Baar Hunter's :riggers, roaders, walker or riders: Tell Me

[Mike Leonard]

So you bear hunters out there, regardless of the way you hunt excluding bait cuz that is not a hunt that is check and run or not. I don't have a problem with it but unless you have been on vacation you know what kind of a track you will have.

So tell me how much cold trailing are you willing to put up with? And is the cold trailing really cold traling? Or is it tuff trailing? Not setting anything up here just want to know.

No it's true I don't run bear anymore with my hounds but it has nothing to do with no respect for bears or bearhounds because I hold them both in the highest regards. I just had to quit for personal, and professional reasons.

I have had my behind kicked plenty of times by bears and I know how hard they can be, just want to know where you draw the line.

[BlacktailStalker]

West coast rainforest here, thick and steep so we often only have one road into each valley so we mainly rig for bears.
If its a cold strike, dump the one or two that struck til they get lined out.
If the whole box erupts, DTFB.
In hot conditions free casting and walking along the river is a good option.
We've also got visuals on bears and walked them down wind of them high up in a slash (99% of the time they come down out of the timber, rarely up from below so there is no trail to get them on)
The 2 I have can also be "aimed" (give them a visual) at bears above by holding their head in the direction til they pick up that movement, then tell 'em "get that bear" and they go bazurk (sounds lame but its actually kinda fun and more times than not its a helluva lot easier than hiking through the worlds messiest logging slashes)

I dont agree with the whole bait thing being a check and run (we cant bait here and dont) because if you had a bear on a bait at say 5 p.m and you're checking it at 8 a.m the next day, there's going to be some work involved to get that bear.

Our roads are hard packed gravel and rock and although we have one of the highest bear concentrations in North America, you can go months without seeing a bear track so thats what I feel limits our options.

Headed out for the first time this fall tomorrow morning, see what these outta shape buggers can accomplish

[Tom White]

I mostly rig for bear , but have some favorite places to free cast the dogs. Right now the bears are just settin in the acorns and not crossing the roads much. With a light breeze in the morning the dogs can wind a bear at least a quarter mile away and have learned to go into the wind and find him .I enjoy the dogs cold trailing a bear a couple hrs before they jump. The coldest track I know of trailing on a bear was 15 hrs old and only took about 2 hrs to jump him. In my openion bear scent is much easier for dogs to trail , but don"t stay as long as lion scent which can be trailed much older than bear. I do catch more bears since I let the dogs work the cold ones. Don"t care much for the kill , but do enjoy the chase to a tree.

[Big Mike]

With bears I dont wait to long if they stall. Ill give them enough time to figure it out if its just a loss they over ran the track. With bears a better track is ussually not far away.

Only time I really try to cold trail one is if its a depredation bear where i have to catch a certain bear not just any bear, or late in the season when they arnt moving much, its worth while to cold trail them cuz they arent to far ahead ussually.

[high desert hounds]

Mike, I take em however I can get em. I prefer to Rig for bears. I like a good rig dog the kind that won't make a peep all day if you don't get into a bear. I never take my dogs of a track ever. day or night. If they start one they get to stay until they catch, get run out or beat off, or just flat can't smell it. often times we will not get to our dogs till the next day. I personally don't see how pulling my dogs off any track will make them better. I'm my own boss so I got nowhere to be. Them dogs you turned me onto however sometimes make me rethink this coldtrailing deal, then they jump em. Thanks for the good thread.

[Copperdog]

Here in Idaho..the fresher the better. The last thing you want is your dogs cold trailing into several diffrent drainages and becoming wolf bait.

[Mike Leonard]

Copperdog,

That certainly makes sense. Where is this wolf thing going to end?

[chilcotin hillbilly]

I to rig most of my bears as the wolves tend to be a problem. The only problem is the quantity of grizz in my area. I got luck this year an only dropped on one. The odd time if i haven't had a good strike for a while I will walk down an old road or hogback and free cast the hounds, this tends to work good as well.

[Eric Muff]

Most of the bears we run are struck from the truck.There are the occassional few that we walk into with dogs off a sighting,but mostly rig em.

[rockringwalker]

[quote]"because if you had a bear on a bait at say 5 p.m and you're checking it at 8 a.m the next day, there's going to be some work involved to get that bear"

Thats all we do here. Set up baits about 8pm and are out checkin at 6, find a bait that we want to run off of and do it. Cold Trail for awhile depending on the track and jump, run, and tree. Everyday. IMO if you "JUMP DOG" cant jump that, it isnt a jump dog. The ONLY way that we'll resort to rigging is if we have no hits. You give the dogs the easier hotter tracks it seems that's what they want to have all the time. I want to know one thing about these guys who posted on here about that there always rigging for there bear for stated reasons but then go into cold trailing when rigs are minimal or bears arent moving, How cold is this track really? 3-4 hours, if so thats just a re hit down home and that one where u just dump the whole box, there's no way your dogs can be intune to moving and jumping REAL cold tracks if your rigging all the time. JMO. If all you do is rig, thats fine. Don't see how guys that rig for how many weeks and can still have intune cold trackers when it drops off. Like I said JMHO. Reason for my post is there are lots of guys who hunt by us who think and 3-4 hour track is a fenominal? Jump for their dogs and man their great!! Cold tracks should be 6-10 hours old depending on conditons to be called a cold track. Also They call a cold track when there moving a track before they jump on a track that they rigged 10 minutes ago... we get a kick out of them, There always fun to listen to on the radio!

