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what is harder to caught, a small bear 100 to 175, or a big bear. dont want to make any body mad but dont need to here that yer dogs can caught everything or if yer dogs are good enough , just wondering what some peoples opinion is and why. when i mean caught, i mean tree, caught on the ground, not runnin past in front of a person in the road, all though i know it happens.
thanks,
kerry

For our dogs atleast the littler bears are harder to catch. The bigger bears we caught this year took about half an hour, while the smaller bears have gone up to 4 hours with no catch. The littler ones always seem to have NIKES on and run run run. We have had them walk by us huffing and puffing but still just far enough ahead of the dogs that he wouldnt tree.

i will have to agree with inchtowntracking . Those little ones seem to put on the Nikes and turn into SWAMPRUNNERS. They also seem to be able to PACE themselves to stay just in front of the hounds. They sure do give the hounds a good work-out though

They can both be hard. Smaller bears like to run and run hard. Bigger bears don't always like to take to a tree, especially when theres brush around. They like to stand off with dogs and just work their way along. That is why certain bear dogs make a difference.

The small bears cover more ground thats for sure. With out my half hounds I run the tree ratio would sure drop. The hounds tend to get farther behind the longer the run goes. The big bears are alot easier to catch up to.

i hate to put numbers on it but i think 100lbs and under run all day and 400 and up dont have to tree well not in maine any way only 6 used to be four dogs and some time you only have one dog out a big male can hurt the dogs smackin chargin and if he balls one up ouy
he dont have to tree he can walk and dependen on his temper will decide how quick he will sit his ass in a safe place
if hes whipped a bunch of dogs in his life he knows to keep chargin n swatin and you better get up there quick
seen a few 150 to 250 that were nasty tree jumpin never stop movin in a tree up n down in and out they make things fun
we try to catch them off soon as we can with a small one find a track in the road or see him them small ones are a waste of time and gas
i think when there small they are built better for a cardio work out soon as you get them layers of fat they slow down
nobodys dogs catch every bear either im lucky enough to know dogs that have been on a few hundred bears and some times things just fall apart there only dogs
cant what to see bears on the NC coast here a lot about them li Freediver

I think you guys have said it all. a 60 to 100 lb, bear will give you a run, and every dog has its chance to run, great pup trainers. As someone said, for the tough ones, i keep one or two half running dogs, to throw in, after the pups have run out I got one big long legged boar about 350 around here, his legs is the length of Randy moss's gives you a run for your money also

imo. a smaller bear.

I agree with you guys. Smaller bears are harder to catch. But I don't mind running them. Because it gets the dogs in shape.

i also agree on the smaller ones. you can run the big ones down and stuff the gun in the side of its head.

Usually the toughest bear for me to catch is the one that my dog's are on. Everybody else seems to get the easiest ones.

Little ones are are harder to tree when the dogs aren't in shape and they are still lean from the spring. The same bear get easier as the season wears on and the dogs get in shape. Big bear are tougher to catch because there aren't many of them and they'll get snappy. But if you got a few bear dogs the toughest part of a big bear is finding the track and getting him jumped. Once that happens, it should be almost a done deal unless something goofy happens.

I think it depends on what his going on. I had one dog on a bear that ran right by the truck and it never treed and she ran it untill dark. Then we had 8 dogs dogs on a bear that treed in 10 mins and he was 150 pounds. Then we just treed and killed a bear that was 250 plus we had 3 dogs and it took 30 mins to tree that bear. So I think it all depends on how many dogs you have and how aggressive the bear is. Just my two cents

Smaller bears under 125 lbs are alot harder for the dogs to put enough pressure on to get to tree or bay. I think this is not only because the bear is faster but also since he is smaller he is leaving less scent and that slows the dogs down especially on a hot day.

I would say that I have to agree with whats alreasy been said. The smaller bears seem to cover more miles and from what I can tell jump ship alot faster. It seems like the dogs tree those smaller bears a few times before we can actually get in their to them.

bigfootexp wrote:Smaller bears under 125 lbs are alot harder for the dogs to put enough pressure on to get to tree or bay. I think this is not only because the bear is faster but also since he is smaller he is leaving less scent and that slows the dogs down especially on a hot day.

That just doesn't make sense. Especially from the pacific northwest.

An old hunter once told me that a bear will only run as fast as it's pushed by the dogs. I've yet to see much evidence to the contrary.

I think the problem with the runners is inconsistency in the pack as opposed to the bear being fast. When you have one dog pushing the bear way out and not putting enough pressure to tree it, you have problems. I'd rather have 5 slow dogs that all ran together then have one REALLY fast dogs and 4 fast dogs. Depending on the dog. If the dog was just an overall stud and was a burner, I'd do my best to build my pack around it. Just my thoughts.