Bobcat Jump Style

[dhostetler]

I have talked with various hunters about the way jumped bobcats run. Most hunters pretty much tell me I am full of crap. When I jump a bobcat in Montana most are a line drive to the tree, anywhere from a 100 yards to 2 miles. Following are the details of all my recent bobcat races.

Race #1 guy calls me saying he jumped a bobcat off the road (seen it). Turned on it an hour later had to shove my dogs up a 15' cliff to get them off the road. They ran it good up to the next road .6 mile and lost it. I spent hours trying to figure out what happened. Finally a day later i decided that they may have run it backwards???

Race #2 turned on a track in 6" inches of snow was 40 degrees and raining. Jumped it in 300 yards. They had a tough time putting pressure on it. In brushy areas they could burn it good but in open areas they seemingly could not smell it at all. Seen it hit the road twice with the dogs 30 feet behind and as soon as it got out of the brush they absolutely could not smell it. I had to literally grab a dog and shove it into the brush where i seen the cat go to get them to go.

Race # 3 turned loose June, Ranger, & Diamond on the track. They cold trailed it about a mile. Ranger was 50 yards in front all of sudden made a sharp 100 yard sprint to the right jumped it and did a high speed 400 yard sprint treeing it. June & Diamond made an additional 200 yard circle in track to get to the jump Ranger made.

Race #4 turned loose Buster, Ranger, & Diamond on a snowed in track. Took an hour to get to move it 600 yards. Jumped it 300 yards above the road, I was standing on the road and the bobcat almost ran over me (dogs were 30' feet behind). Ran 200 yards below the road took a sharp corner going another 50 yards and treed.

Race #5 met a friend with hounds. Turned loose June & Ranger. Friend turned a dog in to but his dog wouldn't go. Cold trailed it a mile or so June was a 100 yards in the front of Ranger when she jumped it. The attached picture is June's track, she jumped at the highest point. Went downhill 200 yards made a corner and went about 150 yards and treed it.

Race #6 found a hour old track, turned in June & Ranger friend turned a dog in. Jumped it 50 yards above the road after a 400 yard fast cold trail. Crossed the road and line drove it 400 yards parrale to the road about 100 yards below the road & treed it.

Race #7 Spent 2 days looking for a tom track passing up smaller tracks. Wanted to use my last tag on a tom. Finally found a tom track with a lot of snow in it. See attached picture of the race. The race is the green track. Turned loose June, Ranger, & Diamond they left silent at 400 yards i started getting bark notifications on the Alpha they were out of hearing. I drove around to the bottem swith back when they crossed the bottem road they were jumped. Ranger was in front, Diamond was 150 yards behind, June was .6 mile behind. I don't know when they jumped it but they there were 3 running tracks crossing the bottem road 30' feet apart, couldn't tell which was was the cat track and which was the dog tracks. They pretty much line drove it 1.5 miles below the road to the tree. Was a 29.5 lb. male

Race #8 (best race of all) Ran an 18 lb. female with a friend, I turned loose Ranger and he turned a dog loose. They cold trailed it 3 miles, was a tough cold trail, friend's dog got throwed out. Ranger jumped it 300 yards above the road, smoked it down across the road, friend packed in 2 more dogs. Was a tight running road runner. Hit the the road the 4th time (Ranger was 20' behind) right in front of the truck ran down the road doubled back ran back into the dogs, dogs lost it. After a lot of screwing around i finally injected June. Friend's 2 dogs finally got it out of the mess. Line drove it a mile down the creek and treed it.

Race #10 found a red hot track. Turned loose June & a friend turned a dog loose ran it fast 150 yards to the top of a 75 foot cliff. We grabbed the dogs before they became suicidal.

Race #11 Turned loose June, Trapper, & Trigger. Hot track fast cold trailed it 500 yards, jumped it 300 yard line drive to the tree.

Race #12 Found a hot track. Turned loose Ranger, Diamond, Trapper, Zoey, & Trigger. Cold trailed it 100 yards, jumped it was a high speed 800 yard 3/4 circle to the tree.

In the part of Montana where I hunt to be sucessful in my opinion you need dogs that pressure a bobcat enough to keep it from running tight. I want my dogs to run a jumped bobcat head up drifting the track and roaring. I want the cat to have the fear of God in him. I also believe in Oregon it is to brushy for my dogs to run a jumped bobcat like they do in Montana.

