15 Questions for a Deer Dogger

Davis Springle and his family run all kinds of dogs, from German shorthairs to Labs for upland birds and waterfowl. But when deer season comes along, they like to spend their mornings listening to a pack of Walker hounds sounding off in the timber as they chase whitetails. Their hunting club, Adams Creek, on the North Carolina Coast, conducts dog hunts for deer every Saturday on a large paper company lease.

Every fall and winter, deer doggers across the nine remaining states where the practice is still legal load up their hounds and hit the woods. Image by Reece Baker

Dog hunting used to be the way most Americans went deer hunting. During colonial times, deer dogs were prized possessions, and even George Washington shot his first buck over a pack of hounds. As land got broken up into smaller tracts and deer became scarce, dog hunting’s popularity waned. Today, only nine states allow deer to be hunted with dogs, and many hunters have mixed feelings about it. Some are against it for a variety of reasons, while others feel that it’s an important tradition to carry on.

To get a better understanding of deer dogging, I asked Springle a few questions after joining him and his family for a dog hunt a couple seasons ago. Here’s a bit more about how dog hunting can be done responsibly, and why Springle wants to see it keep going.

“How many dogs do you usually run at Adams Creek?”

A handful of guys usually bring dogs, but not everybody who joins in on the hunt. When you came down, we hunted with about 30 head or so. We may get 40 dogs together, but 50 is on the big side. That's just all we can handle.

Pack size varies depending on location, number of hunters and the size of the parcel of land. Image by Reece Baker

“Is that different than other clubs?”

The way we hunt at our club is pretty laid back. We run fewer dogs because we don’t have a big continuous plot of land to responsibly run a lot of dogs. Some clubs focus more on dog performance and how each person’s dog compares to the others. Others have more established stands where people sit and wait for the dogs, and some have strict rules, like bucks only or point and spread restrictions for antlers.

Usually, the more land you have the more dogs you can run. I enjoy running with more dogs on big tracts, but I also like a chance to get in the woods, relax a bit, and focus on the hunt.

“How do you think dog hunting is different in coastal North Carolina than other places in the U.S.?”

You get a lot of paper company land, so that's helpful. In places with smaller tracts of land, dog hunters have more problems and run into situations where you probably shouldn't turn out 40 head of dogs. In eastern North Carolina, you've got a lot of leases that are way bigger than our club — and ours is 11,000 acres.

Large tracts of pine timber owned by lumber and paper companies make up the bulk of the remaining places large enough to run deer hounds. Image by Reece Baker

“What are some things people misunderstand about dog hunting?”

The biggest thing to me is that it’s the lazy man's way to hunt deer. I've slung a lot of corn in the woods, and I've sat in a lot of stands. I've been able to stop that after deer season if I choose. My brother and I can’t stop tending to deer dogs after December. You’re also not guaranteed to shoot a deer on a dog hunt the way some people think. The deer can easily outrun the dogs, and most of the time, the deer gets away.

Unlike other methods of deer hunting, hounds require care and attention all year long. Image by Reece Baker

“What do you think someone would find appealing about dog hunting?”

I can't speak for everybody, but I would say the excitement and the camaraderie. The other thing is that you can be very selective as far as which deer you want to shoot when you’re dog hunting, and a lot of dog hunters are (very selective).

“What do you like about it?”

The camaraderie and the dogs. My brother and I have raised our dogs from pups. Now we're five or six generations of dogs from our first littler. It’s also a nice break from sitting in a treestand. We have another lease we save just for treestand hunting, but after sitting for four days and not seeing anything, at least you can get some enjoyment out of hearing the dogs run down here. It’s just a nice change of pace.

One of the biggest draws for hound hunting is the camaraderie among a large group of hunters. Image by Reece Baker

“What did the first successful dog hunt with hounds you and brother raised feel like?”

When the first pup we got grew up, it was pretty exciting to know she was in there with other dogs doing well, but we hadn’t bred her yet. Once we did, her first litter was pretty good. The best one we’ve hung a collar on so far came out of that litter. There’s just such a big sense of pride that comes from it.

