BigGameHoundsmen.com

Good Morning Folks,

This morning I had a PM from Hipshooter with a question for Dad. The question was, How hot is too hot to try to Hunt. I told him we would move over here to the forum to answer this and give an Update which illustrates Dads thoughts.

Dad tries to keep his Hounds in great physical shape, Hard and used to running in adverse conditions. Now at some point it is too Hot for me more so than the Hounds. Yesterday morning we had decided to go in the AM rather than Sunday night, however when I got up @ 2:30 the temp was 84 and the Humidity was 58%. To me this was too hot, especially if you have a hard time finding a Cat, at daylight the temp was going to be moving back up and the humidity was going to be climbing as well. This was just too damn Hot for me. I went back to bed. Dad got mad!

Dad says that he hunts his hounds hard enough for them to be in shape, also he says that when jumped a Bobcat usually heads for h2o to run in and out of, this will cool off the Hounds keeping them out of trouble.

Now the perfect temp that he likes to hunt is under 72 degrees down to about 25 degrees. Hotter than 72 tracks go away pretty quick, under 25 he finds tracks tend to "Freeze" up. Under both of these conditions there are times when you can run a Cat like you are looking at him. But trailing can be hard when it is outside of these parameters.

Friday afternoon late Dad decided that we should go, Mr. George who had been on the "Black Panther Hunt" with us wanted to go as well, so I loaded up even though it was 95. Dad and George said that the temp would go down after Dark. But they wanted to go early to look at some new roads. Well you guessed it, a Big Tom Cat was in the road at 8:05 PM. Temp 94 degrees, I looked at Dad and he said I hate too but turn them out. I did and for the next 15 min the Pack gave the Cat HELL. He ducked and dodged in the briars next to the road and we thought that they would catch him. The Cat worked his way though across this little patch of Plantation to another road, we had pulled around and saw the Cat come out, come up the road towards us then turn out. This was almost the end of the Race, there was NO Scent on the gravel road!
The Hounds not only lost the track but they acted lost, there were some signs of heat distress so we pulled down and gave them some h2o (we carry 16 gals with us every time we go). This helped then I walked the Hounds out into the Plantation and they Pack left trailing the Cat. after 10 min they were back after him (the heat must have got to the Cat as well as he had stopped) they ran him another 10 min then he climbed.

When I loaded up the Hounds 10 Dogs drank 6 Gal of h2o. Temp at 8:45 87 degrees. We cooled off the Hounds and put the Rig dogs back up and traveled about 8 miles or so when we Rigged a Hot track, put down and had a nice 20 min. race. This Cat again hit a road and the Race was over. The Pack was looking for the Cat but Dad said to pull up and load them. Temp a fridged 83 degrees!

Saturday night we went to Glens, had a cool 78 degree night. Struck a Cat cold, trailed him up (15 min), jumped him and had a 2 hour and 10 min. Race, nice Tom Cat.

Last night (Monday) we went about dark. Temp 87, hit a Cat Real Cold. Trailed him 2 hours and 15 min over 1 and a half miles. Trailed the Cat into some Tree Tops that had been pushed into a SMZ, the trail just petered out after starting to sound good. We pulled up close to where the Garmin should them to be and started blowing the Hounds out. Loaded Choc and Rivers on top and put all but Queen and Chief inside the box. We drove up the road to load These last two when Rivers an Chocblew up. Appearantly the Cat had tried to slip out when we were blowing and calling the Hounds. We put down the rig Dogs and they left running, tailgated the rest (I hesitate to quote Ike) but AWAY they went.

For the next hour it was good. The Cat went right to the Creek and stayed up and down it keeping the Hounds cool. The briars and pushed down tree tops from the logging operations make it a real jungle along the creek. We were at a dead end logging road on a hill right over the creek and could hear every bark. I told Dad to fill his pockets as it just does not get any better than this! About now I start pulling for the Cat to tree cause if he don't he won't be there to run again, but he had a better Idea, he went into a hole in the Creek bank. Rivers and Meg (our TW treedog prospect) bayed him and were tough to blow out. When we had the last Hound loaded it had cooled off to 79 degrees!

How hot is too Hot, I don't know, but if you are going to run this time of the year you and your Hounds both had better be in SHAPE. Also you need to carry plenty of h2o, this last race was in the creek but when loaded the Hounds drank another 5 gals of h2o!