[pegleg]

What you describe sounds like pretty open country with not a whole lot of pressure compared to game numbers. Cats are quick but not faster then a hound. So if you get in more cover they can duck dodge and breathe.I've hunted them on the plains and foothills where your catch numbers are real high. Here in the oaks its pretty similar if there's not heavy brush or rocks. But if your in brush its more trailing and not nearly as certain. We have some wash areas with heavy clump grass and water tunnels that is nearly impossible to catch a cat in. When they do its normally torn up and covered in slobber and dirt. I'm really not sure why your uncomfortable with your hunts. Part of running bobcats is how much variation there is from area to area.it doesn't have as much to do with the type of dog your using as some might imagine. There's some variation sure but its not nearly the deciding factor terrain is. But most game run by hounds is like that.

[highline]

not all parts of Oregon are brushy

[dhostetler]

Pegleg,

I have friends from Livingston, MT that hunt with me occasionally and they think my country is terribly brushy. The Oregon coast is so brushy it is beyond comprehesion. No I am not uncomfortable with my hunts. A lot of bobcat hunters say a bobcat is only caught while running tight and when it lines out it is not under pressure. My races are the exact opposite and when I state that fact makes most bobcat hunters think i am full of shit. So that is why I posted my last 12 race details so if people still think i am full of crap then so be it LOL

[dhostetler]

This picture is probably more representative of our bobcat habitat. Along roads and logged areas it is more brushy. A lot of bobcats tree in the old growth creek bottems that were never logged.

[al baldwin]

I will take nothing away from you or your dogs ability, do not want any part of the cold snow country, doubt we have a dog that would do worth a damn there. Tom & I do not catch every cat, that/s for sure, I made six hunts with him so for this harvest winter, treed two one day by 12.30 pm. Had a long trail job & about a one hour race another day and treed a single female. That hunt started at 7am and ended at about 4.30 pm, six dogs and they all contributed, five walker mixes & one blue dog. The blue dog is not the best cat hound most days, that day he looked like a high dollar dog. Another day as we walked out a mud road, TJ found a track on the ridge above us & opened a couple times. That cat came off that ridge like it was shot from a gun & crossed right in front of us, very windy & rain, dogs spend a few hours after that critter unable to get close enough to put real pressure on that cat. Those type cats are very hard to catch here in my experience. Another day had a very long trail job, hard frozen ground, finally got a jump had a decent race, that cat finally just eluded the dogs. Two other times never got a track we we able to jump, some trailing, just could not put on jump to either track. I will say in my experience when dogs get to putting pressure on a lot of the cats here that is when they go to ducking & dodging, squatting and etc. That was the belief of my two mentors, both were professional hunts in their younger days & caught a pile of bobcat in their day. I have found those strait line running cats more likely than not, are going to get caught here. Now, it is my belief if your cats do not do a lot of ducking & dodging, you will never know how many cats you can catch with those dogs here. That has been the down fall for an awful lot of dogs in this country, especially eastern bred dogs. There are times when these cats get to thinking they can slip around on these dogs at will, make a mistake and get caught. Have over the years also seen numerous cat that tried every trick in the book before breaking on a strait dead run, dogs run the wind out of them and the cat just pretty much lays down & dies. I have a two year old grand daughter to Andy/s Topper here, hunts hard, nose seems good as any, crappy mouth, trails ok, not treeing good at all. Tom really likes her, time will tell. Season are short, hunted on cat only, most dogs for us aren/t doing great at two on bobcat. As a very good bobcat hunter told me once, have seen some two year old that can tree some bobs,NEVER seen a two year old cat dog. Just my experience. Thanks Al

[twist]

In the country where I hunt if you have a hound that track stradles on a jumped cat your catch rate is not great. They need to run heads up with no mistakes and the desire to eat what's at the end and catch rate goes up. Andy

[al baldwin]

In the country where I hunt if you have a hound that track stradles on a jumped cat your catch rate is not great. They need to run heads up with no mistakes and the desire to eat what's at the end and catch rate goes up. Andy

