BigGameHoundsmen.com

Hello Fellow Hunters!

As you all may have seen in my letter to Hipshooter no hunting here last night. We were dodging Tornados. We were missed but others not so fortunate. Prayers for those people will be appreciated!

Hope to be seening letters on here from Our NC Cat/Foxhunting friends. Their regular forum, Speeddogs.net, had a major overhaul, and like some of Ford's, it wern't "A Better Idea". I called an talked to Poon and hope he has come over and brought others. They will have some great Cat and Fox Stories to tell. Again different Country and different Styles but great People with some Great Hounds.

Poon and his hunting buddy had hard luck last Sat. as the ole Reynard took to the Hwy. and that is never good. Score - Car two nice young hounds - Fox, got away!

Because of all the excitment last night, I did not have a chance to tell you all about Wed. night. Dad decided that two nights on a row were just not enough for an Old Man. Just after Supper he said "Weather will be bad tomorrow, so you better load Rita and the Puppies and let's make a SHORT round". Those kind usually turn into Gilligan hunts. You know three hour tour turns into noon the next day, if you are lucky!

Well I collared up and decided to go to a different Club were our luck has not been real good as of late. Hoped the bad weather coming would have game moving. It did, just not the Shorttails. We must have seen 100 Cottontail Rabbits, old ones, little ones, all kinds of Bunnies. If the Cat food was stirring you would think the Cats would be to...

Wrong!!!!

We Roaded and Rigged every road in the club and some twice. We could not even get a COLD bark. The temp was in the 50's, the barometer was falling, the wind was out of the SW. We just could not figure. Saw plenty of piles of Scat in the roads so we knew Cats were still here. But it was one of those nights.

We were headed home Rigging down the Tram RD an Dad said to turn up an old rd that went to a Deer stand up on the Mtn. and just try it, we could not do worse than we had already done! Wouldn't you know it, had not gone 40 yds when Rita and Cherokee barked.(Once again we should have gone to the last Rd first!)

The track was cold but we put em down anyway. They went out into a three yr old Clearcut and tailed back to the RD. Went back out into the Clearcut and trailed back to the Rd.This happened several more times. They could not get the track away into the Plantation on the opposite side of the Rd, nor up or down the RD. Each time they went out and came back it was in a different place and the Garmin Astro 220 showed they went into the clearcut to different depths. We were baffled, then Penny (4yrs) and Sandy(14mths) opened in the Plantation and were just about JUMPED! The other Hounds fought their way through the wall of BRIARS an got to them and the race was over.

Duration, maybe two min.

Then Rita opened a little deeper in the Plantation. Once again everybady got there and the Race was on. Now all you Cathunters are thinking this is just part of a typical Bobcat race. It generally is but this was different, it just did not sound right! This race lasted maybe 5 min and it to was over.

No sound for 10 min or so. No treeing (trees were small enough something might have), no trailing. Nothing! Then BAM, Brandy(14 mths) opens up just off the RD, running and the race was on again. This time the Cat ducked and dodged in the Plantation pretty good for about 15 min. Then it tried to cross the Rd and that did not work as the Hounds were too close. So back into the Plantation for another 5 min, then into a small creek. The Hounds did not let that slow them up for long and were Burning him up when a Large Loblolly Pine with Honeysuckle and Poison Ivy all over it helped keep this Cat from "Crossing the River".

Nothing treed but Rita barked around it enough for me to mark the spot on the Astro 220 then go out and find the Cat. I should have had Pics, but camera battery was dead (bet this hasn't happened to any of you!). It was either the littlest Sowcat ever or a half grown kitten. When I told him about it Dad said this explained the earlier trouble trailing and finding as it was probably the Momma and several young Cats feeding and playing in the Clearcut.

If that was not the case it sure is a good excuse for SORRY Hounds, HUH!

Rambled enough, sure glad you guy's enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoy reliving the Monent!

Good Running to All!

C. John Clay

Good story, thanks for answering my question about cold trailing, now I have another one. I know you use running dogs so when the cat goes up a tree do they tree? I get the impression by your last story that they might but aren't consistent about it, is that the case? Just trying to get an idea as to the kind of dogs your running and understand the stories better. Thanks.

kickemall,

Yep they are weak on treeing!

This because despite the last stories most Bobcat we run do not Climb! These Clubs that we hunt close to the house here in AR Dad has hunted for years. The only Cats left are the ones that climb and their offspring. Climbing appears to be a highly heritable trait!

Generally these Clay Hounds are looking for the Cat on the ground trying to find where he has slipped out on them as per a bad loose or check as the Redcoats say. When 8 to 10 Hounds are working hard to find him on the ground it takes a Real treedog to take the time to locate! Most of the time the Bobcat did try to slip out and if the Hounds spend an inordinate amount of time looking up, the Cat would be, and would stay GONE.

Now Dad starts his puppies out in Western OK with an associate who is the best puppy trainer he has ever seen. It helps that because of the CRP program the Bobcat population has exploded out there. Hootie is the best at getting a handle on pups, getting them to come here, load in the truck, etc.! Out there they have very few big trees, the Cats tend to climb more and tree in small Mesquite trees where they are easily seen. Just about every puppy trees out there.

When we bring them this way and hunt our big country, down @ Glen Rybards, MS, AL, and FL the Bobcats just do not tree enough to keep it on the Hounds minds. Having said that we are treeing more in the last 5 years than in the past. Discussion with the NC Bobcat hunters has developed the theory that Al Gore is to blame for this change in Bobcat behavior!!!!..... Global Warming is causing this!... Seriously as our Hounds have become faster and more effecient they are putting more heat on the Cat sooner and this pressure before the Cat has become addled is causing us to tree more.

In FL when there is plenty of h2o in the woods and the races last more than an hour the Cats tend to not climb and that usually is a fatal mistake. Here in AR if a race lasts more than an hour and half, unless he is a Cat that has learned to climb, he won't be there to run again.

This is why we never shoot a cat in a tree(other than with a camera) and catch the dogs off when we know the Cat is run down and about to mess up. Both Glen and Dad have these Hounds so well Horn Broke that no matter how good the Cat is stinking when that truck Horn blows they will shut up and hunt the truck. If we don't practice good manngement of resources we won't have them to run again. Now we do have some Clubs that have invited us to hunt there to thin the Bobcat population to aid in stabilizing the Wild Turkey numbers, and there we try to catch em.

Hope this is answering your question and I did not ramble too much but this a problem that I wish we did not have. Dad quit going to the tree 15 years ago @ age 66; his balance had gotten bad and he just couldn't go. It bothered him bad. Now I am hunting with him and love to see the Cat up, to Know that is where he went and Shoot him with a camera (when I can remember to check batteries). Dad gave away two top Clay Dogs that were hard treedogs, we are working on getting another one going. If one ever locates we have a bunch of treedogs.

So long for now, I have to drive Dad out to Western OK tomorrow to check on Hootie and the last batch of Puppies. Should have Pics and stories next week!

Good Running to All!!!!!!!!!

C. John Clay

Good post John.
Keep up the good work
Just a little comment on running dogs not treeing.
Most won,t tree very good.
I run a pair of tree dogs in my pack, they are 40 lb female bred bear dogs. The black kind.
They are little hustlers & can run with the running dogs. Good pack dogs.
I think they have a little more try after the race blows up & will try to find the cat after the running dogs have about give up. They do not tree on the bark, but will some times wind the cat & just bark enough to keep the other dogs there. They have found a few cat that the running dogs would of missed.
I am not color blind, so every one has their own ways of doing things.
Milt