Lonnie Mears-Finley River Dogs

[Tim Pittman]

Anybody tried any dogs from him lately?Either on bobs or biggame.
Tim Pittman 541-912-6464

[Mike Leonard]

Hell I didn't know he was still alive. I don't follow Full Cry or Amercan Cooner much these days. Lonnie had some hot stuff with old Banjo cross. I don't think they ever made any big new in the world of big game. Not like the original Finley River Chief dogs.

[david]

Lonnies big stud that paid for his house was Finley River Dan, a son of Finley River Chief. Ray Mears, Lonnie's dad, lived in Salt Creek Oregon after he left California. His big stud was Sonny, a littermate brother to FR Dan. Honestly, I cant think of too many big game Walkers in that area around 1985 that did not have at least some of that blood in them. Deweys Peewee dog was heavy in it. T. B. s dog Babe which sold for 20,000 befor he bought her back for more than that, was very heavy in it, which caused even more people to beat a path to Ray's cabin porch. The two dogs I bought from Mac Mcallister (Banjo and Rainbo) and bred twice were heavy in it. Those pups went to every state in the far west and a few to New York State: all to bear hunters who would rather fight in my front yard in front of my wife than to risk being one place back in line for theirs. Last I heard, Johnny Young still had some stuff going back to that cross.

I would be very surprised if Lonnie was gone already. I thought he was in Kansas City or somewhere in that area last I heard.

[Tim Pittman]

I talked to him the other day,still into the dogs.
Tim

[mike martell]

careful david, this history lesson will only reveal our age's! if memory serves me right you sold mc kenzie river banjo to bill dwyer. and dale looney bought lost valley rainbow. bill paetsch had a dog called cricket from that cross. bill also owned a smooth cat hound called rowdy. when bill sold out my hunting partner mark armstrong bough bill out. mark made several crosses with those two. this is the cross that produced my kate dog. i could not measure how much game i treed with her, she needed no help treeing bear, bobcat, lion, coon, all by herself. ray. h, roger g, johnny, myself, bill b,all had these dogs. bill b had a littermate sister to cricket called minnie.i never liked either of those females, both were very rattle headed.i owned a direct son of woodscreek loose bruce called amos that i bred several times to kate, this produced outstanding bobcat hounds. ray h. made a cross with one of his grade females to rowdy this produced a dog called spud web. johnny bred a female back in the day to old spud. so what ever he would still be line breeding would be grade. i sold kate and amos in 1994 with the ban. all those that i let go i made sure they were neutered, or papers didn't leave my hands. i shot myself in the foot for getting any of that blood back. ray mears did live up salt cr. i remember his interest in the oregon state bear hunt on labor day weekend, we auctioned off the hounds and ray was present to bid on the hounds. i hunted some bobcats in that era with clayton archibek. he knew ray and several other dog men. i was pretty young back around the late 70's. i think any of those dog's of mears or any others are long gone.

[mike martell]

i also forgot, dang that was a long time ago. clayton always said mike if you ever hunt a good line of walkers,like d.w., t. b., you will never own another plott hound ever. well i been hunting walkers for a long time. back in the day them dogs caught alot of bear and cats. david is right about the demand for those hounds, i remember little richard. and bill sold some of those dogs for alot of money in new york.i don't think they were promoted much after that time, other than what we had and hunted locally. none of us cared about nothing other than hunting hard and the heck with promoting dogs.road trip down memory lane guy's.

[david]

if memory serves me right you sold mc kenzie river banjo to bill dwyer. and dale looney bought lost valley rainbow. .

You have an amazing memory Mike.

Not that it matters, but Bill eventually became a half owner of Banjo with me. Then I never saw the dog again! ha ha. I was young and dumb enough to think a partnership on a dog would be a great thing. It was not too long until we sold him to Terry Merrit in New York. Terry Promoted him as a stud out there for awhile. Some of the big money for those Banjo x Rainbow pups was coming from New York.

