Scent Free Zones???????

[Bob Graves]

Hey folks, just wondering if you run in places that have "dead zones" where no matter what the conditions, it seems your hounds just can't work a track?

I have a place that I run often, and there is a spot on the property that if a rabbit is jumped, the hounds can not run the line, ever! It's a tangle of briers along a small stream in the bottom of a ravine. I have seen this scenario so many times it's not funny. I stand on high ground watching dogs work the cover, I watch hounds bust bunny out of cover, I see a couple happy tails and MAYBE a quick sight chase (if they are lucky) and then watch them fail miserably trying to figure out what happenned to the rabbit. Here's the kicker, I can take them over the lip of the ravine (not 100 yards away) and they will pound a rabbit just fine.

Any thoughts?

[BJK]

Bob,

I was running a pack of 12 last week. They drove the first rabbit with inexplicable speed and intensity. No checks. They ran all 8 rabbits the same. However, there was one that I had the bead on but didn't shoot because of a house in the distant background. When the pack came upon the spot where I saw him they couldn't smell it. It was a very hot track. It had to be that particular spot because they drove him very hard until that particular spot. It was strange, they really geared down and worked the area but to no avail. I called them off due to working toward a country road. We all know about beagles and country roads. I'm still scratching my head on that one.

Nate, BJK

[wabbit wunner]

I have been hunting thick cane and seen rabbits run across a bunch of layed down cane and dogs just lose all track of them and never pick them back up. I am not for sure why they do that sometimes I have seen it more than once and about every time i seen it they were really hot and just pounding the heck out of him and then just flat out lose him.

[snowshoehareguide]

could be like the bermuda triangle... or black hole in space... naa im just kidding.. ive seen this on blck top roads or old mining quarries here. mostly this was running bigger game. coyote or bobcat , seen it on lakes too. i dont know about no scent areas.. but i sure have seen some of same kinds of things. dogs pounding and u shoot and miss and they cant do a thing. or hare runs down a road a long ways.. or u just were spotted and really spooked the hare. dogs are wound up on a hot track and all of a sudden they dont have it to work with,,i think it has to do with dogs brain and a wound up excited dog doesnt hardly have a brain. ever see an old dog , been runnin behind and it comes along just runs right thru these dead areas.. i dont have that old dog now.. but when i had one , saw it so many times. shed go thru like she was following a blood trail.. shes been behind and not so wild.. she cant outrun them and she knows it but these big losses i think are what she lived for.. over the years ive had a few old dogs like the one im talkin about above.. shed show me there was scent where other decent dogs couldnt detect any... . i sure dont doubt that u have conditions where there is no scent but where i hunt ive found that a few dogs detect scent where others dont.. im not talking about a ghost runner either, i had a couple of those. they would run circles and bark and really dint need any scent.. or any rabbits. i cant help remmebring a few ghost runners , how many times i watched them go by with no rabbit running like champions.... where does that come from... ??? pete

[Bob Graves]

"could be like the bermuda triangle... or black hole in space... " lol... Hey Pete, the area is somewhat of a triangle, and sort of a hole (ravine) but with the temps in the -10 to -20 range as of late. I assure you it's not in Bermuda! We're heading back into the teens today though, tee shirt weather

I always wondered why sometimes at the spot of a missed shot, many times it caused a hard check or a loss in some cases. I think you may be in to something about the hounds being wound up and somewhat brainless in their wound up state. Do you think there is a change in the amount of scent a rabbit leaves from that point forward because of.....

A. the rabbit turned of it's scent (I don't buy this personally, but I have heard it from others )

B. The rabbit just stepped it up and stretched it out a bit (what I think happens)

C. Something else like gunpowder smell, expecting to find dead bunny because of gunshot, black hole effect etc, etc,...

[TC]

Could it be contaminants like old diesel fuel,an old dump from years ago.have seen areas where old homesteads were that the used a small ravine for a dump lots of old cans bottles ect. once cans start to rust and lead or solder starts to leach puts off a kinda tinny oder or musty smell Seen dogs loose scent in areas like that before.

[kjohns]

I used to run out behind my house and for 2 years in a row, my dog would jump a rabbit, running and when they went to a certain spot in the thicket, he would lose it. I never figured it out, but he always lost them in that spot. He didn't act like it holed or anything, he just kept losing it there. Weird. TC might have a point.

[New York Hillbilly]

Hey Bob,
I figured it out for you!!! They are running across a patch of activated charcoal!!!! You know like a scent lock suit. Who knows if maybe a barge full of coal was dumped in that spot years ago when the mule up and died on its's way from Albany down to Buffalo. You know the song "I had a girl her name was Sal.....fifteen miles on the Erie canal.
Lets go run as soon as I chip my hounds out of the ice blocks they are frozen in.
NYH............Mike

[Joe West]

There is a spot on state ladn we go to every now and again that has a dirt drive going up the mountain side to a dirt parking area. On the edge of the parking area is a small blackberry patch surrounded by oines on three sides and the parking area on the fourth side. Whenever the rabbit runs through the blackberry patch the scent is lost. The hounds have to stop and pick along until they are out of the blackberry patch where they can run again. It seems to happen in all conditions and even when the hounds have the high scent as soon as they hit the patch they slam the breaks on.

[Bob Graves]

I bet your right Hillbilly, what else could it be? I've been throwing rock salt on my hounds lately to keep em de-iced, for some reason they like it better than the ice pick!

We do need to hook up Mike, I want to talk to you about that Blue male of yours. I'm going to need one soon. As soon as I find a good home for my young male that is. He'll make an awsome pet for somebody, but he ain't no huntin dog!

[Steve C.]

I find that sphagnum moss (peat), especially when frozen, makes for nearly impossible running.

[Bob Wiest]

I have seen places where dogs just couldn't carry the line. One place was at the Truck and Coach plant in Pontiac, at one time years ago every day was a large pack trail with sometimes 20-30 hounds running ( the UBGF guys would leave in digust once the faster dogs started running). There was a spot next to the rail bridge that the dogs never could follow the track over, but the dogs knew it so the best gambler always got that check. That spot is gone now, but it was fun social running. I also see a dead spot after a missed shot, and I've missed enough that my dogs just rodeo check it and keep rolling; maybe they recognise the gunsmoke smell and swing out for better scenting? Does anybody have dogs that regularly run the line right through a missed shot area, and if your dogs are able to do that, can you hit the broad side of a barn lol ??

[KPrice]

We have a few low spots that usually hold water. When the water is gone, the ground always stays moist and the mud is sour. I can even smell it. With my luck, its probably toxic waste, but I do know that its a favorite trick for the rabbits to run through these areas. I have never seen a hound yet that can track game across these areas.