Mabel takes me to the UKC world hunt

People who know a little bit about nite hunts will tell you "Eventually, everyone who enters a nite hunt will win something" or "There is so much luck involved that winning an event doesn't mean a dog is has done anything special". You will also find out pretty fast that there are not really any tangible rewards for winning coonhound events. (I don't know anybody who has an improved standard of living due to winning a lot of nite hunts. Do you?) So the obvious question is "Why take part in these events?" In my case I enter these events just because it is fun and I get to hunt with a lot of nice people in different places. Occasionally at the end of the night, I'll receive a trophy and I find this exciting even if it doesn't mean much.

This year I was especially lucky and I advanced quite a way in the UKC world championship competition. The experience was very enjoyable for me and for several of my friends who also advanced in the competition. After reading this account, I think you will see that all it takes is a little luck and a coondog. Maybe it will be you at the world hunt this year.

The adventure started with the Regional Qualifying Event here in Hewitt, Minnesota. At the time I didn't really consider going to the semifinals. I just wanted to get her in an RQE because it is a good place to pick up a first place win. I wasn't even the one who took Mabel to this event. It was Carl Dahlen a student here at the University of Minnesota who took Mabel for me. Carl is pretty knowledgeable and honest about coonhounds. The day after the hunt he described Mabels performance in graphic detail. Carl said that there was one dog in the cast that started running junk on almost every drop.Carl added that Mabel was not too bashful about joining in on these junk runs and even took the lead a few times. Still, the dogs managed to tree some coons and Mabel ended up with a very lucky cast win. I won't go into too much detail but the next day Mabel looked pretty tired from running junk and she had the strong smell of skunk about her.

So Mabel was qualified to go on to the semifinals in September but she needed some work. She had always had some good natural qualities but she was not consistent. In fact I often call her "unstable Mabel".Well, I thought it was still early in the summer and there was plenty of time to work on her problems. I hunted Mabel 3 nights a week through the summer trying to get her "tuned up". She hunted well for me when I went to my regular spots & did not run trash. When I traveled to somebody else's territory or went to nite hunts though Mabel still behaved erratically. Sometimes trailing off by herself on bad tracks and not coming in to other dogs treeing. She reached her low point at a club hunt towards the end of the summer. She trailed out into a big swamp never treeing and she did not come in to other dogs treed close by. To top it off she wouldn't come when I called & she made me a little mad. I just left her out in the swamp overnight & I didn't come back to get her until 8 PM the next evening. This was 3 weeks before I was to take her to the semi-finals in Saline, Indiana. She seemed to behave a little better after her night out and I hunted her mainly alone the rest of the summer. Finally September arrived and ready or not we were headed for the semifinals.

Here are a few of the things I had to take care of in order to attend this event. First of all there was also a pretty substantial entry fee for this event. Then I had to take Thursday, Friday and the following Monday in order to allow for the 16 hour drive each way to and from Minnesota. I also needed a motel room for 3 days and enough cash to eat meals and cover road expenses. If you stop to think about it, the cost alone eliminates a lot of competition.

On arriving at an event like the UKC world hunt semifinals, you will find that they are run a little differently than a local nite hunt. This is easy to understand when you consider that there are over 100 entrants coming from all over the country. First, all contestants are required to check in with the master of hounds no later than 3 PM the day of the hunt. This allows the hunt officials extra time to organize casts and acquire guides and judges. Then you must return to the clubhouse by 6 PM to hear the casts being announced. (Casts are called out by number not by name. I learned this after leaving my confirmation notice in the hotel room. I had a few frantic moments before the Master of Hounds helped me find out which cast I was in!) You can count on quite a bit of waiting and driving before you actually begin to hunt. It is a great opportunity to swap a few stories and get to know others.

