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I just wanted to hear lil more bout fox on hear. I run more grey fox than I do bobcat and I enjoy catching both but am partial to the fox mainly because of how hard they run my dogs. With the fox I seem to get less looses but longer distant races.

I want to hear what some of u other houndsman prefer to run. And want to hear the differences u notice in the races truck to tree. And also do u have a dog or two in your pack that runs fox with flying colors but may not run the bobtail as well or visa-versa.

I run both here in NC! I love a grey fox race because the race last longer! They don't go up trees much here just once in a while. During the winter months when scenting conditions are down cat races are more likely....If the temp. rises above 65 degrees a grey fox race is hard to beat!! During the summer we run young grey fox in the crops which is like cat races, they run tight and not long distances...... I love both, but if I had to choose one.....nothing like a cat race!

Bigg D

I just started introducing my dogs to Gray Fox and find what limited experience I have, you get a better race from Gray Fox than a bobcat.....Gray Fox are very intense and I'm glad I finally started running them with my dogs. I hunt large tracts of private ground loaded with Gray fox and just drove right over them as trash and finally caved in to running them...They are a blast! My dogs are all allowed to switch hit and I don't think the dogs prefer one over the other....Mine run like everything is trash....

Mike

I think when a varmint dog is nipping at the tail of either a cat or a fox It doesn't matter it's a race all hunters don't forget and I think once you've experienced it u can't get enough really.my dogs run both but it seems like there is something to be said about a cat that don't want to climb.for some reason my dogs seem to really like them.i think when dogs trail a fox they close the gap quicker and hang onto a race for longer but on a cat when they finally reach check mate on a cat its like running down some sort of wounded prey at this point and they know there going to catch it where as a fox could slip them a little.i don't think it's the animal I think it's the way the scent perduces throughout the race

Which is the hardest to catch in you guys opinion? Will the fox usually tree or is it pretty rare?

I think it's location, location, location and what you call catching. Here in central fla. nether one trees very often. A top notch pack of cat dogs will put teeth to fur on a good percentage of cats run but if putting a fox in a hole is catching than I'd say a fox is easier. However one time there were some fox hunters about 100 miles from here that any gray fox that stayed above ground for 2 hours was going to be a caught fox. The fox races where I grew up lasted 6 to 10 hours and than went in a hole. They came over one night to show us how to catch a fox. Well 3 hours after the race started all their dogs had fallen out of the race and came to the truck while all the locale hounds continued to run the fox for another 4 hours. All of that being said I believe you can buy a top notch pack of fox hounds, I don't believe you can find a top notch pack of bobcat hounds for sale anywhere.

haha I liked that , wonder where they was hunting at scrubrunner , cause our fox is like yours 5, 10 hrs they will run if a man wants it that long, wouldn't own a pack like that they would make a wasteland out the woods haha eat everything up in them haha pack of cat hounds man might buy 1 or 2 but not a pack , But a cat is by far the hardest he has no lungs thefore no bottom cant hold out on a long run so he has to do a lot of things in little places, a master of getting away, all that back and 2 on himself stinks it all up, dogs smell cat everywhere, he don't have to climb

I tend to disagree. I don't feel I man can say which is harder to catch because both a hard cat and a hard fox are both very difficult and require top dog work and heart in different ways.i tend to think a mans experiences with both races tends to create there own opinion.dogs, where u hunt,the conditions all these things change amongst each person.i could easily say I have run way harder fox in places u would think your great pack wasn't as good as u thought but that wouldn't be fair cause some else is out there running a cat thinking the same thing of there race. A good dog or pack of dogs shure can make a guy feel good when u earn one of these varmints though

Southern fox, they were running up near Jacksonville, Fl. A guy I grew up with that hunted with us moved up there to work and fell in with these guys and rode with them hunting several times as he had gotten rid of his dogs when he moved. He came back here visiting and told us about their dogs and that we just thought we had fox hounds. I was only in my 20's at the time so I just kept my mouth shut but several of the ol timers said to bring them down here and if they caught a fox or out did their hounds they would get rid of every thing they had. They didn't catch any fox here and only could stand 3 hrs. of an average 7 hr. fox race. So I guess fox are a lot easier to catch in some places. But yes I agree a cat is way harder than a fox to run, a lot of hounds can do a good job on a fox like the ones I have rite now but when they get on a cat they get under him and run it for a little while make a lose or two and than just follow him around for the rest of the nite or they lose it completely.

that's the way it happens here, get up under him and they turn it on and then he pulls a magic trick, I have often wondered what happens when a break for abt 2 min takes place , and why they cant get back under him again, just like they cant smell it, take a break on a fox that runs the road for a mile and they will get back under him, might take a little time but they usually will get back under him, the cat seems like he loses all sent, and turns into what 1 would think to be a cold trail, gets worse and worse

Flip,

You may be right about ya'lls Game and Conditions in CA. One of Your mentors, Mr. Jerry has told us much the same thing......a Cat is easier to catch than a Fox out your way.

