How many south texas bobcat/lion hunters left??

[Big N' Blue]

Great thread Guys,
Shorty ask Phil if he remembers a dog called lemond.

[memo jaramillo]

THERE IS SOMEONE WHO CAN UPLOAD PHOTOS
GIVE ME YOUR MAIL AND UP SOME PICTURES TO THIS SITE
I PUT SOME PICTURES
BOBCAT TRAP TODAY
VERY HOT AND DRY
Sorry my Inglish

[Shorty]

Memo,
That was not me that was involved in that story. I do know the man that did it though.

[MexicanJoe]

Doe anybody know what became of a guy named Butch from Uvalde or Cotula that drove bullwagons and bobcat hunted?? He used to come down to hunt with Joe Rufus a lot and stuff, seems like there was a guy named Jim Mills in Encino that came by or went down to hunt with a couple of times down US77 in some heavy catty country as well in the valley??? There was another boy from San Antonio that used to hunt on the ArrowS and the 74 ranch down at Cambellton as well on old us 281, can not remeber him but he had running dogs and hunted quite a bit in Atoscita county, how about Joe Ray Prasek and Raymond Wise from Yorktown or Halletsville area who came down and made the rounds as well, was always a blast seeing these guys at Joes house to catch up on what everybody was doing catching and dog talk, guess the deer hunters and deer fencing and old age got to them all, i can not remember the last time i saw a lion or bobcat on the back of a truckdogbox at El Comdor restruant or at the IceBox in Georgewest,,,

[South Texan]

Mexican Joe,

I think that is probably Butch Sammons from George West. He used to haul bulls for Lester Miers the rodeo producer. Butch is still at George West and he started back cat hunting about 3 years ago.

Jim Mills is still at Encino. I think he still has a few dogs but doesn't hunt much unless someone comes down and goes with him.

Robert Mills is the guy south of San Antonio. He lived at Floresville. He hunted on the ArrowS and the 74 Ranch. Robert died probably about 10 years ago.

Joe Ray Prasik has passed on also.

Randy Wisey now lives in Cuero, Tx. and still coming back to Yorktown and hunting mostly on weekends on his old hunting ground.

Mexican Joe, please send me a PM (private message). The old timers are wanting to know who this is that knows all these old cat hunters of south Texas. It is obvious you was there to know all of these hunters.

In a previous post you also mentioned Tom Jennings. He is still at George West. He sold what cat dogs he had left last year. Good to hear from you again. Robbie

[MexicanJoe]

Mexican Joe,

I think that is probably Butch Sammons from George West. He used to haul bulls for Lester Miers the rodeo producer. Butch is still at George West and he started back cat hunting about 3 years ago.

Jim Mills is still at Encino. I think he still has a few dogs but doesn't hunt much unless someone comes down and goes with him.

Robert Mills is the guy south of San Antonio. He lived at Floresville. He hunted on the ArrowS and the 74 Ranch. Robert died probably about 10 years ago.

Joe Ray Prasik has passed on also.

Randy Wisey now lives in Cuero, Tx. and still coming back to Yorktown and hunting mostly on weekends on his old hunting ground.

Mexican Joe, please send me a PM (private message). The old timers are wanting to know who this is that knows all these old cat hunters of south Texas. It is obvious you was there to know all of these hunters.

In a previous post you also mentioned Tom Jennings. He is still at George West. He sold what cat dogs he had left last year. Good to hear from you again. Robbie

Butch is still alive thats good to hear, sad about Joe ray, he sure had a good 1/2 beagle 1/2 running walker i think it was he got from Poole Buttler, anybody know that guy who had the hudspeths that owned the auction barn at Freer, he had some great dogs and a lot of contacts for lion in mexico at one time, i just cant dig out his name, seems like Likes or Lyles or something like that, sad about that Robert too, we had 3 cat dog packs get mixed up once on that road outside of the old rock quarry at Campbellton, Joes dogs, roberts and Joe Rays, somebody at the old cafe in Campbelton called all of us with a polroid picture of a lion that a mailman saw 3 days in a road, he called everybody anybody knew that used to hang out at that closed cafe where all the cowboys and locals used to get chicken fried steaks, it was a woman name i forget now, was nothing to see 4 or 5 trucks there sometimes with dog boxes full of cat dogs when the rain hit and everybody drove south to hunt that loop all the way around back to Freer or Lardeo etc etc especially during a weekend of holiday,,,,,

[Mike Leonard]

Damn Howdy now this is a great post. I have stumbled around the brush a little near George West, Fowlerton and Freer, but unfortunatly never met any of old guys.

Mighty fine reading for an old cedar and pinion brush hunter from New Mexico!


Keep it up boys!

[Shorty]

Mexico Joe,
Talked to Jimmy the other day about dogs. He wasn't sure who got the dogs Joe Rufus had when he died. I'll call Poochie and see what I can find out about that. Jimmy thought the jump dog you were talking about was Queenie. He said if it weren't here it was probably Suzie. Do you remember if she was a Running Walker or a July? I know Queenie was a blue colored dog so it wasn't her. If we can't get to the bottom of this I'll call Cody Henry, he hunted with Joe more than Jimmy.

Again thanks for sharing your time with us!

