Hunts I remember. Al Baldwin.

[al baldwin]

Recall it being on a new years day, very windy when i cast Skinner, molly, spike & Cody ahead of the rig. Had traveled short distance, noticed Cody was not with those other three dogs, stopped to check on her, Garmin said she was a short distance behind us, discovered she was treed about one hundred feet off the road. She had nice cougar treed, easiest cougar I ever knew of. Al

[lawdawgharris]

Al, what was the toughest situation you ever got into hunting?


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[al baldwin]

Lawdawg, don/t know ever got myself into many tough situations. One thing that worried me was deep snow and I stayed out of it most time. Snow here turns to ice and one can get seriously stuck in a hurry. Do recall being a long ways from my rig and decided if I walked the roads back someone would give me a ride. No such luck walked all the 16 miles on that logging road and not one car did I meet, at that time I was about 28 years old. One time did turn an ankle catching up to a wounded bear, had got a bullet in him but not in a vital spot. But, got him finished, Charlie Thornton and Tom Barnett were close to me, so was in no real danger. Too this day that ankle is still weak. Can tell you about the easiest 31 pound bobcat I ever caught, had hunted most of the weekend was headed home, dogs struck from the box at a crossing where I had seen numerous cross with dogs chasing them. Dumped the box, before I could get my rig out of harms ways dogs had him treed. They all were not that easy. Al

[lawdawgharris]

Lol that sounds pretty easy. Being from Texas, I’m not too fond of the snow. We get some from time to time but nothing like y’all do thankfully.

I got in a little scrape yesterday. My nephew and another young guy that hunts regular with us went to a regular spot. We knew it was holding a good many hogs and we knew their tendencies. I told them that as soon as the dogs bayed I was going out across this open pasture to wait with my catch dog and try and catch some open field hogs. One, I enjoy that, two, we were trying to catch numbers, three, I get to see my catch dog work. This particular catch dog is very green. I really hadn’t had him in a tough spot to see how he was going to react. Well I sent him to a couple of different hogs and he didn’t get to them. He was paying attention to barking dogs on the first one and didn’t see the first one. The second one he hit a drainage ditch that the high grass was covering and it turned him a flip. The third one was a big wise sow. She swatted him back twice with impeccable timing by wheeling around at the perfect time as he was catching up. She ran and got down in a wet season creek and he eared up really nice. When I caught up she was backed up to the high bank side in almost knee deep water. I thought she was a boar at first because she was pretty tushy for a sow. I got down in the water to leg her and it was so slick it was like walking on grease. Here she came at me and when I went to keep her off my lost my feet. Everything but my head was under water and my foot that she had in her mouth shaking. My catch dog was doing his job but he had no way to get any footing. She was all up in my business and punched her off. I got up and pitched my phone and everything up on the bank. Then went back in after her. This time I had footing and grabbed her other ear when she lunged at me. My catch dog had footing and so she couldn’t run up under me. With me and him both on an ear, her head was under control and I was able to reach around and grab her hind leg. I got her thrown and tied but man was I out of breath! By the time I got her loaded and untied, the other two guys had killed 5 good hogs and 2 shots. I went and picked them up on the buggy and we went to our last two dogs that were out. They were bayed on a good boar that we tied and called it a hunt. We ended with 7 good hogs and 2 shoats. The old expression, it got a little western, certainly applied here. I’m so sore today it’s hilarious. She skinned me, kicked me, bit me from my arm pit to my feet, and put holes all in my relatively new boots. I won’t lie though, it was a heck of a good time.


