BigGameHoundsmen.com

Just wondering how old of a track a good bobcat dog can trail or run. I'm sure this has been brought up before but would like to hear from some experienced bobcat hunters. This has been brought up on another website and they're looking for a dog that can take a track from last night and strike it at noon today trail it and tree it. Just wanting to hear some thoughts on this. Thanks

good luck with that.... you will hear people say that they do it but I would say if them same people seen a bob cat in the road today at noon and came back at midnight that they wouldn't even get a wiggle...jmo think about a fifteen minute loose and never get it going again? in perfect everything, It probably has happened but not every day.....ok guys beat me up all you want lol

If you don't have a dog that can start and run a night old track in this area you won't catch many cats. I am talking our snow conditions. I am sure old dog is spot on on dry ground hunting. I know a lot of guys want to believe they have dogs that catch day old tracks on dry ground but in reality they are only fooling themself. Now i suppose there are always exceptions. Jmo Andy

So in snow do you think or know that a dog could take a 14 to 18 hr bobcat track and tree it. No disrespect intended here just trying to pick some of your brains and learn something. I've treed several bobcats but I don't claim to be a bobcat hunter.

Years ago in Ca, I went up on the hill to make a call and saw a bobcat in the road at exactly 6pm. I went back to camp and found out we couldn't run at night there so I went up in the morning. At 6am, the best dog I've ever owned, struck, ran and treed the cat.(no snow) That same pack, however, also had trouble starting a 5 hour old track. I had seen the cat on the way to cut firewood and, after the woodcutting was done, I went back with the dogs. They boohoo'd around a bit but never did much with it at all.

I can say that it does depend on the scenting conditions, but a dog had better be able to track and tree a night old track in my country. If not, it is not earning its feed. Not all tracks, but most.

If its real cold and dry, and the dog cant smell the track, but i see its a bobcat track, i'll get the dog on it. I hunt well above 6000 ft. He should sight trail it since I will be walking on the track as well. When the track warms up he should pick it up, and quick. Both my dogs do this, one is much better than the other.

But really who cares. I can never know exactly how old unless I see the cat. And I will run it, cause if I don't, I wont hear treed. And that is what its all about.

Not contesting anyone.But your conditions are way more relevant than time. Good to great conditions 24 hours plus, poor-better be darn quick.

I have a little experiment for you guys in any conditions you hunt........ Pull your dogs off a jumped track and and come back 12 hrs later and put the dogs back on it. Do this 5 times and get back to us on the outcome. Im talking bobcats

awesome idea mark. how do you say it??<<< that should separate the fly shit from the pepper.

A 24 hr+ track will be difficult to get going, especially because of the varied and changing conditions, but it can be and is done. Alot of the track I run has been down all night, having been made late afternoon to dark thirty. I know this because if you pay attention to the frost and the look of track you can deduce around the time made. This is when they move about to hunt anyway.

And it does still depend and scenting conditions. If I waited for a "hot" track I'd only run a half dozen a year. We can't night hunt here, or I would try your experiment.

Tim Pittman has it figured out. Most people turning dogs loose do not understand scent or environmental effects upon it. A Houndsman does.
If all you are looking for is opinions, message boards are great. If you want facts and proven theory read books such as "Scent" by Milo Pearsall or "Scent and the scenting dog" by William G Syrotuck.

If your tracking a 24 hour old track, there better not be another cat within a few miles of where the cat is going. Any number of much fresher tracks could have crossed that track. Maybe you get lucky and it laid up a few hundred yds. in on a kill. Luck is the key word, and lots of it.

My hunting partner use to live above me a few miles. He would get off work andget home about 6 pm there were many times he would call and say we got one to run in the morning. Since we can't night hunt here it would have to wait till morning. So a night old track in our conditions is runnable for the most part. Now I know there are some dogs that can run a feather in a 100 mile wind storm, but since I don't run feathers, partly because they don't tree very well! Lol I am just telling what I have seen first hand no bs. Andy

It can be done but not by a young dog and not every time. in certain snow conditions, it can be done after 2 days but snow is funny like that and can make mediocre dogs look great some times. It can also make a very good dog look silly some times. I watched a dog take a day old (at least) track along a frozen creek with almost no snow on it and work it through the section. About every 60-120 yards I would see a faint track in the snow dust where it was protected from the wind but that was it. David knows this dog, it's name was S.T. I can't remember if he was there for that hunt but I think he was. My dog Buddy was having his first cat season and came out about 60 yards up the road and about a minute behind S.T. but he was down wind of her. I think he was winding her and just keeping up with things. He went on to do quite a good job of cold trailing the next season but that day it was all S.T.

My old Rachel female could take most tracks and get them treed on most days in most conditions. She wasn't quite as good when she was younger but she never stopped learning and was better and better every year until she died. Since then she's become almost perfect but that's only because I only tell her good stories.

I just lost my best cold trailer so I'm back in training mode but I'll bet I have another one by the end of next season. It's not that excellent cold trailers are all that hard to come by. It's as much a matter of getting in the woods and showing the dog new tricks to help it advance. Most good dogs want to find the game and like trailing as long as they don't feel like their not doing a good job. Once their confidence gets shook up, it doesn't take a ton of interference to get them to quit and come back.

The more time you spend out there with the dogs the faster they get good. I don't know of another way that works better but I know of a lot of ways that are easier.

With Garmins, trucks and shockers, are there really very many foot hunters left anymore?