[MexicanJoe]

Mexico Joe,
Talked to Jimmy the other day about dogs. He wasn't sure who got the dogs Joe Rufus had when he died. I'll call Poochie and see what I can find out about that. Jimmy thought the jump dog you were talking about was Queenie. He said if it weren't here it was probably Suzie. Do you remember if she was a Running Walker or a July? I know Queenie was a blue colored dog so it wasn't her. If we can't get to the bottom of this I'll call Cody Henry, he hunted with Joe more than Jimmy.

Again thanks for sharing your time with us!

Queenie was a blue gyp that some guy gave Phil for his dad from New Mexico, small dog not a bluetick but some kind of crossbred dog, I remeber the red July gyp and i think her name was Lemon or something, some other dogs names I remember were Rounder, Henry and prob a few more if i can look at the pictures in the bunkhouse next time i get home, Queenie became the start dog after she figured out the thick brush would not kill her, she ran up and down the open senderos for a week before she would go into them and run with the rest of the cat pack that had the usual worn off hog hair on there ears from the brush making them bleed after every cat race, she got
to where she was outstarting Rounder which i would have bet the ranch would never happen, we used to catch cats when others could not get one jumped due to the drought with rounder and Henry, Queenie allowed Joe to rest rounder some as he was getting old at that time, I think Queenie started the lion that Joe caught the at Danny Bramens that dry dry summer with that Rooke Boy, is he still hunting, think he was from Refugio, that Cafe was named Emma's at Campbellton, its still standing but guess she has died off or retired, I was looking at my photo collection and saw a pair of old time bobcat hunters from the Austin Texas area I hunted with Joe a time or 2, one guy was legally blind and sat in the truck and listened, his buddy would lead him to a cat tree, anybody remember who those guys were?? They had a english pointer bloodhound cross that started for them, I had her for a while but cant remember what became of her or the owners, she was too cold nosed and i think i traded her off to Poole Buttler for something or another, was reading a an old Hunter Horn add that Poole ran in the classifieds, says 15 running walker cat and lion hound pack, been in Tamps Mexico last 90 days caught 75 bobcats 5 lions, cant remeber what the price was($2500) maybe, but it was huge for the time, thinking this was 85 or so?? Clifford Lyles was the other guy down there at Freer with the Hudspeths cat and lion hounds, gees, wonder who caught the last 5 lions with dogs in south texas??? Or even Live Oak County?? There was a guy at Panna Maria Hardware grocery store that had cat dogs and another guy at Beeville Bugie Humberson or something in the 70's???? I had a Mexico flashback the other day after posting, I found the old wing up alarm clock we took to Mateo Flores ranch and set up on a big pot so Papa Joe could hear it and wake up, usually he wore everybody out so bad we could not get up, somtimes the shingles ate him up and he could not sleep and would load up the dogs and get us to go with him when we were dead ass dead due to 24 hours stright of ruff washed out trails hunting from the truck trying to cut the lion we were after, good old days for sure, somebody pmed me and says one has to go thru an Mexico outfiiter now if you want to go hunting, figures they would get greedy, I bet if somebody slipped in they would turn in a US citizen in a hearbeat?? Is this true about the law now there or just bs from the usual??

[hounddude]

Mexico Joe
I'm just dying to see some of those photo's.
Mark

[Shorty]

Mexico Joe,
The blue gyp Queenie was given to Phil by a man name Billy Kiehne. You may or may not recall the name. However, I figure most of the other readers from the Southwest will recognize it. Billy and Phil remain friends to this day.

Shorty

[MexicanJoe]

Mexico Joe,
The blue gyp Queenie was given to Phil by a man name Billy Kiehne. You may or may not recall the name. However, I figure most of the other readers from the Southwest will recognize it. Billy and Phil remain friends to this day.

Shorty

Never knew him but if he was from out west thats prob right, took her forever to get in the pecking order of his pack but when she did she fired off and started stiking everything where before we could trail and it went to nothing it was so dry, i remember that summer as the worst ever, but i bet now tops it, do you know how that dog was bred by any chance?? I always wondered as I did not usually like trailing dogs, i had goodmans who were from a treeing strain and a few catbred Birdsongs and Hudspeths, I thinking they just about all died out or absorbed into the general running walker herd, do you have any cat dogs or go with anybody down there who does?? I am going to try to find all of the pictures i have and get them posted, what happened to all of Joes pictures when he died, do you know?? There were some really good ones a guy from some magaizne took of a bowhunter shooting out a lion in naked mesquite tree with all of the hounds in it like xmass tree ornaments, i have some of joe at Mateos with the tall ranch hand named Tarzan at the camp, i cant remeber if its the cream or brown chevy 4x4 truck though been too long since i found them at the bunkhouse, thanks for the update, regards MexicanJoe

[Benny G]

..........

[MexicanJoe]

Mexico Joe,
The blue gyp Queenie was given to Phil by a man name Billy Kiehne. You may or may not recall the name. However, I figure most of the other readers from the Southwest will recognize it. Billy and Phil remain friends to this day.

Shorty

Billy still lives around Reserve, NM I believe.

Does anybody know what the breeding of his dogs were, does he still hunt them??

[outlaw13]

This really is one of the most interesting posts that i have ever read. I love reading stuff like this. I am glad i am privledged enough to hunt with old timers who share stories like this with me.