Anybody hunting cats in MO?

[grizzerbear]

Hey everybody I am new to the site and am loving it. I have a couple of hounds myself and am in the process of training them to run bobcats. One dog is a male redbone 2yr old , the other one is a B/t female 1yr old. We are off to a pretty good start so far. I have had both dogs since they were barely weaned and have been working with them right along with fair success. So far they have put 2 up a tree and one in a bluff hole. I have trapped cats in this area for 15 yrs with good success so I do know quite a bit about the cats. And I have hunted with hounds since I was a kid with my grandad but always for coon. Deep down I always wanted to pursue the cats but that was a big NO NO for my grandad who was a hardcore cooner.But it has been many years since he has passed and hear I am trying my damndest to produce some good cat dogs. All of my best memories were of the time I spent with my grandad and his hounds and I would like to make some new ones chasing cats with my boys. My main goal is to take them out west when or if they ever get ready, to chase some lions. I have bowhunted out west for twenty years and have taken several good bulls and muledeer , but I have always wanted to run lions with my own hounds, and am going to do my damndest to make it happen. The main problems I have are A= my dogs have never run with any seasoned cat dogs, since nobody around here runs bobcats. And B= allthough my knowledge of bobcats is pretty good, training the dogs to shoot mainly for cats and not coons is something totally new to me. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks Grizzerbear.

[david]

Welcome to the site griz. That is a nice pile of fur there, you had a little skinning and fleshing to do that day. I never did like fleshing beaver, but I like it when they are done.

If you have plenty of cats and close to home, your best strategy for catching a number of bobcats with your dogs is to treat coon the same way your granddaddy treated bobcat...a big NO NO. Some of us in some areas have to run something else: bear, or coon or coyote, because there are not enough cats to get a dog finished out on bobcat alone. But coon will be the #1 thing that will keep you from catching bobcats, if you let your dogs fool with them.

Some parts are fortunate that the two are mostly found in different areas. Other places, the coon are mostly denned up when cat season is opened. But I am guessing that neither of these cases will be true for you. I think the southern bobcat hunters who have a high success ratio have streight bobcat dogs.

[grizzerbear]

Thanks for the input david.

Thanks grizzerbear