Thanks to you and to all who have encouraged me in this way regarding my family and keeping things in perspective.Houndswoman wrote:David, God Bless You for doing whats right by your family. But do try to find some time to hunt, because if you are happy your family will be happier.
I know that this old lion hunter I am with would be absolutely miserable to live with if something kept him from trailing and catching lions and cats.
Here's what he has to say:
As far as trailing and catching a coon being more difficult than a lion. We had a good laugh. ...
As far as coon being more of a challenge to a dog than lion, my comment had two levels:
On one level, my lion hunting experience is very limited as I mentioned. In my experiences, yes, coon would have been more challenging to the dogs. If for no other reason, the coon can not be located by sight, and the dogs cannot be refreshed in their desire to stay treed everytime they look upward and see a huge animal. In most cases, when coon hunting they can look upward and not see any animal at all. They have to trust their original attempt at locating by scent, and possibly some airborn scent that might drift down.
There is a dog I had to hunt with for a few years because his owner refused to do the right thing with him. The dog should have been culled a hundred times. He was not only worthless as a coon or bobcat dog, but was a dog fighter. The dog actually looked pretty good lion hunting. He could have sold that dog for good money under a lion tree.
On the second level of my original comparison to coon hunting:
sometimes I say things to hopefully irritate someone that knows a lot more than me. I have always been hungry for knowledge, and sometimes will go out of my way to try and draw it out of someone that has the knowledge but is not talking..
For me, the scenery and the experience of lion hunting has always been exhilerating and beautiful on many levels. But I have always felt a sense of disappointment in what is required of the dogs. I always felt like they didn't really learn anything, and were not really challenged. They always really like it. But it is "liking it" more like the way I like jumping in the river after a long day of putting up mid summer hay. The "lion hunting" seems like the "jumping in the river" for the dogs: a nice break from the hard work of catching bobcats.
I want to beleive there is Oh so much more to lion hunting. And, actually, I have always felt there was. So I kept making little stabs hoping someone like you would come forth, and tell me that yes, in fact, there is a lot more to lion hunting, and it is in fact a great challenge to a dog.
Keep it coming
