Beaver Dam PKC "Small Pack" hunts 75!

[Steve Fielder]

Beaver Dam, KY - The first PKC Small Pack Beagle Event of the 2004 competition season was a whopping success! Hunt Director Craig Tull of Lafayette, IN reported an entry of 75 hounds at the PKC/Tri-tronics Added Purse Event held by the Bull Run Beagle Club on Saturday, October 25th. Running conditions could not be considered optimum with rainy conditions that plagued the final night of the PKC World Hunt occurring in Beaver Dam as well but most of the 21 casts scored on rabbits. In all sixteen first-time PKC registrations and five memberships were recorded by Director Tull.

There were a few questions as the learning curve was put into action for hunters trying PKC for the first time but all worked out well. Tull reported that the winner's pack was shortened to 30 minutes to beat dark and all hounds were recovered but one when he left the grounds for the four and 1/2 hour drive home.

Small Pack Beagle Event
Saturday, October 25, 2003
$1000 Added Purse
Winners

1st- Ruckus
Mike Warner, owner/handler
$1,515.00

Note: Second through fourth places tied and the tie breaker failed to break tie. Places were split in accordance with the tie breaker rule.

2nd - Jack
Gabe Stockton, owner/handler
$184.34

2nd - Frosty
Matt and Robert Hunt, owners
Jerry Morgan, owner/handler
$184.34

2nd - Benny
Matt & Robert Hunt, owners
Matt Hunt, handler
Benny- $184.34

5th place-
Sam Wells, owner
Leigh Ann Wells, handler
Wells' Blade- $57.00

PKC congratulates the Bull Run Beagle Club and all the winners for a job well done. And, we deeply appreciate the efforts of Craig Tull in handling the Hunt Director's job with professionalism and skill. Thanks Craig!

PHOTO: (Left) Final Cast---(kneeling with dog in front of them) Matt Hunt with Cottontail Blues Fringe Benefit "Benny", Gabe Stockton with Goodall's Fire Cracker Jack, Leigh Ann Wells with Wells' Blade, Mike Warner with Hudson's Whole Lotta Ruckus, and Jerry Morgan with Morgan's Frosty Cruiser. (Back row standing)- Robert Hunt, Judge Mark Brown, Sam Wells, Hunt Director/PKC Rep Craig Tull, and Judge Jeff Brown.

(Right) Mike Warner with Hudson's Whole Lotta Ruckus, the first place winner earning $1515.00!

PKC - "Beagling for bucks" really is where YOU need to be!

[Bob]

That's great steve. How much did the club make? How much did PKC make?

[Steve Fielder]

That's great steve. How much did the club make? How much did PKC make?

Bob,

The PKC Charts of Awards are available for all to see. Tell me who you are, name, address, etc., and I'll send you one!

Steve Fielder
PKC

[Guest]

Nevermind I found it. It looks like the club made $375. It looks like $225 went to PKC and $150 to the PKC esgrow. That means that their was 750 in profits and PKC got half. Not a bad racket, you send a packet, put it in the magazine and you get half the money. Also by my math if the club had put up the 1000 they would only be $625 in the hole from the hunt.

Is the esgrow the same in the beagles as it is with coonhounds? Does that money go toward the world championship?

[Bob]

Nevermind I found it. It looks like the club made $375. It looks like $225 went to PKC and $150 to the PKC esgrow. That means that their was 750 in profits and PKC got half. Not a bad racket, you send a packet, put it in the magazine and you get half the money. Also by my math if the club had put up the 1000 they would only be $625 in the hole from the hunt.

Is the esgrow the same in the beagles as it is with coonhounds? Does that money go toward the world championship?

[MasonsBeagles]

If you want to look at it like that I guess every field trial format is a racket. At least with PKC you can potentially take some home with you. lol

[dogrunnerone]

Bob,

Since I was hunt director at this hunt I will try and help resolve your issues. Yes, the club made$375 and PKC got $225, and escrow got $150. Escrow is not PKC money it still belongs to the hunters, but will be paid out at a later date, such as the World hunt, futurity, SS etc... There won't be breed races like in coondogs but we do plan on having state, zone, SS, futurity, World hunts etc.. and the purses (30K in coondogs now) will be paid from escrow money, so no PKC doesn't get that part. The club only put up $500 of the $1000 added, Tri Tronics put up the other $500. Bull Run Beagle club did this knowing that they would probably lose money, but wanted to do it anyway to help in getting this thing off the ground. Tell me which "racket" doesn't charge a club money for holding a hunt? I don't know of any and the pay back from one of those hunts is a plastic trophy. I don't know about your dogs but mine don't like the taste of the plastic and it seems hard for them to pass the metal name plates...

