My Hound of a Lifetime

The Plott has been my family’s breed of choice for raccoon and bear hunting since 1954 when my dad, Homon Fielder bought his first registered hound, a Plott we called Fielder’s June. Over the years, Dad and I have had four Plotts inducted in the National Plott Hound Association’s Hall of Fame. Those Hall of Fame members were Bronco, the dog you will read about in the following paragraphs, Champion Bear Pen Fancy, Champion Bronco’s Fancy Julie and Bear Pen Song of the South.

My all-time favorite Plott dog over the years was NPHA Hall of Famer CH NITECH 'PR' Bear Pen Plotts Bronco. Bronco was born February 14, 1977, thirty years ago. I remember the hunt in the photo like it was yesterday and was so typical of the nights I hunted Bronco around the grape vineyards in Van Buren County, Michigan. I was hunting alone as I often did in those days. This was 1986 because the Chevy S-10 pickup was new and was a '86 model.

On this hunt I drove out to the Gordon Brown farm in Lawton, Michigan and drove to the woods at the back of Gordon's vineyard. Like many of the farmers whose lands I hunted, Gordon grew grapes for the Welch's grape juice plant in Lawton. Bronco treed the two separate coons you see skinned out at the left and right. I never intentionally kill more than one coon from a tree. I had the hides in my coat and had Bronco on the leash, ready to try another spot. On the way back to the truck he threw his head in the air looking toward the woods and I knew he was winding a coon. I turned him loose and waited. It must have taken 5 minutes or more before he gave me the familiar locate and that steady-as-your-heartbeat-chop telling me he was treed. I went to him and shot the big boar coon you see in the middle. The coon hadn't been on the ground but Bronco was a layup artist and would not give up until he located the coon. No barking around, tapping trees, etc. He would just keep searching the air currents until he found him.

Bronco was also an excellent bear dog. He excelled as a bear dog largely because he had the nose to keep from losing a cold track, the drive and determination to catch the bear he was trailing, and the agility, once he closed on the bear, not to get caught. He was like a prize fighter in the face of a bear, dodging in and out at the bear’s head, baying constantly and biting only when the bear turned to run.

​​In addition to being inducted into the Plott Hall of Fame, Bronco won the Breed Hunt at Plott Days in Laingsburg, Michigan in 1986 beating all the best Plotts from across the nation that year.

Bronco was a hound I will never forget.