How far will they run?

[M Evertsen]

I went out today in my normal haunts, and did not find a lion track to speak of. I started this morning at about 415, and was rolling out of a canyon around 730, when I found a good looking bobcat track. I put two dogs down on the track, and waited. About half an hour had gone by, and I had not heard a peep from either one. I worked my way down the canyon a while, and could hear both dogs opening up on track. I was able to watch them for some time, now in the dry ground rather than the 1" or less snow I started the track on. I watched the dogs cross the road right in front of me, go up a little draw, and continue to trail through the rocks. The ground here is super rocky and hard, and I was not able to see track here. I heard the dogs go over one ridge, but I was wrong in which one they went up, so I was behind them for a while.

About an hour later, I found them about 1/2 mile up canyon from where I turned loose. At this point, I figured they were either running something else, or it didn't matter anyway, and I turned in my other 3 dogs for the sake of doing so. I watched 3 dogs eventually trail over a ridge with no roads, and a large gold mine on the other side. That was one of the original dogs and 2 fresh dogs. I was not able to find their tracks, but for a short distance, and I couldn't tell what they were chasing. I was able to watch them in the glasses for several minutes, and did not see anything running in front of them.

I checked all the adjacent draws that they could have gone into, and did not find anything, so I went back to the truck, and one of my original dogs was back there (not the one that I saw trail over the ridge). I loaded up the 4 wheeler, and headed out to get a reading on the dogs. I was able to get a good reading, and as it turned out, those 3 fell out to the mine and were picked up there by workers.

My last dog was in the original canyon, and I never did see him from the time I turned loose until he showed back up at the truck, so I have no clue what he was doing.

I have not hunted bobcats much. I have always passed on them, but decided this year, I was going to hunt this area hard as I always find bobcat tracks, and can at least put the dogs down every time I go out.

How big is a bobcat's home range, and what would be normal for them to circle undisturbed? The canyon that this was in is very rocky, steep, decomposed granite, shale, PJ's, mohagany, dog woods, birch, etc, in the bottom. There is one little creek in there, which is where I turned loose originally, and the canyon is loaded with chukar and rabbits (perfect bobcat food).

Anyway, I am just needing some thoughts on how far they will run, and some other tricks for hunting them.

While I was trying to catch up to the dogs after I turned all of them loose, I did find 2 more bobcat tracks, so I was wishing I would have kept the other 3 with me a while longer and put them on another track. Oh well.

I am thinking that the dogs lost the trail in the rocks and grass, and just went to hunting, and picked up something else along the way.

I have a short video I could load as well, but I am not sure how to post it?

And here is the picture of the track I turned loose on. It is just shy of 2 inches across.

[Unreal_tk]

Bobcats ive ran so far have either stayed in a small area or get out of dodge... i ran a bobcat yesterday 4 miles up a canyon... but im not a super experienced hunter. They typically in my area have a small home range.

[twist]

They will run as far as the dogs will CHASE them. If they arent pressured hard enough to tree or holeup or get caught on the ground you are in for a good one. Andy

[super white hunter]

All depends on how hard your dogs push them,

[dwalton]

It varies with where you are hunting. On the studies that I am familiar with on the coast 1 to 2 square miles, in the cascades 10 to 12 square miles. In desert country I feel it is larger. Cats concentrate around heavy food sources. As others have mentioned if the cat you are trailing is not being pushed it will trot ahead of the dogs all day. If you are 15 minutes behind the cat and can't get a jump on it the cat will probably end up in a hole in your country. If you have been hunting lion or bear with your dogs it is going to take a really good dog to be consistent on bobs. That is not to say you will not catch some in deep snow or at times bobs just seem to want to tree. Pick your tracks and area that you hunt with a lot of trees to start with, the first couple are the hardest to tree. Good luck Dewey

[M Evertsen]

Thanks for the information guys!

Trees? What are those?

Rocks? I know them well, lol.