You are right about Dale Looney. Man, If you know how to get ahold of that guy please let me know. I have an amazing painting of Rainbow I would like to get to him somehow.

Thanks for the memory of Bill B and Minnie. I had forgotten all about him, but I vividly remember the day he came to my home and picked her up. She was the runt of all runts. I didn't even think she would live, and I was not planning for her to go to a hunter, and he could have picked from other pups but he wanted her! He said some things about the runts having to be fighters to survive from day one.

Tim good to hear you have been in contact with Lonnie. I dont think I have ever talked to him but his father was one of the closest freinds I have ever had. I miss him tremendously at certain times.

[Travis Stirek]

I will always remember how Ray and his wife would always make me feel like I was seeing a long lost friend.Genuinely good folks and always eager to help a young man.Been twenty five years ago now but seems like yesterday,driving into the Wren horseshoe club and they were there.Got to spend quite a few nights in the woods with probably the most famous son of Finley River Dan-Finley River Nite Hawk.My long time friend Dan Sears owned him in his hayday.What a dog!I have tried real hard to keep alot of the old Finley River Chief blood flowing here by line breeding on Beaver Lake Magic and Beaver Lake Lightning.

[mike martell]

wren horseshoe courts? damn travis you are really old too!!! lol...david i tried finding dales phone number. the closest i could come was a d.l. in stayton. if i remember he was a farrier and lived in salem. all the old guys that would know are all gone.minnie lived a good life. one of my old hunting partners needed a good solid broke rig dog. he bought minnie from bill and used her off the box until she died at around twelve.bill had that big gangly dog hooker. he could actually tree a bobcat on a pretty regular basis. he had to make few mistakes, because he sure was not fast. is it just me, or does it seem the dogs of the past were more smooth. i don't remember having to cull like i do now. they seem to come out of the box ready to rock. it is hard to forget those old hounds that made something happen on a daily basis.thanks for the pm david .good hearing from you as well. hey, if we are still allowed to hunt bobcat next winter. come down and hunt. it would be cool to get the old godfather of cat men out for a spin. i think bill p. is still ropin in the arena. been 25 or so years since he hunted cats.

[david]

is it just me, or does it seem the dogs of the past were more smooth. i don't remember having to cull like i do now. they seem to come out of the box ready to rock. it is hard to forget those old hounds that made something happen on a daily basis.thanks for the pm david .good hearing from you as well. hey, if we are still allowed to hunt bobcat next winter. come down and hunt. it would be cool to get the old godfather of cat men out for a spin. i think bill p. is still ropin in the arena. been 25 or so years since he hunted cats.

I cant speak for all dogs today because most of them I have not hunted. But I sure do know that those were the most automatic dogs I have ever owned. No training needed except what not to run, put em in the woods, and they all could tree an easy coon on their own befor six months. Some of them were hunted real hard befor a year and I hate to admit it, cause it can be hard on a young dog, but some of those dogs acted and hunted like old dogs by the time they were 16 months old. They were not without problems, but as far as the cull rate, you are right. Of the two litters there were no culls. Wish I knew then what I know now.

Thankyou for the invitation. It would be pretty wild to see Bill P. It is about an 1,800 mile comute for me though, so it is not real likely until I get rich like you. But who knows. It sure is fun to think about. Would love to see those White Clouds rain, I mean reign.

[mike martell]

rich like you ? i'll have you know i have perfected pan handeling, begging, borrwing and nothing short of stealing. i even have a five gallon bucket i use to sit on the street corner with my sign to be able to hunt! as for the dogs you had it right the first time david, rain!!!! lol........

[Tim Pittman]

After lots of visiting,Dewey and myself decided to try 2 of the 8wk females and an unstarted 7 month male fom Lonnie.
David, Peewee was by Rogue River Chief and out of a bitch named Queenie who came straight from Ray.
I'll keep you posted, Tim