BigGameHoundsmen.com

You finally made some damn sense.

a guy could run 20 dogs on bear but if them dogs dont put pressure on the bear he aint gonna go to the tree.
i hav a friend that dont like to hunt bear with his dogs because it takes 20 miles to catch that bear. i told him wow my races average a 1/2 hour or less.
that is my point right there, a pack could strike, start, and eventually catch up to the bear, but if that bear is happy with no care in the world, just goin on a sunday walk... that aint bear hunting, thats just dogs trailin a bear all day.
last year i started with 10 dogs, before winter set in i knew who i was goin to keep. right now im feeding 4 dogs. they all work together, and they are at every bear tree.
right now im lookin for a few more dogs to hunt on bear from april until november.

Averaging 30 minutes a race on the washington coast huh? I have to throw the bullshit flag on that. You may have good dogs but your stop watch needs to be fixed.

30 minutes on a skinny mid july runner bear in WI, with fat dogs. Not likely to happen on average. Sometimes sure, most times NO. Sept you've got a better chance of that happening.

Heck a lot of the time we're not even through the cold trail portion of the hunt in that time.

We must not have as many mean bear in WI as everyone else. 90% just run like crazy. Then with a few fresh dogs packed in they'll go up. But sometimes they won't and just keep runnin.

I think constantly getting a 30 min tree would get awfully boring. I've seen lots of bear in trees.

I still like running 6 dogs on bear. More chance to get the dogs out. I'd run more if they'd let us.

first let me clear a few things up. i just want to help this gentleman out by lettin him kno that he could use 10, 20, 100 dogs for bear but if they aint doin the job right , they aint gonna be catchin much bears with those dogs.
2nd, my dogs aint that cold nosed to where they will be cold trailing for a few hours. we have great road systems and a great bear population.
3rd not all my bear races end up in a tree. the ones that do end up in a tree average about a half hour. some longer some shorter. the walking bear or a mean bear will never go to a tree, they just fight all day, and they are very hard to walk into to get a shot at. those are the bear where i wish i had more dogs of this calibre.
4th, i road my dogs often and keep them in shape. come april they will be ready for when the bear show up.
5th, i put my dogs where the bear are feeding. you find their food youll catch bear.
i need a few more dogs, send them up and ill make you a believer. but i cull hard, too.

Averaging 30 minutes a race on the washington coast huh? I have to throw the bullshit flag on that. You may have good dogs but your stop watch needs to be fixed.

Hey time flys when your having fun. So 3 hours might feel like 30 minutes. Anthony I guess we need better dogs, or break our watches.

So if your dogs don't tree it in 30 minutes they come back? Or you shoot the bear crossing the road? I've hunted on the washington coast and I know alot of people with good dogs who don't tree bears in an average of 30 minutes. In that area. It doesn't help anyone out to throw bullshit at them. Most guys who are hunting up there have more than 4 dogs.

like I said, this is a post about how many dogs to hunt with. it dont matter how many dogs a guy uses, if the dogs aint puttin enough pressure on the bear he aint goin to the tree.
like i said, ill try to put it in plain english this time. most of my races that end up in a tree are around 1/2 hour. some shorter some longer. i have never shot a bear crossing the road in front of my plotts.
if they dont tree it, it is most likely not going into a tree... a walking bear. they will fight a walking bear for hours, but they are hard to get to in this country.
i kno mostly cat hunters up here, jack iott, tim caldwell, maybe a few others. 1 bear hunter bernie paque.
like i said my dogs aint cold nosed, they strike a darn good hot track well, we have a great bear population up here, meaning when my dogs strike, the bear is only a few minutes away, meaning, a quick race to the tree. do i make myself clear?
im not here to prove myself, im just here to help this gentleman out about how many dogs to run.
you like your dogs and i like mine. i aint here to discredit no one. if there are better dogs than mine im gonna have em.

First off, it sounds to me like you are most definatley not bullshittin partner. I believe what you are saying cause I know other folks who have told me on the phone the same exact thing you are saying almost to the letter.

I mentioned this on another site with some bear hunters on it and one of the fellas I respect the most said that there aint no way in hell a guy needs more than 3 or 4 dogs on a bear. Another told me last night on the phone that if you need more than 3 or 4 dogs on a damn bear you need to get you some different dogs, NOW!

One more thing, cold trailing sucks in my opinion. Its an absolute waste of a day on any game if you ask me. Cold noses and cold trailing sure became a popular term when folks start hunting for sport and the chase rather than hunting to eat. I dont care for it a damn bit.

Dan Edwards wrote:One more thing, cold trailing sucks in my opinion. Its an absolute waste of a day on any game if you ask me. Cold noses and cold trailing sure became a popular term when folks start hunting for sport and the chase rather than hunting to eat. I dont care for it a damn bit.

