Hunts I remember. Al Baldwin.

[lawdawgharris]

Yeah I sure think I would’ve liked ole Belle. She had want to and brains.


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[al baldwin]

Yes Belle had brains and desire. Recall another time just she & I were hunting alone, Belle started an old cold track and was working the track, I found the bear track and according to the track I found she was going backwards. Some how managed to catch her and turned her around, she worked the track in the direction I thought the bear was going for a short ways, then turned that track and started working the way she was headed before I turned her. I was upset with her tried to catch her to turn her, but she ignored me. Remember being mad thinking we are going to waste our day, will be hot soon & won/t find another track. An hour or so later Belle jumped. had good race and treed a bear. Another time recall hunting with Tom Barnett and his pack they and belle were working an old track, had covered quite a bit of ground and the track was not getting any better. Tom decide they had to be backwards, normally I never questioned Tom/s judgement but, did say I trust belle to take the correct end. Tom started calling his dogs, his dogs quit the track and came to us. Those dogs had no more reached us when belle jumped the bear all those dogs got back in with her and they treed a bear. Any dog is capable of going backward some times, colder the track, better chance of going backwards, but, I had made up my mind to trust belle when she decided she had the right end of a track. True story Al

[lawdawgharris]

Al y’all gotta do better. A bear is no different than a hog. If they are walking forward the weight is placed on one area of the foot and if they are walking backwards it’s placed on a different area, lol.


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[al baldwin]

Tom Barnett and I had traveled to high country, there was about 4 inches of wet snow, just after daylight we found where a bobcat had killed a deer. We observed how the cat & deer had struggled in the snow before turning the dogs loose on the cat track. After a trail job dogs treed what appeared to be a smaller cat than the one that had killed the deer. We later found a bobcat track that appeared to be more the size of the cat that killed that deer. This track was a ways from the kill, so uncertain if it was the same cat. Don/t recall all the details but this cat gave the dogs a good challenge but Tom/s dogs treed the cat. Belle & Deacon had split from Tom/s dogs and were working a cold track of a different critter. I followed them on foot they eventually trailed to a hole in a large rock and were barking treed at that hole. Unable to be certain, but I thought they had trailed a bear track that was made before the snow to it/s den. A young female of mine was missing and I was elated when we found her treed with a small bobcat. Getting late in the day we headed for home. As we rounded a corner in the road two bull elk was crossing, one stopped just off the road, Tom grabbed my 30-30 and killed that bull, something we never did was mix deer or elk hunting with hound hunting. I was relieved and surprised when Tom assured he had an elk tag for this unit. This hunt took place long time ago, and to the best of my memory that/s how our day went. Al

[lawdawgharris]

That was a pretty action packed and productive hunt.


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[al baldwin]

Yes it was, have a picture of those three cats in old photo book. I was very surprised and nervous when Tom shot that bull, relieved to fins out he had a tag. That is the only time I recall ever mixing elk or deer hunting with hound hunting. They have early and late elk season, assume that must have been in the late season and Tom wanted to be sure he got his elk. Tom was the type who like to surprise you sometimes.

[al baldwin]

Remember on this hunt Skinner, Spike & and a young dog called pig were working an old scent. Skinner got out on those two dogs and got a track jumped, standing on an old landing was able to look across to a newer logging where he was running the track alone, saw him several times run a new dirt logging road, enter brushy area run circles then hit the road again. This went on for quite awhile, I was thinking what happened to spike, if he would get back in with skinner, they would tree that cat, as the cat must be getting tired. Was very pleased to hear spike finally get in the race with skinner, ever pig was opening good, that was a sure indication those dogs were really pushing that track. And it was not long before dogs made a lose and after a bit skinner treed solid, spike was doing his usual tree job, tree a little then track off a short distance & back to the tree, pig was not barking at all, sure sign the cat was up. If pig or spike had got out on skinner & running that road it would have worried me, that what is nice about having an older dog like skinner, at that point in his life I was at ease when he started the track. Checked Garmin to confirm dogs had crossed the river drove a few miles around and found a nice cat in the tree. The story I remember were the times when the dogs won, there was numerous times the critters won. Al

[lawdawgharris]

Lol, Al those losses are like bad dreams, we try to forget those. It’s fun to watch your old faithful dogs work their magic.


