Cutovers, Bobcats and Cur dogs........

[astringer]

Here in Southwest Mississippi, timber companies and one bad hurricane have just about eliminated all of the old growth timber we had. I'm not complaining about timber companies, trees are a renuable resource. My father and uncle both row crop pine trees on the family property. Over the last 30 years, pine trees have been planted, cut, planted again and so on. This has led to thousands of acres of cutover land and in turn, our bobcat population has exploded. A cutover is paradise for a bob. I have some friends that lease about 300 acres for deer hunting. Last year they killed 10 cats out of deer stands on that property alone. I can't coon/squirrel hunt much at home anymore but I do think we are missing a great opportunity in not harassing these cutover bobcats. I switched from hounds to curs several years ago. I've got 4 three month old Mountain Cur pups that are mostly Kemmer, 68% if I figured right. I plan on getting all 4 focused on bobcats and start putting them in the cutovers. This is relatively flat land down here, with creek and river bottoms. And so much of it is cutover.

If anyone has any experience with hunting in this type situation, I would appreciate your input.

Alan Stringer

[007pennpal]

Not sure what the question is here, but lots of bobs is a huge plus when trying to train bobcat dogs.
Sean

[astringer]

We've got plenty of cats and no cat hunters that are close to me. I don't have anything with any experience to even start with. Trying to use bobcat scent to keep my dogs focused on one game animal and using some bait to try to keep some cats lured in so I can get on one quick. There must not be very many folks using curs either. It's just an experiment to see if I can get a pack going. Just got tired of coons and squirrels and wanted something a little tougher to chase.