How many south texas bobcat/lion hunters left??

[sotxcatdogs]

i was lucky enough to hunt with most of the great old hunters. Mex-joe, i am mike rooke. I hunted with joe ray in the 1980s and bought his pack when he quit. Mr joe [lynes] and i hunted more together than i hunted with anybody. caught lions an cats together. hunted with queen plenty but she was no jump dog. the jumpin was left to the bennie dogs. i have many fine memories of Mr. joe an i agree he was the toughest hunter n so. tx. hunted with butch an mr. joe down at phils, glad to hear butchis huntn again. I hear he has some good dogs.Gotta go for now, it is good to hear interest n some of the great hunters. Mike

[realdog]

mexico joe i will ask billy about the breeding on the queenie dog the next time i see him. I usally take some lion vidieos for him to watch a few times in the winter it is so neat to see him get all fired up watching them he says it is sort of like tourcher though cause he cant sleep at night for a few nights thinking of chasing the long tails.he is in his 80's now.and still sharp as a tack. just a guess on the breeding But its got to be one of these fellars cause this is who he mostly delt dogs with . Terrel Shelly he traded some with ,Kenny Brown and him swaped back and forth with. Then one of his best blue dogs he ever bought was from George Hobbs he called him John he was blue colored but i think he was a cross bred of old time stuff. how ever i will ask him when i see him next time i go see him he has a winter home in Silver City if you would like to ask him yourself his ph# is 575 388 5939 he doesnt have dogs anymore but probably can remember the breeding mabey!

[Ed Moore]

David Ward, J L Haby, Marvin Angermiller,Ray Melton, Fred WALL,Alvin Connell, Joe Brown,Eddie Moore,Ervin Badds,Dickie Babbs are some more that hunted bobcats in the south. Bob Longhannie, Steve Ryesinger, Bo Rich. Just thought I'll mention a few that i hunted with.

[sctx]

Did anyone ever hunt with Ira Woods from Dilley or O.V. Secrest from Devine? I know Marvin Angermiller and J.L. Haby are dead-Ray Melton is still alive and well near Bracketville.

[Shorty]

Never hunted with or met Ira Wood. However, If you were here on the ranch I could show you an old camp of his. Just sort of a clearing with a lean to. Not much at all, but, History.

[South Texan]

Ira Woods I believe was 80 or 81 years old when he killed in an automobile accident about a mile out of Dilley. He had been hunting the morning before and had lost a young dog. He got up early the next morning before daylight and was going to his ranch right outside of Dilley, to see if his young dog had trailed him back to the ranch. It was real foggy that morning and he ran by his turn-off, he saw his turn off as he ran by it. He was doing a u-turn on the highway, to go back to his turn-off and got broadsided by a vehicle and killed him. He was still a very active man for his age and still hunted 4 or 5 mornings a week. His ranch bordered the Burns Ranch (30,000 acreas), right outside of Dilley where he hunted. He had slip gaps all over the Burns Ranch as he still hunted horse back. The last 10 or so years that Ira hunted, he was hunting a pack of beagles for coon and bobcat. My brother went hunting with him one morning and they caught 4 coon and 2 bobcat. At that time I remember Ira saying " It's not how many I catch anymore I just like to listen to them beagles working a trail." But... he still was catching game. My brother said it was amazing listening to those little beagles trail. Ira had caught 99 lions in his life and it was his ambition to catch 1 more to make it an even 100. But he didn't make it.

Ira worked for the government for predator control for quite a few years. One morning Ira got a phone call from his superior office asking Ira if he knew where there was a lion. Ira told him "As a matter of fact I do. I found a lion kill yesterday and I'm going back in the morning and see if I can catch him." Ira's superior office asked Ira what time he was leaving. Ira told him "4 o'clock in the morning". Ira's superior office told him he would be there at Ira's house by 4 that he had a good friend that wanted to kill a lion. Ira said "that's fine but I'm leaving at 4". Next morning by 4 everyone was there and they went on to the lion kill. Sure enough the lion had come back during the night, the dogs trailed him away from there, finally got him jumped and treed him. The friend of Ira's superior office got to shoot his lion. After they got back to Ira's house, unloaded the horses and put the dogs up, Ira asked the friend of his superior officer "What did you say your name was." He answered Ira, "I'm Theodore Roosevelt, the president of the United Stated."

