Inside the 1981 World Champion Squirrel Hunt in Mississippi

Outdoor Life has republished Larry Mueller's account of the 1981 World Champion Squirrel Hunt in Ethel, Mississippi, a contest built around how well a hunter and a dog work together.

Key points

• Origins: Dick Sheets proposed the event, hoping competition would keep the sport alive and improve squirrel dogs through breeding. The Yockanookany Coon Hunters Association hosted the first one in 1980.
• Unusual dogs: A Doberman, an Australian shepherd and an English pointer all treed squirrels, and a registered pointer won in 1980. The 1981 winner was Whiskey, a 4-year-old Norwegian elkhound and feist mix from Leesburg, Ohio.
• Format: After four-dog casts in 1980, the 1981 hunt ran two dogs per cast in weight classes under and over 35 pounds.
• Scoring: The first dog to a tree earns 100 points and the second 75. Finding a trail earns nothing, and tree points are dropped if no squirrel turns up, though judges have some leeway.
• Training: Trainer Randy Pannell, who works 15 to 20 dogs a year, uses a slingshot and steel pellets to flush squirrels so a young dog gets a chase it can see.

Quick take

Mueller's piece argues the handler matters as much as the dog, since a good hunter reads the barking and stays close enough to reach the tree quickly. The headline comes from the area's fox squirrels, which he describes as colorful and large, though he calls the house-cat comparison an exaggeration.

Read the full story at Outdoor Life.