SE Oklahoma Bobcat Hunt(4/29/13)

[Clyde Lawson]

Finally got to get my hounds back in the woods for a hunt with great friends this last Monday Sunday night in one of my favorite areas. Hunting areas are limited in our State this time of year due to turkey hunting season plus we are reluctant to turn hounds out with the mama cats either heavy pregnant or with kittens. We hate to stress them or even catch them at this time of year.

But we got lucky and struck likely a tom this trip the way the ran (2 hours & 20 minutes). And is some of the toughest type of country that you can find. Crop of sawtooth briars in re-growth timber that is from 4 foot to 6 foot tall that a dog can hardly get through makes a bobcat paradise. And area has miles and miles of this type of terrain!

I understand that most hound hunters will not hunt this area after they try it one time? And rightly so! But for training bobcat hounds, I cannot beat it! You don't catch many cats here, and you tree even less. We do bay a number of cats in thickets, beaver huts, culverts, and few holes under rocks(where we can get to the hounds to determine where the cat went). Sometimes the forage is so thick the hounds only can bay at the cat and cannot get to them. This happened twice on this hunt! We were within 150 yards on road when they bayed, then the cat sneaked out and the race was on again. We got to see the cat only briefly as he crossed road in front of truck, but heard all the race and race was never 500-600 yards from our location!

This was my first night out with my hounds in 6 weeks and they were out of shape(this race did them in!) Marion and Hootie had been there for a few days and the hounds they took this night were about 80% used up, but when the cat was struck they shrugged off their hurts and race was on!

I had all seasoned hounds and no really pups, although 6 of my 9 hounds were just 2 years old or less. These young hounds have been on number of cat races since they were 8-9 months old in the same area that was described above. Started hunting 4-5 days per week in November, 2012 in this area with my pack and hunted every week through mid-Feb., 2013. They have seen more cats and cat tracks that most hounds get to in 2-3 years! That is why I devoted so much time and effort there training on these young hounds.

If a person wants to hang fur on the stretcher boards---you would not like this type of hunting! I catch more cats then I can get treed? For some reason they will not go up a tree and may stand to fight under big trees? And I catch maybe one out of five to six that i run(and maybe not that many). i see number of cats in the races, hounds bay number of cats in thickets where they cannot get in to them, and number of the races end in some form of holes. Then let me mention that if weather is not "wet"----then races end up on dry dusty roads & hounds cannot get track off of the road? But that is no big deal! I can run that cat again another day!

Back to our hunt--we had way to many dogs on this race, but majority were pups that really did not know what they were doing! The older hounds could keep the race going and the pups came out and then would go back when race heated up again. What a training race time we enjoyed.

Majority of race was so close we just knew the cat had to go up or be caught---did not happen! As stated earlier, we bayed the cat twice, and he escaped to run again both times! What happened to end the race? We don't know as so many races do in this type of country end up? We think he went into a stream that is pretty wide and running and got away that way. But we will never know, only that the race ended there, they did not catch him, and they could not find a track out of there?

Another one that we will maybe get a chance to run again?

Hope you enjoyed reading, and come hunt with me sometime.

Clyde

[eastxdogman]

Hey Mr. Clyde, what part of SE Ok. Were you at? I am a fly fisherman and have made a few trips up to Beavers Bend S.P. It is some real beautiful country. Since I'm also a houndsman, I spent some time driving around the national forest that is right by the park. It looks like there is a lot of public hunting land in that area. Sounds likbe y'all had a great timeon your hunt.

[VARMIT HUNTER]

Sounds like a great hunt Clyde!