Melon Ranch Hounds

 Sometimes we need to change the subject and address some things that are more important than how to catch bobcats. For the past several years it has become apparent that people confused with which bathroom to use are more organized, funded, and visible then we are. Hunters are too busy bickering among themselves to stand together and fight for our right to enjoy hunting. It’s public land hunters vs private land hunters, free range vs high fence, bow hunter vs rifle hunters, and now houndmen vs landowners. Think about it, we’ve become so ridiculous that landowners who hunt are fighting with hound hunters. Someone is going to have to explain to me how we think we will ever get anywhere behaving like children. 

  As many of you know my world revolves around my hounds. With that in mind and all that I’ve been reading about Virginia’s issues, I wanted to give an opinion here. A couple of weeks ago I saw where 600+ hound hunters went to the capital in Virginia to stand against a proposed bill. Good for the hound hunters. But where were the other hunters. According to Google, 185,400 hunting license were sold in 2021. 185,400 hunters and 600 showed up to protest. That is embarrassing. Today I read another post that it is the landowners against the hound hunters. I think it may be time that all of us have a serious talk about this. One of the statements that I read over and over was, “We want it like it used be.” Guess what, that was then, and this is now, it isn’t going to be like it used to be and its time many hound hunters change with the times. After all, it is my opinion that change in the hound man is what caused the problem in the first place. Back in the day we were raised to be respectful and to ask people for permission. Back in the day us kids were told the word “No” enough times that we didn’t act like maniacs when we heard it. My generation’s parents didn’t ever use the excuse, “Oh he’s just a kid” when behavior got out of line. Sadly, my generation of parents have decided to be friends with their children rather than parents and that is the root cause to 95% of this problem. The generation of entitled selfish cry babies are grown and running hounds now.  I am a hound hunter, and I take hunting with hounds as seriously as any hunter alive. However, if I were asked who’s side I believe to be right in this argument, I will have to choose the landowner. Many of the modern-day hound hunter has no respect for anything, no moral compass, and present themselves as the low rent horses’ tails, they are. Most of this group are keyboard warriors but don’t have the balls to go shake a man’s hand and ask nicely how to handle a situation if their hound ends up on private land. Since this has become acceptable behavior among hound hunters (and other hunters) someone needs to explain to me why a landowner would want these people on their land. Wouldn’t it make more sense to spend a little time figuring out who owns land around where you want to hunt and address possible issues before tempers and egos make reasoning impossible? Doesn’t it make more sense to behave in a way that people like you versus in a way where people treat you like you have the plague? If you want landowners to be the way they used to be, behave like the hound hunters used to behave. Somewhere along the way us houndmen went from acceptable good men to disrespectful assumptive jackasses. People have owned land for a long time, and hound hunters have hunted that land. What changed, it certainly isn’t the landowner. Do better. 

 I touched on a generation of heathens being raised and causing the problem, how does this issue get addressed? There are two ways, in my opinion, that this tragedy be turned around. Those two ways are accountability and conversation. Before I address conversation, let me address accountability with an example. Last September I was guiding a guy from Indiana on an elk hunt. One night we were sitting outside by the fire and he was telling me about how much he loved rabbit hunting with beagles. That conversation led into the fact that there was one landowner near where he hunted that didn’t allow him to hunt. I could see the hatred building in his eyes as he talked about it. He went on to tell me that sometimes he’ll drive by the landowner’s house to see if he’s home and if he isn’t, he’ll hunt that property anyway. I stopped him right then and there. I then expressed the fact that I thought his position on the entire ordeal was wrong. I told him that the landowner has every right to say who can or cannot hunt on his property and he should respect it. Furthermore, I told him that he and attitudes like his are the reason many landowners don’t allow people to hunt. This guy was shocked that I disagreed with him. I ended my statement saying that if he wanted someone else to take him elk hunting to go and talk to the manager because I wasn’t changing my mind or apologizing. That is a good example of someone holding these people accountable for their actions. I had a conversation with my son one night while hunting. One night he and I were cat hunting on the north side of the ranch and our hounds crossed the fence into our cousin’s property. My son stated that there was a gate just down the fence. I told my son that we needed to call first and make sure it was cool that we went in. My son replied that they don’t even have a lock on the gate, they don’t care. This was a great time for me to make a point. I expressed that I didn’t give a damn of the gate was open, I was going to call and ask before I drove in there. It wasn’t the first time my hounds had ended up over there and it wouldn’t be the last. It didn’t matter to me that our cousin had told me many times to go get the cat and hounds when it happens. My point was, it is the right thing to do, and in doing it that way I will likely always be able to go and get my hounds. We caught the cat and loaded the hounds and were only about five hundred yards from a different gate going back into our property. My son suggested that we just hunt from where we were to that gate. Another opportunity to fix what could turn into a bad attitude. I said that we would not do anything like that. We had permission to go get our hounds and cat, that’s it. To go hunting afterwards is disrespectful and assumptive. I certainly wouldn’t want our cousin just randomly hunting on our side of the fence. But should they have a dog on our side or need to find a wounded deer, come on. Hell, for that matter when they come to get their dog or wounded deer, I’ll drive down and help them. 

Conversations need to happen among the houndmen and landowners. No text messages, emails, or word passing through other people, real handshakes and face to face conversations. Accountability is equally as important. The respectful hound man still outnumbers the riffraff. Hold them accountable, call them out, embarrass them if need be. We must realize that every time one of them make an ass of themselves we are being vicariously lumped into the same group of people. All of this brings me right back to the third sentence in this blog, all hunters need to stop the inner bickering and become one united team.  There is no room for your egos, or your underhanded slanderous comments. The public land hunter is no better than the private land hunter. The guy that kills a deer with a bow has no reason to nominate himself for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The free-range guys can stop making their smartass comments about the high fence hunters. Finally, the hound men can stop behaving in a way that makes the landowners say no. The hound hunters can also understand that the landowner has the final inarguable say on their property, deal with it.