Coyote hunting with Greyhounds?

[Shooter]

I've been hunting the past few years in SE Kansas and hunting coyote with Greyhounds seems to be big in that area. I had never heard about it before.

The locals put large dog boxes on the back of their trucks, usually 4 wheel drive Toyotas with flatbeds. The box is divided in the middle with three or four dogs on each side. The dogs can put their heads thru a large slot on the top of each side. When the coyote is spotted a cable is pulled inside the cab to release the dogs on the side where the coyote is located. The dogs jump out, run down the coyote and kill it. No guns involved.

On a recent trip my friend and I followed a few locals around one morning. There were four trucks spread out over a section of land. They communicated on CB's. Sometimes one truck would drive along a grown up drainage area firing a pistol into the weeds trying to spook one out.

Even though my friend knew the area well and we listened on the CB, unless you could get to the truck that let the dogs out in about 30 seconds, they would already have caught and killed the coyote. We saw them take two in less than an hour but were never quick enough to see the kill.

Has anyone ever heard of this before?

[Bones]

Its done here too. Not the same method with the driving and dropping of sight hounds but we do have some coyote killing dogs in TX.

[Shooter]

Bones,
Are they using Greyhounds in Texas?

That's another thing that suprised me, I would have never thought a Greyhound would be the type of dog used in this way.

[Shane]

There used to be (may still be?) dog hunters in the Panhandle. We had problems with them driving their pickups through our hot wire fences MANY times back in the '70s and '80s. Some of them seemed to think that a wheat field with 500 head of cattle on it inside an electric fence was "public land".

We never really knew where they came from. They always seemed to be from out of town somewhere. Either that, or they kept their trucks and dogs VERY well hidden. With all the trespassing and damage they did, they never hung around very long.

[SPUD]

My dad hunts coyotes in game pens, but his walker hounds do not catch the coyotes.

These field trials last 3 days and they use coyotes rather than fox because fox like to hide in holes. The field trials are to judge the endurance of the hound.

big time business in walker hounds

[Bones]

Greyhounds hunt by sight which suits them well for the style you refer to, in crop land and open plains. They are used for their awesome bursts of speed after they have already seen the yote from a truck. Though I am sure that there are arias of Texas which lend themselves well to this style of hunting, the majority of the state is more well suited to a scent hound or cur dog style of hunting. The Coyote dogs that I have seen in Texas are much like gritty hog dogs, just trained for a different game.

You would be very surprised how frail coyotes are. It does not take much to kill one. Over the last 3 years maybe 4 of them have shown up at our bays looking for a free meal and each time one or two of our male dogs will split off and take care of the intruder within seconds. None the less, Grayhounds are rough as a cob! You might not expect it but they make great sight hunting dogs.

Steve

[Bones]

Shane, There are bad apples in every bunch. We have our fare share, no question but not all dog hunters are as you have experienced.

Steve

[Lulhorse]

Usually nothing left of the yote after a pack of greyhounds have caught it.

[Shane]

Shane, There are bad apples in every bunch. We have our fare share, no question but not all dog hunters are as you have experienced.

Steve

Oh, of course. I have met a few folks around Abilene that have some good dogs. It looks like it would be a lot of fun watching greyhounds catch a coyote. I've not heard of those kinds of trespass problems since the '80s. I didn't mean to make it sound like I thought all dog hunters were like the ones I saw back then.

That kind of thing makes for a pretty vivid memory though.

[belly_up]

I had a guy tell me about a buddy of his that had greyhounds and they hunted yote's at night. He said they would shine the spotlight on the yotes and the dogs would follow wherever the light went and kill the yote. But if you shined the light in the trees or on a wall that they would kill themselves by running into it. I dunno if its true or not though.

[Bones]

I had a guy tell me about a buddy of his that had greyhounds and they hunted yote's at night. He said they would shine the spotlight on the yotes and the dogs would follow wherever the light went and kill the yote. But if you shined the light in the trees or on a wall that they would kill themselves by running into it. I dunno if its true or not though.

I don't know if that is an exaggeration or not but I find it amusing. I can tell you that sight hounds do not do very well maneuvering at night in comparison to scent hounds.

[PEC]

Alot of time the greyhound are mixed with airedales to help with the scent and give just a liitle more grit.

[bltiger]

My best friend has personally seen Greyhounds work before up north in the Pan Handle around Matador on his brother-in-law's huge ranch and says it is quite a sight. He has been out at night with them spotlighting and when those dogs see a coyote in the light they go ape chit!!! One word to describe it, unbelieveable according to him!!

[cantexduck]

It would be neat to see them dogs in action.
Steve, no matter how frail those yotes might be I will not let that black dog go at them. Yellow dog,maybe.

[trailboss]

Spent many many many nights doing this as a kid. The only hunting my dad ever did was hunting rabbits with Greyhounds. Sometimes if we got lucky they'd catch an occassional coyote.

No fancy dog boxes for us. My brother and I and my dad's friend were all in the cab of a '51 Chey PU with my dad and a half dozen dogs in the back. Dad had a handle mounted on the roof of the PU for a hand hold and used a 12V spotlight made from an airplane landing light. That thing would set the grass on fire if you held it in one spot too long!

With permission from local farmers, we'd cruise the wheat fields around Olney and Newcastle before the wheat got up too tall to damage it. Man we had some wild "races"! No seat belts back in those days and I've busted my nose more than a few times when the driver sailed over an unseen terrace!

Can still hear my dad whooping and yelling from the back of the truck. Ayieeeeeeee, go Queen, go
Ben, go Doodie Shrinker - Ayieeeeeeeeee!!!!

The Greyhounds hunted by sight, not smell. If the rabbit or coyote ever got outside the light, the race was over til we got the light back on him. Never heard the part about a coyote running into a tree or wall though. That's a new one to me.

Trailboss