Steve met Matthew Huff three years ago on social media.   The hunters shared a love for tree dogs that brought them to a personal meeting at the 2022 Grand American Coon Hunt in South Carolina.
Huff’s story is unique.  It begins in California and moves eastward to Georgia.  The catalyst for his mostly urban coon hunting activities came in the form of a mixed breed, mostly hound, with perhaps a shot of Treeing Walker dog named Sargeant.

As his travels took him across the nation Huff continued to hunt the orphaned Sarge mostly by himself on public grounds and parks until a purebred Bluetick entered the picture.  That’s were we find Huff today, treeing coons with regularity and assuming the more common role of hound and hunter with a traditional coonhound breed.

Mentioning Huff as an urban coon hunter, he now lives in metro Atlanta.  Activities inspired by the Orthodox Christian Church with whom he affiliates, have taken him to the mountains of West Virginia and to the Carolinas helping those in need, something that comes naturally to the humanitarian. 

This is an interesting episode that proves that hounds can lead us in many directions, some of which we may never had expected.  

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Bear hunter Holt Collier, who was the guide for the famous “teddy bear” hunt that earned President Theodore Roosevelt his nickname, can lay claim to taking a sitting president bear hunting.  That’s a distinction similar to that of our guest but not quite.  Our guest Mark Israel of Smithfield, Georgia, took the 39th President of the United States coon hunting and not just once, but several times following the family friend’s term in office.

Steve met Israel during his PKC days and Mark related to our host, several stories of his hunts with the peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia turned governor and ultimately president of the United States, Jimmy Carter.  Carter’s famous farm in Plains sits a mere six miles from the Israel family’s homestead.

Carter served the State of Georgia as its governor from 1971 to 1975 and the nation as president, from 1977 to 1981.  He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.

This exclusive Gone To The Dogs podcast presents an interesting conversation involving hounds, coon hunting, secret service agents and an inside look at a man that once was the most powerful man in the world.   

We would like to thank those who support this podcast.  Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode.  Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links below

https://www.dusupply.com/alphadog

www.dusupply.com

https://alphadognutrition.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@DoubleUHuntingSupply/podcasts

We would like to thank those who support this podcast.  Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode.  Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links below

https://www.dusupply.com/alphadog

www.dusupply.com

https://alphadognutrition.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@DoubleUHuntingSupply/podcasts

In this episode, Steve talks with five hunters from as many states that came to hunt raccoons with hounds in the White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas this year.   Hunters from the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee are included in the conversations.

The episode offers more than three hours of content that collectively describe the hunts and the types of hunting the refuge offered this year.  Perhaps more so than any of the previous fourteen years Steve has hunted the White River Refuge, this year presented many challenges which are discussed in length in the episode.

Whether you take in the full volume of content at one time or carve it into bite-sized pieces to enjoy in coming days, you will enjoy meeting Billy Carter, Robert Cromer, Caleb Griffin, John Staib and Brandon Taylor as they tell their stories in our White River Recap 2004.  

We would like to thank those who support this podcast.  Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode.  Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links below

https://www.dusupply.com/alphadog

www.dusupply.com

https://alphadognutrition.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@DoubleUHuntingSupply/podcasts

At the point of the recording, two nights of a four-night hunt have been accomplished.  The account of opening night; a date coon hunters universally look forward to all year long, is the tale of a young dog coming of age and the tale of his journey from pup to coon dog.

Each listener that keeps hounds and loves the outdoors will enjoy this podcast. The conversation will paint the picture of two friends, two hounds, a coon dog and a pup, in an amazing autumn setting that can only be experienced in depth by doing as Steve has done, by getting in the truck and putting nearly 1000 miles on the odometer before the hounds are released into the mountain air on an incredible opening night. 

We would like to thank those who support this podcast.  Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode.  Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links below

https://www.dusupply.com/alphadog

www.dusupply.com

https://alphadognutrition.com/

This episode drops on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  Steve extolls the joys of one of his favorite times of year as the episode opens.  Thanksgiving could well be called the hunter’s holiday since so much hunting activity routinely takes place on and around the traditional holiday.

Fellow podcast content creator Clayton Stark’s post on social media forms the basis for reflections by many members of the hound hunting community as they recall special memories.  Moreso than any other, Thanksgiving is a holiday for families; sumptuous meals, football games, recounts of family adventures combine to make the most, for some, enjoyable holiday of the year.

A phone call with Steve’s hunting buddy and frequent traveling companion Arnold “Nubbin” Moore rounds out the conversation as they discuss the upcoming annual trip to Arkansas and the White River National Wildlife Refuge. 

