Legends

[chesney 5,326]

Good times id say they were neil people knew how enjoy the days digging and have the craic later. I think nowadays theres to much politics involved and some lads take things to serlously to enjoy the sport anymore its good to hear how it used to be done.

[BlackBuck 655]

 

Great thread lads , keep it going . Best I've seen was a mates dog called striker . Steady and determined every time

 

From NI?

[BlackBuck 655]

Yes goat the dog was in N.I

[peterhunter86 8,627]

Brilliant write up foxdropper

[Pick and bar 381]

Well I'm very pleased to have awoken so many memories, my own included!

We all seem to use the internet for anonymous argueing, then look at this thread and this is how we should be, reminiscing and laughing. Well for me it works. Thanks people.

[BlackBuck 655]

Thanks for starting the post pick and bar , great reading the old stories . Great memories and great times .

[chesney 5,326]

Theres surely more to be told from the lads that hunted back in the day lol.

[BlackBuck 655]

Mate had a wee tri-colour Russell bitch years ago called judy . Bought her off a local dealer for £18 , lost count the amount of foxs we got with that bitch , she never failed . He had a Morris marina van at the time . Every weekend we wer packed in the back and away we go . Remember one day in particular going to a sett and trying a young dog that had worked a few fox previously, tried the dog in and round the sett he went for about 10/15 minutes and out saying no . Big Lurcher dog we had at the time was marking sett and he was never wrong , entered judy she bolted first fox which got away , out she came and turned straight round and back in , bolted another Lurcher caught this one . Judy comes out sniffs dead fox and went back to ground , dug the next fox and dispatched it , we wer back filling and someone said wers judy , she was back in and we dug another . First dog had said nothing home , needless to say he never made it out with us again . The sport we had with that wee bitch was unreal , friendships wer formed then that will never be broken and memories that will never be forgotten.

[fat man 4,740]

 

I reckon that some dogs in some lads heads and minds are legends to them,everyone has 1 special terrier that sticks in there mind for life,like that old dog in my avatar,he done it all week in week out without fuss and into old age.Many men seen him dug to and could not fault the dog and he was not fussy about what game the earth held he went about his buisness same on all quarry.He would hunt cover like a hound and would also retrieve shot game land or water.When the black dogs came around my end of the country that dog was in his prime and put many of them to shame and some that went on to make big names for themselves,how they did is beyond me.We went to a big place 1 day with a well known terrier man and he had aquired a fell dog which he claimed was a world beater.He entered his dog and after about 10min the dog showed with no interest and its owner said there was nothing home and that his dog would not leave an occupied earth.My dog was doing cart wheels to get in so the same mans brother told me to give him a run through the earth just to keep him quiet so i agreed as i knew by the old dog there was game at home.Spot entered and within 5 min was working away at about 3ft 6-7 yds from where he had entered,we left him another 10min and then dug to him with 3 pushed up tight.The man that owned the fell dog was giving every excuse in the book but in the end he was proved wrong.I have been lucky enough to have had some very good dogs through the years and unlucky that some were stolen on me but i will never have another like that old SPOT dog,let him out of his shed as usual to roam around the garden and it was a lovely sunny morn,he lay down in the sun streched out and when i went back out some time later he was still in the same place but he was dead,he was 17 and had worked hard all his life.

did you ever get spot over any bitches? I like the Russell's myself

 

He served just 1 bitch and the resulting pups were just moderate fox dogs,nothing special.

[fat man 4,740]

 

 

 

 

How good would it be to get those days back Marshman.

A pint or two on the way home was always well earned after some hard digging.

I was too young for a pint when I started but in those days it was back to the pub and we always had a strongdog on a days hunting and IMO the strongdog had the easy job compared to our little workers but at the end of the day it was he who'd look the worse for wear.

So into the boozer we'd go and to make sure there was no accidents in the back of the van it was always the strongdog that we took in.

I'd sit there drinking my Coca-cola holding a battle worn strongdog feeling like the biggest man in the pub.

Imagine doing that nowadays ?????

good days indeed mate ,another one I can mind was being put in the back of an old escort van with all manor of digging stuff and I garrantee I fight between the dogs would brake out with my father shouting " brake them up " lol me trying not to look scared . Nah you're right them days are gone you'd be lock up nowadays .