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[al baldwin]

That/s living too dangerous for me, you hog hunters are one tough bunch, be careful. Al

[al baldwin]

This hunt took place few miles north of Powers in Baker drainage. Dogs I recall skinner, spike, Cody, Target and another young dog I can/t recall the name of. Riding 4 wheeler dogs cast ahead of me. Dogs found a scent went charging off down hill for maybe 50 yards, track seem to end dogs worked back to me very close to the exact trail they took going down. Those dogs worked a short ways up hill and again seem to run out of track, as I sat watching on the wheeler, dogs worked around a medium size rock, I then saw what looked like a bobcat sitting on that rock, dogs worked all around the rock, I watched closely that critter never moved. Still not certain what I was looking at, made my way to that rock, close enough to be sure, yes that is a bobcat. Dogs had worked away from the rock, strung out searching, the cat decided I was to close for comfort and exited that rock. I called the dogs, spike first dog to me, show him where the cat had gone. Spike gave that very excited mouth and others joined him. Dogs left me trailing and soon trailed out of baker over the high mountain top and into Bingam Creek drainage. That area is very rough with lots of cliff like terrain. Dogs were out of my hearing after checking other listening points with no luck hearing the dogs. Drove back to Powers, using my beeper system, signal indicated dogs were in a very rough ravine up bingam. Lucky for me there was and old road was able to drive up that got me close to Skinner & Spike and they sounded like they were giving a very weak tree bark now and then. A little confused think where are the other dogs. Made my way to those two, was looking in the trees, thinking what the heck is going on here. All of a sudden, could not believe my eyes a nice bobcat was laying on top of hunkle berry bush, I was just a few feet from that cat, spooked me a little, cat was no more than three feet from the ground and just laid there like he was resting. I slowly back away keeping a close eye on the bobcat, told the dogs lets go, both followed me without any resistance. Those dogs had covered a large piece of rough terrain, started with five dogs. The thing that surprised me most was Cody had somehow got thrown out something I had never had happen. Yes she could get behind at times but very smart at getting back in the race. Well know anything can happen in a bobcat race, but this was a first for me. True story Al

[lawdawgharris]

Doesn’t sound like that ole cat was too scared f the dogs,


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[al baldwin]

Yes that cat was not afraid of those two dogs nor was he scared by my presence, it/s been a long time ago, bet that cat was less than twenty feet from me when i noticed him. I glanced back to look at him for last time as we eased out of there. He looked like a big house cat relaxing on a sofa. It is a good thing Cody did not get there she or target would have got tore up good, but, they would have killed the cat and I would have never seen the cat. That spike dog was a real athletic dog with a voice that got everyone attention first time they heard him bark. But he could not locate most bobcat on his own, but he could drive a track. Never ran many coyote on me but, when he did he just might catch it. Spike was a son off skinner and that cold nosed female I paid 2500 for and later sold for 2500. She was part running dog. Al

[al baldwin]

It was early AM when I cast Skinner, Cody & Molly ahead of the 4 wheeler, I had an old grown in logging road that I had brushed allowing me to take about a two mile hunt in an old logged off unit. I had made the loop and was getting close to being back to the pickup when I noticed skinner & cody was with me but no molley. Knew she was not going to run trash, thinking she will be here soon. Got to the pick and used the beeper box to determine had a leak signal on Molly realized in this terrain that could mean she was a long ways from me or was maybe just in a spot near me with poor reception. But she was not back to me after an hour or so that meant she had somehow found an old cat scent that cody and and skinner had missed. That is the trouble with hunting tight mouth dogs that have a good cold nose in this terrain. I spent the next few hrs. trying to keep track of her with the beeper, lucky there was a road above and a road in the bottom of the large old logged off unit, but no roads that got me close to her. Finally found a place when reception was better and heard her bark a couple times, at this point i had spent most of the morning and she had moved that track a far piece. Molly, bark a few more times, got skinner to listen she barked again and he was off to find her. Skinner soon joined Molly and he gave good mouth as they worked what i assumed was a tom bobcat. It was late bobcat season and the Toms were traveling searching for females. Soon skinner and molly were giving lots of mouth and i was elated realizing they were jumped and short time later they were blowing the top out of a tree. I drove to a different point giving me much better hearing and straight above them, but I had a very rough terrain to make my way to the tree, did not mind going down to them, but was dreading the climb back to the rig. Released Cody, she heard them plain and was off to join them. I arrived at the tree to find they had treed a nice cougar in a very short brushy tree and the cat was barley out of reach of the dogs. I had no plans of shooting that cat at all. On top of that my worry was how do I get Cody off that tree without getting right under that cat and putting a leash on her and that/s what I eventually did. Dogs like molly most time really push a jump track in my experience and are a big help in catching bobcat but are no fun to hunt alone. I later sold molly for 2500 to a friend who had hunted with her and thought he wanted her. She did not hunt for him and other dogs he tried to hunt her with. I told him no problem bring her back, refunded his money. Then another friend bought her from me for 2500 and hunted her alone, he really liked her and she continued to catch cats for him. And every time I jumped a cat that got away from the dogs I kicked my butt for selling molly. No she did not catch them all but she certainly increased my chances of treeing a hard running cat. True story as i remember it. Al