But it wouldn't have mattered to Ira if he had known who it was all along. Ira had two loves, it was hunting and roping, and he didn't let too much interfer with them. When I was a kid they had a roping club here in Dilley. We roped every Saturday night. I don't think I can every remember Ira ever missing a one. Ira was a big goat roper at one time. His favorite loop at a calf, is when a calf would cut to the left as he was running down the arena and he would rope the calf on the left side of his horse's neck. I don't think I have seen anyone do that since then.

Ira also did predator control on the famous King Ranch here in deep south texas. I can't remember how long he was there with his dogs. I do know at that time he was using more running type walker dogs for cats and lions. It was in his later years, when he was just hunting for fun, when he went to using the beagles. Just a little history on Ira Woods. I would have given anything to have been a little older at the time and got to do a little hunting with Ira. I'm sure it would have cut some corners for me in later years. Ira had to have been a good dog man and hunter because he was too successful. I'll get off of here. Happy hunting. Robbie

[Ker_man]

Good stuff South Texan.

[sctx]

OK folks I'm going to post a question for discussion and debate. But first a little background information. My Dad roped goats with Mr. Ira when they were young however when they started roping calves and Dad got married he pretty much gave up the roping. Every year when Ira came to our local rodeo he would come visit Dad and all us kids would sit and listen because we had heard lots of stories about him and considered him a hero of sorts. Now my question--in our living room Ira told my Dad "If anyone ever calls and says they heard a panther screaming and want you to come run it don't waste your time. Panthers don't scream." Any comments or opinions? I've spent a lot of time in the woods but never where mountain lions were plentiful. I've never even seen one in the wild so I can't say but do know Ira was very opionated on the subject.

[TX_DOGMAN]

awesome thread, sure would like to hear more!

[Big N' Blue]

Mountain lions definitly do not scream or roar. Most of the people that think they hear a scream are hearing a screach owl or a big boar hog. JMHO

[Shorty]

[imthbdmn]

Tx hog hunter here I like this section alot, I've seen three lions in the wild but never heard one, Just my limited 2 cents worth.

I'd love to do a hunt with one of ya'll sometime i'm setting aside the hog dogs and moving toward cats chasing. Great history of Tx cat/lion men here.

[Gary Roberson]

Robbie
I remember going to Mr. Ira's when I was a youngster although I never hunted with him. As you know, you and I are not nearly as old as Brother Richard. He had the beagles at that time.
I knew O. V. Secrest from Devine very well. As a matter of fact, he was my English teacher when I was in the 5th and 6th Grade. I never hunted with him but loved to hear his stories. His hunting partner was none other than Sherill Stroud who was the "local celebrity" around Devine. He was a colorful blacksmith and spent time at the Institute of Texan Cultures educating folks about horseshoeing and making branding irons. I remember on one occasion when Hondo Crouch from Lukenbach and Sherill Stroud were summoned to Washington D.C. when LBJ was President. They were supposed to be there telling stories and showing the Yankees what a blacksmith and store/salloon keeper in Texas do. It was a short stay for Sherill when he made an "off color" comment to a lady who thought she was fairly important.
Adios,
Gary

[sctx]

Panthers DO scream! Back in the mid-1950s a man bought a ranch West of Utopia. The man had two grandsons that were classmates with my older brother. The two grandsons decided they could get rich by going out to the ranch and trapping and headlighting the many coons and ringtails that were there. So one week-end they loaded up all the necessary supplies which they thought they needed and had their dad haul them out in his pickup and dump them out. Their weaponry consisted of a singleshot 22 and a box of shorts. They set up their camp and put out a few traps(baited with sardines of course.) They couldn't wait for it to get dark so they could start headlighting the varmints and becoming rich. But.....just as it got dark enough to hit the woods the dreaded panther started screaming!!! Everytime it would scream they would fire a volley or two with the 22. Obviously they couldn't go out with a panther screaming at them so they stayed in camp with a big fire built up and using up their shells when the panther screamed. Finally daylight came and they got the courage to go check on the panther and there he was!! A big old windmill that made a loud squeaking noise everytime a little wind came. They did note they had made a few hits on it. They gathered their two possums and one ringtail from their traps and decided they were rich enough for one week-end!

[Big N' Blue]

LMAO!!!!!! Great story! sctx