Story of Hunts for Scrubrunner

[scrubrunner]

Somebody post a story about your hunts or start a good thread. I'm cooped up inside recovering from knee surgery. I've done reread all 31 pages of the old stuff on here.

[Tycoon7]

Must be a pretty crappy year for people. Haven't seen half the picture and stories as last year. That's the only reason I get on here, I think I could read and look at pictures if hounds for days and not get bored. Hopefully they start rolling in.

[Dads dogboy]

Scrubrunner,

While you are shut down from going out, go to the Bobcat/Lynx Section to Page 1 and start through them. There you will find some very GOOD Stories from Riverbottom, South Texan, Perk, even ole Flcathunter has a tale or two hiding out in there. Also CRA formerly known as Bigfoot posted a Great Story from the high desert country of NE CA, in a Blizzard that yielded a Beautiful Bobcat hide but some scary moments as well.

Mr. Mike Leonard has posted several good stories as has Spruce Mtn and 2nd Nature, all three of these fine fellows have been way too scarce around this Camp lately!

Mr. Rod Vinson from the Carolinas has been known to share with us the Music his fine Hounds can make when after a Short tail or El Reynard!

So until a good new story can make its way here, go back and enjoy those great oldies....I know I do and it is just like visiting with an old friend when I read these classics!

Hope this helps and good luck with the knee....you are invited to come up and hear the "Opry" in Dixie and Taylor County when we get there around May 1st.

[scrubrunner]

Dads Dogboy, did done that, TWICE. Around May 1rst sounds great to me, my running closes here April 13th for a couple of months, so that would be perfect for me to meet y'all, see your hounds work and hopefully get to hear them run one, or three. Floridacathunter called me Sat. We had a great talk and plan on meeting next time he's up this way. We're over 100 miles apart but know some hunters and ranchers in common.

[Dads dogboy]

Scrubrunner,

Our Clubs in Florida shut down the Hound running in March and April, midnite on May 1st the tailgates drop.

You will have a good time with Mr. John. He is a true Southern Gentleman and has a fine family!

Plan on staying a week or so with us as we will have two Packs of Clay bred Hounds there to harass the ShortTails. Those Bobcats will have had almost a year off so they should be plentiful and full of tricks.

See you then!

[spruce mountain]

My first double. I cut a couple tracks one morning and put my lead dog Sis (4 years old) down on them, she went out and opened right up. I then turned Bonnie (5 years old ) in behind her. In no time they were jumped and realy smoken the track. After a couple of quick circles around the swamp they came up treed. I walked my boy's dog Molly (3 years lod ) in and let them tree a bit . My buddy Doug was with me and he shot the cat. I leashed up Bonnie and Molly and left Sis loose. I told Doug that the worst that could happen was that she would find the other cat and we would run that one to. Sure enogh on the walk out we saw were the other cat had run across our tracks. Sis hit the trail and the race was on. I turned Molly and Bonnie in behind her and they ran out and crossed the road that we were parked on. They ran out and started circling in a swamp for about an hour. We were just about to head in and they broke and lined out for about a half a mile, parrelling the road. In the mean time I had called my brother that was out looking for tracks but wasn't having any luck. I told him that if he wanted to he could come down and if my dogs crossed the road again I would pull them off and he could let his go for some exercise. He said that he would be right over. I had no sooner gotten off the phone when the dog's started screaming back thier back tracks. All of a sudden they came up treed. After a few minutes the 2 older dogs started wandering around but Molly was still treeing steady. This didn't make any sense because they would never leave a tree. My brother arrived and I filled him in and told him that I didn't know what was going on. He said, just take a radio and walk in and let us know whats happening. I went in and the older dog's were just wandering around and Molly was standing there barking at the dead cat. I grabed the cat and turned to walk out and there was Doug who had walked in behind me. He said I didn't even hear you shoot. I said I didn't and told him that the dog's had done the work for us. This was Dougs first day bobcat hunting and he said, man there's nothing to this cat hunting.I Laughed and told him to follow me a few more time's, you'll change you're mind.

The first cat treed

Doug and his first bobcat.

Both cats.

[david]

Boy Spruce mountain, your story sure jogs a ton of memories loose. Thanks for writing it.

How many people on here got to see a bobcat on their very first bobcat hunt? I would be very curious to find out if any of those people are still hunting bobcats. Because you are 100% correct, it sure gives a false foundation to your knowledge of bobcat hunting. I just would be curious to know how many survived that illusion and are still hard at it? Tell us about your first bobcat hunt.

As far as sifting through the archives, know also that long before there was a bobcat section, folks were writing about bobcat hunting in the cat hunting section which I think still remains hidden in the lion hunting section previous to the dates of the first posts in the bobcat section. It would take a little more work because you have to dig through a bunch of lion material to find the bobcat posts.

