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Tim Pittman wrote:I just measure in minutesa couple lately---in under 2minutes[jumped]the long ones 15-20 minutes.Much more than this----1 of 2 things going on 1.) dogs are making way to many mistakes-cats been ran some/most of the time. 2.) I was going to say conditions[but I hate a cop out]So I'll say,I start to wonder why they're not pressuring the sucker enough????
Tim

Tim, your correct on both counts. They are young dogs and inexperienced and make wayyy too many mistakes they have to figure out. The conditions are usually less than perfect(which is a cop out, who runs in perfect condidions?).

The point of this post is race distances, not how good my dogs are. I am the first to say they need to improve. The fact still remains that they can cover one helluva lot more ground than we give them credit for.

i have never checked mine , do you have to start new hunt when you start a track. and the 60 mile cat race was probably a coyote. jmpo.

jc

It was several different lions and one moose. No coyotes involved. As I mentioned earlier, it was a wreck from the get go. Also a "rare" occurance to see that many miles, again.

Scott

Tim Pittman wrote:I just measure in minutesa couple lately---in under 2minutes[jumped]the long ones 15-20 minutes.Much more than this----1 of 2 things going on 1.) dogs are making way to many mistakes-cats been ran some/most of the time. 2.) I was going to say conditions[but I hate a cop out]So I'll say,I start to wonder why they're not pressuring the sucker enough????
Tim

Tim not tryin to make excuses but in the area I hunt, and yes I have pestered these buggers quit a bit, if we jumped the cat in under 2 minutes or even 15-20 minutes those would be smokin tracks and yes it does happen but not near enough! the cold trail can get fairly lengthy here and then once the cat is jumped if there is any rocks or cedar brushed hill sides around they will head straight for them and there isnt a dog alive that (can consistantly keep up with a cat in the rocks) by the time the dogs have gotten through the rocks and figured it out the cat has a few minute head start again and then the same thing happens over again. The dogs I am hunting make very few mistakes and are fairly fast on the track and jump and do a fair job of putting a cat up. Yes there is the rare instances that when the cat is jumped he has no escape route and he goes right up but man I dont have that happen alot but when I do I never gripe I just smile and think the dogs and I deserved that one. What I guess I am saying is different country different situations. I do agree with you 100% that once a cat is jumped and the terrian of the country alows it the race should be a short one. later, Andy

Andy,I was refering to the jumped part of the race[length of time jumped]as far as the coldtrail time it can be fairly quick to taking up a big share of the day.as far as distance goes 900 yds. to 2.6/2.8miles I'd say is the average(this is all the corners,double backs etc.) The garmin has logged a few long ones at around 9miles.Scott I was only refering to my own dogs and how I view their performance,I didn't mean to come off snooty--sorry man.You guys have a good one.
Tim

Shortest race from start to finish was a little over a half mile on a stormy windy day had to be less than an hour old. Longest race was on a small cat that really toyed with the dogs. When I pulled the dogs off it was a little over 12 miles and it was rock rim to rock rim no fun at all it was foot country way to much walking.

Tim Pittman wrote:Andy,I was refering to the jumped part of the race[length of time jumped]as far as the coldtrail time it can be fairly quick to taking up a big share of the day.as far as distance goes 900 yds. to 2.6/2.8miles I'd say is the average(this is all the corners,double backs etc.) The garmin has logged a few long ones at around 9miles.Scott I was only refering to my own dogs and how I view their performance,I didn't mean to come off snooty--sorry man.You guys have a good one.
Tim

Tim, no offense taken what so ever. I understand wanting to know why the tracks were so long. I am also learning a lot from this thread as to what is "normal". I wish I had pics of the area that the dogs were in on the long bobcat race. You would definately understand wht they had issues keeping the pressure on the cat. I was damn proud to have them catch it at all.

I know that this is in the "bobcat" section, but on the other end of the spectrum, I've had my dogs strike a lion and tree within 500 yards. That is the beauty of doing what we do, ya just never know what lies in store for you once the dogs open.

Good luck to all,

Scott

Tim, you have to remember I am a little slow sometimes That sure makes more sense as I was thinking you had to be the luckiest hunter around. If we can get them jumped in a good area like you said the race is usually made fairly quick. Andy

I don't have a garmin, but the last cat I treed in the kill season was less than a hundred yards from turn loose to tree. On the other hand I treed one earlier that I walked over fifteen miles as a crow flies, in not very good ground, I left the truck at 7:30 in the morning and got back at 11:30 that night and had dropped about 4000 feet in elevation between the truck and the tree then had to turn around and go back, have no idea how far the dogs went, but it was a long ways.
THe first time I was around a garmin we turned loose on a running bear in some pretty much roadless country, according to the garmin I hiked over 30 miles that day and it was the next day before we got all the dogs back and the gps collars were dead, that's why I wouldn't turn dogs loose without a beeper collar.

I was curious as to how much distance was added while the collar wasn't moving, from just the movement of the GPS signal. I set a collar out in the front yard for 42 hours and it moved 2.3 miles without the collar moving a single inch. Just food for thought.

Scott

Now thats somethin to think about 2.3 miles thats a long ways for not really movin. Scott that was a good idea, im sure you get alot more movement than that when the collars are actually moving and recalculating the gps points and satelites. Wish we could use them hopefully someday.

sheimer wrote:I was curious as to how much distance was added while the collar wasn't moving, from just the movement of the GPS signal. I set a collar out in the front yard for 42 hours and it moved 2.3 miles without the collar moving a single inch. Just food for thought.

I think there is some GPS positioning going on and adding in some distances in these deals. If a dog is treed for 5 hours , it moving around is not the same as running another 2 miles.

No doubt that dogs will go back/forth a lot during a cold track. But they do it much less on a jumped critter. So you hunt goes 8 miles from turnout to catch (which is a lot), the total distance traveled probably isn't going to be 24 miles.

We had a running bear this summer that took us all over the place that we finally treed. Best I could tell was it crossed 12 roads (cut the corner on some and looped back) crossed a river, a highway and it ended up north of 16 miles somewhere. I think we had 4-5 hours of running time on that one. It was a nearly wide open race the whole time.

Buddy had a hellacious yote race this winter that took them most of the day before they bagged the critter. I think he said his dog had like 19 miles on that one.

In any case, bobcats and my limited lion hunting experience, those two critters most likely aren't going that far. Especially a stub tail. It also seems that here, most times you're jumping the cat within a mile. No clue on the average distance of a caught cat because my sample would be a very small number.

I thought about this some and honestly the shortest race I've had was probably less then thirty feet. I was headed back to the truck with a light wind and rounded a corner and there was a bobcat messing around under a bush. i'd like to say she was more surprised then the hounds but it was pretty equal. two of my older females put her up before the rest even figured it out. she almost didn't make the tree either.
longest race would just be a guess really. I had one that lasted the better part of a night one time that will always stick out in my mind as the cat was running loops and occasionally I'd get in position to see it or a second. if all cat races where like that one I'd never come home!
terrain plays a huge role in distances run.

I ran quite a few cats last winter that all were around 8-9 miles. i have forgotten to reset my dog stats and it says they have ran 20-30 miles before. I have never had a bobcat run more than 12 miles on my gps before they had it caught. maybe i run a little fresher track