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I have two questions to veteran cat hunters. First what is the oldest cat track you can confirm the rough age of that you caught? And number two what do you think is the average age for common caught cats?

I ask this as most my tracks id say are no more than 4 hours old maybe a few older. Oldest one I've caught I think was 6 hrs. Pure luck of just a coming back thru I try to hunt loops rather than do any double backing although it pays off occasionally to double back.

I have trouble catching bobcats if the tracks are too old. I have turned loose on day old tracks just to let the dogs work and she could barely move it. I think bobcats need to be pretty fresh, they just don't leave as much scent as lions.

WAcoyotehunter wrote:I have trouble catching bobcats if the tracks are too old. I have turned loose on day old tracks just to let the dogs work and she could barely move it. I think bobcats need to be pretty fresh, they just don't leave as much scent as lions.

I agree, just curious what other hunters have to say.

I saw a cat in the road in norcal at 6pm. After being told that I could not run at night in Ca, I came back at 6am and rigged, ran, treed, and shot that cat. Thats the oldest I can confirm without a doubt how old it was. I think the majority of the tracks we run are 12hrs or less simply because they weren't there at noon and now they are there in the morning. lol

I think it depends a lot on if the cat was in hunting mode or traveling mode. Pretty tough to cold track a 10 hour old track if it spent the night hunting but if it was traveling to a different spot it gets a lot easier. I'd like to think the dogs are cold tracking 10 or 12 hour old tracks but in reality you just don't know for sure. I've cold tracked cats for 5 miles or more(do to the fact I didn't think I had to check other roads), and caught them but age of the track, who knows, sometime during the night? I've put dogs on a track at noon(track was there at 5am) and they run it like it was 2 hrs old. Did it cross right before I checked? I've seen dogs take a track later in the morn better than letting them go at daylight. Must be some scientific explanation for it? Air currents? Warming temps? Seems especially bad when the temp is 0 with wind. I'll quit rambling!!
So many questions, so little time!!! If a guy had it all figured out, it wouldn't be fun.

mondomuttruner wrote:I think it depends a lot on if the cat was in hunting mode or traveling mode. Pretty tough to cold track a 10 hour old track if it spent the night hunting but if it was traveling to a different spot it gets a lot easier. I'd like to think the dogs are cold tracking 10 or 12 hour old tracks but in reality you just don't know for sure. I've cold tracked cats for 5 miles or more(do to the fact I didn't think I had to check other roads), and caught them but age of the track, who knows, sometime during the night? I've put dogs on a track at noon(track was there at 5am) and they run it like it was 2 hrs old. Did it cross right before I checked? I've seen dogs take a track later in the morn better than letting them go at daylight. Must be some scientific explanation for it? Air currents? Warming temps? Seems especially bad when the temp is 0 with wind. I'll quit rambling!!
So many questions, so little time!!! If a guy had it all figured out, it wouldn't be fun.

That pretty much sums it up right there.

I am talking hunting snow. A fairly cold nosed dog should be able to run a 24 hr old track, its hard to say just how old a track is for sure without see the cat in it. I hunt the same area most days so know its within a 24 hour span most are in a 20 to 10 hr span I would GUESS if one is under 4 hrs I would call that a smoking track and would expect a short race. But for the most part until one turns out you just never know. Andy

In Wisc. a 24 hr old track would take 36 hours to jump In 24 hrs after a snow the rabbits have hard as road trails that the cats walk on, 16 coyotes would have walked track in track on that cat track and a multitude of deer would have that track trampled in a mile block. I'm not sayin it can't be done here but you would have to have a dozen horseshoes up ur @ss. Not to mention fishers, wolves, squirrels, otter, the other cat that walked through 8 hrs ago, the hound ruts from the last 2 weeks, the snowshoers, cross country skiers, loggers, ect. At times, you would have a hard time tracking sasquach through a section.

Don't you guy's in Wisc. have broke dogs whatever that means. It total depends on the conditions. I have caught 24 old tracks and not been able to trail 20 minute old tracks. I catch frozen in tracks made the afternoon before often, but the dogs may trail them four or five miles. I have trailed and treed tracks that covered air miles up to 8 or 10 from bare ground to snow, out again to raining on snow which is the worst conditions you could have.I caught a 31 lb tom [which is big for our area] three years ago that I wished someone would of been there to see the job done by the dogs. Something to think about.. I have trailed a lion on bare ground that was 9 days old. I did not catch it. I expect my dogs to be able to catch a night old track on snow or bare ground and they do. There are many factors that limit the ability of the dogs trailing bobcats. Dewey

Dewey
I'm not talking trashy dogs. You should know better than most a cat does not want to step in virgin snow(around here anyways). With the multitude of critters running around the woods a cat seldom does walk in virgin snow(worst case). When they do our deer seem to follow step for step in the cat track(saw it a couple times this year, whats up with that?)I like a challenge but a 24 hr old track is nearly impossible here. Besides that, you would be hard pressed to find a track from the day before that didn't have a dog on it.
I'm not trying to make excuses for the dogs, I expect them to track through dirty snow, but there is a limit.
It's all fun no matter how old the track is, they ain't learnin nothin in the box.