Saline City, Indiana; The First Night

At around 9 PM my fellow cast members and I were gathered at the clubhouse where we received our final instructions from the master of hounds. The two judges, myself and three other hunters made our introductions and finally we were headed for the woods. We drove a short distance from the clubhouse and pulled over near a dry creek that ran under the road. We sent the dogs along the creek bed and waited about10 minutes until I heard Mabel bawl way out to the left and behind us. I struck her in and another cast member drystruck his dog. Mabel located after about 3 or 4 minutes and I declared her treed. As we started walking the other dogs opened on trail in the same general direction as Mabel. I soon realized that the other dogs were trailing away from Mabel on a very hot track and it was very soon that they were treed separate. Needless to say, this made me very nervous & I wanted to get to Mabels' tree before she got any ideas about checking out those other dogs. One judge went with me to Mabel and the other judge went with the rest of the cast members to their tree. We had to walk around a small lake to get to Mabel & those other dogs were treeing hard. It took about ten minutes to get to her and as I approached Mabels' tree I could see that it was very small and bushy with exposed roots coming right out of the lake. It didn't look like a good place to take refuge but to my surprise, when we started to shine, there was a small coon right in plain sight. We proceeded from there into the woods where we found the other dogs on a very tall leafy tree. It was very hard to see much of the tree and we were very lucky to see a coon looking down on us. I was in the lead but we all did well on this drop. (Before we left the tree, I felt I had to ask the judges about the handler who had drystruck his dog. One judge stated he had heard it while the other was not sure. Instead of warning the handler and changing his score the judges made a general statement to the cast. The judges informed us all that they now knew how each dog sounded and warned us to make sure that we call our own hounds. I was very pleased with the way the judges handled this. I also think the other hunters on the cast appreciated that this incident was discussed and resolved. This was the only "incident" I experienced throughout these competitions and it is hardly worth mentioning. I only do so to show that it is possible to discuss an issue, reach a decision and proceed with the hunt with no hard feelings.)

We made the next drop in a large section that consisted of a series of grain fields lined with small woods and dry creeks. We sent the dogs down the edge of a bean field towards a wooded area and waited. It was only a few minutes before one by one each hound was struck in. The tracks sounded pretty poor & and the dogs were not making any progress. Mabel trailed off down a dry creek and then got quiet. A couple of the other dogs trailed off together in the opposite direction. The fourth dog had not been heard from since being struck in. Several times we started the eight minutes on the dogs but the two dogs managed to keep the track alive. After about 1/2 an hour these two dogs picked up and were running the track pretty well out in the beanfield. The dogs were falling off of the track without treeing. We were pretty sure that they had been running a fox. We started the 8 minutes again and it almost had run out when we heard a dog trailing. He was in the general direction where we had heard Mabel trailing earlier only a little to the left. The track didn't sound real good but the dog was moving it. This dog trailed for about 5 minutes located and started treeing. The handler waited just a little while and then declared this dog treed. We started walking slowly in the direction of his dog & figured we would get there just about the time the five minutes was up. The two dogs that had been trailing in the beanfield passed by us as they headed for the hound that was treeing. Along the way one of those dogs struck a track in a corn field just before reaching the dog that was treed. Soon the second dog joined in on the trail and the two began making quite a bit of noise. The dog that had been treeing couldn't take the pressure, he got quiet, & it wasn't long before we heard him join those other two dogs on track. The three dogs trailed off and on until the time ran out in the hunt. A couple of minutes later we heard Mabel strike, run a short distance and tree. She was on the far side of the corn field by the road. One dog was still in the corn and was trailing towards Mabel. We walked back to the trucks and drove around to where Mabel was. All of this took about 1/2 an hour and Mabel stayed treed while the last dog kept on trailing in the corn field right next to her . It was too late to affect the score but when I arrived there, three coons were up her tree. Mabel had managed to hang on and win the cast with +225. She really had done better than the other dogs that night and deserved it too. It is not very often that I can honestly say something like this at the end of the night.

The next day was very hot and dry. I spent most of the time hanging around the clubhouse and listening to stories from the night before. It was late in the afternoon when the casts for the second night were announced. I was assigned to a cast hunting out of a satellite club about an hour drive from the clubhouse.

If you have ever driven to satellite clubs you know it can be a little nerve wracking. We were given a map and a deadline to reach the clubhouse. My friend Stef was also going to this club so I followed him. We missed a turn on the way to the satellite club & it was cause for a little anxiety. We were lucky to stop and get some directions that got us turned around the right way. We did made it to the club with plenty of time to spare but with slightly raised blood pressure.

Saline City, Indiana; The Second Night

Around 8 PM we received our instructions from the master of hounds and our casts were announced. My group was going to hunt an area about 45 minutes away and we didn't waste too much time getting on the road. We arrived at the first drop, a large section with large cornfields surrounded by creeks and wooded hills. We were only about a mile from the interstate and it was going to be hard to hear dogs.

