Patch, THEY know how to use pedigrees

Heck, with that many hounds over that many years, pedigrees become very important. You also brought up another good topic (run to catch), but that's something for another post...
Swing, you asking ME to post a pedigree

Seriously, I take a different approach than most. I could write a long book trying to explain it, but to keep from boring everyone I'll give you the simplified and shortened version.
After going through many, many beagles over many, many years, my hunting buddy and I have a few now that we realy like. We keep 5 or 6 pups each year from these dogs, some line bred, some inbred, and some outcrossed. Most are born and bred right here. We put them to the test, running hare in Minnesota spring, fall and winter (summer too when I can stand to be in the woods

). We keep pups from the ones that turn out the best for us. Winter is when we evaluate who gets to carry on the line. The ones that perform best running hare in deep snow, old hard crusty snow, temperatures well below zero, day after day are the ones that we keep pups from. Very few pass the test.
42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.