Recreational Hunting

[al baldwin]

Day got off to a little rough start. Maggie found an old scent she could wiggle on & a hour or so later with all the hounds helping out, got a cat up and moving. But this is a cat that probably knows all those hounds by name & was keeping it/s distance making it difficult to get a good jump. The hounds crossed a high ridge, sounded like things had picked up a little. After driving around the other side of the ridge, surprised to discover a couple hounds were treeing, However seemed the pack was not too sure about that tree. Looking at the garmin, indicated a whole bunch of circling looking for the track. And those two stopped treeing and joined others searching. Only a couple hounds gave a few barks for the next 30 minutes . Finally after a lot of looking one hound returned and treed at the previous location. Tom went in and checked that tree, large fir, unable to be certain, so j
ust gathered the dogs & moved on. Had started the track about 7 am, now ten am. Next three hours we cover ground with dogs on box, stopping at known cat crossings , free casting , hoping to find a scent to trail. Found a almost nothing track, in a shaded area, hounds spent half hour, hunted out 300 yards, barked maybe a half dozen times. We spotted them on a steep sunny slope. all working hard, but decided to call and move on. One Pm decided to check one last sunny grass road that has been good at times. Buddy was limping a little, Tom held him back, cut the others loose, headed them down that road. Very quick, Maggie was twisting & soon opened, seven hounds eagerly worked down the hill, then returned and starting working up the road. Took about a quarter mile before Maggie took down an old skid road saying he went this way, the track got better for the next five minutes, then Bo staring squealing and the race was on. Unlike the morning cat, the hounds were able to get on this cat and we enjoyed about a twenty minute race that had a sound we were hoping for. Across a large brushy draw and pulling a steep ridge, as they neared the top, things went silent. Thinking they had topped over, checked garmin, very near top, but still in hearing. After about five minutes Bo gave a locate a kid can call, soon joined by TJ & Maggie. Garmin said 750 yds, but that was direct line of sight. I had decided to bring my old 4 wheeler & it sure paid off. Back down the road a couple mile, up an old wheeler road a couple mile, parked on the ridge, within a couple hundred yards of the tree. Saved us a hard brushy walk. Tom worked thru the brush& after a search found about an 18lb tom. The dogs were wind treeing about 100 feet above the fir the cat was in, tom got eye level and spotted the cat. 4.30 PM we were back to the rigs, skinned cat and headed for home, yes we have slowed. Had tom take a couple pictures, never sure how much longer. These dogs are far from perfect but we sure enjoy them, have nothing for sale, Hope some enjoy. Don, Log sure sounded good on this cat & treed some before Tom got there, then treed hard. Thanks so much, Colbalt would have been proud. Al

[live to hunt]

Thanks for the great story.

[david]

x2 Sparks lots of memories. Thanks for taking the time to write it down.

[twist]

Great story Al, sounds like some good hound work and a fun day. Andy

[scrubrunner]

Sounds like a good time and good hound work, Thanks for sharing it with us. Wish I had been there!