Page 1 of 1

experienced cat hunters

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 3:14 pm
by Dan Edwards
I was wondering how many of you experienced cat hunters are also experienced coyote hunters or even red or grey fox hunters. I aint talkin about the "sit your fat ass in a chair and listen to your dogs run shit all night" fox hunters either. I am talkin put a few dogs down and catch the damn thing now type hunters. I would just like to know how many of yall have done a little of both or done it all actually.

Re: experienced cat hunters

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 3:48 pm
by bearhntwi
Our cat season is pretty short here and tags are scarce so we coyote hunt all winter,if there's snow we're hunting.A bunch of guys here that are laid off in winter hunt every day they usually take 80-100 every year.We don't have many gray fox but i've treed two in the last 2 winters.Taken quite a few reds as well.The other guys only run yotes so i focus more on fox,they're worth more anyway.

Re: experienced cat hunters

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 6:46 pm
by kickemall
Generally I catch between 20-40 cats and 15 -30 grey fox each year, depending on populations, and have for over twenty years. Use the same dogs as I do for bear.

Re: experienced cat hunters

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 7:06 pm
by Hipshooter
Dan,
I hunted coyotes for 40 years before I started hunting cats.
We had no cat population untill the last 10 years.
I kept a pack of Julys all that time. I would catch a cat now & then with my coyote hounds, Then finally started running all cats.
We averaged catching 1 coyote a week year arouind with the hounds, we never
shot any, dogs did it all.
I hunted days in the winter & nights in the summer.
I have running dogs now, but they are all cat dogs.
Now coyotes are trash.

Re: experienced cat hunters

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 8:44 pm
by Mike Leonard
Dan,

I have never run red fox on purpose with hounds myself but have had a lot of trash races with them in days past. Never cared much for running them, but grey fox very different a lot like a cat and they can be one of the best races around. I never had the luxury of setting and listening I always had to hustle to stay with my dogs but I never did it with a big pack in big country.Coyotes I have run a lot of them but not on purpose but they are the hardest thing I find to break my dogs off of. If I had a little different country to run in I think they could be fun but in these broken canyons and bluffs they are a good way to lose your dogs for several days if you are not careful.

Now when I was just a little kid I knew and old man that had a red hound that was suppose to be bloodhound and coon hound crossed . He use to take that dog out in the wheat field areas that we just stubble field when it snowed and cut a red fox track and put old Duke on it. He then would slip around and hide out in a brush row or a rock pile and wait until Duke put that fox by him and then he would kill it with a old long barrelled pump shotgun. I went with him a time or two and the fox would circlr and stop and look back and that old dog was usually a long ways behind him and he was none to fast, but he would stay on the track and Vernie would work himself around and usually get a shot. I don't think a grey fox would have played that game looking back.

Re: experienced cat hunters

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 11:37 pm
by Mr.pacojack
Well Dan, My job requires me to do both but I use different dogs for different jobs. For Bobcat, Lion and Bear I use the hounds. For coyotes I use curs as decoy dogs and for tracking wounded coyotes under a plane. And for denning I use Jagd Terriers, I also use them when playing with the Reds, they don't seem to be as scared of the little dogs and will play a bit more, they go decoying too.
Not sure if that is what you are asking? I think you are wanting to know if one dog will do it all? For me no.

Re: experienced cat hunters

Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 12:34 pm
by fox hunter
When I lived on yhe coast I always hunted the same dogs on cat and grey fox. Generaly treed 12 to 20 cat and 60 to 80 fox every winter along with some tails and 40 to 50 bear. Hunted 6 to 7 daus a week 7 months a year

Re: experienced cat hunters

Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 3:28 pm
by Everlast
Here in my part of the country, lots of cat, grey fox and coyote. I only hunt the fox and cat, try to break my dogs off of the coyotes. I tree way more fox than cat, partly because there are a few more fox than cat and partly because my dogs are "passing up" cat tracks for some reason. I recently talked to a friend of mine whom I had not spoken to in several months. He had been hunting all winter in the exact same area where I had been hunting, except we missed each other all the time because he is retired and hunted during the week and I hunt on weekends mostly. I told him I had treed the fire out of the fox, and only caught a few cat. He had done the opposite, he treed a bunch of cats and less fox. He's got some dogs that really like cats I guess?