Dancing

Dancing
Click Here for, DANCING WITH THE WILD BEAST, diary among friends of the Mozambique Bush

Hard Nosed Big Game Hounds

Hard Nosed Big Game Hounds
Click the pic for "The hard Nosed Pack"

Luwire Photographic Safaris

Luwire Photographic Safaris
Looking across the Lugenda from one of the camps

Monday, July 29, 2013

Early Lion Hunters, Charlie Tant and Jay Bruce both from California, both bred their own line of Hounds that became famous in the West.

This from an article in Tree Hound Magazine, (Full Cry), a little about Charlie Tant. Jay Bruce was the first Government Hunter in California.
Glenn Overstreet
27828 Tunoi Pl.
North Fork, California 93643

I finally met Jeff Davis. This was over in Lee Vining at a restaurant. It took me a while to figure out who he was until he climbed into an official truck with a dog-box. Mrs. Davis, Vicky, was was with him and we had a nice chat. Jeff is one of the USDA Wildlife Specialists working on the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Project trying to keep the lions from finishing off the last of the endangered sheep. Vicky is his Dept. of Fish & Game assistant.
Another team with Jeff Ostergaurd and a F&G assistant are also part of the group working on this important project.
Last winter Vicky was climbing around some rocks, up in the snow, while following the Hounds and stepped into a hole that turned out to be an old camp of Charlie Tant. Charlie would camp just about anywhere the lion hunting was good and wasn't too particular about comfort. Usually a cave or a hole in the rocks but occasionally under a tree root. Jeff is a fortunate man to have such a lady for a wife and hunting companion.
Dick Muldoon sent me some photos of a Tant camp that he took his family to several years ago. It was an overhanging rock with water nearby and Tant's cooking utensils were still there. He would leave the essentials for cooking at each of his camps Years ago Steve Matthis told me he was hunting over on the California coast and while going over some rocks he found a sooty chimney in a hole of the rocks. He climbed around until he found the entrance. Expecting an Indian site he was surprised to see TANT scratched on the walls. These camps are around, and I suppose deer hunters find them and don't know what they are looking at. Ben Lilley camped the same way and his camps were found for years after he was gone. Charlie's sister Mrs. Mercer of Medford, Oregon, told me that Charlie had hunted with "Mr. Lilly." They certainly hunted and lived alike.
A good rule for going through life is to keep the heart a little softer than the head. You know when your trying real hard to hear your dogs away off in some tough canyon it helps if you cup your hands behind your ears. It also helps if you open your mouth about 1". It has something to do with the ear bone connected to the jaw bone-the jaw bone connected to the head bone- the head bone, etc. No kidding.







2 comments:

Unknown said...

charlie tant my dad knew the guy and hunted with him when he was a very young child my father said he truely was a mountain man and that he wouldnt sleep inside a house and and that his bloodline was amazing being a young houndsmen myself i sure would like a tant walker i wonder if there still around i would pay good money for one my father and i would be very interested on anymore information on charlie or if his bloodline is still around

Just Another Savage! said...

Last dogs I heard of that had Charlie Tant blood was a dog named Chub, out of a Charlie Tant bloodline dog named Sadie. That was back in 1973 I believe. Probably very little Blood left from Charlie Tant blood.
Sorry

Copyright Notice

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Audwin McGee and Sons of Savages (www.sonsofsavages.com), 2008-2009-2010-2011,2012,2013,2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sons of Savages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

About Me

My photo
I’m a Southern Boy, just 56 last November, I get around here and there, Central America, Africa, Red Bay. I’m a Father, Grandfather, Husband, Artist and general flunky of sorts. Live in a little historic town in an old building I remodeled. Just wanted to hear myself think I guess, talk about the need of simplification, show some art, express an interest or two, brag on my dogs and see where it goes. That’s it!, That’s the deal, Thanks