Good Running to All!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy

Looks like the answer is
If your dogs are in shape
& they have some h2o to get in , u are ok at the high temp.
If they can,t run the track, I guess they would not get to hot.
Thanks for the info John.

Hipshooter, Perk, David, Dan, Jake, Big N Blue, Mr. Mike, and Al!

Haleighluya, Yippee, Wahoo, Hot Damn! we have a Treedog!

Late this afternoon Dad decided that we would make a short hunt in the Club across the road from the House. My 6 yr old daughter wanted to go as we were going to take two of the 5 month old pups as well as her other babies that are now 18 months old, and the other 6 young Hounds only. The Old Pro's were getting the night off. Over in the club as you all have read here on BGH we only have a couple of Cat left and they are bad to pop up. However twice in the last year we have hit a Bobcat traveling salesman. This Cat has given us good sport before pulling some special kind of Bobcat magic and escaping!

Well to night it was about 8:05, temp a fridgid 87 degrees, and we had just started Rigging when the top exploded. Rivers and Choc were about to pull the top off of the Dogbox, trying to get down. We must have scared the Cat off the road (those of you who have Garmins be sure to use the Hunters Almanac, when it says Prime Time more often than not Game will be moving) our Garmin said that Game was to move at about 8:00PM and this Cat was out moving. When we went by he must have come out and ran back up the road as when I finally got the Rig Dogs down they left running I dropped the tailgate and even the two 5 month old pups went.

The Cat went up into a 4 yr old Plantation that was full of Bad briars and ducked and dodged for 20 min trying to buy himself some space for a good Bobcat trick. Thing was the young Hounds now have their Masters in Bobcatology and would not let him have any air. The Cat managed to make it to a semi dry creek and bought himself a little room to manuver. He headed west and crossed a road in front of us.

The male 5 month old pup had had enough and came up the road to us. The look on his face said that that running in the stuff he had been in was close to Cruel and Unusual Punishment! The female was still in the Race and keeping up, well girls usually are more advanced than the Boys!

After crossing the road the cat ran another 40 min up and down the Creek, in and out of a clearcut. Then he came back across the road with Chic, Chero and Sandy pulling on his tail. Dad looked back at me and asked what was the saying Mr. Jim Moore had "Fly Climb or Die". Dad said one of the three was going to have to happen. Baylie my daughter, who knows the Hounds mouths said that Brandy was going scream her head off.

At exactly one hour the Roar came to a sudden halt, the Garmin said the Hounds were in the Creek, 235 yds from us. Dad said "Well its over, he damn sure Ran longer than usual, but he is shurely up". He no sooner had it out of his mouth than a Hound started barking, Dad asked who it was, I said "I think it is Meg (our TW year old female, from Harold Parker) trying to Tree". With that she really started to get after it, Dad said, "well you wanted a Treedog now go to Her".

This was easier said than done after about half of the 200+ yds I must have looked like that male pup, This truly was Cruel and Unusaul punishment! Damn it was bad! After 30 min and lots of crawling I made it to the Creek where I could finally stand up, about 30 yds up the Creek there was Meg and one of the other young dogs, Sage, standing with their heads up and Meg barking regularly. There was a huge pine right there so I figered the Cat was up it, but as I moved toward them just over head high in a little Tree was two head lights looking right at me. It was a mature Bobcat of medium size as I approached it climbed a little higher, then sailed out almost landing on Rivers. The Race was back on and what a Race it was!

The Cat went on down the Creek with the Hounds in Hot pursuit. The further they went the less I could hear. I started out, what took 30 min going in took an hour coming up the Hill and fighting the bad briars, thought that I was going to DIE! When I made it to the road the first thing Dad said was "Now you see why I have not kept a Teedog". I cockly said "Heck it was not so bad" as I wiped blood from my face and pulled thorns out of different parts of my body. Baylie said "Daddy you look like one of those War movie guys all bloody and Red and Wet, YUK" Little Girls know how to capture the moment!

Then it got worse Dad said that if it was not so bad they had hm treed on down the Creek. The Garmin showed us where and as we drove around Dad said I looked like I had had enough and he was sure the Hounds had. The temp had cooled off to 82 degrees and the humidity was in the 60% range. We drove up and were 170 hards from where the Hounds were. They were so pooped that Meg and two others could only bark occasionally. We started blowing and the Hounds were glad to hear that sound. They started in but were so knocked out that it took right at 40 min to load all and they were really KNOCKED out!

