I'd never heard of this until I read a recent post....I actually did think this type of thinking was from the dark ages.  However, it is alive and well in the US.  Neutering does NOT affect a dog's hunting ability!  I have nothing against hunters but I do have a problem with the backward thinking ones with this kind of thinking.  PLEASE spay and neuter your hunting dogs!!

http://www.paradisepost.com/ci_5260213  from this article:

"Testicles do not make a dog hunt better, be more protective or in any way enhance their ability to be a good family dog. In fact, testosterone is closely tied to aggressive behavior. Your neutered male dog won't fight with other dogs and has far less reason to roam the neighborhood. "

http://www.all-creatures.org/aip/nl-26dec2003-paw.html and from this article:

Why Hunting Causes Dog Overpopulation

My experience in looking for just the right dog to adopt gave me a new perspective on the dog overpopulation problem.  One common thread kept emerging during my searches for a new adoptee.  It was very common to find large, black dogs who are homeless--one site calls it the "black dog syndrome."  Since movies often portray black as being connected to evil, some people tend to shy away from adopting black dogs I was told.  The other thing I found were many, many hunting dogs like Beagles or Labs or mixes of these types of dogs.  The common denominator seemed to be they were hunting breeds or hunting mixes of dogs.  In fact, one humane society told me that hunting dog rescues tend to burn out quickly because they are so overwhelmed. 

I knew that years ago hunters believed that to spay or neuter ruined the dog's ability to hunt.  In fact, one hunter who kept his dogs penned outside all the time told me that to keep them inside was to "ruin their sense of smell for hunting."  Another hunter who was our next door neighbor acquired two hunting dogs and immediately built a raised "kennel" which consisted of wooden walls and ceiling and to my disgust he added a wire bottom to make it easier to keep clean.  He came home from work, let the dogs run around for about 10 minutes and fed them and then back in their little solitary confinement chamber where they always stayed with nothing to walk on but that awful wire--no toys to play with except maybe an occasional bone to chew.  During hunting season they got more exercise to get them primed for running and then he forgot their existence pretty much until the next hunting season.  Is it any wonder some of these dogs run off when they do go out to hunt--wouldn't you want to run away from such accommodations?  I had a few words with him to try to make him realize what he was doing was cruel--what he did was not illegal unfortunately.
 
Of course all hunters do not treat their dogs this way.  When I recovered from shock after seeing all the hunting breeds and crosses out there who are homeless, I realized that I was under the misapprehension that spay/neuter had reached the hunting community.  I discussed this with our vet.  I asked if it was true that spaying or neutering affected the dogs' ability to hunt.  He said spaying or neutering does not affect a dog's ability to hunt AT ALL.
 
He also told me that of the hunters their clinic sees, the ones who are willing to have a dog altered will spay a female but not a male dog if it is a male hunter.  Just when we thought that type of thinking went out with the Dark Ages too.  Give their male buddy a snip-snip??  God forbid--these people cringe at the word "vasectomy" too.  They forget that it takes two to create those unwanted puppies--one unneutered male dog can do alot of damage by creating little lives who will often end up in pounds or worse.
 
Which dogs are the more likely to get loose and have the opportunity to create additional puppies?  Of course people who allow their dogs to run loose are a huge part of the problem, but quite often people will complain about a dog running loose all the time if it keeps showing up.  Hunting dogs, however, have the best opportunity--they are often let loose in different and new areas, then called back after the damage (impregnation) is done.  On our land during hunting season I often see hunting dogs I have never seen before in our area who wander onto our posted land.  All they need to do is wander onto a property where some uneducated person has a dog that is not altered because that dog "is always tied up" so could "not get pregnant."  Next thing you know there is a litter and not enough homes.  I began watching area papers for puppy ads after hunting season to see if there was a rhythm to this--(more litters available after the right gestation period plus 6 or 8 weeks) and unfortunately this proved to be true.
 
I guess what we need here are articles in hunting magazines proving to these people that spay/neuter does not make for a bad hunting dog.  In fact, if hunters love their dogs, there are many health benefits to spaying and neutering.  Perhaps our spay/neuter mobile clinics, for the cities who are lucky enough to have them, need to change from going to the cities to hanging around hunting businesses or gun shows.  Humane societies may want to begin education programs or put out leaflets targeting the hunting community.  A more drastic method would be to require proof of spaying and neutering of the dogs before the hunting license is purchased.

I would think an altered dog would be a better hunter because hormones would not rule his body and stay on task better if there was a coyote in heat in the woods wouldn't the dog rather have his way than the hunters, hormones are powerful things

I just don't understand this way of thinking.  I met a coon hunter last year who doesn't pet his dogs because he thinks it will ruin their hunting ability.  I'm serious!   So he left his walker coonhound penned up in the yard all day.  He said you can't make a pet out of a hunting dog.  I was suprised to see that this type of thinking still existed!

Well again it's a matter of opinion? I have had rabbit,Squirrel and coon dogs for over 25 years now. I'm sure there are a few out there but I have not had 1 fixed that is worth a hoot hunting yet and won,t try anymore of them. Seems that they get lazy and loose the drive to hunt. You can take a good hunting dog, get it fixed and watch it loose it,s drive. And in some cases it's hard to let a hunting dog run loose due to trash running. I do keep most of mine in a pen but are let out several time through the week to get exercize and some good old loving. On the other hand I feel that a hunting dog can be a pet also and still a good hunting dog, but when taking a pet hunting they must know it's time to get down to business. One of the best Beagles I had was a lap dog in the house and a hunting machine in the field.