We sent the dogs across the corn towards a wooded area. An english dog barked a couple of times at the edge of the woods and was struck in. It was quiet for a while & we walked the edge of the field a little. I heard Mabel pretty deep and I struck her in. A moment later a walker was struck in deep and to the right of Mabel. The last dog a bluetick was just walking around not really hunting. The handler of the walker declared his dog treed, the dog moved and was minused. Mabel located up ahead of us and I treed her. The owner of the walker once more treed his dog and again the dog moved and was minused. The cast proceeded to Mabels' tree and on the way the handler of the walker treed his dog one more time. One judge and the handler went to the tree of this walker while the rest of us headed to Mabel. When we arrived at Mabels' tree there was the unmistakable scent of skunk in the air. When I stuck my nose by her it was pretty obvious that she had been sprayed somehow. Whatever had happened, it turned out all right because we saw a coon in her tree. The bluetick was milling around us while we were shining and never did go into this tree. We pulled Mabel off of her tree and listened for a few minutes. The walker dog that had been declared treed was still barking but we couldn't tell if it was moving or not. We were deciding what to do when the handler of the english dog treed. We listened and could just barely hear the english dog was way back beyond where he had been struck in. We decided to head for the english dog and let the other judge handle the situation with the walker dog. We walked for a very long time with Mabel on a leash and the bluetick walking around us just far enough away to keep from being disqualified. We could hear the english dog was getting tired and quiet. He just barely kept the two minutes from getting him and we were able to go into his tree. The tree was a huge oak with a lot of leaves and vines and we were very lucky to see the coon. While we were at that tree the bluetick was struck in but never treed and never trailed away. The judge instructed the handler of the bluetick to catch his dog and we called time out. When we met up with the other judge and cast member again, we learned that the walker dog had left his tree for a third time and was out of the hunt. (Apparently there were beaver in the creek next to his tree and he was leaving when they slapped their tails in the water.) So we headed for the next hunting spot as a 3 dog cast with the english dog at +225, Mabel at +200, the bluetick at -25.

The next drop was a nice cornfield lined with woods and it really looked like coon country. We sent the three dogs down the edge of the field and waited. It wasn't too long and Mabel opened and I struck her in immediately. She ran for a short time located and began treeing. I could not see any trees where Mabel was & I turned to the judge and asked him if there were any trees there. The rest of the cast seemed to think this was pretty funny had a few laughs. I treed Mabel and we walked a little way towards her. Sure enough when we came over a little rise in the field I could see the tree line where Mabel was. We were pretty close and no other dogs were struck so we had to wait  the full five minutes. While we waited the english dog came through, struck right next to Mabel and began trailing all around her. Mabel got quiet and we started the two minutes but she started barking again and we were able to go into her tree. The english dog came in and started treeing with Mabel after we arrived. We found a coon, scored this tree and walked the dogs a short distance away. The handler of the bluetick said he heard his dog trailing on the far side of a beanfield and struck him in. We had to let Mabel and the english dog go but they did not go towards the beanfield. Instead Mabel went down the other edge of the cornfield and started trailing. She ran for a few minutes, located and started treeing. I waited for a little bit and then declared her treed. Once again we waited the five minutes  while the english dog trailed all around Mabel. When the five minutes was up we went into the tree and the english dog came in after we arrived. Mabel was treeing on a on a small tree leaning into a bigger tree where the coon was and the judge considered them the same tree and awarded plus points. We could no longer hear anything of the bluetick so we called time-out and headed for the trucks and when we arrived there sat the bluetick.

We drove to the next spot and with about 20 minutes left to hunt we sent the dogs down a tree. It was quiet for about 10 minutes and then to my surprise the bluetick opened on track about 100 yards in front of us. The english dog joined in and the two trailed together for several minutes. Mabel opened but she was much deeper and trailing away from us. The bluetick and the english dog trailed through the treeline out into the beanfield and then looped back. The bluetick located and treed and the english dog joined in shortly after. We waited only a few moments and the time ran out on the hunt. We walked into the blueticks tree and saw the coon. (This bluetick had done absolutely nothing all night long but on this track he looked very good.) Mabel never treed and I finally caught her on a tree line at the other end of the field. I suspected that the last track of hers had really been a fox. It didn't matter though, Mabel won the cast with +575. She treed 3 coons by herself and had to hold pressure every time. On this night she really was the better dog and deserved to win.

I went back to the clubhouse and waited until around 3 am for the hunt results to be announced. Mabel ended up with +800 points and two cast wins to become the 1st place winner in zone 5. It was the first time I have ever done well at an event like this & it was very exciting. One of my hunting partners Stef Devries also won his cast both nights and was the 9th place winner overall.

