Well I’ll tell y’all my bobcat hunting experience , by th way I’m wanting to try it again is how I found y’all’s post here , but anyway I got my 1st hound when I was 9 & im 52 now . Got her started on coons & she made a pretty good dog . Since then I’ve kept a coon dog most of those yrs since . When I turned 12 me n my dad got in a deer doggin club in South Georgia with th best group of guys ever & had major fun running them till I was about 20 & kept a couple packs of deer dogs thru those yrs.& I got some catahoulas when I was about 18 off mr. Stone that were th old time real ones & I’ve still got that blood here today . I caught cattle with them for a lot of years then cow work got kinda thin & I got to running hogs pretty hard for bout 7 yrs there & still got some catahoulas out of that old line , but have not hunted much in th last 4 yrs due to running a business for my Dad because of his health . I got a 17 yr old boy that wants to run dogs & he’s recently got him a few hounds , so I’m bout to get back to hunting , but anyway I always got full cry magazine since I was a kid & always dreamed of running big cats & big game like they do out west , but that’s a long way from Georgia so bout 20 yr ago I got to realizing how many bobcat we had in south ga & I got it in my mind that if they can run em out west n they’d stay in a tree that I could do it here even though nobody that I knew of did it except for the guys that run em like with fox dogs & I didn’t want to run em that way . I wanted to tree em with just a couple dogs or 3 maybe 4 .. so I called up a buddy of mine that trapped a good bit n ask him if he was catchin any cats n he said yeah he was catching quite a few , so I told him my plan n that I needed a live one to try n get a couple hounds I had going on them , so I basically done just like I was starting a coon dog except with a bobcat . I’d let ‘em tree on it in th morning awhile then in th afternoon then I’d turn it loose with a good head start & I done that probably with 5 differant ones & that’s when I really got turned on , because them things have got more tricks than I could imagine . I seen them do things I would never believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes , so I was on fire wanting to run bobcats & I seen that I was gonna hv to find me a good solid straight dog & then I could build me a pack from there , so I got to searching & finally found Mr. Cannon in Minnesota . I called him n told him what I was trying to do ( I think he thought I was crazy ) but he told me about his pen & all & said he only had one dog that he would sell that he’d guarantee wouldn’t run nothing but a bobcat no coon only bobcat & he didn’t really want to sell her , but anyway he finally priced her n I said I could have a trial on her as long as I needed & anytime I wanted my money back for her that he’d buy her back , so with that being said I figured I couldn’t go wrong & told him I’d take her , sent him th money & he put her on a plane & I picked her up in Atlanta airport or Chattanooga one can’t remember
But anyway I got her home & spent th next couple weeks getting her accustomed to me n her new place & all . She was kinda rattled I guess from th plane ride n all & I wanted to get her over all that before I hunted her . So finally I decided it was time for her to show me a cat & I took her over in th river bottem close to my house one morning & cast her & she took off hunting bout a hour goes by & I hadn’t heard her strike & so I moved off toward where I thought she might be & never heard her , so I get my tracker out n can’t get a signal on her at all & my tracker would get a beep on one 8 to 10 mile away there where it’s flat like it was , so I got to thinking someone done stole her & went to riding & looking & that’s when my heart got broke . A log truck had run over her n killed her & it busted my tracking collar is why I couldn’t get a signal on her . It made me sick getting that dog run over like that & I was dreading telling Mr.Cannon about it cause he thought so much of the dog , so I didn’t call him right then & bout 3 weeks later or so he called me one day & I said hello & ask him how he was doing n he said fine & then went right in to telling me how much he missed that dog & on n on & wanted to know if he give me my money back plus 500 dollars would I let him have her back & he’d pay the shipping too . So as bad as I hated to I told him I was sorry but a log truck got her the first morning I hunted her & she was no longer with us as bad as I hated it ..So sadly that ended my bobcat dream for awhile until I unexpectedly had a dog that actually showed me how to get it done & that’s one thing that I love about hunting dogs & gives me the passion for it & this has probably happened to some of you folks too sometime thru your experience with these ole hounds, but anyway I had a hound that was off of a good catahoula bitch dog & a sure enough good redtick coon dog I had . I was hunting hogs up in th mountains here where th hogs were kinda thin & I made that cross trying to get some pups that would range a little farther than my catahoulas & maybe have a little more nose on them this redtick was a lay up specialist & would throw his head up & wind & could track off th ground a cold track too , so anyway my cross worked out good but one pup out of that litter had no interest a bit in a hog or a cow so I was just letting him run loose n be my yard dog cause he had a big personality n I liked him . I had a big river bottem pasture leased at that time with cattle on it close to my house & ole Bill would follow me to th pasture & he got to where he was treeing coons pretty regular along th river & in the woods that was in th pasture , so I’d go check my cattle in th afternoon & then ride around n drink beer while ole bill would hunt . He didn’t throw a lot of mouth on track , but boy when he’d tree he would set there & chop em off & sound good doing it I’d let him tree a good while & then I’d usually go shoot it out , but sometimes he would throw a locate & then just chop a time or three then wouldn’t say nothing for a few minutes then he’d chop a few more times & so on & he’d keep doing that for a long time finally I’d usually drive off n head back home cause I thought he was slick treeing cause he wasn’t sure of hisself . I thought he was looking up a few barks then circling trying to pick up th trail & couldnt n come back to tree n chop a few times then circle again ( no such thing as these fancy gps trackers where u can see ever step they make back then ) & I don’t like going to a dog unless he’s treed solid for fear of making em slick tree and he wouldn’t do that ever night now it was like he might tree 3 or 4 times n have th meat then he do that crazy half ass treeing shit one night then might tree n hv th meat 3 times then do it again until one night he was doing it & he wasn’t far from th edge of th field where I was setting in th truck & I said the hell with it I’m gonna put th light on him n see what he’s doing even if it does make him pull on up n it be slick , so I put th light on him & I’ll be damned if he wasn’t sitting on his ass looking straight up not saying a word except for ever 3 to 5 minute he’d chop a couple barks so I shine th tree n to my surprise there sat a big bobcat . That dog learned on his own somehow that if he didn’t open much that cat would stay in th tree n not jump . I was like damn ole bill is a smart son of a gun . Here I am with a cat dog & too dumb to realize it . I felt even more retarded when I’d get to thinking bout that 3500 dollar dog that I got run over by a log truck when this ole cull hog/cow dog showed me how to get the job done all alone !!