reading track

[timothy]

I don't want to sound Like a smart ass so if I sound that way its unintended. Now there is a post about running old bobcat tracks. How are you able to tell that the track is 6 hours old vs 8 hours old. What exactly are you looking at. I try to make a trip a day or 2 prior to hunting so I can remember where the ild tracks will be. When I'm looking at a track I look for loose flakes if there is none then its likely seen sun. Then if the track is frozen hard its usually safe to assume its old. Where I really fail is old grainy snow. The kind you step in and it just fills up with sandy snow. I have a hard time even telling if its even a cat track in that stuff. Anyone want to share some experience.

[Unreal_tk]

Well I hunt the same area over and over when im hunting it. I use process of elimination first. If its been awhile and I have no clue then I base it off of how the track feels. I see how frozen it is. Pad freezes first then the spacing between toes then the outer circle of the print in deeper snow. Also a bobcat track is tight when made, it opens up as it ages. If I think its not bad I take out my rose dog and she tells me the rest of the story. If she opens like crazy its fresh, if slighty then its older, if she's silent I doubt I catch it. But this is my method it may be wrong but its working for me. As for excat age there is no way to really tell unless someone sees the cat or a camera, but you can put a rough age on it imo.

[dwalton]

The weather is always changing out here. Is there snow in it if so when did it snow last. Is the track frozen in , made in the afternoon when it was warm or falling through the crusty snow after it started to freeze. Was it made in the morning when the snow is dry and every thing falls back into it. There are many conditions that go along with the time of day and temperature. Has the sun hit a track on bare ground, is there rain in it,dust blowing in it, dew in it or did it walk on the dew. Has the grass that was broke over dried out. There are many ways tell the age of tracks if you look at them enough. Dewey

[AZDOGMAN]

Sounds like he is talking about someone aging a track by the hour. Like 6 or 10 hours old. No way to tell that as there are to many variables. I will say that alot of night old lion tracks we find are frozen ice in the bottom. Like if they cross in the evening when it's warmer then freezes solid by 10 or 11

[timothy]

AZ thats what I meant, I have seen people talking about tracks being X hours old. Short of seeing the cat or going up the canyon W/ no tracks then coming back down and finding them I would find it hard to know the age to the hour. However I know theres alot of guys on here who have been doing this a long time so if there is something they are looking at to estimate age I would love to know. I have a hard time even identifying a cat track when the snow is old and grainy!

Unrealtk, thanks for the comment. I will have to test out your theory on the freezing cycle.

[George Streepy]

I have had arguments with people about the age of a track. If you put four people looking at the same track there will almost always be four differences in opinion of its age, especially if you are trying to determine down to the hour.

I could care less, put the dogs down. If they catch it, it was fresh enough. A few years ago I tried a bobcat track in the snow. The dogs would wind up on the track and opened a couple times but wouldn't do anything with it. There was a bit of snow in the track so I guessed it was 5 or 6 hours old. It was right at daylight and I decided to push on. On my out after not finding anything else to run I put the dogs down and walked them out about a 100 yards. The cat hadn't laid up, it just fed through. The dogs opened a couple times and walked the track out. It took several hours but eventually they jumped the cat and treed it. I couldn't say if the conditions changed as the day warmed up or if the dogs were tired of being in the box and decided to work a little harder. If I had to guess it was a little of both.

The tracks that look red hot have never been any easier to catch for me than the ones that look really old. I have put dogs down on a very fresh looking track and did no good only to find a snowed in older track and ended up at a tree. The dogs will decide if the track is runnable, the age is irrelevant in my opinion.

[mondomuttruner]

George
In my opinion I think every critter smells different to the next. cat to cat, bear to bear ect. We are animals too, some people just stink a lot more than the next. Some critters the dogs run like pro's and the next day with similar weather, the dogs act like they can't smell. (one critter stunk a lot more than the other?) It's my story and I'm stickin to it......

[Unreal_tk]

@Timothy

No problem. In that frost grainy old snow I just use my brokest dog to tell me what it is. One thing about tracks in that stuff if you can see toes its usually a old froze track, a fresh one is hard to tell between a cat or yote by just one or two tracks because it has no detail yet. Once again this is just my opinion.

[timothy]

Unreal, I tried that once with my older dog. Thought it was broke.



lol, was pretty fun chase though! Didnt know it was a dog until I was 30 yards from it. I hit it and it went into a bush. the dogs went in with it, I ran up and grabbed it by the tail and pulled up and shot it at about 5 yards. I am going to set some foot traps now that the bobcat season is over and try to catch one alive and break some dogs that way.

[Unreal_tk]

I didn't say it was foolproof! Lol I've had it happen to myself a few times. I never get to see the dog but I usually find the track and cut the dogs off and light em up.

[timothy]

I wanted to light them up when i realized for sure it was a dog, but its like either light them up and let that sob get away or shoot it then light um up. I chose the latter. Hopefully it doesnt screw me in the future, but i did find out that coyote hunting could be dang fun. I think I am going to buy a couple pups and find a fast one, break um off everything but yotes and see what happens. will keep me in the hills when i cant find any fresh cat tracks.

[houndnem]

I generally agree with what has been said so far. but just cuz a track is frozen solid dosen't mean its old. for instance you get a warm afternoon that puts the snow to melting. you have to figure that snow was soft until 9 or 10 that night depending on how cold it got when the sun went down. down here it takes most of the night to fully freeze a track. so you find a perfect track frozen stiff in the morning it could be brand new or couple days old. add some over night wind and a fresh track can be melted, then froze, then blown in. that's why you always throw down and let the dogs tell you. I throw one of my pups down first. if they can run it then i know it's pretty fresh. as far as the grainy snow, there is nothing you could mistake for a lion track. your imagination and desire to run can get ya to start tryng to make other tracks into lion tracks, but you can't make a lion track into something else. just an all together different size and stride than any other game. dead give away on those coyote tracks is they zig zag everywhere and you will see tracks side by side. hope this helps.

[al baldwin]

George I like your post. Thimothy, your advice really helped with the garmin. Not a snow hunter, but Wayne Morgan, friend & former hunting partner, show me how to take warm coffee & slowly pour into a snowed in track & it showed very plain if it was a coyote or bobcat track. Remember him being very patient has he poured the coffee in the track. Think he Told me he was taught by his mentor Art Duvoyce (sp). can tell you for sure it worked. Thanks Al Baldwin

[timothy]

Interesting, I don't drink coffee but guess ill have to new some up and give it a try.