BigGameHoundsmen.com

How do you start your tracks? Do you drive roads and find what looks to be a fresh track and then turn out? Like most lion hunters.
Does anyone rig coyote tracks off of the box in big open sage brush type country? Like bear and bobcat hunters.
Hide in the brush with dogs and predator call so when the yote shows up he is already running on a 1/2 empty gas tank? I think the look on the yotes face when the dogs boiled out of the brush 50 yds away would be priceless.

i just free cast my 2 yate hounds let them do the work. thats were a good start dog comes in.

We free cast our dogs. Usually run two at a time or three.

We check roads and bait piles. If no tracks we free cast. I get my start...jump dogs by turning them on a cold track and letting them follow. Free cast allows them to hunt and come across a hot track.

i will look for tracks and then free cast if cant find any. ive tried the rigging thing and it kinda works but you need a hot hot track. coyotes dont leave as much scent as a bear or lion

When yoy free cast do you have any trouble starting tracks backwards? Can they figure out a yote track and turn it around? With these hard core cold trail dogs and real rocky ground if a dog starts a lion track backwards it might be 2 hours before you see a print and get them turned around.

Usually do not have a problem running backwards.

the most i've ever seen my start dog run backwards is about 50 feet. then he turns around and is off like you shot him. most of the time he is gone so fast without opening my young dog is left out of the race when he starts barking. seems to run without barking the longest on a hot track tho. he runs wide open and not saying a word. almost like he's thinking i'm going to catch this one before it knows i'm here.

The only time the hounds ever take a track backwards is if we see a coyote out there a piece and I send em towards where he was at perpendicular. If the wind is wrong, they will take the track backwards every single friggin time but only for a 1/4 to a 1/2 mile or so and then they sometimes straighten it out and go the right way but alot of times I just end up cussin alot.

I run off baits mostly, if i dont have a bait active I like to run off tracks in snow. When we dont have snow I road a good dog until he gets one going. Cant say they never take one backwards but they seem to get turned around quick if they do.
Rick

raxntrax wrote:When yoy free cast do you have any trouble starting tracks backwards? Can they figure out a yote track and turn it around? With these hard core cold trail dogs and real rocky ground if a dog starts a lion track backwards it might be 2 hours before you see a print and get them turned around.

this can be a problem in cold nosed dogs some have more nose then they know what to do with . great cold trailers know the difference,and dont need help in my opinion. same with a dog that can circle a bobcat over its own track over and over ,and not skip a beat.there a cut above your average hound .im not here to crap on anyones hounds there just hounds ,and have flaws thats including my own.backtracking happens for different reasons sometimes it is dogs competeing that causes it.ive even seen dogs run the backtrack simply because they didnt like the hound that was running it the right way.knowing how to work your dogs despite there flaws can still make success,and is part of being a good houndsman.and sometimes it just takes a different dog or combination of dogs to get r done consistently.jmo.