Mondomuttrunner: I have never hunted up there but I can imagine that with the cold and old snow you have you would have very hard hunting conditions. As you know cats walking on packed frozen snow leave little scent. None of my dogs are broke because all they have ever ran is bobcats and dogs love to run cats more than anything. Where dogs that run bear, lion and coyotes as some of you do can never make the type of dogs that think only cats. From what I read you do not have the number of cats there that we do to run. It would be very hard for me to train a cat dog that I could not get on hundreds of cats a year. It is two different worlds of cat hunting. I knew what you referring to but I also know that it is probably like it is here, a lot of hound men do not know what there dogs are running or what the dogs are doing they just make up a story to fit what they think they are doing. I think that your cats would be easier to cat in April and May when the ground is damp on a cloudy day before it gets to hot than on dry frozen snow. Dewey

Dewey, I agree biggest factors is change to conditions to the track rather than just age. But my curiosity was wondering what input people would bring. I have attempted old hard tracks with my dogs with little avail, not sure on age but when you hit that "tree rain" frozen ground it sure slows up a cold trail for me. Trailed a track last friday I thought wasn't to bad on the road but the dogs took into the canyon over bare ground spots fine but once they got to the bottom tree rain ground killed the cold trail. I may of caught it if I had more time to work on it.

I would like to hear what the bare ground texans have to say and Mr Clay as well for track ages and or conditions.

Great thread and alot of good info here

Well Folks the Clay's are now "heard from".

Thing is We do not have much to add. Mr. Dewey and others have about said it all...and said it well!

Where we hunt TIME has very little to do with the Hounds jumping and catching the Cat!

Scenting Conditions are our main adversary!

1. Moisture:
a. in the Ground
b. in the Air
c. the lack there of

2. Temperature:
a. the air
b. the ground

3. Soil types

4. Vegetations

5. Humidity (different from Moisture)

6. Barometer – Rising or Falling

7. Wind direction – EAST WIND…THE HOUNDS can SMELL THE LEAST!

All of these things are what effect the amount of time since a Bobcat left his Track and whether or not Dad’s Hound can Bark or Run him.

Now I have told this before, years ago in Western Florida, Dad was trailing a Cat about daylight at a 4 way intersection of 4 Timber Company roads. The Hounds were warming the track up and were about to jump the Cat when a Logger pulled up on his way to work. He asked Dad where he had struck the Cat, Dad replied back at that intersection. The fellow said that he had seen that Cat there the evening before on his way home. Dad thanked him and went back to listening to what was now a Cat Race. The Hounds ran this Cat for a little over and hour and caught the Big Tom in the ditch next to the road. Dad picked the Cat up to take it the Logger as he had asked for one to mount.

Now Dad did not believe that this was the same Cat that the fellow had seen, but he stopped at the 4 way intersection and closely examined the Sandy ground. There was only 1 Bobcat track there and it appeared to be that of a Big Tom.

A Track almost 12 hours old yields a Caught Cat….well that is very unusual in the Southeast. The Scenting had to have been just perfect…this does not happen often. As Dad remembers it, there was a Fog that came in about dark the evening before and hung about 4 to 5 feet off the ground all night. It fell to the ground after Dad had the Cat jumped after daylight. Had the Fog fallen sooner it likely would have washed the Cat Scent out. Also the Big Tom had probably caught a Rabbit and was laid up not too far from where the Hounds struck him!

Now the other side of this is that you all have read here and elsewhere about us seeing a Bobcat in the Road and not having a Hound have a clue that the Cat was even in the same County.

“Scenting Conditions are in the Dog Box” is a quote we hear all the time. Folks claiming that it is Bosh and Bumkin to think that a Hound SMELLS game differently at different times. When we hear this it is best to do like we do when Folks tell us of the “Black Panther” that they see and hear….just smile and nod!

The short answer to the question of how “Old” of a Track can Dad’s Hounds run….it depends on the Scenting Conditions!

Unreal_tk wrote:I have two questions to veteran cat hunters. First what is the oldest cat track you can confirm the rough age of that you caught? And number two what do you think is the average age for common caught cats?

I ask this as most my tracks id say are no more than 4 hours old maybe a few older. Oldest one I've caught I think was 6 hrs. Pure luck of just a coming back thru I try to hunt loops rather than do any double backing although it pays off occasionally to double back.

I usually hunt early morning into daylight and call it quits by mid day. I think most every track I caught were less than 12 hours old. With most of them being less than 4 hours old. But as most have mentioned it just depends on the conditions of the day.

I do believe that hounds have good and bad days just like we do. You can have one dog that day after day is obviously the coldest nosed dog get shown up by another that typically doesn't do that great on older tracks. Maybe that is where the saying "every dog has his day" came from.