I drove back to Minnesota and relaxed for a couple of days. Stef & I got together later in the week and headed for Ada Oklahoma. It was a quite a long drive and we were plenty tired by the time we arrived at the fairgrounds. The hunt format was organized similar to that of the semifinals. We had to check in around noon and then return around 6 PM to hear the casts being called. There was quite a bit more ceremony involved with this hunt though. There were several speeches and announcements made before the casts were drawn. Mostly words of appreciation were expressed for all the people who had contributed to arranging this event. Also a lot of talk about the entrants who had advanced all this way in the competition. At times it seemed like it was a little corny, but at the same time it really was fun to be a part of this event.

Ada Oklahoma, The First Night

At last I heard my name called as the casts were being announced. I was drawn out with a walker from New York, a walker from Ohio and a bluetick from Mississippi. We drove about an hour to get to our first hunting spot and the country was like nothing I had ever hunted before. There were large areas of flat open pasture with an occasional small creek that contained some trees and small sloughs.

We lined the dogs up and sent them down the edge of a creek. It was only a minute or two and Mabel struck, ran a short track, located and started treeing. This track sounded strange to me and the other dogs didn't seem interested in it so I didn't tree her. The judge was right on top of things and he told me he was starting the time on Mabel & that we would check her tree if the five minutes elapsed. I waited a minute & then I treed her. Another five minutes passed and Mabel was still there so we started towards the "tree". Just before we reached her the bluetick struck and Mabel got quiet. The bluetick was digging and growling in the ground right where Mabel had been barking. Finally the bluetick quit & we could hear the two dogs run off together down the creek. I asked the judge what he thought Mabel and the other dog had been doing and he said they probably had an armadillo in a hole. I was lucky to come away with only -125 because Mabel & the bluetick probably deserved to be scratched for what they were up to.

A few minutes went by and I heard Mabel strike ways out. Each of the other dogs struck in with her but it was a bad track and there was a lot of time in between barks. A couple of the dogs located but none of them could turn it over into a tree. After a while it was just Mabel cold trailing and she wouldn't give it up. Several more minutes went by & then we heard a couple of dogs way off to the left. They sounded treed but the handlers waited quite a while to declare them. The walker from New York finally took first tree and then the bluetick joined in. The other two dogs never went to the tree, Mabel was cold trailing and the Ohio walker was nowhere to be found. We saw a coon in the tree right away & led the dogs away from the tree. We then turned them loose in the direction of Mabel who was still cold trailing. Shortly after that the walker from Ohio opened once or twice and then treed. All of the dogs came into this tree & we searched but did not find a coon. We took 100 minutes and covered an incredible amount of ground to see one coon. The walker from New York had +175 and the bluetick had +150, the Ohio walker was at zero and I had -125. With only 20 minutes to hunt and a sparse coon population it looked as if some other cast member was going to win tonight. I was still looking forward to making another drop and treeing one more coon.

The next hunting spot was much like the first, a small creek running through pasture land. We sent the dogs down the creek and we had a quick strike from two of the dogs. Mabel barked a couple of times just before they all got quiet. It appeared that they had bumped some kind of trash & the 8 minutes was started. About 3 minutes had gone by when we heard Mabel cold trailing down the creek. She kept grubbed the track out for about 15 minutes and then the bluetick opened once or twice with her. Mabel trailed on a little more and then let out a locate. A few seconds later the bluetick also located and his handler treed immediately. It was pretty weak to start with but Mabel and the bluetick settled in and started to tree pretty good after while. The hunting time expired as we walked to the tree and no other dogs were declared treed. The handler of the New York walker was pretty nervous now and on the way to the tree he asked me "Do you think she has the meat?". I thought to myself that it was a very weak track and a poor locate and I could only reply "I just don't know". When we arrived at the tree it didn't look like much. A very small scrub oak, with no coon was in sight and there didn't appear to be any hiding places. We went through the exercise of searching the tree anyway. The judge and I both noticed that there was a small opening at the trunk of the tree and I stated that at least the tree could be circled. When the handler of the bluetick heard this he headed straight for the base of the tree. He got down on his back and scooted his head up into the hole & started shining his light. In a few seconds he was calling to everyone to come and look. Sure enough when you shined up that hole in the tree you could see the coon looking right back at you. The bluetick was the only dog to score on both trees and he became the cast winner.

It was a fun ride while it lasted but my luck had finally run out. I still think it was worth it to continue on from the RQE and I'll remember these nights for the rest of my life. Good luck to you if you decide to give it a try. I don't think you will regret it.