Cold nose ? Fact or fiction

[pegleg]

Our desert bears can travel some impressive distances. They will stick right to food if water's nearby otherwise they travel between the two until the foods gone or they're pushed out. But when it comes to traveling to the next meal they aren't shy about a trip. I've known them to cross the desert floor at dark and be in the next range before daylight. But in these cases it's a beeline unless they swerve for water or a snack but mostly it's the straightest track you'll see. And given how they trample around food sources it seems unusual.

[dhostetler]

Yes I don't dispute the fact that bears move a long distance to go to a food source. In my opinion a bear is very food orientated if he has a good food source he will generally stay in an area until another source becomes available. While a cat especially a lion can travel 10+ mile overnight for no other apparent reason except to wander around, even with an active kill.

I just haven't experienced that with bears, I may be wrong on that point. To me the most important thing to find bears is figuring out what they are eating. In the spring bears may be concentrated on grassy roads for several weeks, all of a sudden it switchs and there are no bears at all in that area and they moved to another food source like calving areas. Baiting can help immensely in keeping bears in a certain area. Maybe you guys have found evidence of bears spending a day in an area and then go on a big circling trip and returning back to the same area within 1 or 2 days????

[Bear hounder]

Ya that is right their is one key to finding bears that those food sources this spring the bears had been in the clover and grass planted by the loggers after a cut and we had 8 baits in a 5 km by km area and the bears were hitting good we killed 3 then another outfitter called and told me he had 2 men he was guiding for bear and the bears just up and quit his baits so I told him to come on up and we would try to fill their tags their were only 2 days left in the seson and my dogs were in that fat tired shape we had not really hunted but a few weekends and we were now hunting the last week anyway the guys came up at 2 pm in the afternoon nice I thought to myself so we go to checking baits in hope of one of those miracle bears the bears had all but stopped hitting my baits and like Mr Hostetler said if you want to find bears u got to find food I knew that the bears were into somthing natural we had 8 barrels chocked full of donuts and 59 pounds of brown sugar and u was pretty shure nothing else was ripe no berries I checked the strawberries they were still flowering but no fruit so we went to striking tracks and left that area all together we found the bears and lots of them they had moved down about 10 km to a gravel rd and we're feasting on the turtle eggs along this 22 km rd that followed the the lake and multiple creeks the turtles were every were and so were the bears we killed one bear and made a couple others feel uncomfortable it was good training for the young dogs even if they were to tired and fat to close the gap on the last few bears we stuck it was find the food find the bear

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[Bear hounder]

I talked with a guy one time about buying a blue tick pup from him I asked him how old of a bear track his bear dogs could tack he said the oldest track that his dogs could take was on dry ground and 36 hrs old I almost joked needless to say I did not buy a pup from that guy he told me that his gang of bear hunters would drag the roads the night before and then they would drive the road the next day and mark bear tracks with a little flag and on each flag they would mark the time and the date on each bear track then come back to them and using that method he said he knows for shure his dogs can be expected to take 24 hr tracks easily and has seen them take a 36 hr track . And when you talk to this guy you feel like you can trust him so I told the man you either got the best hounds in the world or u are the biggest lyer sir I'm not shure wich yet but have a good night . wow I thought he sounded believable until he brought up the 36 hr dry ground track I forgot to ask if every pups came with a free sticker that says slap me I'm stupid or if that was sold separately lol 36 hrs wow u would have to turn the dog out on Thursday to kill a bear on saterday

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[al baldwin]

Bear Hounder 36 hour track might be possible under the right conditions, bear not traveling very far from that spot, good cold nosed dogs that are used to be taken to a spot & sent searching for the bear & etc. Now if he told you most every 36 hour old track those dogs worked produced a jumped bear, would have to see to believe. I had the pleasure of hunting with predator control houndsman who/s dogs would produce a jump track off most of the bear that were believed to be 12 to 18 hours old, providing the bear did not hit a blacktop road road & travel a long ways on the road. A dirt or dusty road this hunter could track a bear faster than his dogs some of the time. Just something I experienced in my younger days. Good Hunting Al

[Bear hounder]

Hey al Baldwin what breed of dog was that dog and what area that is cool 18 hr how long ago like is it from recent line of dogs Or was it from one of the old boys like 30 years ago the reson I'm asking is I have a idea that the old lines were very close to the days before we started to register hounds and the old houndsman was hunting bear not looking to produce a certain looking colored dog they would throw in what they needed a shot of blood hound hear a shot of air dale to get grit or nose or tree or speed they mixed them up then came dog regastation and the first 20 years or so kept those cold nose and you even hear the same about the old boys that had plott dogs thirty years ago they had grit that they can't get now from the same line of dogs

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[Nolte]

[al baldwin]

[Bear hounder]

Hey al thanks for the post man love hearing those old story's not to be a a bother but could you explain the breed of dogs in that last post I'm knew to being a hounds men but I don't know what kind of breeds those dogs were by you saying blood lines names sorry for being a Newbie. And thanks again for the story about the bear coming threw the yard that was cool oh were are you from thanks again al keep lookin up

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[al baldwin]

[Bear hounder]

Cool thanks al w hat u think about running walkers I heard their mostly hot nosed dogs because of the coyote pens but I keep about 8 hounds for a deer hunting camp at my house and one of the running walkers got bread to his male running walker so I'm planning on running them on bear my thoughts are that they should be fast and that is one thing I'm looking for more speed to keep up with my 2 fastest dogs so I guess the question is can you get fast and cold out of somthing like a running walker and do you know any body that has used them for bears that had success and grit to thanks

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[al baldwin]

[Bear hounder]

Thanks al I'll make shure they get the exposure we hunt hard but I'm going to be giving my hounds better exposure by giving them more cold tracks with more time spent finding that cold track like someone said on hear I have to teach my dogs that I want those cold tracts and giving up is not a choice and as I've learned from you guys on this thread it's both the dog and the houndsman both have to have cokd noses because they the dogs want to please us so I'm shure this year will be a turning point in or dogs and in us in regards to the way we hunt I want to say to all you guys thanks I appreciate the years of wisdom from your personal experiences and when you combine all these storey and hunts I'd have to live to be a 259 years old to get the combination of experience that is available threw this site thanks for pointing me in the right direction I'll keep things updated how the young runners are doing and how the cold trailing goes the other question about train was how many dogs do you guys put down on a cokd track to train your younger dogs how many is to many or do you just one older dog and one younger dog that has been keeping up with the older trail digs on a running bear

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[mark]

One of my favorite lines in a movie was by Robert Duvall. In Days Of Thunder he says to Tom Cruise "See that hound dog over there? Best hound i ever owned and i never taught him a damned thing"

[dhostetler]