Let's look for a pattern

[dwalton]

Bobcat hunting varies as to where you live, the length of the season,number of bobcats, what else there is to run, ect... Lets look at a few things about cat hunting. Length of hunting season, conditions that you hunt in, other game that you run,amount of bobcats in your area,how many tags that are available, number of days you hunt and type of dog you hunt with. I know that it will very from state to state for instance Pennsylvania has a two week season and a 1 cat limit, some states you have to draw a tag and some states there is hunting year around. Our training and kill season is 3 months each so we can hunt bobcats for six months.. I hunted 76 days last year and treed, holed or caught on the ground 64 bobcats. The least amount of hunting and catch in four years. Must be slowing down in my old age. I hunt snow on the east side bare ground on the west and train on bare ground. I run part running dogs and 2 Leopard curs. I have 15 dogs and hunt from 4 to 12 at a time. I live in Oregon and hunt Oregon and California. I only run bobcats. I think we will see why people hunt different types of dogs and have different opinions.It does not matter how much you hunt or catch. We are all equal here, no one does any better than the next guy. Be honest. I would like to hear from all over the US from anyone that has ever hunted a bobcat. Thanks Dewey

[mondomuttruner]

Dewey, I'm assuming cat season is closed for you being your spending time on the puter. lol

Our season runs from first snow (for me) till the end of Jan. It takes roughly 6 yrs or more to draw a tag here. Some are saying it may be closer to 10 yrs in the coming yrs. I hunt nearly every day that the snow permits, we had a pretty bad year with crust and a lot of the snows came in the morning at daylight so it was tough to find a track until the next day. There were days when I strictly hunted coyotes but usually because I couldn't find a cat track. I hunt by myself in the morning for cats then go after coyotes with a couple of buddies afterwards. I currently have 9 hounds which are mostly grade hounds with 3 being a few weeks old. A couple of B&T crosses, couple of plotts, 1 purebred B&T and a grade walker. I have 4 hounds that I use on bobcats, 3 which I used on cats alone (this yr) and the others on coyotes. I let go on 25 tracks this winter, caught 18 (treed or in culverts), called dogs off 1 jumped race, dogs screwed up 2 jumped races where I was lazy and didn't feel like walking in to figuring it out, and the others never got a jump( either went into private land, tracked up, oh yeah, had 1 coyote run and 1 woof run). All my dogs run bear in the summer although I wouldn't claim 2 as a bear dogs. I should add that only 1 of the cats was shot by a tag holder. Overall I was pretty happy with the dogs although I would have liked to see a little more improvement with the younger dogs.

[Patrick]

Less than a year ago California was one of the best for the cat hunter. Between the hunting and training seasons - hunt year around except for about a month of "bow season". Some were restricted by "the closure", but others of us were only hindered. Lots and lots of bearutiful country: brushy, rocky, steep, varmint infested country.
Then, "BAM" California is instantly tied for last with whoever else never had or lost it all.
Good thing we have some other pursueable varmints opportunities, but CA seems to be rapidly losing the only reasons a houndsmen would put up with the screwy state.

[Justaguy]

Dewey

To be honest I have not been able to hunt for a few years but that will change in the very near future. And while time has gone by I do not think running cats has changed that much at least down to level of dog verses cat. Now technical items like gps and shocking collars have made it much easier on the hunter and that is another topic. But back a few years we hunted very brushy, rocky, dry steep southern california costal mountains and if my dogs ever saw snow they would have died from shock. Our trainning season started the day after kill season and lasted till the day before so we hunted year round. Like most hunters I had to work to support my habit so I got in the woods two or three day/nights a week and would esitmate that we treed one or two cats a week. The only cats that were ever killed were the ones caught on the ground. We were not in an area that had a million cats so we tried our best to keep those we had alive so we had something to run. As I have read you say that cats are very smart and learn new tricks all the time. So after being run a lot over the years they got pretty tough to tree with their bag of tricks. But if we are looking for a total then one or two a week I would esitmate that we treed around seventy to eighty cats a year. Not a lot compaired to other parts of the country or maybe not a lot even for our part of the country but we had a lot of good races and laughs amongst us hunters and I hope to do it again in about three months.

[Justaguy]

Dewey,

I forgot to say in my last post that we would run three to seven dogs at a time. Mostly walkers with a bluetick and black and tan thrown in to boot. As for me starting back hunting I am in the process of moving from the golden state after a life time as there are to many people in general and to many lying cheating state legislators to allow my retiremnet ruined by those kind of people. I hope to meet you in person one day in the not to far future Dewey......

[Dads dogboy]

Good Thread Mr. Dewey!

I had hoped to read more responses as the premise is a good one....getting to know how hunters as a group handle the Sport in their region.