So tonight was a mixed blessing, I now have a Treedog and Dad and Baylie got to hear a hellofa Race, and had a good laugh at how Hot & Bloody I got! The Traveling Salesman Bobcat will most probably ask for a different route next time!

Hope you all can have as Good a Running as we have had the last couple of Nights!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy

LMAO, Great story, I think you might regret that tree dog!!!! LOL
Some of those clearcuts require a bulldozer.
Next thing we will be seeing is your new hunting rig, A D9 with dog box!
Glad ya'll had such a great hunt wish I had been there to visit with Mr. Finney while you went to the tree!!! HA!

I AGREE GOOD STORY I REALY ENJOY READING THEM THANKS AGAIN FOR SHARING LARRY

I hope you start forwarding some of your stories to Full Cry. I might renew my subscription if they print a few a year.LOL

U.R.E.

Full Cry said "We don't want more Cat Hunt stories, we get several each month but no one is interested in them"! A friend of ours tried to get me to write for them and that was the Editors reply. I have discussed this elsewhere.

Stay tuned for the New Ultimate Predator coming out later this month. I think that you will find some great stories from old friends hiding in its pages. And perhaps some "Southern Opry" Cat hunt stories in future issues!

Thanks for the kind words!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy

Mr. Clay
Great to hear your TW started treeing, does this mean she isnt going to goout to Ok to get accustomed to treeing now? I feel for you having to walk through the rough stuff to get there, walked through it more than once, but seeing game at the end always makes it seem worth while. If she continues to tree you will get used to it, but it has got to put your mind to ease if it wasnt already that the track ended somewhere not just pulled the ultimate get away trick. I know no matter how hard the running is im happier to seedogs baying at a hole than for them to just knock off and I have to speculate what happened, even if it was knock down drag out running I feel a little dissappointed with no catch of hole/tree, like maybe i had been 'out foxed'!

Speaking of walking through the thick stuff, last winter a buddy wanted me to join him coon hunting on a certian night, he had several dogs and only one of him no one else wanted to go, so I'm pretty sure he really wanted me there for the extra lead shank not for my superior houndsmen skill (haha). Dogs tree'd in the middle of a 40 acre thicket, one i fox hunt and rabbit hunt regularly, so it was rough. there were roads on 3 sides and 35 year old pines on the other, it is shaped close to a perfect square as any cutover i have seen. As we made our way in we tried to pick our path to the tree, there are only 5-6 big trees in the place. when we finally got there his dogs were treeing on a snag, this was about 8 pm. Since they were slick tree'd and i didnt want to lead a dog back through the thicket and we were close toa path, I said lets recast them from here, they should have been able to hit the creek or the big woods easy enough. We started out, or what my buddy took to be out, I was following him as this was a last minute trip and my light was dead. As we approached the road the dogs struck a track and made a big loop and returned to treeing in the thickect. So we weaved back through the maze of briars and thorns and found them on a tree this time with meat, a opossum, but hey for me it was better than a slick tree. We decided to lead them out this time, as i followed my buddy i noticed we were never walking in on direction. As time passed and i began to bleed more i was getting discouraged, The pined were now tall enough you couldnt see anything to let you know which direction was out, and my buddy kept going in circles trying to miss as many briars as possible. Finally a car pulled down the driveway of place we were hunting, we couldnt have been 35 yards. I grabbed tight on my lead and dragging 2 big fat treeing walkers behind me went in a dead sprint with no light in one direction to where i had heard the gravel popping. I was juming over briars dragging them through them, if they had split a tree i was so focused and edicated on what i was doing the tree would have bent over because i sure was not going to let that stop me in my tracks, i was a man on a mission, to get out that freaking jungleThat 30 yards seemed to be a mile but I finally got out, then i had to holler until my buddy finally made his way out, but at least I was not in the briars any more. Myf forearms were scratched up so bad that there was little skin left to be seen, just blood and briars. It was 11 oclock when we got out, i spent 3 hours wonderin in a hell hole, only to see one slick tree and one opossum, and not even my dogs to boot. There are places on my forarms right now that havent tanned in the sun, , you just see pale spots where the scratches were.

Perk,

Great Story! I think all of us reading this could feel your PAIN, not only from the briars but the slick tree and the slick tail!

You are a natural story teller please keep them coming!

We are going tonight, had a front come in last night with rain and cooler temps. Probably will hunt all night and not get a bark. But tune in tomorrow and I shall report!

Good Running to All!

C. John Clay
Dads Dogboy