Bobcat hunter question????

[RRR_Malave]

i live near shawano wisconsin i am looking for an invite to go run bobcats i have never done it before in my life im 17 i own five dogs and have only had hounds for 3 years now i want to hunt bobcats badly just the simple fact i have nobody to go with and i have no clue on what i am doing or anything so please if you want to be a nice houndsmen and help me out and invite me to run cats with you or you know of some one that will let me tag alone or anything then please let me know thank you and good hunting Shaze Malave

[coastrangecathunting]

my advice would be go drive the snow and find a cat track. just take your 2 best dogs. turn them loose and see what happens. they might have a hard time locating so if you here them jump and then things go silent you should walk in and help them out . they either made a lose or it is up. the biggest problem you can do is take to many dogs. have fun .

jc

[Hipshooter]

RRR,
Find some older guy with dogs that wants to sit in the PU
& is to old to do much walking in the snow.
& u do the walking with the dogs.

[RRR_Malave]

well then if im going to try this on my own i need tips advice trick and need to know everything there is about bobcat running so please tell me since i have no clue on anything and no one will take me

[TomJr]

Need more info to give decent advice. First what do you run now with your hounds? 2nd is it snow or bare ground that you are wanting to run on?

If your dogs are already running something then make a drag for your best dog with Mike Lennard's method (sticky at the top of cats section) to show them what bobcats smell like. Don't worry too much if they don't tree much at the end of the track, its not realy there after all. But if they take the trail that should help.

If you have snow then take your 2 best out as has already been said, personaly I would take them on a leash until you find a track. If you have plenty of gas money then you can drive until you find a track... I like to free cast and we don't have much snow here and it has worked well for me just walking with them and showing them scat piles and scrapes to get them started.

Good luck and have fun out there.

[dubl_t]

Triple R,
Most important thing you can do right now is to read. Read all the old posts that catch your attention, then read all the posts that don't. Then, read about your prey. The best gun and the best dogs don't make the best hunter, knowledge of the prey does. That should answer 75% of any questions you have.

Ps, I'd take ya but I don't know what the hell I'm doing either

[Nolte]

Shaze,

Not to be a jerk, but there is a reason that guys don't jump at the chance to show somebody their bobcat spots. They aren't a dime a dozen and it takes a pile of gas money/time to locate them.

My advice is this, first thing is figure out what a bobcat track looks like. Not a grey fox, not a red fox, not a fisher, not a coyote, but a bobcat. Print off a picture or buy a track book to have in the truck. Next thing I'd do is find a track and walk it without dogs. Follow that sucker for a few hours and learn how they move, where they move and why they move. This way you'll learn where to look and what to look for. Look for short strides with wide and clean tracks.

Just as a warning. Cats are the toughest critter to consistently catch. Expect many long days of frustration and dissappointment. If your dogs aren't firing on something already and doing good, dont' waste your time with them on cat. Get one of those dogs to mind you and listen and then try to work up cat by walking it and the dog. Very few guys I know who are good cat hunters (I'm not in that list) didn't have anyone to show them. It was all learned through days, hours and years out hunting.

Best of luck to you.

[RRR_Malave]

lol thanks doubl_r and i am going to take your advice i have caught a couple of barn cats n let um go n had my dogs tree um but my pup seems to have more intrest in the track and not the tree and the other is silent on track and squal on tree and tripr i know what u mean by people not wanting to take me but where i live if u go an hour n a half north of my place there is the nicolet national forest so any one can run there lol and i am running on snow jus so yall no and three of my dogs are trained on coon and one is only two months old n the other is eight months old

[foxcat]

run about 20 more barn cats. then go to the snow and try to cut fresh tracks. turn the dog that was silent on the barn cat track out on the fresh bob track. its going to take a long time before you catch one unless you have an already made dog, but it will be rewarding. odds are you wont even catch one the first year, but its hard to say because im not sure what the country is like that your hunting. eventually you should get one to pop up a tree not long into the race, but its going to take many tracks. the best chance you have is doing your homework first, then purchasing a dog that has caught a decent amount of bobs on his own,(good luck hard to come by) and use that dog to train your pups. good luck man if you stick with it you should be catchin bobs in a few years

[foxcat]

just as a warning. Cats are the toughest critter to consistently catch. .

this is true only because there are more fox(the area i hunt in northern cali)than bobcat about 10 to 1. a fox race is longer, they have bigger lungs, which allows them to run longer, and make the dogs loose track just as much as a bobcat. bobs are tricky though and it will take a good dog to catch one most of the time.

[Nolte]

foxcat,

Nobody I know runs their dogs consitantly on gray fox. I have trashed out on a few over the years and treed them. I had to fish an old slow dog out of a leaner tree about 30 feet up one time that had a fox treed. Can't say the same about bobcats. I've purposely put on numerous cats and gotten by butt handed to me.

A buddy had his young female on two jumped cat races that fizzled. He went home and tied out to go check a couple snares. On his way he saw a gray fox and then checked his snares. Went home grabbed that dog and put her on them, said she had a nice hour or so race and then treed it.

I don't know much about any other parts of the country, but I'd need a little more convincing on the fox deal around here.

Good Hunting

[RRR_Malave]

well up north where i would have to run there is big swamps and thickets and then there is hard woods it has just about everything i have been up there bear hunting before thats y i know but i think there is a fair number of cats running around up there and if there is anymore advice im willing to listen i have my ears wide open to you guy = )

[cox]

RRR, I am by no means an expert but was shown by some guys who know a lot more than me if you are just starting your dogs on cat find a fresh track and follow it untill you come to its bed or somewhere that it stopped there will be a lot more scent there for the dog to start on once your dog gets going stay right on that bed 9 out of ten times the first loop that cat makes hes gonna run right by that bed we hunt in the U.P. I am assuming northern Wi has simmilar running conditions to what we have

[RRR_Malave]

yes i am assuming so to and im going to try everyones ideas if possible if i cant get them to do it im still not gonna give up = )

[coastrangecathunting]

if i were you i would drive the snow find a cat track , let your dogs out and see if they will take it . if it is fresh they will. dont waste your time walking it by yourself trying to figure out how a cat walks around . if they run coon and house cats they will run a cat. people are going to tell you what ever they want, the best thing you can do is get out there and run some cats . after that you will have some questions. you might even have a cat in a tree. they are tough to catch but not that tough. you might go to a false tree or lose it but you will never know untill you get out there. go catch one you can do it.

jc