Chad which are you talking about, the best running stud dog or the best producing? I say that the best running and winning stud hound was White Cat but to my opinion Jo Jester Hellums Jr. was the best producing hound.
Back in the early 60's he promoted to two stud hounds, the name of these two hounds were Charger Hellums and 26M, and the color of these hounds where white. To my knowledge he this is where Mr. David started his breeding of white hounds.
I went to mr. Davids home to breed a jip a few years back and we had some good conversations about the first time he ever used black hair dye and tracking collars and how folks thought it was against the rules and he said that he thought Jo Jester Jr. was the best producer. I bought some pups off Jr. in about 1977 from a guy in George county and at that time there were no pens in south Ms. that I knew of so we all hunted in the woods and them things could run a red fox or a deer.
Jimmy Brown in NC had Jimmy's Ziploc B. before David Hellums took him to Mississippi.
Jimmy's Ziploc B. along with Gunstock Casper would be top of my list for the best studs that David ever had.
However, Mr. Hellums told me that Ole Mark Hellums was probably produced the most complete fox hound in his opinon. I never actually seen any hounds straight off Mark Hellums.
But I seen several off Ziploc B. and Casper that was above average hounds.
Without a doubt Jo Jester Jr.We hunted on the outside then and he threw as good hounds as you could want. I and my hunting buddies owned several by him and different females and they were exceptional.I will say Jo Jester Jr. and Fourche River Rambler were by far the greatest two producers I have ever known
When I first started running registered hounds I bought a pup off of a dog that Martin Sewell owned named heartburn Zach he was off of joe jester hellums jr she was one of the best I ever hung a collar own when she got older Buddy Obrien told me he would pay the stud fee if I would breed her to mark hellums we never made the cross but I bet that would have made some good ones.