Bells on Hounds to Hunt Furred Game in Heavy Cover
Hounds refers to a subset of hunting dogs that track and often tree furred game. Common hound breeds are beagles, bloodhounds and blue ticks. Hounds are often released by hunters to cover ground. When they cross the track of a target animal they will turn to follow the sent trail of the animal trailing it until it is treed in the case of raccoons, bears, or mountain lions. Or in the case of rabbits, they will trail the rabbit on wide arcing trails back toward the hunter to allow for a shot at the rabbit. Hounds are known for the braying, a distinctive excited barking, when they pick put the sent and start trailing an animal. Bells are less typical on hounds, used more commonly in rabbit hunting to insure a safe shot on moving targets. Hounds tracking animals long distances to tree them are less likely to wear bells as they can easily travel miles away from the hunter to finally tree an animal. Safe shots are much easier on treed animals as the dogs remain on the ground clear of the shot and the animal is not running. This also reduces the need for bells as safety devices in this type of hunting.
Bells are still widely used especially by grouse hunters, but as technology has advanced, replacements for the bell have been introduced and gain popularity. Two of those alternatives being GPS collars and Beeper collars. GPS collars have a transmitter on the dog’s collar that sends a signal to the hunters GPS unit showing the dog on the map and telling the hunter if the dog is moving or standing still. Beeper collars can be set to emit a tone on a duration, every 5 to 10 seconds (good for flushing dogs) or just emit a tone when the dog has stopped (good for pointing dogs). The tone when the dog has stopped works well with pointing dog breeds over a bell, as the beeper collar continues to make noise even when the dog is still allowing the hunter to follow the noise to find the pointing dog.
Typically no, but birds that have been hunted often can start to associate bells with hunters and will leave areas when they hear bells. Same can be said of car doors slamming when hunters leave their trucks to start a hunt. On wise birds bells and car doors will make for frustrating hunting.
Why do upland dogs wear bells?
Why do hunting dogs wear bells? Hunters often put bells on their dog’s collars in order keep track of their dog’s location especially heavy cover where the dog can’t always be seen. Typically hunting dogs are free to run without leash which allows them to cover a lot of ground in their search.
The bell: The classic bird dog tracking device
The bell has been used since the upland hunters of old for tracking our four-legged companions through briars and bramble, aspen and alders. Not only does the bell provide a classic and pleasant sound during the course of the hunt, it also gives the hunter valuable feedback with respect to the pace and cadence of the dog’s hunt. Not only are you getting a sense of your dog’s location, you’re learning how he is hunting. Or not hunting and making game. For those reasons, I consider the bell to be essential in bird dog tracking.
So what is lacking in the bell? When the dog stops moving, the bell stops ringing. This is fine when conditions are ideal and you are paying close attention. All the hunter has to do is start in that direction. With any luck, you’ll encounter the dog on point. But what if you don’t? What if you were distracted when the bell stopped ringing?What if the dog hunts out of bell range?
In the old days this was simply part of the game. Dogs were lost and found—or sometimes not. Fortunately, today’s upland hunters need not settle for only the sound of the bell to locate their dogs. This is where the beeper bird dog tracking system comes in.