Hello to all the readers of FULL CRY. This is the first article that I have ever written in this fine magazine. I have been approached in the past on more than one occasion by different folks asking me, are you ever going to write an article? Well here I am and here it goes.First off let me explain the title of this column and what it means, “OUT AND ABOUT” I thought would be a fitting title do to the fact that that is what I am going to write about when I am out and about. Folks I meet or talk with, Dogs I have seen or hunted with, Clubs or Hunts I have attended. I will give this article my best shot and would welcome any letters or pictures or e-mails to keep things new and exciting. There is quite a bit of stiff competition in this magazine as far as column writers go, what I mean by that is there are some great writers in this magazine. I don’t think I am what you would call a great writer but I will keep an open mind in my column and keep it as simple as possible. Hopefully just as I look forward to reading certain articles every month you will look forward to reading mine. So off we go.

A Bio on myself:

I am a thirty one years of age, happily married father of two boys, Hunter 6 years old and Logan 3 years old. I live in Milan IN that is in the southeastern part of the state. You may know the little town by a movie that was produced in the late 80’s called “HOOSIERS” it was a basketball movie staring Gene Hackman it was about the local High school Basketball team winning the state championship in 1954. My line of work is in construction and I have done that since I graduated high school, I am a construction manager for a re-development company. I donate time when I can to local organizations and clubs. I am an IDNR Hunters Education instructor and enjoy hunting in every way shape and form. I am a tree dog enthusiast if you will, and have owned tree dogs since I was a teenager. I hunt Curs and fiest and I am also a state representative for NKC. I have met some of what I believe to be the greatest folks in the cur dog family through the years through both pleasure and competition hunts. This monthly column will be based on that, I am very active in competition hunts and meet and a lot of great folks. Last month I covered 5 different states going to hunts and meeting people. I feel that in this column I can share my experiences and stories as I am “OUT AND ABOUT” the tree dog world.

I know this column is in your March issue of Full Cry but if I can rewind just a little we can start my travels in the month of January. I got a call from Pascal Hensley concerning having a Cur and Feist event at his club in Dupont Indiana. We got everything in order and set up some NKC sanctioned hunts. Shortly thereafter Pascal’s son Isaiah had called and asked if I would like to come out for a pleasure hunt. I had heard of both Pascal and Isaiah but have never had the chance to hunt with either one of them so I jumped at the opportunity to chase tree dogs with this father son duo. I made the call to Jacob Jump a great friend and hunting buddy of mine and asked if he wanted to go along, he of course never one to turn down the opportunity to tree squirrels met me in the driveway the next morning and we started the hour trip north to Isaiah’s house. We took my old Mike dog and Isaiah took a good young dog out of Hardwood Lake Jake that he calls Hank. We had a great hunt; we treed 10 or 11 times and more than half were split trees. It had been raining or snowing for the last couple weeks and this was the first time that I had been hunting since the holidays. We talked about dogs and friends we shared and had a great time despite the weather which was cold and windy. A couple hours later we reconvened at Isaiah’s house where we met his father Pascal, Isaiah had plans for that evening so we Jacob and I took up with Pascal and set out for another hunt. Pascal hunts a dog that he calls Rowdy this dog is a full brother to Carl Smith’s Big Time dog. Rowdy has done real well in competition being an NKC GR SQ Champion and a PKC Money winner. Just as flashy as the dog was Pascal himself, he took us to his house and we left the trucks and dog boxes for a Polaris Ranger with an enclosed and heated cab complete with a CD player and all. I joked with Pascal and called him a high tech red neck. We turned the dogs loose and nearly drove to where they fell treed at; a fella sure can get spoiled on one of those machines! We finished our hunt after the 10th tree due to scheduling problems Jacob was having with his wife (ha-ha). On our way home we followed Pascal to his place of business which is a car lot he owns there in North Vernon. Besides the auto business he has a dog supply business and sells everything for the tree dog enthusiast. He sells dog food, lights, tracking systems, shocking systems, muck boots and other items. I was quite impressed with Pascal as a businessman and a tree dog guy. I look forward to our next outing.

The following weekend we went up to Dupont IN at the Clifty Creek Coonhunters Club for a NKC sanctioned squirrel hunt. This is a great club with good facilities and we had a great time. There were 15 dogs registered to hunt and the competition was steep. I took my Russell dog and drew out in the SQ Champion class with Greg Helwig who had a very nice female he calls White Creek Squaw. We had a great hunt and Greg and Squaw won my cast with 750 plus and 525 circle. If you combine the two without the den trees it would have been 1275 points! We were as busy as I have ever been on any cast, Squaw stayed out in the lead and my Russell dog seemed fine with that only split treeing one time. I joked with Greg once we were back to the clubhouse and let him know that his dog sure was stingy with those trees! (Ha-ha) the following is the results for that hunt it was on 1-8-05.

Registered Dogs

1st Place: Schneider’s Mr. Microphone
        Owner: David Schneider
        Handler: Jacob Jump

2nd Place: Vance’s Dolly
        Owner: Jess Vance
        Handler: Same

3rd Place: Lot’s a Grit Whatsup Doc
        Owner: Chris Powell
        Handler: Same

SQ Champion: White Creek Squaw
        Owner: Greg Helwig
        Handler: Same

GR SQ Champion: Hensley’s Rowdy
        Owner: Pascal Hensley
        Handler: Same

This was sure a good group of guys at Clifty Creek Coonhunters club, by the time you this article comes out the next hunt will be held on March 12th and 13th it is a $200.00 added purse and NKC champion points, Black Gold dog food will be also awarded to the top dogs.

In the meantime I have spoken with several folks and returned several calls concerning dogs and upcoming hunts. I had a great conversation with Rodney Stratton the other night. Rodney lives about a half an hour away from me and we talk from time to time. He has a very good squirrel dog he calls Hardwood Lake Jake he has won more than his fair share of hunts with this dog and he is well known around these parts. Better than that Rodney has a very good breeding program going. He only breeds to females that he deems quality tree dogs with good traits that he can see for himself in the woods. Although he gets over 30 some request a year to breed to his dog he stands true with this policy. I personally believe that this assures quality pups and agree with all that he is doing. The proof is defiantly in the pudding when I went to the woods with a seven month old pup out of his Jake dog and a female owned and handled by Merle Seeley he calls Sanes Creek Rosa. Rosa, needing no introduction has also won more than her fair share of hunts and knocked down a couple of the big ones. This was truly a winning combination when they made this cross. Not just one but ALL these pups are treeing squirrels at a very young age. Congratulations Fellas!

I talked with Andy McKinley. I met Andy through Chris Powell he hunts with Chris and owns a Treeing Cur he calls Rockster. Andy has one of the nicest squirrel training tubes that I have ever seen. He has it positioned amongst a few trees off the front of his property. It sure does do the trick when it comes to working the young dogs. I called Andy to se if he would be interested in building me a tube along the likes of the one that he had already built himself. He has agreed to help me build one just like the one that he has, I will round up the materials and call you when we are ready to undergo the construction process. I can’t wait!

Well that about wraps it up for my first column, I hope you read my column next month! Keep any letters, calls, pictures or e-mails coming! I would love to hear from ya’ll and it also gives me new things to talk about in my next column. The pictures I have included this month are from the hunt held at Clifty Creek Coonhunters Club in Dupont IN on 1-8-05

Until Next time, KEEP LOOKIN UP!

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