BigGameHoundsmen.com

B&T goodmorning. An old concrete man from chicago once told me that he had "an eye like a shithouse rat". He indeed had an incredible eye for plumb and level. When on the trail of a lion..."I have an eye like a shithouse rat!".

Now that's some funny shit liontracker........

horshur wrote:Why would you bother with an old track?

Because some dogs can...

I like to run an old track and drag my ass to the tree after trailing all day, rather than dump on a fresh one and tree it 20 mins. Just about any dog can trail a really fresh track. Where's the challenge?

I don't look for the old ones mind you, but I don't pass a respectable one up either.

It makes for ALOT better lion dogs too.

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Exactly...feed them a steady diet of that for 5 or 6 years and one day you will find yourself standing on a rim looking down at them in awe. Right then and there you will give thanks.

Yeh, that's a good one, huh IKE?

"When on the trail of a lion..."I have an eye like a shithouse rat!".

Yup, if I had eyes for a dirt lion track like you're talking about those mutts of mine and I would be a deadly combo..............

ike

Yep, IKE, right on the money...

I believe that's the training part encourage them to slow down think and work the track out. If a hound is only used on hot tracks he isn't being used to his full potential. IF a dog is encouraged to pick up old tracks he will start doing it on his own and putting a end to it as well. then you know he will catch game when the amped up bear dogs the neighbor is running wont even slow down going over it. For a cold trailer I prefer a calm hound they seem to do better at it. there's plenty of time for them to get worked up when they catch the game. It's like stacking hay a young kid will work himself into a lather trying to get it all done by noon and be worn out at 10:30 the old man will be steadly stacking and by 3:00 be done and ready to have a cold one and shoot the breeze awhile.

I cut sign that the dogs cant trail alot. Anything my dogs can still smell we try to catch. I figure i start 10-15 tracks to catch one lion. Lion tracks are too hard to come by to ride away from an old one.

In order to catch old tracks the conditions have to remain consistant to hope to have success. Either has to stay frozen with no thaw or not freeze without any new moisture. About the only time scent will last more than a few days in the country I hunt is in the spring when its not freezing at night and not getting to hot in the day. In the mid winter we have hard freezes that thaw out during the day which kills the scent. Snows here ussually only last a day or two(thank god).

When I was in Mexico last winter there was so many lions in the area you never had to mess with a track more than a night old.

My opinion to... Why dump on an old track?

I very much enjoy watching and listening to my dogs work an old burned up track as much if not more than walking into the tree. There is just something about walking with your dogs and being a part of part of the race (even though it's a snails pace) and then having them slowly heat it up and work it into something catchable. I used to be all about the catch...now the dog work is a higher priority than the catch(although that's still high on the priority list). Maybe I'm a little crazy, I dunno. I just love to listen and watch those hounds pound...

You can always run a hot track with a cold nosed dog.

You can't run a cold track with a hot nosed dog.

I like dogs that are cold but can still move the track at a good pace. Those type of dogs really spoil you. They can chunk up a lot of territory in a hurry. In the process of an old cold trail you can learn some interesting info on a certain critter's habits.

This is a track of a 85 lb female. It was made right after a rain. We found it a week later. The dogs could only make about 3/4 of a mile per hour. By mid afternoon it was down to a snails pace. As luck would have it, it snowed 2 days later. We were walking down a frozen riverbed and my female winded it above us and across the river from us. From strike to tree was less than 400 yds and less than 2 minutes. If you are persistent, you will get some "freebees".

Boy Tim I sure like that bottom Photo !!!

Heck you never know that 3 day old track may lead to a Lion Laid up with a Belly ach 3/4 of a mile away !! ???

Majestic Tree Hound wrote:Boy Tim I sure like that bottom Photo !!!

That pictures is pretty cool !

if we only run tracks that we know our dogs can catch how do we ever expect them to get better. i sometimes dump my dogs on tracks that i know their not going to catch. then I work side by side with them untill we either loose it or some of that shithouse luck comes my way and we catch it. either way both the dogs and I are better hunters from the experience.

walking young dogs down cold tracks til they get hot makes the difference between a dog that can catch a lion and a cold nosed, grub it out lion dog. Creates a disciplined thinking dog, you have that, and you have something not many do. Far as cold, 2-3 days old, is a cold track for my dogs, and a long day for me.