The Shawnee Hounds set out into big, open country for a tiring day in the mud. (Foreground) Master and huntsman Dr. Mark Smith, (background, l-r) Lee Carson, Courtney Carson and guest Jeffie McAfoo / Sue Brandt photoThe Shawnee Hounds (IL) Mannings fixture was challenging to hunt this day—substantial ditches, wide open fields that were muddy and quickly sapped the horses’ strength, and large wheat fields that had to be circumnavigated to stay in the farmers’ good graces. This made it difficult for the whippers-in as well as those who had to stay further out in order to not lose the pack on a big run. The large woods that we normally would avoid due to being leased by deer hunters were open now that deer season was over.
This hunt was further challenged by too much of a good thing—lots of coyotes! They were everywhere, and I doubt I can remember all the views of different coyotes seen and by whom.
It was February 28, 2012 under sunny skies with ten to fifteen mph winds out of the southwest. I took out fifteen-and-a-half couple. Courtney Carson and her guest Jeffie McAfoo whipped-in, as did Gail Petreikis, Karen Kipp, Lee Carson, Amanda Buday, and Lei Ruckle. Drew Handford rode in my pocket. Anne Bauer led the field, Sue Brandt took pictures, and Master Richard Finke rode at his leisure.
We hunted the grass field first that lies a quarter mile east of the trailers. Almost immediately Courtney viewed a very large coyote bolt northeast that was viewed by several other whippers-in as well. Lei signalled the coyote had turned north. I lifted the pack and galloped to her, and the pack immediately found, screaming north. They entered the southeast side of the big sawmill woods. Staff scrambled to cover the big woods that is nearly a half mile wide and extends north nearly a mile. The woods are impassable due to old cut tree tops and deep ravines and ditches with questionable footing. I stayed south and listened. The pack ran northwest.
Karen, to the west saw some hounds come out on a coyote and then circle back to the woods. Other whippers-in viewed hounds at various times circling. First one, then another would radio that they viewed a coyote coming out, some from the west , some east, some south. I also saw one come out. In all maybe five coyote were viewed, but none were the hunted coyote as no hounds came out on them.
Over the next twenty to thirty minutes I could hear hounds in different directions in the woods. They were getting strung out, and there was so much game in there that they were splitting and splitting again. Quite a few deer were viewed as well, but no hound was seen on bad game. I started calling them in, and they came in from all points on the compass. Finally Lee Carson pushed in Notso from the south and Lei Ruckle brought two pups in from the west. All were in except Trooper. My Garmin showed he was still running the hunted coyote south. He was 1.74 miles south when the Garmin lost the signal of his collar.
We hunted east toward the radio tower. Going south along an old wooded fence line toward the main woods, Shilo voiced and was vigorously working a scent, and other hounds were feathering. I explained to Drew that Shilo was very cold nosed and no telling how old that line was, and kept drawing toward the woods. Just then Gail on the west said a large herd of deer had come out the southwest side of the woods. Then Gail and Lee Carson (to the south) both saw four deer come out of the woods with a coyote running with them. I lifted the pack, took them south, and they immediately hit the line.
The deer split off from the coyote, and the pack stayed with the coyote. We ran southwest to the next road then straight west. The pack ran right through the front yard of a small house and continued west, and on we galloped jumping ditches. The mud was beginning to tell on my horse, and I had to spur him on. I came upon Richard who said the game was far ahead. In the covert near Richard I saw two greyhounds with tracking collars. I had noticed some trucks on a dirt road near the little house we ran by and surmised they were truck hunters, but I never thought they would be using greyhounds. The greyhounds immediately joined our pack, and we kept going west. Courtney was ahead and said more greyhounds were ahead of our pack and running.
One of the greyhound men / Sue Brandt photoI believe that when we pushed that coyote out, the truck hunters didn’t know we were running it and likely released their pack of greyhounds. So now I had a pack of greyhounds a half mile ahead of my foxhounds running the same coyote. We came to a check at a small patch of phragmite grass and I decided to stop. My horse was giving out anyway, and the pack was strung out by now. I thought I had all my hounds except Trooper, but one of the hounds turned out to be a greyhound, and I was missing Iris. I assumed she was way ahead running with the other greyhound pack.
I saw a couple trucks back to the northeast a mile away, so I hacked to them. They were part of the greyhound group, so I returned their hound to them. We told them where their pack had gone and they radioed other hunters. He asked if we were missing a white hound (Trooper) and I said we were. He said Trooper was a couple miles to our east running with another pack of greyhounds! Meanwhile, Lee Carson to my east and Karen to my west were both reporting coyote sightings. We had been out two hours and covered quite a few miles. Our horses were rested by now and probably could stand another run, but I had at least two greyhound packs in my country running basically unattended; I had one of my hounds in each of those packs; and I decided the prudent thing to do was quit. We hacked in and enjoyed a delicious tailgate of hot chili.
About thirty minutes later Trooper came in from the east, and shortly after that Iris came in from the west. All was good. Our host Paul Manning came in and said he had quit hunting coyotes and got rid of his hounds. That probably is at least partially why the coyote population is rebounding. What a day. You never know what is going to happen at Mannings!
Posted February 8, 2012
Master and huntsman Dr. Mark Smith collects hounds. Whipper-in Courtney Carson assists. The Mannings fixture makes for superb viewing and fast galloping. / Sue Brandt photo