BigGameHoundsmen.com

36 years ago I acquired and enjoyed reading Steve Matthes's "Brave and Other Stories". I truly hope that my questions do not cause any controversy.
What was their background?
What were their nature, strong points, weak points?
Is there any of that stock around today? If so, who is hunting them?

I had a pup from the last litter Steve bred before his death.I really liked the dog . He had a tenor bawl,was cold nosed and fast .He was just starting to tree when he died at 2 years old. I hunted him on bobcat.
From what i know of Steve he believed in line and inbreeding and was way ahead of his time in that respect.
There are men still hunting his line and others that know of them on this site.They are pretty closely held and its difficult to get one .

Did Steve Matthes and Ray Nichols breed and hunt the same line of dogs?

I own a 5 year old female mathes lion hound. I like her personality, she is very loyal and handles like a dream.Tough Feet. She does not like strangers and homes very well. she also has a very nice loud bawl that can be heard up to 2 miles away. Very gritty dog that gets herself cut up in coyote and cat bays regularly. They do not handle the extreme cold well because of the short hair though I haven't had many problems long as its above 5 to 10 Fahrenheit. Seems to have a decent amount of speed and stamina for her size as well she can keep up with the fast running walker type dogs for quite awhile. I personally thought she was a slow starter as a young dog but has really shown lotta progress last couple years and is turning out to be a decent hound. Just thought I'd share my 2 cents

I guess I though Matthes dogs were mostly for lions. Hahaha, guess that shows you guys how much I know. Anyhow, since I decided to state my creditability in the very first sentence take the rest of what I say with a grain of salt. But there was a kennel I came a crossed that I believe was in Idaho. It was something Bears Kennel... Three bears or Bear cat Kennels... Anyhow, One of them is Mike Kemp using Trigg / Treeing walker crosses and the other is using Mattes Lion and Coles National cat hound crosses. So I guess try searching Bear cat and Three Bear Kennels and see. Maybe that guy can help get you some info about his Matthes stock. Hope this helps.

Barksalot,

There are still some pretty straight bred Matthes dogs out there but they are hard to find and harder to get. Several fellows in Colorado had a good deal of the stock and they still work well. One of these guys who some may know but I will not mention his name for he prefers anonymity probably catches as many bobcats in the western Rockies as anybody.


The late Dick Muldoon had some of the last breeding stock that Steve had when he passed away, and he crossed some on Dale Cole's Oklahoma cat dog stock, and some of these dogs are no doubt still around.

Steve always said that his base stock went back to dogs that were directly out of the last of Ben Lilly's dogs. There were other crosses along the way with dogs that came from Ray Nelson, John Littlejohn and Dan Bush and no doubt others but the stock that he built the Matthes Big Game dog registry around bred very true to type. Mostly smaller red or saddle back brown dogs a bit shorter eared than most full hounds but no mention was ever made of cur being added to them. Most had good bawl track mouths on them and they showed the tendency to strike and trail cold tracks even at a young age. Most handled well, and took training very well. Most were tight footed and had a high heat tolerance.

Thanks everyone.
Although they sound like desirable hounds to own, my point in the inquiry was not to purchase stock but was to learn all that I can about cat hounds. Steve's book and some of Dick Muldoon's articals in Full Cry has been my only source of information.
Good dogs are wherever you find them, but I think that a lot of credit is due to the men who devote untold hours, miles and effort in developing a strain of dogs that consistently produces game.
Thanks again; Bayne

I talked with Steve a few times about hunting and breeding a real stand up
Guy I am sure he is missed.

For those of you that have Steve's book in hard back in good condition may not know how much money it is worth. My copy is paper back and it is falling apart but even it will still sell. How much am I talking about? Nice copies are priced in the hundreds.
Some of you that David has been pushing to write a book need to get busy. I would be one of your first customers. That is at less than $100. Ha Ha

Steve signed my book and wrote me a nice letter but I loaned the book out and the letter disappeared.

Jimmy, I have a letter from Steve and not the book, if you want to trade.

Here is an aproximate quote from it:
"Good hounds, like good women, are very few, and even fewer are the men deserving of them".

It's a pretty good letter. You might want to think on it.

David. Wrote of great wisdom.steve and I had a discussion once about color in hounds and how it can relate to ability.thats what the letter was about so it meant a lot to me I wish Steve had wrote more about breeding in the book.but if I ever decide to part with the book I will keep you in mind.thanks for the offer.