Whew! man i'm just going to jump in the fire here
I hunt mostly open mouthed hounds. BUT, i also live in the mtns. of east Tn. there has been some very good points so far, but let say something about hounds, just because they are open mouthed, DON'T mean that they are good track dogs. they are like those curs, there are good ones and bad ones, some have good noses, some don't, some run with their nose on the ground(which will be slower), and some run with their nose in the air, some have the brains to use their nose and some don't............... me personally, i like the cur crossed with the hounds for hog hunting, for several reasons, I like a little mouth in my hog dogs "very little" just enough to know what direction they are going. if you hunted silent dogs here you wouldn't never find your dogs. example: i'm standing in a branch, there is mtn on all four sides, no roads, just trails. it would only take a dog a few minutes to be topped out, and out of hearing. if the dogs are bayed and i can't here them, i don't have a clue which they went. and its at least an hour in all directions to top out to hear better. well you go left, after climbing for an hour, only to find out they went right and are getting cut to shreds. and yes, my dogs dont get loose without tracking collars on them but they aint worth a dime deep in a holler. there is soooo much more i want to say, but i ant that good at typin and my hands drawin up already
it MOSTLY depends on personal preferance, are catchin hogs for fun, damage control, money.........if i was catchin for damage control or money, i would want to catch as many as i could as fast as i could. it would be a job, and in order to do a job correctly you need the right tools for the job. if your hunting for fun well, it don't matter as long as you are having fun. i bear hunt too, and when i am bear hunting i want a cooooold nosed dog that can move a track and has alot of mouth, and my opinion about curs on bear, well, i wouldn't even consider it, not that i don't like the cur dogs they just aint got what it takes to run bear in these mtns. "THE WAY WE HUNT" don't anybody go and take that the wrong way, i'm not saying that there aint curs that can tree bear, as i have read that they have. but like was said previously. the way we hunt and the guys i hunt with and the terrain..... they just wouldn't work. like i said i can go on and on about this subject, and yes i have caught plenty of hogs with these open mouthed dogs. some races didn't last but a few min. strike to bay, but there were others that were longer. most of the fellers i hunt with like to here the race, as this was the way they was brought up, which i think has alot to do with it too. but not only hear the race but have the meat at the end of it. now keep in mind that we don't have the hogs that you all do down south, and may take 1/2 a day to find a bear track to even turn dogs on, so it helps to have dogs that will open so that we can keep up with them, as they may trail miles before they even jump the bear and then another several miles before it stops to fight or trees. and if you had silent dogs "in the mtns" you could never find them. i have been right on top of dogs before and not heard them and them baying or treed, so it helps tremendously to know in general which way they are going so you know in which general direction to start looking. WHEW!!!
