A scary couple of hours

[TreeCamper]

I thought I had better post this in Survival as it certainly crossed my mind at the time.

On a recent overnighter it was about dusk and I hopped into the hammock after a long day for a kip.

There was still a good bit of moonlight and I started to hear short blasts on a horn. It sounded like someone out with their dogs on a bit of a hunt.

It went on for ages and kept coming nearer then moving away then coming back.

I was thinking to myself what the hell am I going to do if the pack finds me before the owner. The Hammock was not high enough to be out of reach and getting up in the near dark to adjust the whole lot was something I did not want to have to do.

Anyone had any experience with hunting dogs, will they just ignore humans and carry on?

[Silverback]

I suppose it depends on what they were hunting. My dog is trained to find human scent...preferably alive so would have come into you, but you would have been perfectly safe. I have heard reports and stories of foxhounds taking cats and rabbits when on a fox.

I think your worst case scenario would have been to be caught

[Tony1948]

In a differnt life when I had huntting dog all that they would bother would be wot they where after.Not a guy hanging from a tree.I'm trying to figer out wot they would be huntting at night and letting the hole world no about it.When we huntted at night the thing was to get in,catch wot your after and get out with out nobody nowing.Not to be running round the wood blowing a huntting horn :confused2:

[Silverback]

That threw me too Tony unless the local hunt were exercising the hounds

[TreeCamper]

I got the impression they never found anything. I don't think they were in the wood just round the edge of it nearby fields. I suppose they are unlikely to charge into the woods as where I was was pretty dence and would have been difficult for guys to follow in the dark.

I tell you when the horn got close it certainly gets your heart rate up me knowing nothing about dogs & hunting.

[JonnyP]

Hunting with dogs is banned, and anyway, like Tony says, they would just ignore you. They might take interest in any food you had lying about though.
We get some guys come down the valley with a gang of terriers that flush out the foxes for the guns. I suppose they get around the ban because they are shooting foxes, not letting the dogs kill them.
Probably some kids mucking about..?

[CanadianMike]

Be funny if the pack ran under your hammock and sent you swinging!

[comanighttrain]

Bloody hope it's not Pavlov's dogs!

[fish]

Hunting with dogs is banned,


not entirely correct mate,hunting with dogs is legal above and below ground for rabbits,below ground for foxes in order to protect stock ie lambs or game.



i suspect the noise was folk who owned or had 'permission' to flush game to net.

as for hunting dogs fox hounds are just big kids and are very used to humans,expect to lose your food if its not out of reach and maybe get a leg cocked on your rucksack! lol the only 'hunting' dogs i would be wary of are bull x badger or boar dogs ,right nasty buggers when psyched up,but to be honest the penalty's for badger digging are severe enough to have made 'pig men' very cautious and making noise is not something they would do.

[JonnyP]

not entirely correct mate,hunting with dogs is legal above and below ground for rabbits,below ground for foxes in order to protect stock ie lambs or game.



i suspect the noise was folk who owned or had 'permission' to flush game to net.

as for hunting dogs fox hounds are just big kids and are very used to humans,expect to lose your food if its not out of reach and maybe get a leg cocked on your rucksack! lol the only 'hunting' dogs i would be wary of are bull x badger or boar dogs ,right nasty buggers when psyched up,but to be honest the penalty's for badger digging are severe enough to have made 'pig men' very cautious and making noise is not something they would do.

I should of worded that better.
Its the hunting with osses n hounds that got banned cos the government bowed to pressure from the townies who knew better than folk from the countryside.

[fish]

yep your right,mind you it hasnt changed a thing our local hunts go out all the time,kill foxes and nothing is done,i suppose the coppers in charge are in the same funny handshake club!