And help me out here, but wasnt the cat hunting section added later than the original big game hunting section? IF so, you might find bobcat info somewhere else before all the new divisions were added. Not sure how that went.

I sure wish the original shade tree had not been deleted with no warning in a fit of anger. There was an amazing amount of stories and stuff on there from people who are now dead, or who will no longer show up, or who show up occasionally but no longer put a lot of heart in there posts as they did when younger. I wonder if some where out there it got stored in someones system? It would be worth some money if it was. Especially if they also got all the threads that were deleted anytime it made Bruce angry . ("woops, sorry everyone, I hit the wrong button"). Anyone have any Airdale stories? Hahaha Buddy might even let them stay on here... at least over-night.

[david]

OK I did some checking. The first post in the Big Game section was 6/29/07. It is about bobcat hunting

the first post in The Lion Hunting section (cat hunting section at the time) was 7/25/07. It is about bobcat hunting

The first post in the Bobcat hunting section was 2/23/09. It is about bobcat hunting too

So there was at least a year or two where folks had to find some where else to post about bobcat hunting on the current version of Big Game Houndsmen.

I remember some great bobcat hunting posts showing up in the "running dogs" section. I dont even know what happened to those. Hopefully they got moved to the bobcat section.

(Dont want the bear hunters to feel left out: first post in the bear hunting section was 8/18/07. It is made by a cat hunter who has never hunted bears . I am sensing a trend)

[al baldwin]

Nice story spruce mountain, good looking dogs, great pictures. What bloodline are your English? Al

[scrubrunner]

Thanks for the story Spruce mountain, I know it was a FUN DAY !!!

[david]

I Just talked to Carey Clay and he is coming down with the crud. But he told me to write a story here and he would try later if he can sit up straight long enough to type one out.

Spruce Mountains story reminded me of several things, but here is a two cat day That kind of changed the way I did things from that day on.

We cut a pair of tracks and put the youngest dog down to give her a chance to shine alone. Well she was one of these too smart for her own britches and She didnt feel like working a cold track today. Might have broke her manicured nail or something. There was a day when I would have culled a dog that showed mood changes like a human being does, but I already knew too much about this dog to let this bother me too much.

So we took the old Steady girl, always reliable, always the same, out of the box. And as always, she opened immediately as she began moving the track. Well miss smarty pants decides maybe she is not too good for this after all and drifts off to see what her inferior partner is up to. Before long, both were opening, so we fed in a couple more students.

It was not long and the cat was jumped and it turned into a circling race quicker than I really wanted it too. Now smarty pants was leading the pack, as she usually did if it was not too inconvenient for her. She was pulling away from the pack and I could tell by her voice she was about to catch. This was a smaller track and I was getting worried for the cat thinking it was probably one of our track machine manufacturers (female). I am yelling at the top of my lungs for the @#$%^&* cat to climb a tree. Well, she didnt climb a tree and in fact ran into my line of sight just as smarty pants caught up to her and rolled her in the snow. I had such mixed emotions. We live in a land where we have searched 30 hours and not found a cat to run. I wanted to be proud of that young dog, but all I could think about was how hard it is to find a cat track around here. I wanted so bad for that cat to climb.

In a few seconds, all the dogs were there and it was all over.

We knew there had been two sets of tracks. And we knew how long we might drive around trying to find another cat. I told my partner I would find this other cat track out of the area if it took me a few hours to do it. I knew I would find it eventually, and it would likely take less time than driving the roads looking for one.

I let the first mentioned pair of dogs come with me as we began a huge loop around the area. It was less than an hour slogging through snow and crawling through brush when we cut the track of the second cat leaving out of there. Not easy, but much easier than sitting in a darn truck for hours on end wondering if there is even a cat in the whole state.

The second race went much like the first, and again, God witnessed me yelling commands at a bobcat who had not been very well trained evidently. This one did not climb either, and we were minus another track maker in our woods.

I was really proud of the dogs, but I wanted so much to let those cats go, and I was unable to come up with a way for me to do that. I never again put a well oiled team of bobcat dogs on a small track that I thought was probably a female. If I don't have some clumsy pups to put on her, I just keep looking. I am sure I would not have felt that way if I was living in South Texas where cats are plentiful, or in Oregon where cats climb trees, but I wasn't.

[spruce mountain]

Thanks guy's, Glad you liked the story. We have crap for condition's right now so I'm bored to. lol We have 2 weeks left to the season and it looks like we are going to get a string of fresh snow storms to end the season. David this hunt just happened this year. You're story sounded like hunting around here. Sometimes you feel lucky to just find one track although our cat population seems to be on the rebound as I have had good luck the last couple of years finding tracks. Al the tall blond dog, Bonnie is lightfoot bread and the red and white dog, Molly is my third generation breeding. Heavy Michigan Swamp Rooster with a dash of Woodstock Grizzly. The hightan looking one is Sis, she's Just good hounds bread to good hounds.