Craig Tull
"PKC Proud"

[Bev]

"mine don't like the taste of the plastic and it seems hard for them to pass the metal name plates... "

(LOL!)

[x-PKC coonhunter]

I have tried my hardest to get my dogs to eat dollar bills and coins too. They just smell around and walk away. I have put gravy on the coins but they just lick it off and won't eat the money.


A few facts about PKC and their escrow. Each event across the country adds 8% of their entry fees to the escrow for supposed bigger and better things. Look at this

PKC World Coonhunt brags to enter around 1500 dogs. Actually this is a lot of the same dogs hunting each night. Lets say that 1/4 of them are there on their free ticket. This means that 1125 of them are paying their entry fee of $275. This means that entry fees at the World Championship equal $309,375. They pay the winner supposedly out of the "escrow" $27000. Lets assume that they pay out a total of $100,000 in prize money for the finals. THis means that they can pay this out of the escrow and walk away with over 300k in their pocket. Not a bad deal. Yeah, they are giving so much back to their customers.

Look at it this wayPKC brags to have over 8000 events per year with their coonhounds. Say each of them has 15 dogs and the entry fee is $20. At this rate the escrow would have $192,000 in it. This is more than enough to pay all of their winners at their advertised events that the escrow pays and then the entry fees at the event are pure profit.

What about the Super Stakes Sire money. 300 studs at $600 each = $180,000 more. Where does that money go? That doesn't even toak into consideration the pup nominations.

Nice sales job on you guys don't you think. You are walking blind into one of the biggest scams the dog world has ever seen,

[Bev]

I think it's a pretty established fact that no one registry is going to make everyone happy. If that were they case, there'd only be one. Heck, even Bill Gates keeps his eye on potential competition. I'd rather see an organization I participate in flourish as oppose to go under. The way I see it, when you pay your entry fee at any hunt, any registry, odds are you won't get that money back anyway. If you do, that's a bonus. As long as the club can survive, and the beaglers can run dogs, who cares who gets rich? Bully for them - as long as I can run dogs and see my friends, it's no skin off my back if they make money. I'm gonna enter my dog anyway.

I'm sure PKC is a business just like NKC, UKC and AKC. It may be our hobby to run dogs, but I can't think of many hobbies that don't cost money. Since when did being profitable become a scam? I call it good business as long as no one was swindled, and they got a product in return for their investment. If it were our own business/company, or our employers we were talking about, we wouldn't want them to "barely survive". We'd want them to flourish so we would have some job security.

I had a person from another country call The American Beagler a big scam because I ask for $24 extra postage per year to mail their magazine. It costs me $2.10 postage and time spent on filling out customs forms, putting the magazine in an envelope and going to the P.O. counter to mail one out of the country. My cost to mail it is $25.20 per year, not including my time. And he called me a scam.....a fraudulent business scheme; a swindle.

As far as the enhanced programs that some of the registries offer, that's a voluntary thing. If a person wants to pay to play, they will. I just don't see the point in tearing down an organization when there are other choices available. Promote the one you get most pleasure from by participating, but if we keep tearing down factions in our common sport, we're all gonna lose.

JMHO

[gabe]

hey pkc coonhunter how much money do you get back from winning in other registries? just curious. i am sure that you are dissatisfied with pkc 's paybacks but what do the others give? still curious.

[Steve Fielder]

Dear "X-PKC" Hunter:

First of all, I would like to get to know you and to hear your concerns with PKC on a personal basis. Perhaps there is something we can learn from you that will help us to do things better. My name is Steve Fielder. I live in southwest Michigan. I hunt coon and rabbits when I can,. What's your name?

Secondly, the combined purses at the ten days of events in Aurora, KY total more than half a million dollars. Do you realize that some hunters this year earned over $2000 for two cast wins? That doesn't include the $50 for each cast paid to the judges, $40 per cast paid to each guide, and other expenses such as lodging for the judges, the staff, etc. The point is, as with any business, it's not all profit. I can assure you that if we were greedy and just wanted to take your money and not give you a quality hunting experience in return, we wouldn't have turned entries away as we did this year at Aurora. I know there were some mighty big smiles at the pay counter at the close of the hunt.

In PKC hunts, the winners get from 55% to 60% of the entry fee. The club gets 25%, PKC keeps 10%, and the escrow account, as Craig Tull has explained so well, is there for you to hunt for later. We think the hunters are getting a pretty good deal. What do you think?

Again, I welcome the opportunity to get to know you and to hear your concerns. My opening question to you will be, "How many PKC hunts have you hunted and what was the extent of the problems you encountered?" You can ask me anything you wish.

Merry Christmas!