BigGameHoundsmen.com

Buddy is white with lemon spots & a flag tail. Ten years old & has slowed, however Mr. Finney guessed him to be six. Suppose you could label him West Coast walker, that to me means bred the best to best. And for sure none of them were perfect, & neither is Buddy. Al

Al, The little athletic Cameron-UH She tends to stick closer to the track while the others will get off more. The Cameron sounds like a pack of hounds she has a good bawl mouth and will throw out all kinds of odd chop's and yelps and so on sounds like three different dogs running. The Bluetick I got from Nora Cook, She runs with her head up and has a pretty good voice she is very smooth on track she just seem's to glide threw the air. The 3rd Blue Good voice dont bark to much but Barks enough... All the dogs Catch, it aint one who is doing all the work. My long Race is pushing the three hour plus mark... I have caught a few cats that the dogs pen down to 5 acre reeprod and the cat just does everything on a whim... Then gets busted.... The dogs seem to not be fazed with a dodging cat.. The Guy I started hunting with Run's Walker and Walker/running dogs, been on a few races where his dogs would start a loose and my dogs just went right threw the pile of mess with the track and kept it going till caught... I been lose free and I think that has to do with one dog being able to push the track while being on it and the others being off it and being able to push it JMO... They catch pretty quik but they can also stick with a good race and still put it in a tree...

Thanks Merlo, sound like really nice pack those can be hard to find. Too bad some who think bluetick are all slow cannot hunt with them. Al

How many of you of you guys that hunt for bobcat have hunted with running dogs that have been line bred for 40 years starting with treeing dog/running dog crosses that still have 1/2 to 5/8 running dog blood in them and tree consistently. They are out there, hard to come by and one has to know what they have when they have one. There is a lot of talk on here about bobcat dogs but how many of you have hunted with guys that catch 50 to 75 bobcats in the 90 day season? Any dog can catch a bobcat but does that make it a bobcat dog? Bobcat are hard to find and tree for some but not for others, whats the deal? There are all levels of bobcat dogs and bobcat hunters each to their own. Dewey

Never hunted with anyone or owned any hounds that treed 50 to 75 bobcat in a 90 day season. One would have to have a very good cat population & cover lots ground, especially if you were hide hunting. It could be done however it would also take very good dogs and a little luck with the winter weather. If you are hunting public land that has been dogged hard, would need to see to believe. Some hunt to enjoy, others to kill cats, to each his own. Al

Maybe thats possible in some other state or maybe you could do it with traps but it's not possible in Oregon and I have the statistics from the ODFW to show its not possible.

I personally know of 3 guys in Oregon that catch 30 + a year and hold down full time jobs. They get some holidays and a little vacation time but still work a lot. They hunt every spare minute they have regardless of weather short of typhoons. I would bet a lot of money they could hit the 50 mark if they didn't work. Odfw would only check in 10-15% of their catch as they don't kill many. One thing i have learned in the bobcat hunting world is that there are some HARD hunters with some AMAZING dogs if you get out of your comfort zone and try new places.

Fellows,

Do not be so quick to say that someone is/can not do something in regards to Bobcat Hunting.

50 to 75 in 90 days, if that is all a fellow is doing, and he has GOOD Hounds, that ought to be possible in OR, CA (oops forgot you folks can't anymore) or the South and Southeast.

There are many doubters that South Texas Cat hunters can and do catch 300 in a year, several will do double that number. It is all that they do!

Now a little story that may ring true for some of you but may ruffle that proverbial feather is taking place even as we speak in SW OK. There is a Hunter there who USED to have good Hounds. Yet thru selling off Hounds and droughty conditions making it hard to train young Hounds he is not in as good of a Bobcat Hound position as he once was. But his problem gets worse (maybe) he feels that he does not have any Bobcats left....that the feline distemper has decimated his Bobcat population. It is Sad!

But not 30 miles down the road lives the 1st fellows "Former friend" (they fell out over a Hound); who does not sell Hounds, is following a proven recipe for making Bobcat Hounds, and even though he has the same drought, and hunts the same "Barren" of Bobcat areas that the 1st fellow does, this 2nd man catches or trees a couple each weekend!

There are two morals to this True scenario above:

1st - Bobcat Hounds find Bobcats! Not all Hounds who Tree/Catch Bobcats are Bobcat Hounds!

2nd - Do not be so quick to say something can/is not being done, just cause you are not doing it!

Oh and as far as any Data put out by any States Fish and Game, I have found that reality in populations of any critter is usually far from the Departments claims. As good as the Texas Parks and Wildlife used to be, as their Personnel Staffing changed from the Field to the Office their information is now based on Models rather than actual Counts. Many day to day Wildlife managers have to argue their actual numbers to get viable Wildlife Mgt. plans approved.

Just my thoughts....Catch-em or Tree-em with Running, Treeing, or Cossbreds Hounds or Dogs....just do it with GOOD ones!

It has been and is being done in Oregon without traps on the coast in areas that you both hunt. There is always a better bobcat dog and harder hunter don't compare what you know to what you don't know. It will limit your ability every time. Dewey

Still no answer on why a tree breed dog does not have the ability to run a track like some running dogscan not ment to start anything just want an honest answer. Also like has been said in a round about way on some post if you aren't in the right area of the country, high populations of cats it don't matter how good the dogi is you can't catch if they aren't there! Andy

well al i have read this post enough dewy do you believe thst you have to cross running dog into a line in order to catch that many cats ; in breeding a line of dogs why would you or any want to start out with a known fault . that fault being true running dog dont tree/ if you will accept one fault how many more . i came up to the cat hunters gathering to find out if any of al rennicks dog were left in that country i was highly dissapointed to find most of you guys were trying to reinvent the wheel i've been hunting against guys with running dogs for yrs i've yet to have one impress me in this brush country an d yes turners know who i am jim

I've caught over thirty cat a year to working a full time job and i know hunters with top dogs who hunt all year.ANYONE who says they catch seventy five of more,is not being truthful .

How does one get back into dogs 8 year ago, pick up some dogs from local hunters, bred in running stock, then catch more cat than any of the best local hunters ever have, with dogs that have been line bred 40 years for cat only? Al

If anyone would like my address of phone number,it's free,just ask.

It can be done. A lot of people like to pat themselves on the back for doing it. When it is mostly a factor of how hard they are able to hunt. Dad held down a full time job. Would not take any time off work to hunt and caught 30+ cat for several years in a row. The math isn't to hard to see that those dogs could of caught 50+ cats in a season. Those same dogs would catch 30+ bear a year and uncounted numbers of coon. They were not line bred running dog crosses. Just crossed up redbone, black and tan, walker mutts. But the right mutts. They were not straight cat dogs but combination dogs that got hunted hard for the amount of time we had to hunt them. Dad was just an average guy with out a lot of money that hunted hard. We did live in a place that we could go in any direction and be hunting in ten minutes. The timber company`s were friendly and we could go just about any where we wanted. I can remember more than once getting home at six in the morning on a school night. I would still go to school and dad would go pull on the green chain at the plywood mill all day. Nolte said it best on a post a while back " As much as we want to complicate things, the game will always revolve around putting the dogs with the right stuff in them and on tracks we want them to run. Its about time and tracks, the more you spend the better the results with what you put down on." I know running dogs can do it. I know tree dogs can do it. I know combination dogs can do it. I know most guys given enough time. With the right dogs. Enough money to fill the gas tank when they want to go hunting. In the right country can do it. Its not rocket science. And its not the right formula of x% running dog x x% tree dog. Its mostly about hunting hard.