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What is the longest a lion can hold thier scent in (distance wise)? I have one that keeps giving us the slip but I think he is holding it in and that is helping him get away.

?????

I hear you Cobalt, what??? Who told you that.

male dog gang bangs, lions holding scent, it's like I logged on in the twilight zone

He probably read the book " the greatest guide" about Dale Lee, in it he talks about making a lose on lions that the dogs were going good on, then all of a sudden they come to a stop. his theroy was that a lion could hold his scent for a time, when scared.

I call BS on that theory.

Are you sure that your dogs are trailing a tom, and not a female that doesn't leave much scent?

I have experienced females that would pull a trick out of their bag of tricks to throw the dogs off, and then we would be set back trying to figure out a loose when it looked as though we were about to catch a lion. If the lion typically isn't leaving a lot of scent anyway, sometimes it doesn't take much to throw the dogs off.

I know its a tom he has left scratches and a few deer hunters have come up on him with game cameras. I know the ground is really dry and a lot of the scent with dissipate from the rocks and soil but there is a few areas in the driest part of the canyon that I lose him in, I was thinking its a combination of scenting conditions and the ability to with hold some scent that is making it quite a challenge.

The scent will dry up from the open dirt and cause you problems. However, if your dogs are cold nosed lion dogs, and I'm not trying to diss your dogs, trailing conditions on rocks and brush should always help get you through the tuff spots. The poorous conditions of rocks and brush or twigs will hold scent for longer periods than just dirt. A dog that figures that out will stick their tongue to the rocks and brush to freshen up the scent, and then be able to trail it better. Not faster, but better.

I don't buy the holding the scent deal either, if they could really do that you would NEVER get one in a tree. If it was me that kept looseing him, I would leave them Plott's at home, keeping them fresh for bear season, and put some of Jeff Allen's stuff after him. ( just Kidding, don't mean to piss anyone off about what they take to the woods)

He has been lost with blueticks, plotts, those milk cow looking dogs, black and tans, some curs and some mutts and not just by me but by a few guys. This lion seems to be the type you do not want to harvest because of his survivability capabilities.

nmplott,

I wouldn't put much into the whole lion holding their scent theory. Sounds like he has a habit of going into places that doesn't hold scent as well. I doubt there is anything wrong with your dogs, just hit some areas that make trailing a lot more difficult. I would try walking the dogs out further and see if they can take the track once moved out of the bad area.

Don't feel bad, I know where there is a female bobcat that has showed my dogs up a few times. They get her jumped and circling, I saw it cross the road 11 times with the dogs right on its butt. After a loop it came across the road, when the dogs popped out of the brush about 30 seconds later, they couldn't smell it at all. We walked dogs all over and they couldn't do anything with the track. There were some experienced dogs there, not just mine either, but some dandy dogs standing in road. Maybe bobcats can hold their scent in. That would explain a lot.

Well that was a pretty brave post pilgrim! I have never had this happen, not to say that I haven’t had tracks fizzle out and come to some what of an end those type were never very good in the first place and a hard go for any hound. Not being there and not knowing what type of cold trailing hounds you have leaves me with a ton of speculation so I will leave that to everyone else it should be a wild one for sure.


If there was ever a time that holding your scent would pay off this would be the time!



sourdough

I will admit it when I get beat, there was one time my brother grabed one dog with a leash and I grabbed the other and we walked out for a ways and got the track going but by then it was too late and we both had class in the AM. Thats why I am thinking the scent was with held for bit plus the horrible scenting conditions.

I do know that the Lee brothers believed this firmly. They got very upset when people would argue with them about it. So much so that they wouldn't even bring it up anymore and leave a conversation when it was discussed. I do know of three other of the worlds greatest hunters whom also believe the same thing or that theirs at least something to it. I will not mention any names but I personally heard it from their mouths. One of these people has actually proved the ability with other animals.

nmplott, to answer your origional question I don't know. I am far from the worlds greatest hunter or even a good hunter. I do though believe that there is something to this but don't know the science of it. That's all I've got and with that I will say that closed minds learn nothing.