Bobcat hunting with hounds......

[Ryano]

Been doing it quite a bit lately since several of us drew permits this year. The tequenic we use is to drive the back oil/gas well roads and look for a night track in the snow and try to track it up to hot and then put the dogs on it.  Problem is we are hunting with coon hounds that have been breed for generations to only run a hot track and it can take us hours to track a cat a couple miles through the rough terain only to find that cat has already holed up in the rocks..  My question to you is what is the best kind of hound for cold tracking? I know there are exceptions to the rules with every breed, but in general what species of hound do you think has the best cold nose?

[Hillbilly]

I've had more cold-nosed blueticks than any other breed. Had a couple plotts and redbones that were pretty cold-nosed, too, or those long-eared black-and tans. Most of the dogs I've had that could really move a cold track were blue or red dogs, though. You must be hunting those overgrown beagles.   We used to do some bobcat hunting like you're talking about, it was a lot of fun. I wouldn't use my good coonhounds because if you ever get them started running cats, it's on-and those cats will usually run for miles and then jump out of the tree before you get there and take off again. I usually had a dog or two that would tree but wasn't too straight, that's the ones I would cat hunt with.

[Ryano]

Thanks for the reply Steve.  Right now we are hunting one redbone (Mine) and my other buddy has a English Redtick. They are both fairly young unexperianced dogs. They both with run and tree coon, but there's no need to work a cold coon track here since if you go a few hundred yards farther you'll usualy get a hot one. His Redtick won't bark on a track unless he's in tight cover or locating one in a tree, but he'll hammer ones he goes on tree. My dog is slower but will bark pretty good on the track so you know where she is......

[Hillbilly]

Funny thing is, seems like a bobcat will hold a tree better in the daytime than at night. I about ruined a pair of good redbone pups once many years ago. They were about nine-ten months old and were running and treeing coons good with my old Plott female. One night, the old dog was off cold-trailing something and the pups got bored and came back. I was walking down a little branch creek, and the pups struck a hot track on the branchbank and ran it up to the top of the ridge and treed. I was all proud because they treed their first coon by themselves. I got to the tree, and it was a big leafy oak (it was the first week of coon season and the oaks still had leaves) about 75 feet tall. I shined and shined and finally saw an eye shining in the very top of the tree. I shot it and it let out a big screeching hair-raising scream-it was a big bobcat instead of a coon. He came down the tree and jumped right onto those pups and skinned them all over before they finally got him stratched. They hated cats ever since then and I could never break them from running bobcats, but they made good coon dogs.

[Justin Snyder]

Steve, our bobcats wont tree until the dogs chew on them a while. They just keep moving and fighting.  I like a good walker for cold nose, but there seems to be two stains, one cold one hot. I do like a good bluetic for his nose. Dogs are like people I guess, good and bad ones in every group.

[Hillbilly]

Yep, I've had a few good ones and a lot of bad ones in all the breeds. One thing I always seemed to have really good luck with for coons and bears both was a bluetick/Plott cross. You can't register mixed breeds like that, but I never was into competition hunting anyway.

[Justin Snyder]

Yep, I've had a few good ones and a lot of bad ones in all the breeds. One thing I always seemed to have really good luck with for coons and bears both was a bluetick/Plott cross. You can't register mixed breeds like that, but I never was into competition hunting anyway.

The cross breeds are healthier anyway. The best lion, bear, and bobcat hunter I know uses mixed up dogs.

[Badger]

     I spent most of my time training bird dogs but have a special place for the hounds in my heart. Some of my fondest memories are my trips back to missisisipi runniing coons or deer at night. I brought home a blue tic, redbone cross puppy but never put it on game. Sure do miss those days. Steve

[Ryano]

These cats don't tend to stay in the tree long here either. They usually jump out when they see a human approaching. We've killed a few in past years by cutting them off and shooting them on the run. Problem is here there are so many rock crevasses and holes....

Justin seems like pretty much all the walkers you see around here are very hot nosed dogs. Seems like the problem is people have been breeding them for that hot nose to get these night hunt champions....

Steve, There's nothing like hunting with the big hounds. I just love to hear them run. Coon hunting is a blast around here, you can go into any little piece of woods and tree two or three in short order.

[Justin Snyder]

Justin seems like pretty much all the walkers you see around here are very hot nosed dogs. Seems like the problem is people have been breeding them for that hot nose to get these night hunt champions....

Ryan, you need to get a dog from a little farther west where they are bred for hunting cats. You wouldn't have a Thoroughbred to run the quarter mile, so why have a coon dog to run cats. 

[Hillbilly]

Ryan, do you need a special permit to hunt bobcats up there? Here the season is open from mid-October to the end of February with no bag limits.

[Ryano]

Justin seems like pretty much all the walkers you see around here are very hot nosed dogs. Seems like the problem is people have been breeding them for that hot nose to get these night hunt champions....

Ryan, you need to get a dog from a little farther west where they are bred for hunting cats. You wouldn't have a Thoroughbred to run the quarter mile, so why have a coon dog to run cats. 

I hear ya Justin. It's just that we dont get to cat hunt very much..... The season is long enough right now but they are talking about switching it. The way it is now we have several months to hunt them but you have to draw a tag for one. They are talking about selling anyone who wants a tag one next year but then shorting the season to like 3 weeks, which sucks.