Snow is too deep to hunt!

[Kevin D]

Around here, you're extremely limited on where you can hunt without a sled.......even on a bad snow year. The county and Forest Service lock up the side roads so basically all the houndsmen without snowmobiles have left are hunting off the busy highways. Sled hunting is about all we know.

Right now we have about 5 feet of snow on the flats and it goes up from there. You no longer need a key to get through any of the locked gates because you can sled right over top of them. Shoveling to get your snowmobile unstuck doesn't do you a whole lot of good either with this much snow......you just wind up in a deeper hole. Try stomping down the snow on one side of your sled then setting your track on that then repeat on the other side as many times as neccesary until you have a firm base to get going on. Much easier.

[TomJr]

My dogs were mad at me for leaving them at the truck.......think I'm going to get a mushing rig for my hounds and have them pull my sled around

I think that would work well until your dogs found a good track. Then I bet you would have one wild ride!

Sorta happy with what little snow we get here. Snow lasts 1-3 days at my elevation just enough to get out and watch my new pup work tracks. Two days ago we had 2-4 inches and not much was moving. It was a fast storm so I think the critters just waited it out. Had a longer storm in December and found lots of fox tracks and dogs chassed one bobcat and lost that then found a small lion track and trailed it to a fresh kill. Snow sure makes it easier to know what my dogs are on.

[Josh Kunde]

I actually met a lady in Oregon that ran sled dogs, and her two lead dogs were a redbone, and a plott. I guess after she broke them off of chasin stuff the were awsome. I wonder what it would be like gettin drug down a hot lion track by some hell crazed hounds...lol I'm gonna have to try that one.
Josh

[Buddyw]

I'm definately Done with this white stuff. I thought it'd be a good idea to take the sled out this morning..(since I wasn't able to push through about 4-6 inches in the truck!)

Well that sounded like a good idea.. apparently the snowmobiles don't do great in the wet stuff either!! I had to road the dogs on the track got up another 700' to 1000' feet and it got really deep and heavy..

Ski's started diving. I was trying to run besides the sled in snow up to my waste..

My Dogs looked at me like what the F$% are we doing here... This is Bullshit! I agreed with them and we turned around and headed home.

Hopefully it will go away..I've got a week and I hope it gets a little easier to get around than what it's been..

I think I'll go back to chasing coyotes on "Bare Ground" and be damn happy about it

[Kevin D]

Absolute worst sledding conditions, IMO, is during the first real thaw of the season when you lose your base. The snow is wet and sticky and you get no flotation. I dunno if those were the conditions you were in Buddy, but you're right, even the muscle sleds struggle in that type of snow. Once the snow settles, however, it does get better again.

I've been neglecting my favorite bobcat canyon most of the season because of the deep snow, but yesterday the snow conditions were such that I headed up there to see what I've been missing. The road was drifted beyond recognition but I could bypass the bad spots by shooting up on the ridges and dropping back down. I got way back in there and was shooting up a ridge when BLAM!.....I blew a belt on my snowmobile.

No problem, I always carry a spare so I swapped it out. I hopped on to go again and nothing.....only a rumble. I rolled my sled on it's side and looked underneath and noticed that the drive shaft that spins the track had also snapped.

So my snowmobile is still up there......15 miles from the nearest groomed trail and in an impossible spot to tow back. I'll order the parts this morning and I'll have to go back and try to fix it in the field. I'm hoping HoundDawg will lend me that Chester dog of his for a day. Even though Chester is primarily a diesel mechanic, I'm hoping he still has enough smarts to help me out.

[Buddyw]

Yea it was thawing (not fast enough!!!) .. It pretty much rained all night and morning so probably would have had a rough time even if we found a fresh track I'm sure it would have been a Bitch to get started..

Got pretty scary there for a while.. I could how having Dual throttle controls and a side hill bar would be helpfull also I'm Glad I didn't have a trailer on...

Man that sucks about having to leave your sled.. did you have to walk out or did you have two sleds up there.. I'm always stupid and only have me and my wife on one machine.. For a minute there It crossed my mind and I wasn't sure If I wasn't going to have to leave mine up there and walk out.. I forgot to throw a shovel in.

[Melanie Hampton]

Gawd, we tried going out yesterday.. Don't have a sled so tried a 4 wheeler.. Do you know how fun it is to have to roll one completely over to get it unstuck The dogs were running beside it and they would disappear in a snow drift every once in a while. They didn't think it was very fun either.. Seen a couple deer and that was it.. whoohoo.. I am ready for spring

[Spokerider]

Yeah, after about 10-16" of the melting stuff, my truck bags out too.... Certainly does limit one's access....so, I strap on the snow shoes and go for a walk.
Now that's work!
I still can't keep up to the potlickers even in 2' of snow.

[Liz ODell]

Yep too much here for quite a while, I'm not a big fan of snow, I don't need it to catch cats but it sure can make it were I CAN'T catch cats (cause I can't hardly get outta the flippin driveway). I'm more than ready for spring...wish I could afford some sleds...guess I'll have to start guiding

[twispcougarhunter]

Yep, we start useing the sno machines mid DEC here when it gets about 2 foot deep. Now that it's about 5 plus it's only passable if you've been regularly beating out the path. You can't go on any road that hasn't had a machine on it or your stuck up to your neck. The machine pullin the dog sled has to trail or he's done for. Tried a cat a week ago and dogs kept rollin backwards tryin to get up the hill. Fresh track too but ended up headin for the house. Waitin for warm spell to settle the snow and harden up. Otherwise we're dun for here. Might get a couple more lite snows over a crusty one and get a couple more good days of huntin before it all goes to pot. gotta git. Hillbilly

[houndman_1]

Over here on the Oregon coast we had a bunch of that white stuff. Normally we just get rained on. This year we went from no snow to 10"-12" and deeper higher up.