BigGameHoundsmen.com

anybody huntin cats in the east im in pennsylvania im gonna give it a try

I live in central PA and chase cats. I had some bad luck with good dogs and right now I'm just training pups. You will find out very quickly your either a cat hunter or your not, it can be trying on a good day. If you ever stand under a cat treed by dog that you trained from a pup.... you will probably be ruined for life. In a deep snow they can be pretty easy but on the average you will spend a lot of time and money looking for a good dog. If your going to start chasing cats you won't have any rust in the winchester, even if you never see a cat.

I've heard you guy's have some good cat populations to the south. I don't know how much snow you get though, it seems to be hard to come by anywhere the last year or two. Good luck.

I have heard for years of mountain lions living in the East. We all know about the Florida panthers but what about the other states East of the Misssissippi. And hound doggers out there tree any?

no you are right we dont get enough snow we have me cats here although where im at they r not legal ... yet !but i m not far from areas they can be hunted . id be quite content tojust tree the local ones ! lol

Putting them up a tree is what it's all about anyway. You don't need to kill much. Take your camera and shoot all you want.

The difference of bobcat hunting with hounds has always facinated me.
In different parts of the country it takes a completely different type of hound to consistently catch a cat. I say catch a cat because most of the cats I have caught in east Texas have been caught on the ground, would not take a tree. The ones that did take a tree you could not make them jump, you had to kick-em out. Almost all of my cat and lion hunting is done without the benifit of snow. I like reading about all the different things on this forum and give thanks to the people that allow us here to share stories and learn from different parts of the country.
I have never seen a cat dog that would not back a track. Would like to hear some honest discussion on this topic.
David Sudduth
Cleveland, Texas

Bigandblue. Where do you hunt lion around Houston? I have never hunted cats any further east than Nixon, TX. How are your blue dogs bred?
I hunt the area around Dilley with Robbie Hurt and there is no place quite like it for bobcat population. We catch about half of the cats on the ground and tree the others. Back in the early 70's I treed bobat 26 times before the dogs got him killed. They finally ran him under an old cabin at the Big Foot Museum in Big Foot, TX.
We will catch a bobcat here around Menard on a few occasions but lots more coons.

Hi Gary, I used to bobcat hunt 4-5 nights a week just north of Houston. Most of my hunting grounds are broken up in deer leases that no one wants hounds on. So to keep myself out of trouble about 10-12 years ago I started lion hunting in Arizona and spend 2 months a year camped there and hunt everyday. I hunt for the pure pleasure of watching and training my dogs with no agenda to trying to make money out of it. It is my hobby and am very fortunate to have a job that I can do that and come back and still have a job. My wife and her cousin go with me and we do all our hunting by ourselves. Not that we are anti-social by any means but to train a pack to hunt like a pack and not have wrecks all the time I have found that if anyone wants to hunt with us, they are more than welcome.
hunt my pack one day and theirs the next. I sent you a PM when you responded to Hello from Texas but I don't think you got it. Sorry, must have hit the wrong button. Good luck with your game call business. The moniker BIG'n BLUE came from the time I was raising OO Grant blue dogs in the 70's. Still have a soft spot in my heart for the big blues. Right now I have Blueticks, Walkers, Redticks none registered. Most of the blood has come from the southwest. Not many registered dogs have the nose to trail a dry ground lion. I know that comment will start a riot, but not intended to. It is just that most hunters want hot nosed tree dogs to score points and get titles in hunts.
Good luck to you and keep in touch.
David Sudduth

bigandblue, I sure agree with you about many of the registered dogs not having a nose. But if you are going to hunt competition like most of these guys, why waste your time cold trailing anything. The two hour hunt could be consumed while your hound is working a cold track. I have attended a couple of these hunts but it was not for me. To attend one, I have to drive many miles and pass a lot of good hunting country.
I hunt registered blue dogs but try to keep a nose on them. I was raised on a ranch in South Texas and raised Treeing Walkers and hunted primarily coon and a few bobcats (like today). One year, I caught 80 bobcats with my hounds and an old gentleman that I hunted with. I do not remember how many coons. My best hounds were Bluetick and Running Walker cross dogs. The Treeing Walkers did not have the nose and seemed a little too "coony" to make a great cat hound. In other words, they would leave a cold cat track to tree a coon and were a little too quick to tree. I am like you and don't want to start a riot but most of the fellows who have good succes with Walkers are fellows who hunt in a wetter climate than what we have and can wait for a snow. But if I hunted their country, I would proably be hunting Walkers, also. It seems to me that certain breeds work better in certain climates.

Gary, I have hunted them for 30+ years and you are correct about the general run of Treeing Walker hounds. They prefer coon or bear to bobcat or lion. I have lost many cat tracks due to some "fool" switching to a coon. There are some exceptions, but they are rare and are usually dogs that are hunted in the daytime and not tempted by exposure to coons. It is also true that they have too much "tree" bred into them.

The last few years I have found that cross bred dogs have advantages that I like---perhaps a topic for another time.

briarpatch

big n blue u are right about this forum i love it and im glad its back . a big thank you to all who responsable and thanks for all the great posts !!!!!!

8) i live in the southern blueridge mtns and have personally seen 2 wild cougars-or could have seen the same one twice-1 st time i was a park ranger doing night patrol -saw 50-60 pound cougar jump road in front of me- about a year later 5 miles or so from there i released 1 good coon dog and couple pups-the good dog trailed out of hearing and was gone in extremely rough territory-took me until late next evening to get to her and she had a cougar up in an oak tree growing out of a rock cliff. needless to say i was shocked.since then wildlife biologist have confirmed cougar kills on deer in the area-they say cats have been pets turned loose. that may be the case but all my life i have known reputable huters that have caught glimpses of cougars in our mtns. i think there are probably enough to be a breeding population now.strange how wildlife dept likes to say they are not cougars around but the rule books say dont kill one??

I've had a few lion tracks crossing roads the last few years.

bearhntwi wrote:I've had a few lion tracks crossing roads the last few years.

Where have you been seeing these lion tracks? People see lions occassionally in Price county but I can't find a track.
Kyle