Fox Rules

There are none. However, we used to operate on the basis of the "modes" listed below. Currently, a fox may define the hunt in any way he/she chooses. If something really strange is planned it's always a good idea to get the word out via the email list. A link to subscribe to this list is at the top of the RDF site.

We basically used to operate three categories of hunts.

Basic

Basic hunts were intended as a way to teach fox hunting. They were almost always held at one location, i.e. a park. There was no driving, just a couple of hidden transmitters located around the park. Basic instruction was given at the beginning of the hunt. The hunters were then released to find the transmitters and could call upon the elmers in the group for additional information if they got into a situation where they were unsure of the results of their DFing activities.

Intermediate

Intermediate hunts were intended to be hunts that took between 1 and 2 hours to complete.

A secondary aspect to intermediate hunts was that they would have no devilish trickery involved. By that I mean, the fox would not place him/her self in a position where they KNEW that their location would generate a very difficult signal to DF. Examples of this would be downtown Denver with a beam transmitting 100 watts, up some canyon mouth hidden from the starting line but bouncing a signal off a distant location with the same setup.

I added the "devilish" above because a certain amount of trickery is always acceptable. The idea is that any trickery involved doesn't totally confuse the hunter in finding the general location of the transmitter. Once on the scene, folks often hide the transmitter in a bush, in a car surrounded by many other cars or perhaps even ask which antenna on a particular car the fox is transmitting from. The idea here is that the hunters will all find the general location of the fox without too much difficulty but they may be stymied by some clever inspiration of the fox that might thwart them from discovering the actual exact location of the fox.

Finally, no one was to go into or beyond the foothills to the west.

Over time the group agreed on several "no fly" zones for intermediate hunts. The two most memorable were "Lookout Mountain" and downtown Denver as both of these locations almost insured that the hunt would slip over into the Expert category.

Expert

An expert hunt was no holes barred. The fox could bury a transmitter, disguise the antenna by hiding it inside the stem of a corn stalk, hide in a cave, hide in Grand Junction. The only rule (kind of leaves out Grand Junction) was that the signal could be heard at the starting position. Examples of this type of hunt, somewhere in the foothills (Falcon Park used to be a favorite), somewhere beyond the foothills (Conifer Mountain comes to mind), Greg Burnett once drove the fox in circles around a park. Everyone found the general location fairly quickly but it took a while before folks noticed that the fox was actually moving. Greg's moving fox was fairly easy to get the general location so it might have been a high end intermediate hunt. But, most folks found the park fairly quickly and from there it took quite a while before someone noticed that movement.

Why these divisions? They were to assist the hunters in knowing generally what they might expect on the hunt. The divisions were also there to assist the fox in designing a hunt that could be completed in a reasonable amount of time.

Roughly 90% or more of the hunts fall into the intermediate category. So, if a hunt was announced, and labeled intermediate category folks could come out knowing that they would probably be able to find the fox within a two hour time span. If the hunt was labeled expert category they would know it might take much longer to find.

This information also helped at the start up phase of the hunt. For instance, it's an intermediate hunt, your first bearing is 270 degrees from Loretto Heights College. You know that the transmitter is somewhere west of the college but east of the foothills.

However, if it's an expert hunt then you only know that the fox is somewhere west of the college. It might be up in the mountains by Echo lake (Mt. Evans) for all you know.

The way you approach the intermediate type hunt is much different and less time consuming that that approach you'd probably take with an extra class hunt. So, it speeds up the hunt, guarantees you stay out of the mountains and helps you complete the hunt in the 1 to 2 hour time frame.

In the past it was generally accepted that if no prior announcements were made then the hunt would be of the intermediate category. Everyone would be expecting that type of hunt. If you wished to run an expert hunt you were expected to announce this at least a week prior to the hunt. Folks needed to be able to plan for this type of event, knowing they might be hunting for several hours and possibly traveling into the mountains usually meant different gear might be required and planning around or cancelling normal Sunday evening activities might be needed too.

If you wanted to do a beginner hunt you were expected to announce that even further in advance so that everyone had a chance to promote the "Introduction to Fox Hunting" concept on various nets and attempt to "sign up" lots of newbies to be able to take advantage of the learning situation.

So, there you have it. The general concept of a multi-tiered fox hunting system.

I bring this forward as an attempt to re-introduce this concept. There is no official Denver Metro Fox Hunting association so we don't have any way to formalize this. However, if folks like this idea I could post it at the Colorado RDF site or perhaps file it away on this list's file area up at Yahoo or even at both locations. This would give some guide lines to first time foxes and assist first time hunters in narrowing their search areas (if the hunt is of the intermediate class).