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“What happens when a dog runs onto someone else’s property?”

Some folks are cool and some folks aren't. It can be hard for some people to understand that we didn’t turn the dogs out on their land. We may have turned them out six miles away and they ended up there, and now we’re here because we’re trying to get the dog away from your land — not go hunting on your land.

In general, I just try to be polite and help people understand that I don’t want to be there as much as they don’t want me to be there. By and large, if you can give us just a minute of understanding, we’ll be gone in 15 minutes.

“Just to play devil’s advocate, what if someone’s dogs ran onto your property, the one where you only hunt from treestands?”

We’ve been there before. At one club where my brother and I hunted out of stands, we’d see dogs milling around. I’d make it a point to catch them if I could. Every time I did, we’d call the dog’s owner and let them know where they could pick up their dog.

The guys we were hunting with would usually ask why we did that, and I was surprised. I told them, the sooner they catch their dogs, the sooner their dogs are out of here. I understand, you’re trying to get up a tree and hunt, not trying to catch dogs. But if you hunt near dog hunters, try to go into it with the understanding of what’s happening around you.

“But don’t the dogs make noise and scare all the deer away?”

If you hear a train coming, you're not scared unless you're standing on the track, right? Well, it’s kind of the same thing for the deer. When they hear a dog, they're not saying, oh my gosh, it’s after me. They’re going to assess the situation and deal with it. I mean, we've had dogs, horses, and all kinds of stuff run past our trail cameras just to see deer 30 minutes later.

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“Are there any tree stand hunters at your club?”

Yeah, there are. But they know we run dogs there every Saturday during the season. Sometimes they’ll join us, too. If you’re a member of the club, you can participate in a dog hunt if you want even if you don’t have a dog. We also have bear hunters that pay a big part of our lease. Usually we’ll coordinate with them, and avoid the places they go so we don’t mess up their hunt.

“Do you think dog hunting is dying?”

At different times you go through periods where you think, well in 10 years dog hunting will be gone. But then 10 years flies by and you're still doing it and there's a lot of advocates for it, lobbying and that kind of thing.

Dog hunting is a disappearing tradition in some areas, but hunters who love the chase continue to drop their dogs where they can. Image by Reece Baker

“Why do you want to see it continue?”

The heritage and the roots of dog hunting are important to me. Hunting anything with a dog is something that can certainly fade away pretty quick. If you think about it, if you took away deer dogs today, that ball can roll a long way before it stops.

Springle wants to see the tradition of hound hunting for deer continue for younger generations to enjoy. Image by Reece Baker

People could just as easily make a case to stop bear hunting with dogs, and eventually even bird hunting with dogs. If you think hunting with a dog is worthwhile, seek some understanding about deer dogs before judging it. At the end of the day, for me, it’s all about working dogs and the generations of development those dogs have been through.

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“What are the biggest threats to dog hunting?”

You would be run out of dog hunting here from land being overdeveloped before it would be outlawed. And I don’t think that’s a stretch. I guess I’m a bit more pessimistic about it than some. Clubs can change hands and turn into a stand-hunting only club. My brother and I have seen it, and folks don’t realize how quickly that can happen.

We’ve recently lost ground at Adams Creek, but sometimes losing ground happens indirectly. Neighboring pieces that were once just big blocks of raw timber can get partitioned up into 10-acre plots and sold for development. It just affects our ability to retrieve dogs. It’s changed the way we run dogs here. We’ll run less and keep them more contained.

One of the biggest threats to hound hunting, like many other methods, is the loss of once huntable land to development. Image by Reece Baker

I’ve heard a lot of criticism about dog hunting. With any type of hunting, you can go about it the wrong way. It’s the same for dog hunting. I just hope people can experience it in a positive light, that's what I would want to see more of.

For me, dog hunting right means taking in the whole picture. You need to care for your dogs all year, be mindful of landowners, and hunt ethically. When you’re dog hunting, you can still care about all the same things you care about when you’re hunting from a treestand. You're just doing it in a totally different way.

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