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[al baldwin]

Yes Lawdawg suppose that/s true. Recall a hunt when I and Tom Barnett took a lady on a bobcat hunt we ran a bobcat early morning that gave us a good race dogs treed in large stand of old growth fir trees but we could find a cat. In afternoon my old sister dog struck from the box, we soon had a bobcat jumped in very good running ground, that cat crossed the road in plain sight of all four of us. A dog named twister was leading the pack and if she had looked up she was so close to that cat she would have seen the cat. In that good ground those dogs soon lost that cat, those dogs searched for some time never got another bark. The next morning we went to Bakers creek that same pack of dogs treed a tough cat that ran roads but could not shake the dogs. That lady got her wish and put her tag on an Oregon bobcat. Sometime later i returned to the area where that bobcat had eluded those dogs, got after a bobcat that put up a good race, this time twister got out in front of the other dogs ran a nice tom very close to me and bayed him up. Not sure but thought it was the same cat that had made the dogs look foolish and was a bigger cat than we treed in bakers creek. I have never been color blind, twister was bluetick in color, born in my kennel and knew how to run a bobcat. Al

[al baldwin]

I think this hunt took place around 2000, started a track early Am was hunting an area where past summer dogs had trailed a track numerous times that had just seemed to disappear, after the dogs seemed to be jumped. This area is very steep wit lots of cliff areas, a little snow in places allowed me to see that dogs were trailing a bobcat and his track said it was a large tom. Those dogs spent the entire day having to trail, once in a while dogs would hit an area where the track seem to be much better, then back to trailing, numerous times dogs got into areas where I could not hear them. Was getting near dark when the dogs trailed back into hearing and it sounded like the track had gotten much better, dogs brought that track within a hundred yards of me and things went silent. Seemed like it took forever before skinner gave a few locate barks, then it took a little longer and he settle on a tree. However, I knew by his bark he was not certain the cat was up. But with darkness coming soon I hurried to that tree. Found a very nice tom bobcat high in a fir tree. Feeling a little lucky, hurried back to my rig loaded five tired hounds and headed for home. Hunting alone at times was not that enjoyable and only did so because most the hunters I knew hunted multigame dogs. Never claimed to have the best dogs, sure never caught all of them, but I did have dogs that were going to be working cat a very high percentage ot the time, True story Al

[Beebout-it]

About 5 years ago I took a trip to northern Montana to hunt with some friends, turned out at daylight on a nice Tom bobcat track that I talked myself into was much fresher than it actually was, my dogs trailed and trailed. Around 9 am one buddy met up with me and packed some dogs into the race, around 4pm we get close to the dogs and they are still pecking slow and he starts feeding more dogs in and asks if I’m going to as well, I’m like I’d be fine just getting the ones I have in there pulled off because it’s almost dark and this country was wolf infested to say the least. As we are having this discussion the dogs come to a halt for a few minutes and then get rolling pretty good and he says that bobcat killed something right there and layed up we got it moving now we will tree anytime, and about 45 minutes after dark sure as he had suggested they treed a nice Tom in a swampy bottom. He was so impressed my dogs had been trailing since 7am and I was so impressed with his persistence and knowledge… was a great day together!

[lawdawgharris]

Al, it’s good to hunt by yourself some I think. It’s fewer distractions for your dogs and you. The can do what they are going to do and you can pay better attention to them to see who’s doing what.

Beebout it, you those knowledgeable folks are fun to hunt with. They’ll teach ya something if you’re willing to learn.


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[al baldwin]

Lawdawgharris, Very true, much easier to know what your dogs are doing when you hunt alone. This is some big rough country, one should at least have a cell phone, but lots of time there was no service where I hunted. Beebout-it good story. Have a man who lives near me, he once lived in Montana, told me bobcats run different than here, said they would line out and covered more ground than most cats do here? Al

[Beebout-it]

Seems the educated cats, the locals that we chase a lot stay in pretty tight areas but traveling toms will line out and seemingly head for some predetermined shit hole like a particular rock pile or dead fall area. We don’t harvest many so our cats learn to just play games with the hounds, it gets fairly entertaining at time and really frustrating when you see the cat 10 times and the dogs are going every direction but the right one haha.

[al baldwin]

Yes beebout had lots experience with those dog wise cats. One place where I hunted had very good dirt road system, a local who rode his mountain bike on those roads told me how he watched a educated tom elude my dogs. Said one of my dogs would bark the cat would stop and listen then go slowly slipping on down the road, he got a good laugh out of it. He was not telling me anything I did not already know. Sure I did eventually tree that tom, got him going one spring morning, conditions must have been very good, after an hour or so a young hound did an excellent job and put him in a tree. The good part was I had seen the cat cross a road and knew for sure that young dog was the one who forced him to tree. Young dog did not locate the tree, but, the old skinner hound soon located. Some do not think the the treeing walker breed can make bobcat dogs but I have seen some that did. Course I talking about different dogs than the ones I have watched on U Tube lately, Those dog just left on a run and treed coon, without ever opening on track . The last registered treeing walker I trained, had quite a bit of trackman blood in him, had a good nose, natural box bog, as good as I ever seen. his weakest part was the treeing. Thinking back that would be next to the last registered treeing walker I trained. Al