[Dads dogboy]

The Dogboy in training!

Folks, it sure was good to see Spruce Mtn. and 2nd Nature stop by the Bobcat/Lynx Camp with a fine Story and Pictures of their success and the Good Hounds who made that success possible!

As most of you know My/Our Hunting has been put on hold due to Dad’s Health and some sorry supposed Friends attempting to STEAL his Hounds. Alzheimer’s is the MOST Horrible of the many Horrible diseases out there. You’re continued Prayers are appreciated.

David and I were talking on the phone earlier and he reminded me of this Story which will appear in the Book about Dad which will be out later this year. As you all can see by the Hounds in the Pics, this Hunt took place prior to 1967 when dad started Breeding his Hounds.

Mr. Billy Swan from Austin, Texas had invited Dad to bring the Hounds down to South Central Texas, the area between Kennedy and George West for a Hunt. This country is a Transition area between the rolling Black Land and the Flat Brush and Mesquite infested “Brassada” of South Texas.


Mr. Billy with some Hounds and his Mule.

Mr. Billy is a Tough Gentlemen who had nice Hounds back in the Day! This was absolutely amazing as Mr. Billy was legally Blind! However he never let his handicap be an excuse for having Sorry Hounds. His wife hunted with him along with several other Cat Hunters, when Mr. Billy heard (remember he had to see with his Ears….day or night) a Hound do something wrong he would HOLLAR and the truants would cease their wrong doing and head back to him…..they were tone Broke before anything like Tri-tronics was available. If not he and his Mule would be in pursuit (the Mule did the seeing) and somebody would catch an old fashioned Thrashing…..ahhh that was a Simpler time indeed!

Dad had started letting me go on out of town trips so I could keep him awake on the way home. This was a time when Dad hunted on Tuesday nights and most weekends. A drive of over two hours usually was needed to get to “Cat Country”. You see The City of Houston was expanding through the County South of us and now was making it tough to find a place in our County where we would not either bother someone who might Shoot a Hound or get one run over on a road that just a few years before only had three or so Cars a week.

Well I had completed some School Project satisfactorily, so as a reward Dad said that I could go along. I think I was about 9 years old at this time. I was cooking Dad’s dog feed in the Garage after School and knew all the Hounds by site and their mouths (or so I thought). We left Friday afternoon for the 5 hour drive to Kennedy. We visited a little then it was to bed for a 5 AM breakfast.

Now this was long before Dad tried “Rigging”, every Houndsman in Texas and the South East knew that this "Rigging Thing" would not work….hounds might be able to strike a Smoking Hot Track but you would drive past many others that the Hounds would have struck road hunting. This particular Morning we had roaded Dad’s and Mr. Billy’s strike dogs for several hours and had NO luck.

After checking all the good spots, Mr. Billy suggested that he and Dad cast the Hounds into a White Brush thicket about 40 acres in size. It was kind of unusual to find White Brush this far North however this hillside was not of Black land Soil but more of the Caliche that White Brush loves. As All the Bobcat Hunters in South Texas know White Brush draws Bobcats like a magnet. Rabbits find cover on the edge of a thicket, Rats like to live in the interior and a Cat has the type of thick, thorny, heavy cover to stifle a Hounds pursuit.

Well Dad and Mr. Billy unloaded their main Hounds and a couple of well bent youngsters to follow them down a Pipeline Right of Way which cut right through the thicket. Dad sat me down on the tailgate and proceeded to give me detailed instructions of what Hounds to release if I heard the Strike Dogs open. Dad asked if I knew Ole Red’s and Lady’s mouths, I assured him I did….to not worry. I would not mess up!


Here are the hounds Dad had in this story. The Picture was taken the next Spring in Melville, LA. The Hounds are L to R Shelia (RW), Cat (July), Lady (Reg. Hudspeth), Ole Red in front and Big Buck with his head up in the back. All but two of these fine Hunters have crossed the River Styx.

Now what I did not know was what Mr. Billy’s two strike Dogs sounded like. Dad had a two year old ex-Wolf Hound who was trying to make a Cat Hound who I had only heard once before. His name was Buck an as he was a 28 inch tall Hound he was known as BIG Buck. Now his mouth was the Best Dad ever had. When he opened he Squalled/Bawled & Bellowed with a Baritone which any Opera Singer would have been jealous! It was what is known as a “Pulling” Mouth as he would pull every hound in the area to him.