With this episode, Steve and Ella, as well as the crews at Double U Hunting Supply, Alpha Dog Nutrition and Zepp Predator Calls, send a collective “Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!”

This episode takes the listener to eastern Kentucky, land of our host’s roots and home of our guest Robbie Spears.

Spears is a coon hunting game warden with the rank of Lieutenant in the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, a coon hunting Mr. Green Jeans.

Robbie and Steve enjoy a conversation about their Kentucky roots, about Robbie’s lifelong desire to work outdoors, and spend a great deal of the episode talking about some successful English Coonhounds, his breed of choice.

Spears has done his share of winning in competition, placing sixth in the UKC World Championship and winning the Purina Outstanding Nite Hunt Coonhound race overall.

A good deal of the conversation centers upon the importance of passing the tree dog sports on to the kids, of which Robbie has two.  His outlook is interesting may present views the average houndsman has not considered before. 

And by the way, the coon hunter whose name Steve could not remember in the episode was Irvin Sutton, owner and handler of Dark Shadow Bobbie, a remarkable English coonhound in her day. 

This one is worth you time.

We would like to thank those who support this podcast.  Special thanks to Alpha Dog Nutrition and Double U Hunting Supply for sponsoring this episode.  Want to learn more about Alpha Dog Nutrition? Check out the links below

https://www.dusupply.com/alphadog

www.dusupply.com

https://alphadognutrition.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@DoubleUHuntingSupply/podcasts

What happens when an active raccoon and bear-hunting houndsman is faced with a debilitating injury at the onset of hunting season?  Does he become discouraged to the point of giving up or does he purpose to overcome adversity and forge into the future with a firm resolve? 

The subject of our episode this week personifies the latter. Mark Miller of Taylorsville, North Carolina is a houndsman in the prime of life, a guy that approaches hound hunting like a rookie fireman on his first five-alarm run.  His determination to take a green pup all the way to the Quadruple Grand level in the coonhound game is evidence of just how hard he goes at it. Unfortunately, Miller finds himself dealing lately with a severe back injury that so far is devoid of a clear long-term prognosis, a situation that would get a lesser man down.

Steve and Mark spend the duration of the podcast talking about Mark’s personal battle, about the hound that the two friends co-own and finally, about a new prospect that Steve hopes will follow in his sire’s footsteps. 

Despite the variety of subjects at hand, some with a serious degree of uncertainty, the friends manage to see light at the end of the tunnel in the upcoming Grand American and American Plott Association upcoming at the first of the year.   It’s an hour of the “dog talk at its finest” you’ve come to expect in this spot each week. Enjoy. 

In this episode, Steve records with Randy Smith of the famed Lone Pine Kennels in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, renown producers of world class Treeing Walkers  Steve recently spent seven nights hunting with Randy.   Randy’s son Troy and video and podcast content producer Clayton Stark of Stark Outdoors joined Steve and Randy on some of the hunts.

In what could also be described as “A Trip To The Lone Pine Museum” Steve questions Randy about several of the photos and paintings found hanging in the guest quarters and the answers are a walk through the annals of Lone Pine history. 

This episode is the next best thing to driving to western Pennsylvania and hunting with the Lone Pine hounds in person.  Enjoy. 

Fred Moran, a frequent guest to the Gone To The Dogs podcast, is eighty-seven years old.  The remarkable octogenarian coon hunter continues to hunt raccoons regularly with his beloved Redbones at an age well past the point most coon hunters have retired from the game.  Not only is Moran still hunting, he continues the pursuit of good hounds wherever they may be found.  In this episode he discusses going to Mississippi to try a new hound.   This is a vintage Fred Moran conversation that listeners have come to appreciate over the life of this podcast.  Enjoy. 

The Gone To The Dogs Podcast is nothing if not a gathering place for the nation’s best known and most revered raccoon hunters.

The week the podcast features a big helping of “Dog Talk At It’s Finest.”Steve brings one of the sports most respected and longest running breeders of Treeing Walker Coonhounds, the renown Jim “Wildman” Meeks to the Gone To The Dogs microphone.  Meeks, a first ballot inductee into the North Carolina State Coon Hunters Hall of Fame, is possessed of a wealth of knowledge all areas of the coon hunting game. 

This one literally oozes Old School coon hunting from the first drop to the final tree.  Steve and Jim discuss a gamut of subjects from hunting gear to pup training and a little of everything in between.  With hunting seasons upon us, this one is for the guys that do it simply for the love of the hounds, as told by one of the true purists in our sport.