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This might be a dumb question!!!!!!!!! Well i dont know many of you hound doggers so let me introduce myself, My name is Hunter DeWitt ive been at this game since i was about 12 started to catch game on my own when i was 22 thanks to the late Greg Anderson who was my idol in the hound dog world about a year ago i bought a couple horses and we were gonna start huntin off of em this spring and he was gonna show me the ropes but with his passing has got me goin at it blind so any advice would be great.. i have been lucky enough to accuire some of his dogs and want to make the best of it and hunt em as he would and need help doin so anyone wantin to help i would geatly apprciate it thanks........

Relax and have fun dont get too frustrated if the dogs dont handle to start with. It aint rocket science just saddle up and give er hell

Before you start hunting,I would start taking the dogs on hour or two rides to get then use to staying somewhat close to you and use to how you want them to handle

Best advice I can give you is only take as many dogs as you can handle or have shock collars for. When dogs are free casted all day you find out real quick how trash broke they are.

Older dogs that arnt use to being hunted horseback sometimes wont stay with you or trail the horse home very well.

Good thing (or bad thing lol)with tracking collars a guy doesnt have to whoop and spur to keep up like the old days.

Good advice thanks man, i have been goin 2-3 hour rides and feel i have a good handle on my dogs .. and one thing is for sure free casting you do find out how trash broke your dogs are!!!!!!!! do you just ride ridge lines the way a cat or bear would? i live in the white mountains in az and there are a millon roads new and old is ridin old retired login roads a good way or fence lines or what ya think

I try to ride as many places that I feel a lion would walk. Prominate rigde line, canyon bottoms, areas that have good deer populations. Alot of it a guy just has to wwear out a lot of horse shoes to figure out the where the lions like to spend their time in your country.

I might be wrong but I would bet you will find more lion sign in the lower 6-7000ish ft than you will in your higher country

Lions eat elk but they prefer deer more it seems and seem to follow deer herds more than elk, i say this since you have a sh$t load of elk in your country.

Bears i would hit springs and where the feed is that time or year

yea ten 4 i like to ride at the 5500 ft we have a few deer and a few elk now thanks to the high number of tags issued these days but thats a different subject for another day!!!!! but thanks for the advice it will be used for sure.... next question do you ride in the snow? want to get a upper hand on all the weekend warriors poundin the hell out of the roads and runnin all hours of the night dont get me wrong willing to do the road poundin for a good chase but want my dogs out of the box more then in the box if ya know what i mean

Thats just personal preferance on how a guy likes to hunt. I horseback in snow as long as its not too deep but i ussually wait unitl a couple of days until the snow melts of the trees otherwise its pretty miserable gettn snowed on everytime you brush a tree.

I do the pick up truck thing too you can cover whole lot more counrty. But a day or two in a pick up is about all I can stand.

Sometimes its more enjoyable for me to go horseback and not catch a lion than it is to road hunt and catch one

I think there is no better way to hunt with hounds. At least if you don't cut a track you got to go on a great ride...better than sitting all cramped up in a truck eatin Cheetos looking for a track! Big Mike gave you the best advice, just get out there and wear out a bunch of horse shoes, you'll have better hounds and solid horses because of it. And, if you tree game that'll just be cool too!

Big Mike wrote:
Sometimes its more enjoyable for me to go horseback and not catch a lion than it is to road hunt and catch one

Thats the deal for me.. Of course most of where I hunt I don't have a choice..

I like to put the dogs on the ground and let them hunt..... Also I've been working on getting them to stay behind me from time to time and staying back It helps when I'm trying to figure out a track...