BigGameHoundsmen.com

red&whitewalker wrote:Man i sure wish i had someone to help me train my pup, she has such good genetics. I sometimes feel like i am wasting a good dog. But i guess this next year will be the truth teller when she is actually old enough to know what is going on during hunting season.

U.R.E. wrote:What did you think of his dog box?

david wrote:Tim, It is really good to hear Dewey is going strong, and still helping out young hunters. He is a good man, and a great hunter. I sent you a PM.

Cecil, I have not heard Tommy's name much any more either. I know he witnessed a horrible logging accident where his son was killed. It makes my heart heavy every time I think of it. I think after that, Tommy kind of dropped out of the scene. I still pray for him when I think of it. I wish there was more I could do, but I dont know what it would be, since I was not close to him.

When I met Tommy Barnes, I had been away from home awhile and a little rough. I knocked on his door there in Forks, Washington (on the tip of the Olympic Penninsula) and got the shock of my life. When the door opened, there stood the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. The fact that I had not seen a woman in a while might have influenced my perception, but to this day, I remember her as the most beautiful woman I ever saw. This was Tommy's wife. They had bought a comercial grade sewing machine and she was making fur garments out of Tommy's bobcat hides. At this time he was catching in the neighborhood of 100 cats each season.

Elmer Blankenship said that Forks, WA is a bobcat hunters heaven, and a bobcat hunter's wife's hell. There is (was) just nothing there for a woman. That is a large part of the reason why Elmer moved away from Forks, and I can only immagine it was a large part of the reason Tommy moved away from there also.

At the time I met Tommy, I know that he had been fooling around with some Sam Faulk stuff. Sam would not keep anything that would not bite a bear, and yet Tommy said he was having some success with them as bobcat dogs. I did not know that Tommy had gotten anything from Shorty Martin and Ronnie Monroe.

I myself bred a female to a direct son out of Spring Creek Rock that Shorty Martin had. He had a direct son of Finely River Banjo at the time also. I think Ronnie was at Shorty's house when I showed up there. I had heard those guys like to sit around and play bluegrass music, so I brought my mandolin along. They were good musicians and it was a good time.

Tommy Barnes did a little trading with Al Lutrell back around that time.
He sold his Babe dog to Al for $20,000.00 Of course that made the headlines of the bobcat hunters Gazette. But the next headline a few days later was when Tommy bought her back for , I think, $22,000.00

That was alot of money back then.

I was sitting on Ray Mear's porch the first time Al Lutrell (Sr.) drove up that long dirt road to Ray's log cabin. Babe had been heavy in Ray's breeding and Al was up there to do a little research. Ray's son Lonnie was the man who had promoted Finely River Dan, and Ray himself had Dan's littermate brother "Sonny". Ray had around 40 dogs at the time. Every one of them was important to his program, and he could spend 1/2 hour talking about any one of them, and everything in their background.

Ray had been in an auto accident and was not longer able to care for those dogs. Ray lived in the hills above Salt Creek, and was only about 20 minutes from where I lived in Dallas, so I went up there daily to care for his dogs, and help Ray and Bernice with anything heavy or difficult. They had no electricity, and I did not look forward to the day when the big propane tank had to be loaded up and taken to town for a refill.
They used the propane for light and cooking, but used a wood stove for heat.

Ray trained cats too, but not for the purposes Everett and Vern had. Ray would not have anything but a pure white cat. He always had one trained to live in his feed shed. The cat was trained to never come out if the door was opened. Ray would start the kitten about like you might start a pup. He would put the kitten in a barrel with a live mouse and stuff like that, until that kitten was "mouse minded" and ready to be depended upon to do the job.

Ray Mears was a combination hunter, but he sure taught me alot about bobcat hunting. He would drill me like a lawyer about every single detail of my hunts and then he would comment on every issue, and usually have a story or two that related in some way. I know it was very hard on him to not be able to hunt, so he was hunting through me about the same way I am hunting through all you good folks on this board (since I no longer hunt).

Once he told me a story about a dead battery in his truck. He built a fire in front of the truck and burned it down to coals. Then he rolled the truck over the coals to warm up the battery and the engine oil, and Zing! it started up like a new battery. About a month later, I was stranded in the mountains by a dead battery, and due back at the church were I was a pastor. I remembered Ray's story, and I just remember shouting "Ray Mears I love you!!!" as I turned that key and my engine popped off like new after warming it up with coals. I was a little late for the meeting, But at least I made it.