS units. Their dogs chase them across posted property and go anywhere the coyotes go. They have no regard boundaries or property lines. Just drive around following the dogs movement. Get out of their trucks and shoot when the dogs have them bayed. That's what I take exception to. The "methods" they use. I personally feel they should be out of the nice warm truck working alongside the dogs. That's how it's should be done. I'm not sure how they do it in your neck of the woods Hern. I certainly mean no disrespect to guys that actually work their dogs. The guys around here are basically "road hunting" as far as I'm concerned.

[scott]

same here in the northeast.   had a buddy text me that he was on his way up to his brothers and wyalusing and had to stop the truck on route 6 because a truck was stopped of the side of the road and a person jumped out of the truck with a shotgun to shoot a coyote the dogs had bayed next to the road.   I know 5 different groups of hound hunters from wilkes barre to bradford county and they all hunt the same way.  trucks and quads, gps, trespass, and dogs.   

if the GC would drive around during these hunts they would see all the illegal activity but they just turn a blind eye.   

imo you cannot hunt coyotes in pa with dogs and be legal.   

[Buckwheat]

I never hunted over dogs for coyotes. Just like any sport there are those that push the law to the limit or farther. I am not sure you can run dogs for coyotes any other way an kill them anyways. To walk with the dogs seams in possible for coyotes.
I know with the electronics available they say they need that to retrieve there dogs at the end of the hunts but it is used for everything to kill the coyotes. No other sport does the PGC let anyone get away with the ileagle methods they use. Coyotes are the most hated critter in Pa. I am just not sure there is a fix. If you want coyotes killed there really is no better way quickly. Trapping and calling is the other ways. But with out these ileagle hound methods we will lose a good coyote control method is how I think the PGC looks at it.

[Hern]

No hard feelings on my part.
Local guys I hunted with a few times were on a mountain. Who owned that mountain, I have no clue. But we started and ended on State Forest.
Our guys ride the road to look for fresh tracks, but I do the same from time to time for calling.
foxhound, sounds like some of the slobs that hound hunted in years past, from my first reply. Fox and Coon hounds all over without permission.
Your last reply gives me more light on 'their methods'. I feel for you.

[Buckwheat]

Also the classification on coyotes is a little different then the fur bearers. I do not remember what it is but it is different. One of the reasons we can hunt then year around.

Gps tracking on dog, not hard to see were the coyote is on your laptop in the truck or you gps hand held tracker.
 

[foxhound]

I'll have to see if I can find the spot my boss was telling me about. He told me of a place near Tamarak lake (unfortunately it's no longer a lake. Been drained due to leaking damn and no $$$ for repairs) where the houndsmen "hang" their coyotes in trees. Last month he was driving near there and said there were about 60 coyotes hanging in the trees. If I can find it i'll try to post a picture. I know they are theirs to do with what they want. Seems a shame that all the hides go to waste.

[uncle buck]

One of the benefits of living in a populated area and small farms... I know these Cumberland County farmers wouldn't stand for trespassing. Actually more and more your going to see the bigger coyotes coming from populated areas.. They keep hammering the coyotes they won't get big. Who knows down the road I might pick up a Pa Game News and read a story how undercover PGC agents busted a ring of illegal dog hunters.. Always enjoy that part of the PA Game News reading how wardens bust people.  Have yet to see a coyote hunting bust for hunting illegal.. Always deer hunters or bear hunters.. Just like townships or states won't put in a traffic light until someone gets killed.. Probably going to take that... Some poor soul coming back from supper gets killed by a coyote hunting machine that goes through a stop sign trying to get to point A from Point B fast.. Does it bother me that they do it? No that's the Pa Game Laws. If it's legal then it's ok... Now the only thing is are they doing legal things to harvest the coyotes and have the ole fair chase tactic a part of the coyote hunt? I  don't know... Hope I'm not the one or someone I know gets killed in a car accident by someone chasing a coyote in a vehicle...Actually I don't want that to happen to anyone!!!!

[uncle buck]

A few years back a trapper got fined because he was throwing his fox carcasses in the woods...The Pa Game Commission recommends that you place them out for the weekly garbage pick up in a plastic bag.. that's what I do when I skin the carcass or  they have mange...Now I guess what they get people for is littering on lands when they just throw them out in the woods like that...Actually all PGL have deer pits and that's where they really should be throwing the coyotes...However like I have always said NOT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.. Some a smart, some are dumb, some are somewhere in between... Some are Good, some are just OK, and some men can be bad to the bone..I was thinking back many a times to some of the people I served with in the Coast Guard.  I was a youngen then but I know some of them 1st class Petty Officer had to Sociopaths!

[Hern]

trapper got fined because he was throwing his fox carcasses in the woods...
 That's a blast from the past...
That was Steve Houtz. He's an Animal Damage Control (ADC) man in your area.
UB, I can't recall the details and Steve does fur trap, but those carcasses could have been ADC Groundhogs and Coon. But not sure. Steve did get fined.

One of the benefits of living in a populated area and small farms... I know these Cumberland County farmers wouldn't stand for trespassing
I've experienced hounds follow game when in pursue on any land. Private land, state land, crossing railways, roads and interstates, even trailing in state park (no hunting ever). I've seen it first hand UB.  Many property owners have no clue hounds were there and if they do see a hound or two or hear them, they don't take time to catch hounds and trace owner down, the hound owners are rarely nearby to nab or talk with. Am sure those farmers would confront someone walking on their land, but that's not the case with hounds and hound hunting. Hound hunters know where they can shoot without trespassing. So they will stay off property they aren't welcomed and set up for kill elsewhere.

[nortpete]

Foxhound, I know the people you are talking about. They are in Cochranton. They do hang the coyotes in a tree in their front yard, but they are only hanging the ones they get that have mange on them, which is a good majority of them. The good ones are skinned, fleshed, and stretched. This group of hunters do go anywhere in Crawford and Mercer Counties, and I have gone to places to hunt and they are there. It is kind of a love hate relationship, but I look at it this way. When you see all of those coyotes hanging in a tree, that is that many less passing on mange to a fox or killing a fox. Now remember there are twice as many killed that are hanging in the tree, so there are that many less coyotes killing the fawns, when everyone is complaining about having no deer around. They kill between 70 and 120 every winter. There are also two other groups here that kill equally as many. I would rather have them hunting them, than people calling them to keep them in check. Just my thought. 

[HDRoadking3058]

foxhound, I know exactly the houndsmen your talking about. My son lives in the Meadville/Cochranton area and is a fox hunter. I know their last names but can't and wont post in on here. My son is dying to call and kill a coyote but the houndsmen have got those yotes so rattled from dogging that their entirely spooked. We drove past that farm last year while fox hunting and they had 30+ hanging on a pole rotting. I heard they let them rot and then burry them in a field with a backhoe. I guess its their kills, so they can do with them what they want. What a waste of fur!

[Dale]

if it is the mangy ones they're hanging, it's no big loss...