BigGameHoundsmen.com

so out of curiousity, after a big rain, a windy night, or a heavy snow storm where will you be most likely to find a cat?

After a big storm seems to be a good time to find a cat. they seem to be moving looking for food or etc. look where they cross as a cat is a creature of habit and will use their crossings frequently.

the only places i know that they cross is in areas when theres snow, so will they still cross in these areas whens theres not snow?

of course they do. if they cross there when there is snow why would they not cross when there is no snow ??

just because i figured the snow might have pushed them down out of the high country, looking for the deer or just all the snow period.

Lions like crossing and traveling in a particular type of country or habitat, but waiting or looking for a tom lion in the same place or crossing may land you with gray hairs. Some of the toms I've caught or killed didn't leave any sign in the same place or area for weeks at a time. They often make big loops in rocky country that is not accessible and require a waiting game. Then you better be there with tough dogs and jump on him cause he may be ten miles away through some terrible country. Lots of those super lions are started and caught at the end of a night's travel and cause the hunter to think he's a top hand, but in reality if you get on the wrong end of his tracks you're in for a long day and night without any photos..........

Good luck and may the hunting gods show mercy on your,
ike


I was on the right end of this tom

My Choco dog blowing the top off the tree

Well if the sun comes out they do like a little 'lounge' time in the sun, watch what you see the house cats doing ... well farm cats anyway. Alot of times bobby is doing the same thing.

Ike,
what line of redbones does your Choco dog come out of? hes a good looking hound.

Cats are creatures of habit but like Ike said, you may not do a lot of running if you see a cat cross and wait for him to cross again. Had a BIG tom lion that we had been trying to catch for years that had a regular crossing close to where I live. The only problem was that his "regular" crossing was only about 3 times per winter. He had a huge range he worked. Seemed like evertime we cut this Tom he had a good two or three days lead on us and boy could he travel. We got to where we would make that location a regular check on our way to other hunting grounds and sure enough, one day we struck luck! He had crossed the night before! We turned the hounds loose and the race was on. The first half hour was easy going as he was just traveling but when they got him jumped, the story changed. It was up to the first row of ledges to ledge the dogs. Took me about 10 to get to them and get them heisted through the first set of ledges only to have them ledged in a second set. Another 10 min and we were through those set of ledges as well. A couple hours later and he was loungeing in a tree. Boy was he big. It's a pretty satisfying feeling to sit at the base of a tree holding a big Tom lion that you have been hunting for years and finally caught!

Moral of the story is don't put all your eggs in one basket. The more crossings you check the better your changes you have of cutting a cat to run.

thanks biggamehunter,
that was a good story and great advice, i will start making out a routien this week. And just out of curiosity, how long and how far did it take to catch this big cat from start to finish and how many hounds did you have on him?
mike.

bency,

Sent you a P.M. let me know if you got it.... You might be interested

I would say that cat went 2 or three miles and we had around 5 or 6 dogs on him. It is hard to tell distance when trailing a cat thats trying to give you the boot. Zig zags sort of mess up my odometer. Seemed like a hundred miles through some of those drifts though.

Good luck finding your cats!

bency wrote:Ike,
what line of redbones does your Choco dog come out of? hes a good looking hound.

The redbone side of that cross came from my Ike dog who was Hoffmeister bred, male side was Red Bomber, Rusty Red, Go Man Sam, Red Rowdy; the female side was Parker's Reverend Red, Go Man Sam, and on back to the Tiber Chopper line of redbones........... http://www.ingramwildlife.com/redfern.htm

keep'em treed,
ike

they are some beautifl redbones