BigGameHoundsmen.com

this is probably a rookie question, but i am a rookie so hear goes. I have never hunted cats without snow on the ground. if i cant see a track in the snow i dont know how to start the hunt can anyone help me out . my dogs are just over a year old and this season will be the first season i let them try to get a cat on there own . usally we have snow on the ground by opening day of cat season but this year no snow and cat season opens dec 1 . any advice or help on how to start a dog with no snow would be greatlly appreciated .

check out the training section. the post on the to from mike L. it works great but takes alot of time. here is a picture of last weekend helping a friend bow hunting in the central cascades.

what i am trying to ask is how do you guys find a cat if there is no snow on the ground to see the track in . do you just walk with your dogs tell they pick up a scent? . or just turn them loose and hope they find the scent and find a cat?

So what are we hunting lions or bobcats?

I'll assume you're hunting lions and say sure, you can walk with the dogs in places lions like to cross and hope for a strike. If you have a good lion populations and know those places then that method of hunting can surely get you and your dogs some action.

I have a few places I walk and strike for lions and others where I road them on the wheeler, and either way we get some trail time or catches. In my opinion, walking along with the hounds and watching them strike an old tom scratch is about as much fun (or more) than seeing one in the tree, cause a lion wise hound will just blowup when they strike a fresh dirt track or scratch.

After you've done these two methods of striking for lions a person can also get those dogs rigging on scent and work them in areas where a tom passes or scratches, usually in a canyon bottom or over a narrow saddle of a ridgetop. If it's a tom lion, you won't have to follow the track very far and you'll find him scratching and know what you've got.

Good luck and let us know how you do..........
Ike

http://www.coondawgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=64373

Excellent advice from Ike I can add nothing just go have fun and don't get discouraged because if it was easy everybody would do it.

Excellent advice Mike and Ike, for every 1 lion you catch on the dirt you probably try 20 times, in my experience, but those hounds are of no benifit sitting on a chain.

If you have hay pivots in your area that are atracting lots of deer you can start lions off them first thing in the morning while the dew is still good. this isn't as majestic as a mule and a desert canyon but it will give those young dogs a fighting chance. don't exspect more than your dogs are capable of and don't get discouraged.

High Desert,

That's dang good advice, and I might add any good hay area that attracts deer or elk can be a good spot to check especially if it lies between ridges that lions travel on.

I was recently hunting elk in an area off a ranch they had some really nice high mountain grass hay fields that wound thru the valley with a little jump across clear creek running thru it. Well right there at one end of the ranch yard there was a double twin tin whistle culvert crossing on the road that ran down the valley. One morning we noticed the water was running up around the culverts and up on the road. Thinking maybe the beavers had blocked it off we went to see. Well a female lion with two big subs had killed a yearling elk and had drug it down in there and tried to cross the creek I guess. Anyway this thing lodged right up against those culverts and blocked the water off. They had ate off it and even tried to cover it some. Their tracks were plain there in the mud. This wasn't a 100 yards from the ranch house, and several old mongrel ranch dogs and a hyper border collie pup were right there and never heard a thing I guess. So don't worry to much if there is some activity if the lions see prey and they want it they will come around.

Thanks everyone for all the advice . and yes it is lions i am tring to hunt i will try every sugestion you guys gave me and hopefully my hounds will find a track . evan if it takes up every spare second i got i will get those dogs under as tree with a lion in it this season . thanx again and good hunting to you all