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we run bear with a mix of hounds some where arround 15 dogs in the group.....we dont start looking for tracks or checking baits untill AFTER day light.....there are days we dont even start a bear track untill 10:00 am....and we get them giong...and we see the bear atleast 9 out of 10 races.....even catch half of them....we have dogs with lots of cold tracken in em...BUT WE CAINT TREE ONE...we can not get a bear to tree to save our lives....theres not a dog in the pack we would not turn loose...or a dog in the pack that dont have scars....what do yall think....should we get rid of the pack and start new....get some dogs with more gritt....or just watch them run?????

were you located?

diddo Outlaw!!!

Michigan

I have a friend that just came back from Michigan and he said the same thing. He runs walkers and has had great success in the same area in the past.

I am gonna go waaaaaaaay out on a limb and maybe sound stupid or make some folks mad! Next time you see a good fresh bear track, take a stick and smack that track with the stick, look at it close!!!!! then smack that bear track 15 times with a stick and see what ya got!!!!!! Point being, in my "opinion", you can litterally beat that track to the point that the track no longeer exist. In other words...to many dogs, becides the first 2-3 are really doing all the work!!!!!!!

Now, heres what my own "eyes" have shown me. Me and my family have treed 8 bears with our "COON dogs"!!! Longest race lasting 40 minutes and never using more than 3 dogs! Been told reason being is "Every" bear we treed never had "preasure" before! Are we just Super lucky people...or could it possibly be that "speed made them climb?????

I am not a bear hunter, this is not to brag by no means....out of the 6-7 Coon dogs we have had at different bear trees.....only "2" where what I concider Beardog material!!! That being said.......if we had those "2" dogs still and got serious about bear.....we could and would have treed bear "CONSISTANTLY"!!!!!!!!!!

Paul

we start each track with 1-3 dogs no more than 3....we usto only run 3-4 onece we got it jumped but now that we havent treed one we have tried dumpen more to put more pressure more noise behind them...still not worken....

That is really odd, we have had lots of bears just not want to climb this year but we are starting to put more and more up lately, i dont know, man, I wouldn't get rid of good running dogs if they will stay with a bear on the ground....Dont know what to tell ya...

We have a couple bear that we run. They are the same two bears and they won't tree period, not with one dog or with fifteen. It definitely shows the real beardogs. Is it possible you are running the same bears that just won't tree.
I would also try hunting somewhere else to see if it is the dogs or just a few bear that won't tree. If it is the bear I would eliminate THOSE bear if possible.
Just a thought.....

This topic kinda firms up a earlier post on the old tree that stirred up alot of people , some were saying it takes lots of girt to put bears up and some were saying some bears just don't tree! I believe the bear run's the dog's the dog's don't run the bear, meaning if the bear wants to tree it will and if it dosen't want to climb then no matter how gritty of dogs you put on it or how many, the bear isn't going to climb. this is just my opinion but I would agree with Beartree if possible eliminate those bears and run some that will tree.

Lightning Ridge I agree with you 100%, some just wont tree. If its kill season I would get out ahead of the dogs and wait real quietly and try to see whats going on, If the bear isnt paying any attention to the dogs I would put a piece of lead in him. I have had this same thing happen to me and i really believe it will help you killing one on the ground in front of the dogs.It seems like they try a little harder the next time. If hes just running let him go, Its not the bears fault then thats when I would take a closer look in what I was calling my bear dogs.Bears are like dogs in the sense that some need to be culled.

we hunted a new spot last weekend....but it was just toooooo dry...didnt have much luck....i aprechate all of your thoughts keep them commen good or bad....

I agree that some just will not tree People often misunderstand me but VERY few bears cannot be stopped and held . Yes bears decide but if the dogs do not put pressure either speed or bite or whatever to make it change course then the bear does not have to do something different .
But that is the difference in knowing what a top beardog is and is not or can do . To bad they are so few and far between for me.

Pogo, Just out of curiosity what kind of country are you running in? Meaning What kind of trees are available for a bear to climb? There are places out here that have bear but trying to hold a bear in a cedar tree just doesn't work too well. Bears here will run all day in the low country but if they take a notion to Tree they just head on up and find the biggest ponderosa they can climb. Only twice have I seen an adult bear held in a small tree, we treed a huge boar in a short pinion Pine, and once in an aspen, but most seem to seek the sanctuary of the biggest tree on the mountain.

Last year we repeatedly ran a bear that wouldn't tree. Iit was our default chase every afternoon cause he was always in the same cove. We'd walk dogs in and chase all afternoon getting dogs slapped around all day ( some of them got pretty tore up) then pick em up and head home. Several times we saw the bear, and once he ran almost up to me and my daughter as we listened to the chase. I'd say we ran him 8-10 times and always in the same loop. Then one afternoon we walked 8 dogs into his cove and 6 went backwards, 2 took it the right way. A female and a young pup (actually at the time, because of the rocks making it impossible to see a track we thought 2 went backwards and 6 went right) . Long story short, the day the bear finally treed and stayed, there were only 2 dogs behind him, and one was a 8-10 month old pup. He was in a massive Ponderosa surrounded by cedar and sage brush. I walked in a took pics and let him go. The next day we had a kill tag with us and because he was a big boar we went straight to his cove and put the 8 dogs on him (all going the right way ) He started his loop again but circled back and made a bee line to the exact tree he had found the day before. I wondered if he never treed all those times just because there was simply no place he felt safe to tree?? The was no other differing factor, same bear same dogs but all of the sudden he learned how to grab timber.

Dunno but if I were you I'd try a different area or talk to other hunters in that exact area and see if they are treeing Bears. If they are you have problems, if not you might just be in a tough as hell area.


Ricky

we have anything from hardwoods to swamps to feed flats.....we have pine trees arround here that i could park my truck in....i have ben talking to some of the guys and nobody is really treeing them....most of the guys think its due to the fact we dont have big bears....the biggest taken arround here was two years ago i think and it went 590 and he was taken on the ground....but the bear were runnen now or that everyones is runnen are 200 and under....so i guess that could be why there not treeing....i dono....