Also it would give a glimpse into the thinking regionally as to How many impediments stand in the way of a person and their Hounds pursuing their Game of Choice!

Understanding the Personal and Governmental limitations and restrictions a person faces in pursuing the Short tail causes My respect for that person to grow not diminish!

The man in PA who has trained Ole Blue Jubal into a Hound who can catch that 1 Cat in the two weekends which may be the only time he has to hunt...heck he may have only 2 Saturdays as he is tied up with his Family and Church on Sundays, sure has my RESPECT!

Now as has been posted before Lifestyle Choices have a lot of impact on ones Hunting Time, Style, and Quality of their Hounds (given that often Hunted Hounds develop quicker and possibly better than seldom or sporadically Hunted Hounds).

Sharing these things around the Campfire here on BGH will not diminish what most all of us think of the person sharing.....heck it should increase the Respect and Empathy that we have for one another! So those of you reading this please tell us about your circumstances.

Now Mr. Dewey I bet that 74 days was just what you spent during your Harvest Season? I bet you are like us doing something with the Hounds almost every day.

We are blessed with being able to "Run for Pleasure" year round. We do not hunt as hard as we used to because of Dad's age and health. However we still were in the woods over 200 Days and/or Nights in 2012.

Our success rate was down do to drought conditions and starting more Pups than usual. We Caught, Treed, Holed or log Piled over 150 (I think 163 but am on wrong puter to verify).

Glen Rybard hunting an average of two nights a week and not hunting most of the Summer due to the extreme Heat and Drought had close to the same numbers. He also has 3 kids who are into the usual activities and misses almost no events with them. He is a Family 1st, Hounds 2nd man.

Again we are blessed with REASONABLE State laws, good Bobcat Populations, and Permission to Hunt on lots of land.

Please more of you tell us about your situations!

[coastrangecathunting]

I hunted 365 days last year. In my head. I never keep an exact count of the days or the amount ran or caught . Between my dad and myself the dogs get out on average 3 to 4 times a week. It is very tough to raise a family and hunt dogs. I give my dad a lot of credit for helping me keep them in shape. Nothing bothers me more than a dog sitting on a chain or in a kennel. The look in there eye when u pull up tells you everything.

jc

[Rod Vinson]

Here in NC we have a "take" season which runs from Mid-October to last day of February, some here doesn't abide by the season but I do! We also have to contend with deer season (still and dog hunting) and your cat hounds have to be able to hold pressure! I usaually get rite in the middle of them sometimes but I don't try to hinder them boy's. I have 30 running walkers and 2 mountain curs that I feed some are retirees and brood females.. I like a big choir and usually carry from 15 to 26 depends on how many is in season, injured or needs a day of rest. I am in 11 hunt clubs and I am able to guest hunt 5 or 6 more with some private land as well that I hunt. This past season I caught 27 cats and left 33 up trees. We had some good warm days (60 degrees or better) this winter so I put my mutts after some grey fox. I caught 68 fox with 47 in the green crops (summer and fall) and 21 in the winter. Sometimes I like the longer races a grey fox can give you in the winter. I usually only breed dogs every other year or two but then all of a sudden your old dogs are wore out, so I think you should raise a litter every year. I did start with 15 pups this past year and ended up with 11 keepers, makes a season interesting with all the off-game to keep them off of. We have deer and coyotes behind every bush and I consider em both off game! I think the cat numbers are down in some areas, and if the cat numbers would hold up I would only run them cause it is my love and passion! I work every weekend from March til mid- December, so I only hunt during the week (a couple or 3 days a week) then after mid December to the end of February I hunt 4 or 5 days a week if the dogs will hold up. I never hunt at night, just day time! Good luck and a good thread!

[South Texan]

Texas has open season year round with no limit but I get to hunt from mid January to end of September due to deer season. During that time I would guess I probably hunt 5 times a week on average. Ended up catching 74 cats last year 27 so far this year and that is mostly bare ground conditions(due to drought last two years). Think i've seen snow here about 5 times in my life.

Hunting 11 dogs right now 2 straight running walkers, 8 running x dogs, and 1 big game hound out of New Mexico. 3 of those 11 were started this year 2 more were started last year. Straight bobcat. They are all road hunted & all on the ground at all times.

Think cat numbers are down due to feline distemper. Friend of mine coon hunts. He says he can't hardly start a coon now. A vet told him the other day that lots of coons have died off due to feline distemper. I know about 3 or 4 years ago any road you looked at had coon tracks everywhere. Now very few coon tracks. I'm not starting the number of cats that I have in past years. I'm starting to believe this distemper might have put a dent in the cat population in some areas. My guess.
Robbie

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