Grand
Champion, GrandField Grand Champion
Nite Champion
J-Rivers
Red Lighting Boone
It is with the greatest of sadness that I
inform you that Boone has been killed.
I was hunting Boone
in a Regional Qualifying Event here in Utah and he was hit by a car
and killed.
The cast started the
night great we had a good turn out of dogs and I drew out with a
couple of real nice hadlers. It all went down hill from there.
I
was the judge and guide on the hunt and
we
had a
3
dog cast.
The
2nd
dog
in the
cast
was
an english dog being handled by a yound lady from southern Utah,
and the 3rd handler was one of my good friends Dustin who
was handling a little Redbone
owned by Russel
Jones that is destined to become the all time reproducing female
in the world. She has already produced 5 night champions
and has 2 more pups that only need one more win a piece to make it
7. With one more litter of pups she will have the total number of
pups produced to make the reproducers list.
Dustin
had made a mistake and left his tracking collar in Russ's truck
and
I loaned
him
one
of my oddball collars that was not real strong but should transmit
far enough for a coon hunt.. I run
an innotec box that will track a complete frequency from .000-.999
in a band and I asked him what his reciever was as he said 217 so I figured
it
performed
the
same way and would pick up the collar.
We turned loose were
all struck in and hit the first tree. Boone and the english dog
were called
treed and Dustin's little redbone never did tree
but continued to hunt. The five ran out and we spent
about
8 minutes
or so trying to find that coon in a great big cottonwood to no avail.
There was just to many leaves and to many places for a coon to hide.
We pulled the dogs back and there was no sign of the Dustin's dog
at all. We were about to the end of the area we had to hunt on that
drop so
we started
the 8 and continued in the direction we had been
hunting hoping to hear her but the 8 got her and we had no idea where
she was at.
The young lady in the cast that was hunting with the
english dog when we left had her tracking system in her back pack
and thought she had a 217 box when we left the truck but when we
called time
out
to look
for
the
dog
and
find
other
hunting
ground her box turned out to be a 216. We really did not know where
the dog was so with the 1 hour going we headed back to the truck for
the
other
box. We got there in about a 1/2 hour and got out the box. Boone's
collar was interfering with the box so I put the magnet back in his
collar to shut it off but my odd ball collar was off just enough that
we could not get a reading on Dustin's' dog.
We jumped in the truck
and
headed
the way
we
had
been
hunting and drove several roads farther down to listen and unfortunately
never did find the dog in the 1 hour time.
I called another friend
with a tracking box that would pick up the collar to come get Dustin
take him to go find his dog.
In the mean time we still had to finish the hunt.
The biggest
mistake
I have
ever
made was when I forgot to take the magnet back out of Boone's collar
when we turned loose. (unfortunately I did not realize this until
I went to track him later) We dumped out and Boone struck in 1st
and was off and running. The area we were hunting was a buddy's and
I had only hunted it 2 times before.
And of course
Boone with the
other dog struck in second headed the complete opposite direction
of what I had ever hunted. We were on a river in Wasactch County
Utah and it was spring run off time and the water was roaring
and out of the banks. We went for what seemed like forever before
Boone
finally
treed. He had the coon but the problem was that the other dog would
not cross the fork in the river to hunt with him and to top it all
of we actually ended up with a cast of dogs on the opposite side
of the river treed at the same time. We got Boone off the tree and
crossed back over to where the english dog was and I really did not
want to turn him loose with another cast treeing right
across
the river but with the way the river was raging I really did not
think (more like hoped) that he would not swim it.
The english
dog in my cast opened and I had no choice but to turn into
her. As
I
figured
he
went down
the
river
toward
the english dog opened several times struck in and the next time
I heard him he was across the river with the other dogs. He got there
about
the time
the other cast got there to score their tree and they tried to grab him
but he took of hunting. We called time out and called the guide on the
other cast to see if they could get a hold of him and they said that
they tried but when they tried to grab him he headed out and last
time they heard him he was headed south with his tail on fire.
Now this was real bad as I had no way to cross the river. I really had
no clue where exactly the truck was and my dog was on the other side
headed god only knows where.
