Hunting squirrels with feists.

English · October 07, 2004, 05:33:14 PM

Hey gang thought I"d post here to get the hunting dog forum rolling.

Opening day was a wash as far as getting squirrels down but man did the dogs work well. Took my brother and his young feist (Scrappy), my buddy and his Mt. Cur and I had Buster. We treed several and had a great albeit warm day.

The next Saturday my buddy and I went up north. We treed 10 in 5 hours but only saw two. I missed a big old fox squirrel...5 times with a 12 guage! Boy did I feel foolish. My Buster dog did real well and my buddy was able to shoot out a black squirrel over him. Now you gotta know that my buddy who I squirrel hunt with is blind. He was shot in the face while squirrel hunting over 20 years ago. He has always wanted to shoot a black squirrel. So when Buster treed I said I see the squirrel...its a black! My buddy got as excited as he does when he's shooting a deer. He is usually the steadiest at holding a gun I"ve ever seen but not this time. We did end up getting it finally and boy was he proud. He plans to have it mounted. He already had a fox in the freezer and he wants to get it mounted with the squirrel in it's mouth.

Have had several good hunts with some good friends already. Squirrels seem to be plentious around here but the leaves are making it tough to see them. One of those hutns I hunted with Eino from in here. We had a great hunt with his young Mt. Cur, Doc. I had a great time and hope to hunt with Ed again real soon! We (actually Ed) got one squirrel. I got Ed lost and he found our way out. That's the kind of hunting partner to have!!!

Yesterday I took Buster, Brownie and went and hunted with 3 friends. One of the guys is from Georgia and I only get to hunt with him every couple of years. He had two of his good feist dogs along. We made several trees and got two grays. The second gray my Buster dog got first tree on. He was hammering it so I suspected that he could see the squirrel. As we walked up sure enough a gray squirrel started scampering through the leaves. I shot him out with my 12 guage but he was very much alive. Got a great race with all four dogs in pursuit. Brownie is a young dog that I've just started hunting and she was right there in the race. When I knocked it out for good a minute later she was in on the catch and just loved getting some fur in her mouth. I was very excited as this is only the 2nd or 3rd squirrel kill she's been in on. This morning when a squirrel came into the yard she had a fit. I think she's well on her way.

Well I hope to go again on Saturday. I can't wait.

Mike

Jay Edward (deceased) · October 07, 2004, 06:27:06 PM

Another great story Mike...thanks. I hope someday you can put up some pictures of these adventures of yours.

English · October 07, 2004, 06:53:46 PM

That's funny, Jay! Here's a pic of a couple of feists treeing a squirrel in the feeder.

Mike

RatherBHuntin · October 08, 2004, 03:27:08 AM

Mike,
I would like to hear more about your buddy. How does he shoot blind and hit? Often times it seems that I am blind if you look at my targets, but my vision is actually pretty good. Is he completely blind or just partially? I think it's pretty neat that you and your friend can still share your hunts together even with his disability.

Glenn

English · October 08, 2004, 05:08:06 AM

RatherB, my buddy Dan is from what we can tell totally blind. I do think that at least on occasion he get's just a flash of light or color but certainly not enough to call it sight. I know I've ran him into too many trees going to the dogs treed!

To shoot Dan holds the shotgun high on his shoulder and I (or someone) sight down the barrel of the gun. When all is aligned I say "shoot", and he pulls the trigger. 99% of the time that's the only shot needed! Dan holds a gun incredibly still. I gather that before he was shot that Dan was an oustanding shot with any gun he picked up. It shows in how steady he hold the gun.

I have aimed Dan several times with a pistol on targets and we can hit a pop can 9 times out of 10 with iron sights at 15-20 yards. A couple of years ago Dan dictated to me the story of him being shot and then later getting back into hunting, for publication in the Full Cry Magaizine. Since Dan started hunting again, I think about 11 years ago, he has shot 10 or 12 deer, a turkey, a fox, and many squirrels. Some of the deer he shot with a bow and a cross bow. My understanding is that he began by shooting a bow and at one time did quite well in the local 3-d bow shoots.

I certainly understand about not being able to hit with full eyesight! I may be the worlds worst shot. I can shoot ok off the bench but when it comes to hitting a moving target I sure ain't no Annie Oakley!!!

Mike

Jay Edward (deceased) · October 08, 2004, 06:05:08 AM

Mike...can you tell me where the term 'feist or feists' came from?

And another item I'm curious about...why isn't the term 'feist' capatalized? Isn't it special just to one type of dog?