[plottpappaw]

Here in western nc.We prefer to walk and have a few road men with rig dogs to catch slip out bears! But cold trailing is very seldom if ever used! If its too cold we just cruise on by til we find a better one! Don't turn on a winded track much! Bout the only time we let one boo hoo around is in the feeding grounds and most of the time we'll walk to him and get the dog out of there before we let'm waste to much time! I breed my dogs or bout an 8hr nose at most!

[Redwood Coonhounds]

I am a rig hunter 100% and rigging is one of the best assets a dog can have. A truely talented one can sure make life easy. I had/have/seen a few that would flat amaze you. A lot of people put a lot of empisis of nose, and trailing, or treeing and grit. But for me, and the area we hunt, getting a track started is half your battle. You don't normally see tracks on the road unless you've got mud or snow. Maybe a slide coming down the hill on occasion.

That being said, my best dog at this time, is my weakest strike dog. If she would rig off the box like the others, this dog would be in a class of her own. But then again, none are perfect. She will only strike something that has crossed the road, or has walked along side it. She does not wind. She also doesn't "blow up." She stands, wags her tail and whines/barks maybe one time. But I tell you what, now that I know her and how she opperates, you can take that tail wag to the bank! She gets down and runs around in a precise pattern, nose to the ground until she finds it.

My other two are winders. They can smell something from god knows how far away, and the slightest scent sets them off. They, like it's been famously quoted "roar" and come unglued until you put them down. They tend to get off the truck and tear off with there head in the air and run crazy until they find it.

Either way works. I find I put one of each up. I get strikes often from one or the other. Depending what time, and where I'm at, I can turn 'em loose with either type of strike. But the best are when we get s strike out of both of 'em.

My best dog has my best nose. She might not be cold nose in someone elses terms, But she has a good nose, knows how to use it, and it's colder than dogs I've had in the past. I know she can start a track at least 4-8 hrs old on average. She is just a hard working track dog, and seems to find a way, without ever really appearing to "struggle" and put a bear in the tree in a timely fashion. She can run most tough tracks, as fast as she runs jumped. That being said, there are tracks she don't finish, and those that she can almost tell from the start she don't want to fool with. I am NOT a "cold" trailing fan. But this dog makes it seem easy, and unlike so many other cold trailing dogs, she doesn't harldy bark. She lets me know where she's at and exactly whats going on with that track. If she's not making any progress - she's not barking! She can pick up her head and run though, she has more track speed than phyisical speed, but more times than not she will be in the front.

My other two. They are also great track dogs, fast, drifting, winding types. They can flat smoke a track (of any kind, bear, deer.... lol) They have what I call good noses. Which in deffinition means they are warmer, but they know how to use them! Just because a dog has a hot nose don't mean it can fly a track. They can only run as fast as there nose lets them (unless they are running dogs of course) These two are probably on the range of under a 4 hour old track. They rig the warmer ones. But will stick with the other dog on a tough older track.

We just don't have the area to really cold trail. They could go through a few counties, across highways into peoples backyards. I want to go out and spend all day trailing and not catch anything. I don't have the opportunity to hunt every day, so the chances I get better be productive. So most 'cold nose' dogs are out of the question for me. I dont like to hear dogs bark alot if they aren't moving. I don't care what kind of nose they have as long as they put a bear in the tree before it starts getting late. Usually thats just a warmer nosed hard working track dog, but there are always exceptions!

[Hi Tech]

Mike, in training season we mostly rig hunt. The hunting pressure hasn't spooked the game yet so finding a track is usually not too hard. I will road hunt my dogs until they get into descent shape, then just rig.

Now during December after all the deer hunters have trampled the woods tracks are no where as easy to find. So we might rig until we get into where we are going to hunt, but then lace your boots up and walk.

Tracks in Sept. don’t seem to be the trailing type, most of the time you are jumped within the hour. December is again different. If I find a track I don’t care how old it is I want my dogs to get with it. Trail as long as you need to, to get it jumped. We have trailed most of the day and went back the next morning and put back on it and caught the bear up in the day. So this is a rare occasion, but have seen it a couple of times. As far as cold trailing or hard tracking, don’t know. If only I could get my dogs to talk.LOL!!!

[BBGH]

I like to rig my dogs on the hood in the hot season. When the rain comes i put them back on the box because I get a lot of strikes on cold tracks if i leave them on the hood. I like hot tracks if i am working a dog under a year old or right around a year. I have found that if i put them down with my strike dogs on a cold trail they end up coming back or getting into trouble. Probably the line of dogs i breed. I like getting them right in on the action, a real mean nasty bear with those young dogs just to see what kind of dog they are. I dont want to waste a lot of time on a young dog if it is scared to get face to face with a mean bear. My opinion is that there are so many hounds in this world, if you don't like the one you have try another one.

[spruce mountain]

Mike, I don't get what you mean about running off bait,Do you think when you run off bait's you just run hot track's? I've turned my dog's loose on baits that the dog's acted like there had never been a bear there,and bait's where the bear's had just left,and everything in between.Just like you would get strikes from the truck of all age's.