moveing on to something eles

[coastrangecathunting]

Now that some of you guys are all wound up lets here who has caught the oldest track. I here on this site people saying they track 2 day old lion tracks. first of all how do you know there 2 days old and why would you turn loose on a track that old. The only thing i could think of is you made a loop around the country the cat went into and he was still in that circle. I know that if a track is frozen and then thaws it releases the scent and the dogs can run it like it is a hot track but 48 hours later seems like a waste of time. Let us know how you know how old the track was and why you turned loose on such an old track.

jc

[sheimer]

JC, I'll bite. On opening day of this season I turned out on a track that was made two nights before. We had a skiff of snow on the 29th. On the 30th it was warm. On the 1st I was there looking at a melted out track on the skiff. I turned out to hear the dogs bark. period.

Scott

[chancemarquette]

was hunting with houndogr and we cut a track that was older than the nite before cant say exactly how old but if i had to guess i would say sometime during the sunlite the day before because the track was melted and few of the prints were hard to make out, turned out on it and houndogrs dogs treed it within 1000 yards why was the cat still so close? idk...shortest chase i was ever on i dont believe there was kill there either but there could have been, thats why you turn loose on old tracks because you never know.

[houndnem]

I found a melted out track the day before a client arrived. I figured we would find something a hell of a lot better to run the next day, but after half a day of not finding a track figured we would go dump on it for a smile. it was warm out and when we came to the track this time it was just holes where the track used to be. I walked down the track with the dogs for a couple miles. they would trail it on their own in some places and I would trail it by sight in others. When I finally ran completely out of snow My dogs were still tryin but it wasn't lookin good. I hiked back to the wheeler, but could not call them off. I lost the dogs on the gps and about an hour later I could here them trailing hard my way. I figured they had lost interest and were chasing deer, but when they broke onto an open side hill there it was big ol long tail headed straight my way. it treed about 50 yards from where we turned out on it. some dumps on old tracks turn out this way and others end in miles of hiking, frustration, lost dogs and trash races for me. But I have caught a few that surprised me and that's what keeps me dumpin on the old same as I dump on the fresh. we don't cut enough tracks down here to be real picky and sometimes I would rather see my dog get lost or chase an elk than bounce around in a box all day.

[M Evertsen]

You can't catch a lion with the dogs sitting in the box.

I found one the other day that was probably 1 to 1/2 days old. I was working the day before, and could see the country I hunted that day. There was snow up high, but it was melting fast to bare ground down below. It snowed that evening, and I had a skiff at my house, with about 2 inches up higher.

I went up the morning of my first day off and found only circles in the snow. I was up high into the existing snow from the days before. I followed the track for a while, and found for certain it was a lion track where it had crossed under some trees and didn't have any snow in it. I believe this is the same lion that has crossed within 200 yards so all winter, as I have found its tracks 3 times now in the same area. A small cat, that has kicked my dogs' butts twice before.

I went farther along, and found where the cat had walked out on a ridge, getting very close to where the bare ground was the day before. I figured what the heck, it would take me at least two hours more to find a different track, and the dogs are antsy. So I grabbed my lead dog and one other to see what they could muster up. They were able to work the track where it was made in the old snow, but not where the snow had fallen on the dry ground. After a while of that, I started going down the road farther, and cut a nice bobcat track. It was going downhill, and the south slopes were burning off. Both dogs trailed it for a while, but then got lost in the rocks.

After about an hour of listening to them trail, I went back to the truck, and they followed me out. I grabbed my other 4 dogs and took them for a run. Tried them on the track as well, and got nothing.

Oh well, it was a nice day out in the woods with the dogs, and sure beats work.

Later,

Marcial

[BEAR HUNTER]

When I was hunting in Grants Pass Oregon as a teenager, my buddy and I had an old cold nosed red tick out of Burton Oney's stuff. We didnt know how good of a nose he had till one day we found a lion track in the dust. He cold trailed it all day long over the mountain and acrossed the highway then went to baying in town. We found him inside a local taxidermist shop. The taxidermist had already had the lion mounted and was waiting for the customer to come pick the mount up. Now that was an old track.

[Brady Davis]

When I was hunting in Grants Pass Oregon as a teenager, my buddy and I had an old cold nosed red tick out of Burton Oney's stuff. We didnt know how good of a nose he had till one day we found a lion track in the dust. He cold trailed it all day long over the mountain and acrossed the highway then went to baying in town. We found him inside a local taxidermist shop. The taxidermist had already had the lion mounted and was waiting for the customer to come pick the mount up. Now that was an old track.

Awesome!

[Mr.pacojack]

When I was hunting in Grants Pass Oregon as a teenager, my buddy and I had an old cold nosed red tick out of Burton Oney's stuff. We didnt know how good of a nose he had till one day we found a lion track in the dust. He cold trailed it all day long over the mountain and acrossed the highway then went to baying in town. We found him inside a local taxidermist shop. The taxidermist had already had the lion mounted and was waiting for the customer to come pick the mount up. Now that was an old track.

That is a good one for sure.

[FullCryHounds]

Bear Hunter, I call BS on that whole story!....the dogs didn't cross a highway, it was only a county road!

[catdog360]

My dad likes to tell the story from the 60s when he was just getting into hounds. They were all bragging about the noses on their hounds. When Roger Disney piped up and said ol Rip treed a coon the other night that took us back and forth across the Columbia River into Oregon several times before Rip finally started locating. They went into the tree and searched and searched. Nothing, then they looked about 10 feet away was what resembled an old fire ring. On an alder tree next to the ring was a carving in the tree trunk. It read tonight is october 23 1894 Lewis and Clark feasted on a racoon dinner. Before we ventured to the Pacific Ocean. Now that was an old track.

[SHADOWHUNTER]

SOME GOOD HUMOR, SOMETIMES AN OLD TRACK IS BETTER RED HOT TRACK!

[Alberta]

I have only let go on a few day old tracks and as luck would have it at the end of the day their was a cougar in the tree, but I am sure I never caught the cat that we started. If you let the dogs run around long enough they seem to find thier own track to run. lol. You can't always find a smoking fresh track in the area I hunt, I'll take what I can get.

[COOTER]

I agree with alberta Cold,Hot or otherwise start it and do what you can...frank

[coastrangecathunting]

I understand that you would rather have your dogs out working a track than sitting in the box but what are your odds really of catching that 2 day old track. Not very good at all, if any depending on the dog it has nothing to do with the idot that turned him loose . The dog is going to work his guts out probably get off in some canyon never get it jumped waist the whole day ,cut his pads up on the frozen snow while your sitting there texting your old lady at the truck seeing if anyone has sent you a pm. seems to me that you are just setting the dog up for failure. i think what makes a houndsman is someone that cares more about there dog than they do about themself. if i ever seen a track and knew it was 2 days old i would circle the area making sure it was still in that drainage . if the drainage was not to big i would get the wind in my face and walk through the middle of it if i had someone to pick me up on the other side. if you cut his track you just saved your dogs a ton of work if you didnt than the cat probably made a kill and you should go walk the track out from where it crossed the road. this is not ment to affend anyone on here but more for the guys starting out . dont think there are people out there consistantly catching 2 day old lion tracks. i would rather have my dogs fresh in the box for the next day than blown out for a nearly impossible task.

jmo
jc

[sheimer]

Not all two day tracks are impossible. How do I know? I turn out on them. I don't send my dogs while I sit in the truck, I'm right there with them. I promise that my dogs are happier and in better shape running shitty tracks than sitting in the box "staying fresh for the next popup". I'm just saying that every track is an opportunity for my dogs to excell rather than fail. Why be negative?

Scott