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Well I was finally able to get out to spot that didn't have any dog boxes this saturday. Some stretch of luck I found a good track no more than 10 minutes from leaving the truck. Turned both dogs loose and away they went. At first they went straight up the mountain into some nasty rock bluffs for about an hour. It looked as if they got hung up in there and they finally got back on track and pushed him into the laurel thickets where I lost signal on them for a good portion of the day. Next thing I know I get both of them on long range, but heading straight down the creek with a straight line behind them on the GPS. trashy SOB's.
My best guess is they jumped the bear within 30 minutes of turning loose, ran him to the bluffs and got hung up. When they found the track again I think they were a good ways behind him and bumped a deer up before they caught back up with smokey. I was able to call them off the deer track so I didnt yell at them, because I want them to associate coming back to me with something good.
Midterm week here in school so I'll be stuck studying untill around next week when I can get out again. Only about 3 weeks of the season left, hopefully I can get lucky.
Dholster- its illegal to have any kind of bait on forest service land! but yeah I hear ya majority of bear around here at this point are very well educated. And I've even educated a few hooved critters
EastTN- Im in western carolina.Limestone's only about 2 hours from me. And that is a great little piece of advice I'll have to start looking for some. But as far as acorns in general I have seen very little. Hopefully I'll have some time to get out and at least scout a little this week for an area thick with hickories.

Are you basing the idea of a deer race on the GPS track? In the west pressured bears will sometimes run straight down a creek bottom and deer will usually not run the bottoms because of to much brush and blow downs and usually run the side hill and run erratic. Bears running a side hill will usually hold the same elevation until they hit a change of geography. I have no idea how game runs in your area though.

Also if you lost signal on them and you pick them up again, the track on the GPS will show a straight line from the last signal to the current location. The collars do not have the ability to store tracks that is all done on the handheld computed by GPS points received from the collar.

dholster, I'm glad you told me about that (gps track) I had no idea! You can see I'm pretty ignorant lol. If the hunt I ant cleared I'll try and get a pic of the race.
Generally a deer in that particular area will run straight down the creek. I've seen it myself and a veteran bear hunter who I had the privilege of running with a few times in training season told me that's a tell tale sign.
Let me check too see if that hunt isn't cleared yet. I have a topo map card so you may be able to have a decent clue.

I had to zoom out a ways so idk if you can tell. I marked truck right where I turned out. And in that blob section is where they got hung up, I've been told there are some bluffs through there.
Where it starts to make the bend back around, it went straight to the creek bottom ( couldn't get that part in the pic) and something just didn't feel right. When Ive ran in that area in training season all the ones we ran typically went one of three places, and that's not one lol.
I'm sure you can't say for sure but maybe you could make something of those tracks.
I'm just guessing based off the little bit I know

Where the track goes up to the top from the truck, it goes through a dip in the ridge a (dry creek bed?), which is normal for a bear. On top of the ridge could've been a bayup, tree location problem, or just plain lost it. Sometimes bears will come down off a ridge and go back up where they came from and on a less then red hot track inexperienced dogs can take the back track. The way the track wrapped around on the ridge top could've easily been a bear. It doesn't appear like they ran it very fast, that could mean they were afraid of it or else the country could be very brushy. Where they started losing elevation fast, I just don't know. If you have ran bears there before and the race goes where no bear race ever went, that is usually cause of suspicion.

If the dogs in fact caught up to it on top and bayed it then walked it from there, they probably got on something else as bears usually don't go from a long bayup or walk to leaving the country.

I have the TT15 collars with bark notification. When I upgraded to the new collars I didn't figure the bark notification was really necessary. It is very helpful though when dogs are out of hearing and are clumped up, there is no question if they are bayed or just on a loose.

Got any updates on your progress, I'm enjoying your posts


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