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I was a hound bumm for about 20 years. Now I'm married with 2 small kids and they take precedence.

That can explain alot.

The best for me was 70.

I know a guy that treed 180 in one season here in NH. They did count multiple bears in trees though. Also there were different guys with dogs with him at times. If I hadnt been on a lot of those trees, I might not have believed it.6 week training and 6 weeks of hunting was all the time to run too. Many many mornings we would have 2 or 3 different bears treed and be at the restaurant having breakfast at 830AM. I was on about 80 with them that training season and I didnt run with him on weekends. I have about 50 of those trees during training season on video. One morning, we had 6 dogs on 4 different trees at the same time. 7 bears total in a big cornfield. Left and went to another cornfield and had 3 different trees with 4 bears total. I have never seen so many bears treed in a year before and sure will never again.

cobalt wrote:That was 1 year (spring thru fall season). First bear treed March 19 and the last was treed Jan. 7. I didn't explain that well, sorry. That was my best year and I was shooting for that to be my best year. I also caught 37 bobcat, 16 lion and a pile of coon. I don't keep accurate data on numbers caught for the most part. I've had about 15 other years where I've caught between 50 and 100 bear. I think those days are over for me. Some people waste their lives being ski bumms, I was a hound bumm for about 20 years. Now I'm married with 2 small kids and they take precedence.

where you from

Hell i can't even remember to pull all my magnets or turn the garmin collars on each time so i would have a hard time puting a number on how many i treed or was part of. i know i ran quite a few that had to pull dogs off because of private property but was on enough trees to know that my dogs will tree and was on enough bears to know most of my dogs will hold a bear. not all of them but most. had some really good cold trails that lead to the jump and had some good cold trails that didn't lead to a jump for various reasons. Had some dogs that didn't do much and had some that liked other animals better that a bear. i kind of look at training season as just that and not to put a number on how many i treed or if i could go re check a bait and throw the dogs right on the bear. i very seldom run in the evenings on rehits anymore. if i can't get a run going in the morning then i will try the next day. dogs need a break and so do the bears that get hammered every time they cross a road or go to a bait.

I'm with you Blackpaws. One good,long cold track that leads to a jump is worth 3 in the tree!! I don't even like releasing on a rig or a rehit, cold track is where it's at!

Joey and Mondo,

I hear you guys on the hot run stuff, but I still do it when I get chances. It all just depends on what sort of runs a guy has and what is in the box. I probably won't load up a dog that ran all morning, but I'm sure going to toss in a young one at night. It won't hurt them and might give them a real shot at getting to be the lead dog. I also like to just get the dogs on some runs in the first part of season. Get the kinks out and back focused on our fleet footed black friends. Only 30 days left.

mondomuttruner wrote:I'm with you Blackpaws. One good,long cold track that leads to a jump is worth 3 in the tree!! I don't even like releasing on a rig or a rehit, cold track is where it's at!

I agree 100%, cold track is by FAR the most fun part of the hunt. Plus those cold trackers seem to get awful valuable in kill season when the "right" bear's track is found.

Although, I am guilty of doing my fair share of night hunts just to squeak in that extra time in the woods. But to me a hot hit to a tree isn't equal to a cold track to a jump and run.


I don't see anything wrong with comparing tree numbers, if you can put up 40 plus in a year, major kudos (I know I can't). Always fun to compare numbers to gauge dogs and groups.