Andy these dogs we are hunting do not stradle on a jumped cat, we have very little off barking. Those pictures of your Montana bobcat land looks like a walk in the park compared to the ground we are hunting. There is some ground in the Tiller country that looks a lot like that,most hunters who hunt there have told me the cats are not near as hard to catch as on this coast ground. It is a whole bunch easier to make no mistakes when a cat runs in a strait line, can say I have never seen a dog that did not over run a ducking dodging cat some if they ran like a grey hound. Dogs that settle down on a ducker and run a steady pace have caught more duckers than those race horses for me. Mark came down & ran one of these educated cat, he probably has as good as anyone, you have hunted with him, they had his, JC Padgett & John Warner best on that cat, that cat was still running at the end of a long race. I have no desire to challenge any one/s dogs just telling like I have experienced it. Have a hunter here who lived in montana a few years he told me long ago your cats run very different, as you describe. Tom has a six year old I believe could run with most anything you have, he cold trails tight & waste no barks when jumped. Runs the front 9 out 10 jumps we get. Getting & keeping a tight jump I agree is the secret to success. I could take you to a half dozen places where unless you hunt a silent dog, tough to get that tight jump. If we all agreed this site would be boring. best hunting to all. Al

[twist]

Al, you are sure correct. I have never ment to compare dogs just areas so if one has taken it that way I apologize. I was just stating what kind of dog that I prefer to hunt and what catches the most cats in this area. Glad to hear the young granddog out of Topper is working out sure hope the treein comes on as that is a strong point with my hounds. Andy

[pegleg]

That's real open. We have some areas up in the higher old growth that's similar but I don't start or finish many bobcats there mostly lion or bear. In those conditions a dog can really open up and run without shredding itself or being blinded.

[mike martell]

Here is what I know...Bobcats run how they run..I have them duck and dodge, two out of three I caught where JC was deer hunting made tight circles and treed, had the third that same day pop up in an area known for runners, possibly made a kill and was full? I agree Al, those cats that run tight circles then line out are more easily caught...I hunted many years ago with a nice young bobcat savvy little hound that after a bobcat circled a half acre patched, left out after circling a dozen or so times, My little female left with the bobcat on the last circle while another guys hound just kept circling, I mention his dog was hung up and the cat had left...He was mad as hell until my female treed the bobcat and he ended up waiting for the track to fiz out...

Had my last bobcat two nights ago started one hour after dark decide it wanted to be in a culvert, it went some 1000 yards after the jump to the bottom of the canyon and made a 90 degree turn back up the hill in fairly deep snow, I was listening for the dogs to go treed as it usually happens, after a few minutes this cat got rolled on the ground by my dogs, they didn't hold this cat for long and the race was back on, wide open, this cat possibly passed 100 trees with the hounds close enough to about bite this cat when It barely made the culvert...Why did this cat pass that many trees and try making the culvert? Not sure, like all my hound hunting adventures...I either catch them or I miss them....When I miss.... It's because I switch hit my hounds and I don't own a real bobcat hound so I have an excuse.... I have lots of excuses!!!!

Most of being successful is understanding hounds, habitat and your intended quarry, not to mention how hard you work at it, plus a little luck...The more I hunt, the more likely I am to answer my own questions...Here is what I expect...I expect to tree the cat once jumped regardless of it ducking and dodging or lining out...It just doesn't always work out this way in the end...On the way home with my tail between my legs I think, damn, after more than forty years, I'm still doing this and haven't got any smarter in that time....

Why did this bobcat not tree? Not because the hounds weren't pushing this cat...It clearly was destined to make the culvert that almost cost it's life just seconds before. Why does a bobcat run so hard to collapse and die?...Why? Bobcat hunting and all hound hunting for that matter is a fun sport with no real answer and mainly theories or speculation...... stay humble friends!

[merlo_105]

Mike I always like reading about your hunts you write it out so well. Looks like a nice cat. Any who I dont know crap about them Montana Cats. I do know I run the same cats as much as I can, when the cat quits wanting to tree and runs a little more I'll leave that one alone for awhile. I'll run these same cats in the snow and the race is half as good. I'll get a lot of lined out jumps to the tree and thats it or a good half circle. But them same cats will put it on and dip and dodge on bare ground. Seems like snow they just say screw it ill clime.

[mike martell]

I do know I run the same cats as much as I can, when the cat quits wanting to tree and runs a little more I'll leave that one alone for awhile.

Earl

I do the same thing except for a different reason...I'm pretty sure I don't have the dog power to tree the bobcat, so rather than have the cat educate me one more time. I simply move on to the next track...Learned that from putting on those rank road side mean bears that were always a crowd favorite and just waiting close to the road rolling up their sleeves ready to ambush the hounds!

Safe travels!

Mike

[merlo_105]

I try to avoid them if I know there going to get caught on the ground. Obviously some days they just get caught. But when I have a runner I like to keep it a runner instead of a use to be a good runner.

[houndogger]

Seems like you had a decent week.