BigGameHoundsmen.com

I think this is the cold nose biggame hound measuring system PEG was looking for suggestions on. How often do you find a track the dogs can't start?

This thread just doesn't feel right. Where the hell is hounddawg!!!?

Oh, he's laying in wait, ready to pounce! I can feel it!

Borderpond wrote:So again Ike, wheres the part where Pete said "My dogs " in his post. And guys , I have hunted with Pete and many of his dogs before.If Peteever wanted to get into the My My MY Mine Mine thing, hes got plenty to back him up.Of course you could take those words out of Petes computer because he would never use them to brag up something of his own.

No Ike, you pretty much make your own bed.How come you never tell the story about the guy you lion hunted all winter and came up with zero and then he finally went to another guy on this board to get his lion tag filled ?

Are you plum full of shit or just partly full of shit border......see, I do have a sense of humor!

I remember the story ol' houndwhisper told about he and a hunting buddy walking down a favorite ridge of his with about ten dogs. Anyway, one of those old dogs of theirs left and went and got treed on a lion and neither them or the other dogs knew it was gone. I suppose that dog is the kinda dog we're talking about and the kind of dog I wanted to see, cause if one of my dogs strike on the cast the other six about run over it to join in the race...............

A tight-mouthed dog may well do that, that is strike and leave without anybody knowing it left......but not if that dog opens on track.........

ike

We run off baits alot here so tracks arent usually more than 12 or 15 hours old.. I think its more of where the bear goes here when we dont start a track.Lots of these bears will cross rivers or beaver bogs and it makes it hard on cold trailers.

I bet Tobey will remember this one.We treed a real nice bear during kill season but the hunter had tagged out with us the day before .Took a bunch of video and figured we would get him next week when new hunters came in. Thats the one that treed right beside the guy in the skidder Tobey ? I bet we tried to start that bear off the same bait 8 or 10 times after that and never once got him jumped.Dogs would go out cold trailing good and then just die on it.It got so I was putting the bait out right at dark trying to shorten the time till we turned out on him but it never mattered.He was swimming some god awful swamps after hitting the baits.I guess we were 1 for 10 on getting him jumped.Overall, I would say I was starting 2 out of 3 tracks the dogs went out cold trailing on.How about the rest of you guys ?

Ike, Pete said "that an AVERAGE dog can't smell". It is obvious that you do not consider your dogs AVERAGE so why do you get upset or feel challenged?

briarpatch wrote:Ike, Pete said "that an AVERAGE dog can't smell". It is obvious that you do not consider your dogs AVERAGE so why do you get upset or feel challenged?

Good point, and I'll drop it. Matter fact, I wouldn't have even mentioned his name had border and others not landed on me for wanting to see this "super dog" in action. I spoke to a buddy about this very issue on cold trailing, a guy who has hunted behind plenty of dogs and walked down lots of tough tracks with hounds while trying to get his clients a tom lion. He agreed that when it's over, meaning the scent conditions have changed and the dogs have hit the wall, that one dog may well take that track a little further but seldom does it produce a lion. And that is a whole different ball game than a hound that will start and finish a track that other finished, lock-down ground pounding lion hounds can't find.

Like I said, if a hound can take a track that mine can't find, move that track with good speed and tree that lion, then ol' Ike would like to see it is all.............

ike

BlacktailStalker wrote:

liontracker wrote:So is it:
A. 4 hounds against 1
B. 4 hounds against 4
C. 1 hound against 1

??????????????????

Besides, everyone knows that 4 hounds that are used to working together will feed off each other and have a greater advantage over one lone hound. They will cast about and move the line much better as a team than one hound can. Simply apples to oranges.

I don't agree with that at all.

Because I've seen a single dog make different packs of 2-5 look like useless culls and those dogs supposedly get it done when they're run alone.

Ike I enjoy your pics and stories (really enjoy the stories ) and I'm just having some fun but I saw the same thing, a topic meant as general discussion turned into a "me me" thread. Sometimes its just too much.

I have to agree a good hound usually can move a real bad track better by itself then four good hounds could move it together. hence the use of lead dogs. they are not always that much better. they are selected sometimes because someone needs to start a bad track not everyone. and as far as big game hound testing I maintain if done correctly in a fair manner the bs would slow and the hounds would get better.

Well, it's bedtime guys cause running hounds comes early around here and a guy has to get up around 4:30 or so.....but I'll try not to dream about those cold nosed dogs while I wait for sleep!

ike

Peg, absolutely on the testing...

However the pack of 4 I speak of are all veteran warrior lead dog material. Each a pretty balanced hound, working together to cast, work the cracks and crevices, and push that track faster than just track for track, hold the line style. Each of these 4 will also pick up there heads and run to catch at the slightest chance. Long story short, the faster you move a bad track the more likely you are to tree before dark.,

Different areas again. I am not going to argue my next statement with anyone as it is my experience. In the desert the scent after 14 hours is so slight that a careful hound can continue to track it by its self without destroying it however even the best seasoned hounds want to be in the front and will push to be in front. a old track must be unraveled slowly and carefully in dry sand and dust. rock or clay soils will hold it much better. I have hunted in Colorado, I was born and raised up and down the south side of the state. I think you are right on being able to hunt four hounds there. I never necked hounds until I moved here. I believe if every houndsmen hunted the same game in the same climate etc. we would see eye to eye more often but it''s not the way it is. I have hunted enough areas that it has taken the boldness out of me to claim my hounds could do it better then some other feller's some where else. I do think we should all strive to breed the best hounds we can and if we find better make the change for the future.
Ike the problem you have is your pride, it's overwhelming. My hounds could probably keep up with most anyone's fast or slow. but I am not about to bet the wife n kids or hounds n horses on it. cause as sure as I got loud about it the hounds would catch a cold .truck get a flat, ol'mare go lame "all of em " and kids graffiti the church. and there I'd be a paying client on the best lion hunt ever witnessed.

Another thing I have seen alot of with more than 1 dog cold trailing. While one dog is working track to track, the other one or ones will drift out silent and get way ahead.Now, whether that dog was smelling track and just not opening till he got it straightened out OR just made a wide sweep and picked it up out front is hard to say.The dog is the only one that knows and he aint talking !! No way to know if this could be true or not but it sometimes seemed to me that if one dog was working the cold trail real deliberate ,moving slow and opening good on it, it was almost like it gave the other dogs the ok to get out front and try and freshen it up.Maybe figuring they could get back to the track if they didnt pick it up on their own.

Of course we are all just guessing on what they are smelling.As Pete always says ' what I wouldnt give to be able to smell what a dog smells for one day "

Borderpond, your post just above is 100% correct in my point of view. Well said!

Peg - ya gotta love a progressive thinker. Your right about bragging on your hounds, for just as soon as I did - my best dog became a cripple! I do hunt the clay, especially when it puffs up. ...and that sand you talk about is a whole nother world. I am a firm believer also, that it is the toughest stuff to cold trail on out there. My worst trouble is up bellow the high decomposing sandstone rims on a south slope. I swear, sometimes there is more scent up on top of the boulders and slabs...