BigGameHoundsmen.com

Has anyone had much luck chasing bobcats with blueticks. Some people say they aren't as good as a walker or fast. What is the consensus out there.

yes. there are so many things involved with running cats you can't state a absolute with out being wrong sometime somewhere

Pegleg is right, as usual, and it can be pretty hard to get people to committ to giving their actual opinion on something so subjective. But I will give you mine, as long as you realize there is a lot more I dont know than what I do know. I can only tell you my very limited experience. Here it is:

pure bred bluetick coonhounds, as the breed is called or registered, are very fine for "chasing bobcats" as your question is worded. They are not very good for catching them though. I would definately include one in my two or three dog pack if he was an exceptional cold tracker...what is called a "jump dog" in the upper midwest. But if I was serious about catching a number of bobcats, I would not be depending on my purebred bluetick to do it. I would have something that is more focused on the animal than it is on the track. That would be very rare in a purebred bluetick.

David,if I only had the words you do!!! AMEN

Thanks so you saying you need to mix them in with other dogs? Do you guys know of anyone in particular that is catching bobs with blue ticks?

I think there are dogs in every color that can catch bobcats and then there are dogs in every color that can't catch them worth a damn. Its just finding the ones that catch. I have two Cameron blueticks out of Jim Harrell that catch cats. Been through plenty of dogs of all colors to get the pack i have now.

I have two Cameron females, a mother and her daughter. Each can catch their own bobcat, alone, consistantly. So you might need a pack, or you might only need one dog, depends on the dogs.

Very true LionTracker. of the two Cameron sisters i have one will catch by herself just as consistent as she will with a pack. The other is not as consistent. usually hunt them in groups of two or three most of the time.

There are dogs in all the hound and cur breeds that are exceptional in my opinion. I don't hunt bobs as much as I used to due to a geographical change, but I've caught lots of bobs with blueticks for a long time. Like culverz said, it's finding the dogs that have a propensity for it that makes the difference. My rationale for running bluedogs is; if you can't start the track, you can't catch it and the bluedogs seem to be able to start more old tracks than most other dogs, on average. As far as speed goes, I've run with enough dogs to know that blueticks(of certain blood) have enough speed to match any other breed. In the end, it takes a lot of time to find the right "dog" to have what it takes to be a top shelf bobcat dog, whatever the breed.

yes. again their are people catching them with blueticks. and people who believe it's impossible. which leads you to the question is it the dogs, the area, the hunter or a combination? ITS SIMPLE IT'S ALL THREE. Is a blue only good for starting tracks? no the color of a hound is just like a paint job on your truck in most cases it's whats under the hood and hittin the ground that gets the job done. think about the variations in hounds, there isn't one variant that can't be found somewhere in some color. find a good catdog then check and see if it's blue.

Very well put Pegleg

First off,let me say color wise bluedogs are one of my favorite colors.I think most all the comments on here are very accurate.In my experience Blue's in general[except for exceptions]in our part of the world[western Oregon] do not work out to well do to track style[sticky]and many are just plain to big[again not all of them].I've owned a pile of dogs of all breeds and strains from top hunters across the country,and still hoping to get something that can strike,trail and tree[with the pack,not behind]with dogs raised here on the nothern paet of the west coast-where dogs have been bred for generations to consistantly catch bobs,nothing else.The only thing I've really seen come in do well,are running dogs[again-not all of them].Wether it's dogs or horses I always look and see what the most succesfull people in that pursuit are useing.When I trained and showed cutting horses,I rode the top lines of quarter horses I could find and afford.Even though many people these days are doing well with some of the Arabians bred for this,they still go through apile of them to get something close to an average-good Quarter horse.So consequently Walkers and some walker/running dog cross's are what I'm seeing the most consistancy out of[the ones that posess the traits,of cold nose,pickup their head as soon as they can and run it,and LOCATE and tree in tall timber.Not tree happy].Walkers [coming from the foxhound]are the easiest to find these traits in. JMO Tim

First OFF , I am not a racist dog owner, I have had them all. there was a time everybody said you had to have plotts to catch bear, or walkers to catch lions, and bluetick and walker packs to catch bobcats. Well i call BS i dry ground hunt my dogs, i have blueticks ( utchman, as you know are back east coon dogs) and i have finley river,yadkin tar rattler walkers. I have hunted dogs all my life and hunt more in a month then most people hunt in a year. You will get from your dog what you put into it. Yes i agree walkers are faster, But as they get older they loose there voice ( i like to hear the race not just kill game). Here in eastern oregon you can only limited amounts of cats anyway. I you take the time to teach a dog to hunt cats and make it cat minded, by this i mean lay a drag with grawes animal lure just like a cat would hunt. Up rocks along creeks up on packrats nest, down the road. you will make your dog catminded. thats what it takes is a dog that thinks where a cat would go and not stand out there on his head barking like an idiot.Bobcats dont have lung power or legs to out run anyhound, If the dog runs it when jumped they will catch game. Just take the time to train it like a cathound not a hot nosed bear dog. You will get out of him/her what you put into them.

I've had very good luck catching bobcats with blueticks. This is in snow though. I don't know how they would do on dry ground. I also seem to have better luck with just one dog. I always read about guys running bobcats with 2 or 3 hounds and being successful. But mine just don't seem to hunt as well that way. As scarce as tracks are in our part of the country you better have a dog thats willing to run an old track. I've had a few different times that I had dumped my dog on a track that someone else had tried but there dogs weren't able to run it, and ended up treeing it. [makes you feel good] Ross

I hunt dry ground and don't tell my blues they can't catch a bobcat cuz they think that they can and do. My experience has been that some of the big, heavy cold trailing lines have trouble getting a cat jumped. I have tried to keep the nose on my dogs while concentrating on breeding a very athletic, tighter made dog. I have done this by breeding Upson, Smokey River and Rambo II lines. They are not perfect but they can get the job done every now and then.
Adios,
Gary