Southern Cat Hunting

[lawdawgharris]

I understand your point of view. I’m no cat hunter like I say, you know that. I still like hearing about it, thinking about it, and kicking ideas around.


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[Beebout-it]

Here you need dogs that can grind a shitty track till they get it heated up, get it moving fast to a jump pick those heads up and run because we let 99 percent of the cats go they get crafty, then they need to be able to locate in 50-90ft tall timber regularly, then stay for a few hours till I can get my fat ass to them
Side note Al where ya been!? We are missing those stories of yours!

[SASS]

Hey Beebout-it I've never hunted in Montana though it's a dream of mine. It sounds similar to some of the other places I hunted out west, Ponderosa pines, lots of rocks piles in places, and chasing them over mountains, definitely has a lot of challenges. Also you have one huge challenge that I thankfully do not have to deal with currently and that is wolves. I am not sure where you are in Montana but I know they are in a big portion of the good hunting areas in the state. I am guessing it is a skill to be able have an idea of where they are moving through and keep your dogs out of trouble.

I had a question you said; "get it moving fast to a jump pick those heads up and run because we let 99 percent of the cats go they get crafty".

What did you mean with that, I am not understanding?

[Beebout-it]

We might start a track that’s 12 plus hours old that they have to pretty much track straddle until it’s heated up enough to start skipping tracks and moving faster, a lot of our cats as soon as they hear the dogs get up and start making some loops to slow the hounds down then pick up the pace and get to a comfortable spot and watch what they do. A lot of our local females will let the dogs take their track by them then run down the back track to a road and sprint up or down in your tire tracks until they find a spot they can make a big leap off an edge, so if the dogs don’t switch to air scent instead of ground they are wasting their time and yours. As far as the wolves go it’s a touchy thing, if there’s good snow and plenty of roads you can do a thorough check around the area and be assured weather or not they are around. Wolves are fairly predictable as far as where they go and where they don’t, we have areas for whatever reason they just never go into or if you find a track it’s just a traveling loner which never bothers me. It’s strange that I hear of dogs being killed by them in the winter way more than in the bear season, but I did sell a dog 2 years ago and she was 1 of 4 dogs killed at a bear tree by wolves.

[SASS]

Thats very interesting. I am sure glad I don't have to deal with many bluffs any more. I have dealt with my fair share and have been in some sketchy predicaments lol.

I know what you mean about having dogs that know when to put their head down and when to pick it up. The dogs I have now are really pretty good at it, but I have had and hunted with dogs that were not.

I think I am going to make another run Sunday night and see if my sorry dogs and I can trip one. We've gotten a little rain so it's not a dust bowl at the moment and I figure I better take advantage.

[Beebout-it]

Did u get out again sass? Yesterday I found 7 bobcat tracks, snow on the road and on the north facing slopes but the south facers are bare. The country I was running around in is very very low odds of actually treeing one due to all the bluffs and rock spires.

[SASS]

When I was out West we had one spot down south that we always lost fox and cats in the rocks at. It was almost guaranteed your race would end up there and the dogs did learn how to check and work those rocks but still lost a lot of game in them.

No I did not get out. I went out to load them in the truck and it felt like I was in the movie Twister, so I checked the weather at my camp and the winds were getting really really high so I didn't want to make the drive just to hunt in a Tornado. I am planning on going a couple of times this week if everything lines up.

[SASS]

Well I got out and made three hunts this last week. Each day we got better and improved on the previous day. In total we started 4 cats, got 2 jumped, and ended up baying one on the ground. It was a really good performance for dogs that had been put up for over two weeks, and my eight month old pup made every step of every track and race.

The last race was hellacious after we finally got it trailed up and jumped we ran it over two hours. I was really proud of them all. I got to hear a lot of great music, and found out what kind of mouth one of my new dogs had. All in all I was happy with them.

[lawdawgharris]

You need to breed some lab into those cat dogs so they bring them back to you.


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[Beebout-it]

Sounds like great work and great fun. I haven’t turned out on a bobcat yet our conditions are horrible, 10 degrees at daybreak then up to 55 by 10am makes for tough trailing.

[SASS]

by lawdawgharris » Wed Dec 11, 2024 1:47 pm
"You need to breed some lab into those cat dogs so they bring them back to you."

It's funny you say that because when we were driving home from the hunt my buddy who used to really love to duck hunt said the same thing, he said I bet I could train a lab to go get it when the race was over the the cat was stretched. Honestly I don't see why you couldn't, basically its what they already do except for a cat instead of a bird lol.

With that being said Im gonna have to let someone else pioneer that though, last thing I need is anymore dogs hahahaha.

[lawdawgharris]

Awe heck, you won’t even notice 1 or 10 more dogs.


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[SASS]

I am going to try and get out again this coming week but I am waiting to see if my best female is actually coming into heat or if it is just a false alarm. I am hoping she is coming into heat as I am going to stick her to a buddy of mine's real nice male. He is one of the three coldest nosed straight cat hounds I have hunted with. But that is not why I want to breed to him, I want to breed to him because he is a great strike dog and consistently produces game. He is very well rounded and can really run one as well as having very nice conformation. My best female also consistently produces game and checks the boxes in the other categories too not to mention their breeding lines up as a loose line breeding with a quarter out-cross. So I guess we will see how it goes.

[lawdawgharris]

I bet it works out.


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[SASS]

Deer season is finally over in most places I hunt with the exception of a couple of my big high fence places.

So went down to South Texas to hunt a new ranch. Weather was good but I had to hunt around a couple of hunters who were trying to knock out there last two doe tags for the season. They were really great and got out of the blinds early each day. With all that being said it was dry and I was not able to hunt before the dew was gone each day. We were still able to run a few cats but wasn't able to catch them. We had one real good race but I wasn't able to get around in front of them fast enough and watched the cat run down the road and climb right over the high fence in front of me.

All in all I still wish I caught at least one of those cats but was still good for the dogs because I left my best dog at home and the other dogs had to strike those cats, and we are getting their feet tough from roading on the caliche roads and getting the dogs back into shape after being laid up for most of deer season. I will be back out there soon and hopefully we have a little more luck.