LOL, been there, done that. If it wasn't two having a go at each other it was a dog puking. Then it was all windows open, and it might be a pissy day in December, LOL.

If a lot of drink was consumed the night before and a dog puked tripe everywhere then it was pull over of there'd be lads puking.

We drove to Galway one evening for a nights ratting. My father drove, I was in the passenger seat, three friends on the back seat and my young brother lieing across their legs. Four or five terriers in the boot and a couple in the car. A 200 mile round trip and we caught well over 100 rats.

Then there were the days were there was no transport available. Men carrying shovels with terriers on leads walking along the roadside.

Nowadays there'd be a SWAT team arriving.

Me and a pal used to jump on the train with our terriers for a days digging, coming home with filthy terriers with swollen faces stinking of fox and no one ever batted an eyelid we'd even get the odd old boy asking how our day had been. Imagine doing that these days?

 

Reminds me of seeing lads getting on my fathers bus when I was young. They had a few jack russells, a couple of wheatens and they're shovels. They went down the back of the bus but my father made them leave they're gun on the dash board of the bus so he could keep an eye on it.

 

Telling a yarn earlier on about a pub reminds me of a badgers mask I have on my wall.

There's a good sporting pub in Westmeath and it's one of Fatmans locals (there's around 20 pubs he call's his local) and years ago they had a full badger mounted sitting on the shelf in the bar.

Fatman was in it one day after hunting and had a terrier called Rip tied to the leg of the bar stool he was sitting on.

Another local sportsman, Dessie, untied Rip's lead. Rip jumped up on to a stool, then onto a table and from the table on to the shelf holding the badger.

Both Rip and the stuffed badger ended up in the middle of the floor rolling around.

A few years ago the pub was getting re-furnished and Fatman and I went in for a pint after hunting and here in a skip was the old badger.

Looking at it we could still see the big bald patch on it's arse where Rip had tried to kill the already dead badger.

I took it home and cut the head of it and put it on a plaque. It looks shite but at least there's a story behind it. It was dug nearly 50 years ago.

 

I remember that day well Neil,i was chatting to the barmaid and Dessie untied the dog without me known and before we knew it he was latched on to the stuffed badger,lol Dessie laughed his bollocks of.I can remember 4 of us goin into a pub 1 saturday eve after a days digging,we had 4 terriers with us that had all been worked through the day so they were not a pretty sight but not 1 person batted an eye lid,good times good craic if it was now we would have been arrested,as a man only yesterday said to me[WE HAVE MORE TO LOOK BACK AT THEN TO LOOK FORWARD TO.

[redcharge 378]

Excellent thread lads ?

[Francie 6,362]

Really enjoying this thread lads, brilliant

[BGD 6,385]

Aye its been a cracking thread, can't help feeling sorry for the younguns coming up in the sport these days when reading everyone's memories, they'll never know the joy of being able to be totally open about their sport sitting in the pub with an old warrior on their knee the whole place hanging on their every word as they recount the days dig.

[Lew 111]

I'm only a youngish lad, but for me there's only one place for a worked terrier to be an that's,seen to an put in a warm kennel to rest after a day's digging. The digs get deeper and the dogs get better by every pint, it makes me cringe haha.

 

Sorry for pissing on your fire boys, but I'd rather get abit of fanny in a boozer than sit round looking at a sore, balled up, stinking dog.

Good luck for the season

[marshman 7,756]

I'm only a youngish lad, but for me there's only one place for a worked terrier to be an that's,seen to an put in a warm kennel to rest after a day's digging. The digs get deeper and the dogs get better by every pint, it makes me cringe haha.

 

Sorry for pissing on your fire boys, but I'd rather get abit of fanny in a boozer than sit round looking at a sore, balled up, stinking dog.

Good luck for the season

it was a different time I suppose and yer you always did get a bit of a tall tail from some but that was part of the craic .. Still I'd rather do it the old timers way of sitting in a pub with trusted friends chatting than be like the wankers of this day and age by putting pics up of busted terriers on Facebook ? Edited September 1, 2015 by marshman