How do you know if it's a tom?

[London]

What is the best way to tell by a track if it is a tom? Size of rear pad or legnth of stride on same side? and what are those measurements to know for sure besides puting them in a tree ( before someone comments on that.) LOL. I have been running about everything and havent caught a tom yet, lots of females.

[horshur]

What is the best way to tell by a track if it is a tom? Size of rear pad or legnth of stride on same side? and what are those measurements to know for sure besides puting them in a tree ( before someone comments on that.) LOL. I have been running about everything and havent caught a tom yet, lots of females.

A mature Tom has a bigger track then any female. An young independant Tom usually has a noticably larger track as well. Just remember that the pad size is not static. Snow conditions and the cat itself can make the track look larger or smaller. Don't make your evaluation based on one or two tracks and put whatever knowlege you glean from experience under you hat for future reference.

[super white hunter]

I am assuming since you’re in Colorado that you took The DOW Identification course. You can go online to their sight and it will answer all your questions.

[London]

Yes, I know how to tell in the tree or if it's a hugh track but I'm just wondering about track size , like i heard that the rear of the pad has to be over 2 1/16 inches or that the stride length on same side is over 40". Do you know if that is true?

[super white hunter]

Its all on that website

[chancemarquette]

seems that mature toms have a bigger toe in proportion to the rest of the track, stride's not a good indicator as the length of the stride can differ if they are going up hill or down.

[horshur]

Tom track are offset or less in line because they are broader.


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By akdana at 2012-02-09


The shell is a 35 remington and this track is from a very respectable Tom

[super white hunter]

sorry if I was short earlier, didn't mean to be rude but like I said it has all the info on the track size and stride length on the website, pretty easy to read and sort through also

[houndnem]

toms will have noticably larger toes, also the shape of the toes are a little different, more round to oval. females will kinda come to a point. also the toes on a tom will lay out more in a straight line and the female will taper closer to a k-9 track. two toes in the front and two offset toward the back. like was said before though, overall size is uaually a good indicator. a young tom will leave a bigger track than most females.

[London]

Thanks, those are the helpful pointers I was looking for, because the (website) only gives you texbook crap that was written by someone that dont know near as much as most of the guy's on here that hunt all the time.

[FullCryHounds]

The DOW's website was written by houndsmen.

[cohoundsman]

one of the ways we usually tell if it is a questionable track, is what we call the thre finger rule. if the pad of a track is wider than your three fingers tight together it is usually a tom track. now if you are a person with tiny little kid like hands, this probably wont work, but most mens hands your fingers are big enough that this indicates enough width on there pad to tell.