hunting with out snow in Montana?

[shoot4fur]

Ok, so when we can hunt cats here in Montana it is winter. So it is cold, the ground is frozen, and we do not always have snow. When there is no snow guys don't go out, for the most part. Is it that most guys think you can not catch a cat without the snow, or can't find a track or what is it. I know it has to do with conditions and all but what are all the thoughts on this. We run coons in the summer, and there is no snow, I know the ground is not frozen and it is a hell of alot warmer, is that why? I know there is no way all hounds suck in Montana. Do the dogs have a hard time going from a track in the snow to dry froze ground or whats the story? I have my thoughts what are yours?

[arizonabeagle]

snow's usually moist, the moisture holds scent alot better than say, frozen, icy mud. i guess that might be it? but i have no idea i've never been to montana, and never lion hunted in the snow, just dry ground desert.

[live to hunt]

The facts are most hound guys are lazy if they can't drive a road cut a track pull old boomer out of the box and stick his nose in the track going the right way. Then sit at the truck until the dog trees it is just to much work. The cats are always on the mountian they do not leave when the snow does. get off the roads use up some boot leather I caught cats in all weather and you can to. good luck

[twist]

For the most part once you leave the western part of the state road access is little to none and a person would wear out ten pair of boots walking to cut one lion track not saying it cant or hasnt been done just saying what I have experianced. We just dont have the lion population. Also when the snow is gone and the ground is frozen you would have to be right on top of the cat before most dogs could start trailing as for cold trailing any distance on frozen bare ground just doesnt happen for any type of distance. Like I said earlier this is my opinion and yes I know it has probably been done here with great success here but I sure havent been able to do it on a consistant basis. Andy

[MThound]

I often drive in excess of 200 miles before I cut a cat track in the mountains. I can't imagine walking this distance before turning loose, but I guess it could happen. Even in bad conditions, with little or no snow, you can sometimes spot a track in the patches of snow or mud. I've caught plenty of lions on bare ground, but it takes a good nosed dog to work out the tough ones. The toughest tracks are those made on warm bare ground, then are frozen over night. That or a hillside that burns off in a hurry in the warm sun. It is possible striking lions with the dogs by walking, but I don't want to risk a situation with the amount of wolves we have in our area.

[Dan V]

I have never hunted in MT, but here is my guess:

Moisture destroys scent. Some snow is a stable / suspended form of moisture and good to trail in. Some snow is not stable and does the freeze/ thaw routine. Add frost and or dew to your frozen and thawing mud>> and depending on when your lion walked through>and depending on when your hunting mr lion and depending on what stage of the freeze /thaw/frost/dew cycle, you might have your work cut out for you.

I have better luck in stable conditions, whether it is dry ground or snow. If you have frost and dew free days, with the low above freezing, then I have better luck on bare ground. Spring can be a great time for this.

Good luck
DV

[Rookie]

Live to Hunt your statment here show how much you don't know about hunting any thing in MT. Treed many cat and never have I been in the truck waiting for the dog's to tree. It's usally about a six hour hike to the tree. And I can out walk most !!!!

[rfeen]

Silent mouth your exactly right i would love for people to come up here and see what it is all about, our lion population is low the wolves suck and 80% of people would die making it to the tree, anybody want to try to get up at 2am and hike five different trails two miles in and two miles out then you find a track the last trail you check and then have a four or so mile cahse you just let me know when you want to come up , if you think MT lion hunters are lazy, also try running when most days dont get above -5!!!!!!!!!!!

[live to hunt]

Rookie you need to read my post I said "most" hound guys. I can list you sixteen guys around here that have hounds. When we get fresh snow and the quotes are still open to kill there lion hunters on every road some guys start running roads at dark. After the quotes fill and conditions go to crap I have hunted days and never seen another guy with hounds in the woods. I am not saying I caught alot of cats under these conditions but I do get my dogs out and let them hunt.
Rookie what part of MT are you from?
PussyChaser If you had read the first post you would know we are talking about hunting when there is no snow. Not walking 20 miles of trails to cut a track in the snow only to go back and get dogs to run it. I live in MT so I am letting you know right now I am ready to "come up" any time. You let me know were.

[catdogs]

Hey LTH...I think those 2 are twin brothers that just fell off the idiot wagon...

[shoot4fur]

this post was started to get thoughts on the conditions that make it possible or not to run when no snow is on the ground. It is just somthing i wonder about alot. I like some of the posts keep the thoughts coming. I just keep thinking i can train a supper dog, or get lucky enough to come up with one that can run any condition. the snow is melting off as we speak. might get to test the dogs again. My dogs are still young, so I am still hoping for the best.

[tman308]

My two cents worth,

I have recently moved to Montana and used to hunt the dry ground and wet snow of Northern Arizona. What I have seen here in MT is that the snow is not wet at all. The snow resembles dust it just doesn't have any moisture in it. Where I live we have probably gotten in total since November around 10-12 feet of snow; however we have only gotten 1 inch of precipitation. On to the post though, I don't have a snow mobile so I just drive into an area that looks good and take the dogs for a hike. I have trailed several on frozen crusted snow where there are no tracks on the ground and have only been lucky enough once to actually cut a track on the road and that was the road into the area I was headed. What I have seen is that one of my AZ raised dogs that does very well on bear and dry ground cats doesn't seem to be able to pick up the scent when the temperature is below 10 degrees. Doesn't matter if there is snow or just the iced over rocks she just doesn't open in those conditions. My male who spent half his life in Northern Utah and the other half in AZ does really well in the frozen conditions. I think it makes him more focused because of the lack of scent on frozen ground. One of my other females seems to perform the same here in MT and there in AZ so I would ultimately think it is up to the make-up of the dog. However I also believe that if the ground is just frozen with little to no snow cover it isn't going to hold as much scent as wet snow and it will take the kind of tenacity that the good dry ground dogs have.

JMO

[shoot4fur]

thats what i am talking about. That is interesting to me. that does make sence seeing that we do not get much precip from a big snow. never thought of it that way.???

[jason]

Oh this is getting good, Catdog and live to hunt, you two a couple of dry ground master cat-hunters of Montana?

[jason]

I think the hardest part of hunting in areas for cats with no snow is finding a runnable track, i've turned out on tracks i've found in mud or in one case i seen a bobcat run across the road in front of the truck on mostly snow less (just snow under trees and on north facing ridges). But the catch percentages have been low running in the partial conditions especially when you get on the wind-blown ridges.