[lawdawgharris]

Molly sounds pretty nice.


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[al baldwin]

Yes molly was nice, if one wanted to catch cat and listening to the dogs work was not important, dogs like molly will catch more cat than the open trailers. Molly hunted with good tree dogs or alone, was a good tree dog. Hunt her with loose tree dogs and she was going to be a loose tree dog. However she sure help me catch more than one cat that I may not have caught without her. Recall one morning dogs were running a cat that got into some bluffs, i had walked down an old road on a ridge that put me on top of another bluff giving me better listening spot. Very little barking from any dogs, all of a sudden molly barks very close to me and soon crosses that road a few feet ahead ahead of me. How that cat got across the road without me seeing it, I had been standing there for some time. Once molly got it out of the bluffs the race was on and those dogs covered some ground and treed the cat. I was not into breeding dogs, but always thought breeding molly to spike could have made life tough for bobcats, but neither was what one could call solid tree dogs, in my opinion. Especially spike, recall one morning spike ran a bobcat very near me, he was searching all over a area, skinner arrived make a couple circle, sat down at a tree, treed solid. He had the cat, spike would have never located that cat. Spike located & treed much better on cougar than he did on bobcat. However, spike would once in a while, tree good on a bobcat, think he had to be very close when the cat went up when that happened. Al

[Beebout-it]

Al I have a female that sounds just like Molly, never has stood out on an easy one but has caught tons of the tough ones all alone, she’s almost 12 and caught a bear Friday all alone and it wouldn’t climb but may stayed there 2 hours alone lol dreading the day she’s gone.

[al baldwin]

Yes Beebout dogs that will hold a bear alone, hard to come by, good ones hard to replace, Al

[Beebout-it]

She’s a way better bobcat dog than bear dog Al, but ones like her or your Molly dog are definitely hard to replace!

[al baldwin]

This hunt was maybe 1967, Robin Sell & I decided to take the Belle female out for a mid morning hunt. We head up Johnson mountain road, that road is only half mile from where I live today. Sure we cast belle in front of rig, did not know anything about boxing a dog in those days. Soon belle found a good track and after a short race treed a bear, in those days always fed the dog when we made a kill. But today as soon as we killed the bear belle disappeared and short time later she had another treed. As we made our way back to the rig belle found a good track and was gone again. This one took a little longer to tree, but belle treed her third bear of the day. In those days we did have some three bear days, but, that is the only time I can recall treeing three with one dog. None of those bear bayed they just ran and treed. So it would be no different than treeing three coon in one day. There was a healthy bear population and no one hunted bear much in the Powers Oregon area. Also over the years that area always seemed to have a healthy bear population, There was large skunk cabbage patches in that area. In those days never heard of bear peeling the bark from trees that today causes timber companies to put money into the federal trapping program. The peeling causes the trees to die. Of course, we also had days when we caught nothing, ran trash and spent couple days looking for dogs. I recall several years ago we had five bear coming into our small orchard and tearing up the apple trees, at our present location. Bear problems can be common, recall had a bear one fall evening walk within a few feet of the house. It has been a while since have seen bear sign in my yard and hope I don/t. Al