Not one guy I know that hunts around here wishes his dogs had a hotter nose. It's exactly the opposite. I want a dog that will pound out the track I put him on till it's jumped. If it takes all damn day, so be it. Cause I'll have the biggest $hit eating grin you ever saw if we whack a 5 hundo in the last half hour of the day on a track we started in the morning.

A hot nosed cat dog isn't much good here either, cause you're going to need another dog to get it jumped. Or a fondness to walking up the track.

A hot rig dog in WI, will let a guy run a pile of runt bears in training season. It's a damn short list of nice bear we've killed off a rig in kill season in the fall. If there even is a list, cause I can't think of one recently.

4 dogs on a bear, sure. Most guys (me included) usually don't have the right 4 at the same time. If I pal up with somebody sure. But you've also got to have a way to replace one of the 4 when you lose one. You can't do that if you only run the A-team all the time.

No one ever said 4 dogs can't catch a bear. I've caught bear with one dog. If all I could have was 2 dogs then thats what I would bear hunt with. I was challenging the assertion of 30 minute bear races on the washington coast. Are there some, of course. Is it normal? Not that I've seen. I agree that if you can't catch bear with 4 dogs then you may need new dogs. I only have 4 adults and one puppy. You very rarely see a real bear hunter hunting only finished adults. They almost always have pups in there. Its to easy for bad things to happen.

Cold trailing..

an absolute waste of a day on any game

LOL

Now that was funny I dont care who you are !

You best not come out this way and expect to eat anything without A LOT of cold trailing first.. LOL

You go look for a fresher track... you'll be going home without supper .. and you cant catch what you cant start !

LAST YEAR WE HAD A MEAN BEAR COMEING INTO THE BAIT THAT WE HAD RUN NUMEROUS TIMES. EVERY TIME SHE WOULD TAKE THE SAME PATH AND RUN THE SAME ROUTE. EVERY TIME WE HAD FIVE TO EIGHT DOGS ON THE SAME BEAR. I HAD BEEN ABLE TO GET IN CLOSE ONE TIME TO WATCH THE ACTION. SHE WOULD MAKE A RUN AT THE DOGS ANY TIME THEY GOT CLOSE. THIS HAPPENED ABOUT THREE TIMES AND I WAS GETTING READY TO LEAVE THIS BAIT ALONE FOR FEAR OF RUINING SOME NEW PROSPECTS.

ONE DAY ABOUT A WEEK LATER WE COULDNT FIND A TRACK TO RUN SO WE ENDED UP AT THE BAIT THAT HAD OL GROWLY SON COMEING TO IT. WE TURNED LOOSE HAD A TRASH RACE GOT ALL THE DOGS BACK BUT ONE.

WHEN WE FOUND THAT ONE IT WAS ABOUT TWO HOURS LATER TREED ON YOURS TRULY. COULDNT BELIEVE IT ONE DOG HAD PUT UP THAT MEAN OL HUSSY. WALKED IN TOOK SOME PICTURES WITH THE CELL PHONE BECAUSE THATS ALL I HAD. WASNT EXPECTING TO HAVE ANY THING CAUGHT.

THE TRUCK WASNT TO FAR AWAY SO WE DECIDED TO WALK BACK AND GET SOME YOUNG DOGS AND PUT THEM ON THE TREE. SOON AS WE LEFT, DOWN SHE WENT. WE CAME BACK WITH FOUR DOGS TURNED THEM LOOSE AND SPENT THE REST OF THE DAY RUNNING AND BAYING. WHEN WE FINALY PICKED UP THE LAST TWO ONE OF THEM HAD A BEAR CLAW RIP RIGHT ON TOP OF THE HEAD ABOUT SIX INCHES LONG ENDING RIGHT ABOVE THE EYEBALL.

I GUESS THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS YA JUST NEVER KNOW WHATS GOING TO WORK UNTIL YOU TRY. PERSONALLY I LIKE TO RUN A LOT OF DOGS ON BEAR. NOT BECAUSE I WANT TO PRESURE THE BEAR BUT BECAUSE I ENJOY TRAINING NEW PROSPECTS.

WE HAVE CAUGHT BEAR WITH AS MANY AS FIFTEEN DOGS AND AS LITTLE AS ONE DOG. TWO OR THREE DOGS WITH THE RIGHT STUFF SHOULD BE MORE THAN SUFFICIENT TO CATCH ANYTHING YOUR READY TO TACKLE.

Most lion and bear hunting is for sport, and if you aren't doing it for the enjoyment of the sport then I don't know why you do it at all. If your starvin that bad you ought to try to eat a deer or an elk, I'm pretty sure I don't want to eat 20 lions a year. If you are hunting lions, especially a big tom in the dirt you better have some good cold nosed dogs. It's a hell of a lot funner to catch a cat that your dogs proved their grit and skill on than a ten minute old track.

bearbredplotts Im with you. A thirty minute race is my norm too. I figure they have it jumped in the first five minutes. They dont all tree but most of them do. And if my dogs dont have a cold nose why are they treeing instead of cold trailing. Have fun! Dont worry about what every one else thinks.