Well about 30 minutes after the Men left the Truck I heard Ole Red (he was a cold blooded red Hound from the Texas Prison System who had been run after Grey Fox and Bobcat around Huntsville, Texas before Dad bought him and broke him off Fox. He was the Best Treedog I have ever seen, and a NOSE……well there is another story from South Louisiana that is hard to believe and best saved for another day). Soon Lady opened and a twenty minute Trailing race started. Mr. Billy’s two Hounds started giving mouth as the Track got better…..I had paid close attention that what I was hearing was a Trailing Race, not something where the Juvenile Delinquents could help.

Red, Lady, and Mr. Billy’s Hounds were getting the race heated up, when all of a Sudden Big Buck just Exploded…..it sounded for all the world like he had stepped on the Cat. I heard more Hounds excitedly opening….I was sure I could hear Ole Red, so I opened the Dogbox Doors and emptied the truck.

Oh My, what a racket 10 Hounds made. Toward the Creek the Cat would go, then back up its Track, then around and around the 40 acres the Race swirled.

I looked down the Sendero and Saw Dad wave me to come down and join him and Mr. Billy and get close to the Action! As I crawled through the Fence I saw movement up the road ditch…..ah ha….I am going to see the Cat…..but NO it was not the Cat it was Ole Red, and he looked very SICK. Well I certainly did not know what to do for him so on to Dad I went.

Just as I reached Dad and Mr. Billy there was a slight loose, but Big Buck got the Pick Up and Concert cranked again. I tried to get Dad’s attention to tell him that Red was Sick, but was quickly told to “Shut up and listen”. Dad and Mr. Billy commented several times that it just does not get any better than this.

Suddenly Big Buck and one of Mr. Billy’s Hounds REALLY got loud and then the Pack started to Bay. Dad said come on Son let’s get that Cat for Billy. As we started into the thicket on a Game Trail I manged to get Dad to understand that Red was at the Truck and appeared SICK. Dad said we would tend to him in a little while….that maybe he was bitten by a Rattlesnake……OOPS Rattlesnakes…..this Dog boy had not signed up for them, but NO way was I leaving Dad. It sounded like the Pack had just about stretched the Cat, as we were within feet of the Bayup.

But there was a nasty smell in the Air……something I had never smelled before. Then Dad parted the last of the Brush and there were the Hounds and the Varmint….yes Varmint…..we had discovered Ole Red’s ailment…..it was a ¾ grown Javalina.

Dad’s quote when he saw what lay there and kicked it with his toe was “Damn this sure Ruins a Good Cat Race!”

Several minutes of Hound Dog Counseling ensued, some Hounds had headed back to the Truck so Dad had me drag the carcass so further Counseling could take place. After we had disciplined all the Culprits and started driving back to the Ranch for Lunch Dad started to Council the Dogboy about turning the Hoodlums out….but Mr. Billy put a stop to that by reminding Dad that he was hollering for me to dump the Box, that I had tried to tell him about Red “being Sick”, and that they had both soaked up the outstanding Race till the Varmint was seen!.

Dad’s response was directed at me, he said “Always doubt your hounds, and be careful about bragging before going into Bayups and Trees as there is NEVER any real Guarantee as what is going to be there”. A lesson I hold near each time I put a Hound down!

[scrubrunner]

I enjoyed the stories, the crud must be going around my wife came down with it Wed. I took her to the Dr. yesterday. I woke up this morning with it and have had fever today. I'm walking with out crutches now though and was planing to slip off tonight and try to run one. Start physical therapy Mon. That should be fun. Thanks to all for the stories!!!

[southern fox]

scrubrunner glad to hear your doing better, just be careful and don't overdo you will be holed up a lot longer, John our prayers are with your dad , god bless your family , in think the worse I ever did was we have , or didn't have any skunks here in south ga, well one nite I was hunting in a club I joined, I was the only fox hunter in there and it was loaded with fox, so I was trotting dogs and had been seeing some funny lookin tracks, had never seen anything quite like that before and didn't know what they were, so im going down this road , had a few youngsters out with the broke dogs , and kept watching them act like they were smelling something, I would holler at them out the window, and they would straighten up for a few mins and then be right back at it again, well I use a cow whip so im going to straighten me some junk out, got out and blistered a coupla, and was standing there trying to get the other 1 which had crawled under the truck , well I poped him and he went across the ditch with me right behind him, poping his hiney, well all of a sudden I got something hung up between my feet and it squealed out and it was that skunk, he sprayed me , and believe I mashed everything out of him cause I steped right on him, I emptied everything in my stomach, I have never smelt anything as bad as that, loaded the dogs and went home, it was freezing cold here, I walked in the house woke everybody up with the smell , wife chased me out the house, I tried getting it off she brought me the soap and I took a bath under the hose as much as I could stand, burnt my cloths, we didn't know tomato juice would kill it, so for a week I walked around smelling like skunk, it was somekinda bad