How long did it take to tree first dry ground cat?

[bigboarstopper]

I know this topic has sort of been done already but i was curious how long did it take to tree your first dry ground lion/bobcat?

The benifit of snow can certainly help put the new houndsman and new dog litterally on the right track. Snow also helps to see if your running trash as well.

So, how long dis it take to tree your first dry ground cat?

[Big Horn Posse]

I have had some really good years and some terrible years but the first dry ground lion my dogs treed was my first solo hunt with just my dogs. Before that I had been hunting with other people. The dry ground is not what impressed me with this hunt as much as when my dogs crossed a river and picked up the trail on the other side without missing a beat. I fell in the river crossing it. lol I thought they were on a bear and was so happy to see a big ol tom in the tree. It was one of the most memorable hunts other than the ones my son and I had together.

[pegleg]

I caught my first bobcat long ago in the oklahoma panhandle. I m not sure I was specifically hunting cats but I was real young. I and my two cur dogs were a real danger to about anything. Lol as I got older I lost a good deal of luck or skill or my dogs got better looking and sorrier hunters. Lol. Well then horses and wimmen and similar evils distracted my full attention for a number of years. Oddly my horsemanship hit a slump about that time also. I happened to pick up a black and tan hound pup that was a self starter and one of the best hounds I've ever owned or hunted behind. His ability managed to get me back in the woods for the right reasons. He managed to catch a respectable number of bobcats in any weather or time of year and a good number of coon. At the time I didn't know bare or dry ground conditions were any harder then snow. I actually considered wading through snow and cold more of a hindrance. I moved to AZ before I ever took up lion hunting. I hunted with one or two guys and their hounds and picked up a hound here and there. The bobcats took a year to start catching and the lions a lot longer. Most of this time was probably due to misinformation and ending up with only a few hounds with the right combination of traits. That may sound a bit backwards. But I spent so much time and boot leather that mere statistics forced my dogs and the cats to be in the same place at the same time occasionally. While I tended to just miss the lion due to the quality of mentoring I received on the subject. However once I got a hold of the right pup and between his nose and my Grand powers of deduction realized we did better alone in the wrong spots for bobcat or coon. We went about a similar process for lion. We didn't do much but learned and finally tripped over a lion more ignorant then ourselves. I was able to get another pair of pups and between the after work bobcat and "our" lion get them half trained. So three to four years for me. No one ever cursed me for being quick. I have hunted a few other states for lion since then and realized if I had started somewhere else and had the same results once I got here I would probably given up. I also came to realize you can't catch what's not there! Lion habitat can be hard to define in the desert at first. They may travel through a spot enough to leave sign but not hang around long enough to get them caught. I had a setback due to work and realized its a fine balance between hounds that should catch and those that do. Now all my short comings are my own not the hounds.