But Flip ask Mr. Jerry about that nice Pack of Trigg X Hounds he brought with him when he moved to Eastern OK about an hour west of us. I think he will tell you they could not catch a Cold here much less a Cat or Fox.

I think Mr. Jerry may have made 1 trip to FL with Dad. They were hunting North and West of Scrubrunners home and due East of the Jacksonville, FL. country he mentions. It takes different kinds of Hounds to tackle that Country on EITHER Fox or Bobcat.

Now once again we are privileged to have Southern Fox on here.

When he says a Bobcat is HARDER to catch in the South Eastern US, listen close as he and his Friends have the kind of Hounds that can make it look easy. Yet they struggle on occasion. They used to Hunt the Lafayette Hunting Club (200 + thousand acres) in North Central Fl. When they went they would catch 2 and 3 a day.....this may not sound like many when you see some of the South Texas Cat Hunters results. But a comparable analogy would be running a 1/2 mile Race (S. Tx.) and a full 26 mile Marathon (N. FL.). It just takes a Hound with DIFFERENT Skills to sort out all the "Bobcat Tricks" a Cat can pull in that Eco System.

A Fox will seldom "Get it's Tail Wet" thus it will avoid the REALLY Bad places that a Cat thrives. One of the ways Houndsmen who run both Fox and Cat know which they are after is, if after 15 min of a hard Race there is not a loose of some kind then they are after a Stinky ole Fox!

JMO!!!

These are the posts I was hoping for keep up the good talk.

I would be glad to give u an invite to a fox race here with your best dogs and I would be willing to bet u may be surprised. I have a place here we can start at dark and if your dogs are tough enough they may still be running the fox when the sun comes up.i run these fox with hard core fox dogs not a fast breed bear dog or other stalk. I am saying these fox will make a good dog look stupid some times and there for u guys just don't know. As for Jerry he's not a bragger and always praises others and there dogs not his own. I've hunted with some of the best hunters around and seen lots of great dogs and I can asure u they don't get any better no mater what state u come from these guys are hard hunters, good dog trainers,and smart woodsmen.most hunters don't have all those tools. All I was saying was I never cat hunted where u guys hunt and keeping an open mind with the experiences I've had on cats I could see both fox and cats could be equally as difficult to catch in there own way. U need a good tough smart running dog that can keep fast pressure on these fox that can also locate and tree.after about 5 hours of running most outsiders I've seen have dogs quit or bark way behind the fox. Running dogs that trail too much tend to have problems here too. A fox dog here needs to bark only when he's still applying pressure or not bark at all. After 5 hours on a dark night and thick brush and white thorn dogs tend to ack goofy. Mr clay u might know sonny turner he's hunted here and knows what I'm trying to say. Next time u see him at the cat hunt get together u ask him about a guy on the coast with a dog named flip and see what he says. About these fox races.he treed one here after 9 hours.and then jumped it out to run again.dont get me wrong not all our fox run like this but some do and I know there's no cat race that's any tuffer

Most people here tend to only hunt some of this tougher country at times cause no hound can handle a steady diet of it. It's a great place to take young dogs to get lots of track time. If a guy hunted older dogs here ( 5-6 on up) u would brush whip most of them or make them look like old dogs quick

my opinion on this, and this is what a few others I hunt with sometimes will also say, things here are probably different than many other places, we don't have many fox, probably just as many cat as fox, and more fox around town, or where there is people grey fox that is, thru the summer months a sow fox is impossible to run when she has little ones, and the little ones are almost impossible to run also being they don't give off much scent, but the male one can run him anytime if he can be found, mother nature has a way of making sure man don't wipe everything out cause man wont stop till he does, a cat on the other hand never changes scent he can be run all the time, but he is a totally different creature he has no bottom so as I have said he has to do big things in little places, cat that's here if one can run him 30 mins without losing him and scent conditions are right one might have a race, if he don't go in the water, here fox will run a pretty straight line might dodge some but he has a lot of bottom and will use it, run all night mostly as long as one wants to run, and im not talking follow him , run him , the cat on other hand has to dodge a lot to keep the teeth out of his hide, and with the briars , ty ty bays that one cant cock a pistol in cause its so thick, and the water that's usually there, will a lot of times be in there licking his foot listening to the plugs that made him move a little, thru the summer a cat is abt all ones going to run sows are backed up with little ones , and the male fox is one male in a coupla thousand acres, I have never owned a dog that would tree, im to lazy to go fight these alligators and rattle snakes to go to a tree, plus if I pulled out the gun all mine would make a mad break for the truck, cause all are gun shy, but here in the south speaking from years of experience a cat is about 5 times harder to run than a fox, I can tell a man what they after without looking for a track by the way they open on trail they holler out a lot harder on cat than fox, and stay put in one place a lot longer than fox, being to him trying to catch something I reckon, fox will move on while feeding believe he eats while walking