gray fox vs. bobcat dogs

[mike martell]

i have been spending alot of time in southern oregon hunting. being limited to the hunting less brush for health reasons and looking for bobcats i have discovered a ton of gray fox. i started running them with my bobcat hounds. these little dudes are alot of fun and really give you a race. you can heat them up and make them climb. this is the only reason for doing so. i actually treed one for twenty minutes while he rested up and bailed out on me. unlike a bobcat in our region that stay treed. i want to ask you california guy's what differs between the two species in your opinion. even other states that have gray's. rigging for five minutes and starting a grey or rigging for an average of two hours to start a bobcat....looks pretty clear to me. think i need some running, track style hounds.

jmo. i think if you can tree fox on a regular basis those bobcats better look out.
i also noticed they tend to loop in a drainage around in circles for as much as a couple of hours. i had the odd one line out after being treed. good to get some solid input from all of you guys that live in fox country....my ignorance...this is the best kept secret.

[Rod Vinson]

Here in North Carolina I run grey fox during the summer in the green crops, we have very few that climbs and a few go in holes. Our cat season opens in October and runs till the last day of February, so the grey fox gives the cats a break and lets them finish raising their little ones and the race for the hounds is good as well. I may run a few after Oct. by accident but when I leave home I'm looking a cat! I think the grey fox helps get the dogs nose out from under their feet, so to speak. I run running walkers here! Good luck and have fun!

[Everlast]

Grey Fox are a bit more abundant here in Central Ca. than bobcats, but theres plenty of both. I love to run both. Most people around here just road their dogs or send them up canyons and whatever the dogs strike (cat or fox) you just let 'em go. Sometimes the dogs will be running and you think to yourself, "now that's gotta be a fox", then they'll tree and it will be a cat. Or vice-versa. you really never know until you get to the tree.

[kickemall]

I hunt both and find that, generally, cats are trickier and fox are tougher. They tend to run similar like Everlast said, lots of time you'll think its one only to find out its the other. I hunt bear a lot and it sure keeps them more sensible to be running cats and fox regularly. If you like a good race I can't imagine why you wouldn't run both.

[Everlast]

"cats are trickier and fox are tougher"

That's about the best I've ever seen it described......

[fallriverwalker1]

hey mike all our diffrences aside i do read your posts and can appricate some of the things your trying to do up there wish we had people down here that underwstood that fish and game wasnt our friend that said ' i like to run fox down here ' i catch a few , if you want to have a longer race , when you get to the tree jump them out ,they learn not to tree as fast makes a lot longer race ,and tougher dogs , they dont run like a cat ,but just as fun , jim

[radar]

I Think gray foxes are the hardest to catch those are some crafty little bastards. when either of them trees better keep your eye on them, the'll pull some houdini shit!!!!

[jason]

How hard is it to switch Cat dogs over to Gray fox dogs? I used to run bears over in Idaho and they'd say their dogs would bust on coyotes which never has happened here in Montana to me but interesting that's for sure?

[mike martell]

thanks to all....i'm hooked on fox for life...mr pharris. no hard feelings on my end...life is too short. sometimes things just don't work out. pretty bad when calif has more hunting than oregon.hope you and bill a. are doing well and catching lots of game. hey jim...before you can jump those fox out you have to tree them.....lol.
jason. my dogs took right to them, they figured out real fast they don't fight back like a bear....it took a few races to figure things out. i treed my first one last week...
take care...mike

[Gary Roberson]

Treed a gray fox last Sat. with my two pups. I don't let them have the fox as I don't see them being a threat to livestock or much wildlife. I think they are excellent ratters and catch a lot of mice. I call my dogs off and leave them in the trees to run again.
Adios,
Gary

[mike martell]

gary, good valid point. i do depredation in southern oregon and work with the game department biologist. crop damage is the issue. you extract the grey fox and you have tons of ground squirrels. leave them alone and they keep them under control. like i explain to the land owner....what can you live with the least? my take is run the grey fox and let em go and kill the squirrels.....they are at an all time high their for population. as i see it only a matter of time before they contract canine distemper and wipe them out. reason being they are in close proximity to dogs and share the same feed dish. if only we could get the grey wolf infected. shame on me....

[slowandeasy]

I Think gray foxes are the hardest to catch those are some crafty little bastards. when either of them trees better keep your eye on them, the'll pull some houdini shit!!!!

sure do agree 100% most coonhunter's and alot of dry ground lion hunter's don't no their tanglin with this little critter. catch ya later!!

[Everlast]

In regards to switching dogs over from bobcats to fox, I wouldn't try that, I just let them run both. However, I do have a few "oldtime" hunters that swear to me that they never had any trouble breaking their dogs off of coyotes until they started running fox. They tell me that back when they only ran cat and bear, that coyotes were not a problem.

Hard for me to say one way or the other.............coyotes have always been a pain in my ass! Then again I've always ran fox too.

[Justaguy]

Mike,

My dogs would run either the same and we never had a problem with the dogs slipping over to coyotes. Bob or Fox made for a good race and we never were in it for the hides so we always let them go. If you take one today, you can not run them tomorrow and besides the cats would learn new tricks just about every time you ran them....

[Patrick]

"and we never had a problem with the dogs slipping over to coyotes" NEVER?
And wouldn't that be a beautiful fanatasy world for a California varmint hunter to live in.

Everlast, I have to agree with the lesser coyote trouble out solely of cat dogs. I lost all my dogs but one young one quite a few years back. She just didn't care for fox and I pretty much just treed cats with her. As I raised and trained a new pack they followed suit treeing primarily cats, and I minimal coyote troubles from them. After awhile different dogs started treeing more fox and correspondingly I had to get more diligent on coyote breaking.

Pat