THE BEST BEAR DOG YOU OWN OUR EVER HUNTED WITH

[Ankle Express]

I think, a guy named Denny Russell.

WOW! I may have seen or heard that dog go. Denny lived right here for years. Denny's a bear hunter, no doubt about it but I would venture to bet even his momma understands not to trust his a$$. Sorry to get sidetracked. Denny/Russell could have his own thread on here probably!


Maybe I haven't followed enough hounds around but Ronnie Hendrix's "Spade" dog was the best I've yet to see. He stands out to me as best and all-around best. Ronnie didn't get to see his prime years. In spite of whatever Spade would have the bear. He was awesome and could do it just right. He was directly out of Dave Knights "Judd" dog in Washington State. I know Ronnie liked Judd quite a bit. Wish I really knew how it all measured up. Wish I had a Spade right now, I'd be set for a while.

[Borderpond]

Yup Ankle, Know what you mean !! LOL That Bullet dog was one bear catching machine though. See if any of the guys in your area have hunted with the dog and what they think.

[cab]

Cecil J; When did you run with Carl Horner? When I met him, old Ploto was long gone, but if he was 1/2 the dog they say he was, he was a keeper. I hear Shorty Martin has hung up the collars due to his age.
When I hunter with Carl, he was feeding Beaver, Sam, and Reba. They didn't let you drive over any tracks, and when you turned them loose, the bear climbed quick or got bit.

[PIGLET]

Hey ankle express i couldn't help but laugh when you mention ole dave knight, i was just watching some of our old movies and I have video of dave knight actually making it to a tree.. If you know dave he was right around 350lbs and usually had young guys to go into the tree. But we treed one on flat ground about 200 yards from the road, we heaped so much crap on him when he come stumbling out of the brush, that he actually made a tree..

[cecil j.]

Cecil J; When did you run with Carl Horner? When I met him, old Ploto was long gone, but if he was 1/2 the dog they say he was, he was a keeper. I hear Shorty Martin has hung up the collars due to his age.
When I hunter with Carl, he was feeding Beaver, Sam, and Reba. They didn't let you drive over any tracks, and when you turned them loose, the bear climbed quick or got bit.

Cab I knew Carl,Jd.,Roger Stewart,




roger Tillus,Shorty, Ronnie Monroe, Rick Summers, and all the boys back in the 70`s-80`s and was a friend of thr west coast moffia back in the late 80`s at the swims and draggs.

YES ole Plutto was the real deal and thats a fact.

[bearman]

OL SHORTY HAS'NT HUNG IT UP JUST YET THAT WAS TEMPERARLY HE SAY HAD TO GET ANOTHER ONE ITS IN THE "BLOOD".

TINY

[pete richardson]

Yup Ankle, Know what you mean !! LOL That Bullet dog was one bear catching machine though. See if any of the guys in your area have hunted with the dog and what they think.

i never hunted with bullet ,one of best ive owned was his uncle ,probably the best i ever hunted with was an uncle too -

i heard that bullet was on very close to 200 bear trees in one year -

[Jason Waterhouse]

A bunch of us bearhunters went out to dinner at apa breed days this year.Mike lord was one of them he spoke of this bullet dog,It sounded like he was a once in a lifetime dog.

[Borderpond]

Pete, I saw Bullet on probably 100 trees in one year and I never hunted with him on weekends or during the 2 month kill season that year !! There were very very few tracks that didnt end with a treed bear. He just didnt seem to screw up. Yup Jason, he was a once in a lifetime dog, even for Mike Lord, whos probably had a bunch of dogs that most of us would consider once in a lifetime.The guy just pounds the heck out of bears.He runs at least 6 days a week all season.
The last year I ran with Mike he had a female walker given to him.He just kept running her and running her until she was treeing bears solo.I know he sold her the next year for ,I heard , $8000. I think he could make a bear dog out of a german shephard with the amount of running and seeing game that he gives a dog.

[Travis Stirek]

Andy Sippl in Wisconsin has a walker female named Lady that is on every one of the 200 +- bear he trees a year.She was very impressive the few days we got to hunt with her last year,even though she was battling lyme disease.So I really don't know what she is like at 100 %,but Andys buddies all adore her and you can't get Andy to brag on any of his dogs.I will say her daddy was a whale of a bear dog(one of the top three I've hunted with).I'm still trying to decide the top dog I've ever hunted with.

[ryan goodwin]

sounds like a hell of a dog what breed was he, i have a couple more Dave and Dan LaRue's crook dog and babe These two dogs were two of the best female plotts that i ever hunted with they where gritty and i mean gritty to much grit for me they where fast great tree dogs just plain dam good dogs if any of you Know these guys they wher two of te hardiest hunters i have been around and they allways had outstanding bear dogs and they where 99% all females pritty impressive they impresed the hell out of me and im a walker man

[Borderpond]

I owned a littermate to the Bullet dog,Spike. He was a real good dog, treed lots of bears solo.Too darn independent though. I have seen him and 5 other dogs leave on a good track. 5 dogs at the tree and Spike no where around !! Lots of times find him treed with his own bear.He wasnt the rig dog that Bullet was though and had lots more faults too.

[Nolte]

Andy Sippl in Wisconsin has a walker female named Lady that is on every one of the 200 +- bear he trees a year.

Travis, I'm having a tough time grasping on to this number, unless the dog got hunted in other states than WI. We've only got 92 possible days to hunt, and you are averaging treeing 2+ bear every day rain/shine, heat/humidity. Not to mention being able to have a kill tag with every day of the 30 day kill season.

I'm not trying to start an , just a bit skeptical. In any case the dogs sounds like a dandy, and one that would surely be worth watching go.

[Borderpond]

Nolte, I would have said the same thing about the Bullet dog unless I had seen it myself. I know I saw him on almost 100 trees that summer, 94 is the number I had written down when we used to keep count.I never ran with him on weekends either, and he always went both days. From Sept 1 on I was guiding hunters so never saw him go from then till the end of Oct.I will tell you that there were many days we had 2 or 3 different bears treed and were at the restuarant having breakfast by 10am. Best day we had that one summer was 7 different trees in the morning.Bullet couldnt have been on them all though as we had a couple different dogs treed solo.It was out of a corn patch, which we dont have hardly any of around here.Just like coonhunting,dogs treed in all different directions around the field !! It was something to see. I think we had 4 different brars treed at one time.

[Nolte]

Border

I think you guys have an extra month hunt than we do in training season. Plus a longer kill season. So I fully believe it's possible out by you guys with one of those rare super dogs.

We've also had days like that where you get sweet runs and put up a mittfull without much effort. It's just real hard to do that day after day. You get a couple of those marathon runs back to back and it really wears on the dogs. They usually need a bit of rest after awhile. I haven't seen a dog that can go every day for weeks on end. They might be able to go, but the bottom out a lot quicker.

We usually get a few stretches where you can't run during the day. It's just too dang hot/humid by about 8 AM. That makes it real tough to pile up some trees. Sometimes it is even too hot in the dark. I hate it when you go to load up dogs in the dark and still too hot to run.

Season is just around the corner for you boys. Rip it up and giver hell. Don't post too many pics though or I'll go bonkers waiting till July.