The next closest road the direction he
was going was several miles down
but he can cover some ground real quick and I was worried. We headed
for the road and in the mean time called Dustin and he had found his
dog
on a tree of course with 2 coons in it. He was headed back to my truck
so I had him take take it and come around and meet us at the road. It
was not
until he got there and I got out the box and went to track Boone that
I realized that the magnet was in the collar. My heart fell to my feet!
I could not believe the situation. I was in an area that I did not know,
had no idea where my dog was and had no way to find him.
Dustin offered to walk the river up the side he had crossed over to with
me so we headed out. We kept hitting peoples back yards and all kinds
of crap and fences we could not get through and I told Dustin that he
might hold a lion tree all day and all night but he was not going to
hold a coon tree that long and this was 3 hours after the last person
had
heard him treeing.
Once I really looked at the situation I told myself
that he would cross the river back to where we were and either come out
where we did of go back to where we turned loose. We decided to head
back to the truck and leave a couple of us on the road where we came
out and take the truck back around to where we turned loose.
My whole world came apart when we climbed back up on the road and Boone
was laying there 20 feet from the back of my truck.
The last weeks have
been real hard around here and I sure miss one of my best friends
but he is out here at the end of the house and while he has not had
a red fern show up yet I still spend quite a bit of time talking
with him and getting his input on what to do with what dog next.
Thanks to all of those
who have called and expressed there sympathy and sorrow. I have
a litter of pups coming and maybe my new Boone will be among them.
I will Pay you $100
or Give you your next pup for free when you make Nite Champion with your
puppy!!
I will
give you $100 Off your next puppy when you make Grand Show Champion!!
Boone's
Pedigree
When Boone was killed
he only needed any type of a win in a water race and he would have
had his water champion title making him a quadruple champion!!
He only need a couple more nite champion wins and he would have
had his Grand Nite Champion degree and with the 2008 season we
had in front of us and the way he was hunting I truly feel we would
have made a Quadruple Grand Champion with him in 2008.
 
 
I have hundreds of pictures of Boone on trees these are just a few. Boone
was only six years old and just in his prime and I figure at that point
he had treed right at 100 cats give or take 5-10.
Boone is a very dark
red coonhound that is put up confirmation wise
better than any other coonhound he has ever been placed on a bench
to the side of. He is tall and has very straight legs as you can
see from the pictures above. He is finely muscled and I'll tell you
one thing this boy has the running gear. I road my dogs constantly
and in a kennel of usually 10-15 hounds I road 4 dogs at a time behind
my 4 wheeler we usually go about 5 miles and then I come back put
up the other 3 dogs and get 3 more out and Boone is still on the
walker behind the wheeler. Boone will run 10+ miles when I am out
and still be pulling on the chain when we get back to the house while
I am dragging the other 3.
Boone hunts with a nice bawl mouth on
track, he is not the loudest dog I have ever hunted against but he
is allot louder than 75% of the dogs we have hunted with. He will
pull up with a nice yodeling bawl on tree and then a good loud steady
chop on the tree.
He is very rarely beat out on first strike unless someone is striking
in a babbling lunatic. He is never left behind and has one of the coldest
noses on him I have ever come across in a coonhound. I myself where my
main concern is big game hunting love the cold nose he will take a bobcat
now that is late last nights track where every other dog I have in the
kennel short of his half sister will not run a bobcat over 8 or nine
hours old. I have lost allot of competition hunts due to the fact that
he hit a cold crappy track but would not give up on it. If time does
not run out on him he will usually work it out even if it takes him 2
hours to do it. Lately he has been doing allot better job of running
his own track and holding his own tree. If the track he ran goes to this
tree he does not care if the rest of the cast is 10 feet away on their
own tree he will hold his split. He has split treed 4 of his last 10
competition trees with other dogs treeing no more than 30 yards away.
As you can tell I am very proud of Boone
and his accomplishments and as long as I do not let him down he has
the ability to go all the way. I have been running hounds for the
last 13 or 14 years and have went through a ton of dogs in that time
I buy allot of dogs and if they do not work out they are history
Boone is one of the best I have ever had!!!
Daymon Stephens
17644 W 1540 No
Fairfield Utah 84013
801-768-1195
Daymon1@cedarvalleynet.com
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