BigGameHoundsmen.com

Hey guys I am getting back into the hounds. After I joined the Corps I haven't been hunting with hounds much. Just got two pups from my uncle his male is out of topper again, and the female is out of a Mike Kemp hound. I was wanting to run bobs and lions with them. I was just wondering if I should start them on one sent or another. Would it be better to start them on Grawes bob cat or lion sent. Thanks for your help much appreciated

Brock

Not a big fan of running dogs on scents. If you can't start them with some older dogs , I'd live trap some coons and get them started (just stared ) then switch them over To putting them on a fresh lion or bob track. Good luck , And thank you for your service.

Hey Brock, like Jeff said, thank you for protecting me and my family and my country.

Your name says Kansas, but location says Colorado. I would have different advice for you for each location. Will just say this about Kansas though: if I want to catch a lot of bobcats in Kansas, the last thing I would do would be to start my pups on raccoon. Many mountain and Western type areas the coon are kind of separated from the cats by habitat preference, like where Jeff lives, I am guessing. But in Kansas, Oklahoma etc, if you allow your dogs on coon many, if not most of your cat hunts will be foiled by coon. If your coon den up in tall trees in the cold, this will keep them separate from your cold weather cats. This would only help in the dead of winter though.
.

If you live in an area with enough bobcats to make straight cat dogs, that would be my advice. Most of us don't though, so we have to use other game to get our dogs cleaned up and ready for the cat woods. Many of us have caught cats with dogs trained on coon, but it has been my biggest source of frustration when cat hunting... much bigger than trash of any other kind.

This will sound goofy and make a few people laugh, but I have been able to clean up puppies and get them ready for cat hunting by hunting them on squirrel. This has nearly all the benefits of coon hunting and none of the head aches later on. They will forget all about squirrel once they taste the thrill of dangerous game. I will say the same with rabbit. Anything but coon! Of three of my most favorite dogs, two were started on squirrel, and one started herself on rabbit while running free as a pup. One of them would hunt squirrel if asked to, but would never think of it while cat hunting. The others could not even be coaxed to take a rabbit or squirrel once shown bobcat.

I don't use commercial scent either, but I don't see anything wrong with it if not over done. I would probably choose the bobcat scent myself if I was going to try that method. But I don't think it will matter much. Any young pup that likes cat scent will run either a lion or a bobcat or a wild domestic cat for that matter. To me, the key is getting them "cat minded" and in my experience that can be done with any type of cat. I would keep them away from coon if you are hunting flatland and want to get serious about cat. If you just want to get out and have some fun with dogs, don't sweat it. Coon are fun too. What ever you decide, have fun! We wish you the best. Sure sounds like you got some good dog flesh to work with.

Keep us posted.

Hey guys thanks for the replies. I am originally from northwest Kansas. So the name Kansas kinda stuck in the Corps. But I live in Colorado now, I would be going home to run some bobbers back there. And I didn't really figure it would matter what I started them on for a scent just as long as they new what they were chasing. I figured a cat was a cat, I was thinking of running coons with them. But that's good advice David since we have a lot of coons running around back home.

I would like strictly cat dogs. My dad had a male that we ran cats and coons with. Don't get me wrong I love hunting coons. But the cats provided that much more of a challenge and that's what I want so I would like more of a cat dog.

Hey guys thanks again for the advice I will take whatever more knowledge you want to give.j

Brock

First of all THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!! And after reading the third post. I was going to simply say it could not have been said much better. Than out of curiosity I went back to see who the poster with the knowledge was. Saw it was David , Nuff said!!! There are some on here that people need to pay close attention to. And if you read enough it will become very easy to separate the wheat from the chaff.



Take care, Willie

where in colorado? with my dogs once they started runnin lion they would run both but the bobbers are ten times harder to catch so if you get them catchin bobs consistently, lion is cake

I live in the fort Collins area. I figured if I got them started on or the other they would run both. Where are you located at in Colorado muzzy.