RatherBHuntin · October 08, 2004, 09:20:49 AM

Mike,
Thats a great story, and if you get the chance or are able to perhaps scan the full story, that sure would be nice and a motivational read I'm sure. It must give you alot of pleasure to go hunting with him and to help him as well, though it doesn't sound like he need to much. Sight picture is just part of the whole equation, there is so much more involved. Your friend obviously isn't looking for any pity so I wont give it, but my utmost respect and admiration he has.

English · October 08, 2004, 04:35:12 PM

Jay, the term "feist" from my understanding comes from an old English word fyce. From what I gather this was a term for a small dog that was scrappy. The term has been changed a bit but we now call a dog or person who is scrappy a "feisty" person. I guess you probaby should capatolize Feist when using it to refer to a breed of dogs.

As far as weather or not they are a specific breed is really up to interpretation. AKC does not recognize them as a breed. My dogs are registered as "Treeing Feist". This is a catch all registry with in the UKC and NKC that refers to any dog meeting breed requiremnts. These dogs must be under certain weight and height requirements. Be out of known tree dog stock and meet some other pretty generic requirements. There are some pure bred strains among the Feist dogs but they are often crossed back and forth once they leave the hands of the strain originators.

My dogs for example all go back to some common stock on at least one side of their pedigree yet have some vastly different parents and grandparents. I have on dog that I would call a purebred. That is Buster (he's the second dog back in the pic) and he is out of a line of dogs from two men that are keeping this strain pure. My Penny pup which is just 8 months old is from two different purebred strains. One side is the same as Buster the other side is out of a dog named Sport. Sport bred Feists are very popular and desirable among Feist fanciers. My Brownie dog (not pictured) is out of the same line as buster but this is back several generations. Her father is...well a mutt. :D Although he is registered as a Treeing Feist (because he meets the breed requirements) he is not a pure bred Feist. He is probably 3/4 feist, 1/4 Stephens bred Mt. Cur adn 1/4 English bird dog. By the way this "mutt" won the 2003 NKC world championship hunt. He has lost only one cast in many competition hunts and that was to his full sister.

Hope this sheds a little light on the confusing world of Feist breeding.

Mike

English · October 08, 2004, 04:37:50 PM

Oops I forgot. RatherB, I thought I'd saved that story to my computer but can't find it right now. I don't have a scanner but I'll see if I can dig it up and type it out again.

Mike

Jay Edward (deceased) · October 08, 2004, 05:06:09 PM

Quote from: EnglishHope this sheds a little light on the confusing world of Feist breeding. Mike

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Well, it's a lot more than I knew before. Thanks Mike.

Ed B. · October 12, 2004, 05:17:53 PM

Oh man...am I glad the sites back up.:D

Mike, it sounds like Brownie is turning on real good. Glad to hear it.

I've only been out once with doc since bow season started. We only had about a half hour to hunt but he managed one tree out of it. Didn't see any meat though. Slowly but surely the leaves are comming down. We'll be able to see a few more then.
I think I'm gonna have to start leaving the Curs at home and start taking the beagle. She actually used her nose and treed the other day and stayed at the tree. I ought to put a e-collar on her and teach her to quit it. I hate to call a squirell "trash" but thats what it is to a Beagle.

Well lets all get a bunch of posts and pictures back on here.

Ed

drinksgin (deceased) · October 12, 2004, 06:24:40 PM

My great uncle had a beagle that would hunt squirrel, rabbit and coon equally well.
My grandfather had a 1/2 newfoundland that was great on squirrels, except each tree was at least 1 mile away and only about 5 minutes later, even as a 14 year old I wore out quick at that.
Grandpa later had a small shorthair mutt that was a silent treeer, grandpa hated him, but I worked with him and used a short whistle to keep him in sight and shot many a squirrel with him.
He was also a great gopher dog ,tiptoeing up to a fresh dig and freezing until the gopher stuck his nose out, next stop, Sandy's stomach.
I am sure Sandy developed this hunting technique because grandpa never fed a dog anything but cold bisquits and squirrel innards.
Sandy also hated snakes and treed every one he came on.
Don

motor (deceased) · October 14, 2004, 10:30:27 AM

A very touching story Mike, it just goes to show that if you don't give up, that God will make a way.. I love to squirrel hunt and have been hunting for 67 years..in those years i have killed many, many of them little fellows but have only had one dog that would tree a squirrel..he was a little terrier of some kind and he loved to hunt squirrels but the bad part was he liked to chase them too..I think i told you on another thread that i was going to Georgia soon to deer and squirrl hunt..am looking forward to the trip..good luck hunting..