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Would like to hear everyones thoughts on how successful their hounds are at catching these little buggers in the rocks. later, Andy

Well, we do end up in a lot of holes when running in the ledge rock. Very seldom do we ever actually get one stopped on the outside where we can see it. Most of the time it is a futile effort and end up just losing off. Hunting the rocky stuff is kind of like turning down an ice cold beer, just have to give in.

We have Lots of Rock Slides on our Mountains .. They are 50 to 100 yard wide and maybe 300 yard long slides .. The Rocks can be Small to Bolders and 8 to 10 feet deep.

Our Cats run for these Slides and go into the Rocks about every time unless you can get enough Pressure to make them climb ..

Andy- can't say that we've ever drove past a runnable bobber track without dumpin the dogs, rocks or not. We havn't had very many hole up. We either lose em or they climb for the most part. Probably a 50/50 split. I think a lot depends on how fresh the dogs are and if we dump several dogs to shorten up the time of each loss.

Scott.

We have pretty ideal conditions for bobcats, but I have run them into washes on the eastside, brushpiles, holes and cliff faces. If a smart cat can get to one of these places before the dogs can get them up they will live to run another day. There are ways to kill them of course, but it takes a real personal grudge and at least three strikes before I resort to nasty tactics. I don't care how savvy your bobcat dogs are, there are places cats can go that dogs can't and bullets can't reach them. It used to drive me nuts, but I have come to realize it's part of the game. If the dogs did everything right and we got beat I can accept it. It is what makes the challenge so much fun.

Yaak you hit it right on the head very well said. I have heard of these great rock dogs but have never seen nor owned one. Just like you said (bobcats go places dogs cant).

there are only a handfull that i hunt that go to rocks and those ones are still around for a reason. seems that when you tree one a few times and let it go, time after time they get wise and start picking up new tricks. after catching some easy ones its always a good thing to give the old dogs a run for their money to see if they can catch those immortals. atleast thats my .02

Here in eastern oregon I have the best of both worlds. Large pine forests with out a single rock in them and the catch percent is so high you would think i was lieing if i told you, so when i need to put up some furs that is where i go. we also have as much nasty sage brush and rim rock as you can stand. when i want to run the dogs in the dirt and realy push there limits I head for the rocks. we don't catch many out there but a few. here is the real gem. where the juniper forest and the desert come to gether you can get quite a few of those cats caught before they rock up and still get that difficult trailing in for your dogs. Long answer but there it is.

Cats in the rocks was our biggest problem last season. I could just leave my driveway and find a track within the hour almost every morning and or night. Put the dogs on it and it would already be laid up in the ledges before they ever jumped it. Happened every time but once. Started the cat bout 4 hours before daylight and got it jumped but went to a hole like we figured. Its a shame having so many cats around and unable to do anything with them. Need more luck than I have to catch them kinda cats. Just my opinion

Andy, carry a Jagd terrier in your pocket like I do They get them out of the rocks unless you are talking about them going up and thru the rock cliffs, then pull a beer out of your pocket and sit back and tip em back buddy.

Mr.pacojack wrote:Andy, carry a Jagd terrier in your pocket like I do They get them out of the rocks unless you are talking about them going up and thru the rock cliffs, then pull a beer out of your pocket and sit back and tip em back buddy.

Don't have the Jagd but did get a couple Patterdales to play with this summer. We don't have a lot of ledges or rocks around here but we do put em in logging piles now and again. I still think a person should call it a caught cat, dogs finished the track, did their job. 90% of the time I wouldn't kill the cat anyhow, would be nice to look at fur but knowing the dogs did their job and finished it is OK by me.

Devin, I am talking about the little buggers once they make it to the rock bluffs making their get away as the hounds just cant do what a cat does in the rocks. I do like your idea of a cold beer when this happens but most of the time it would be solid ice to dang cold up here in the winter.

The little dogs will get them cats out of rocks sometimes.
I had a Patterdale that would back off from nothing.
He would fight a coyote just like the big dogs,
He would get the throte & hang on.
He would get bit & acted like he never felt it.
If I had rocks or cats that were bad about holeing , I would get a Patterdale or Jadg.

In W.V. it seems to depend on whether the rocks have cover around them. If they do have cover the cat will likley circle awhile,if not they will likely go straight to a hole.

Hey Andy,

I have had only a few races that ended up in rocks, so much thick brush here in Oregon. The dogs got lucky once where I was able to get a look in the hole in the rocks. It took awhile to figure out how to safety dispatch the cat in the rocks without killing myself or the dogs.

Here's a picture, this was last year opening day of kill season.

Marc