Steve Rinella Hound Hunt

[Dhoey07]

Great work man.  I really enjoyed it.

[elkboy]

Awesome video!  Looks like an incredible hunt, from start to finish!  I agree, Steve is a great spokesman for hunting. 

[tlbradford]

Just watched it over the holidays.  Great episode.  I would have loved to hear more of the story on the multiple cats at the river that confused the dogs, and what your thinking was that led to choices that were made.  I had missed this thread previously, so it was crazy to see your face pop into my netflix stream. 

Movie Star!  Makes me think of the Buck Owen's song, "Act Naturally."

[WAcoyotehunter]

Yeah, that was a confusing thing.  The dogs switched to the fresher track, but got messed up at the river.  We had to rescue one dog (Nosey...nine lives) that got wet and froze up.  She would not have lasted long, it was below zero the whole hunt.

There was another really good tom around as well, but I think he was a traveller. They we're moving out of the high country into the winter range. 

It was just two days after that hunt that I got attacked.  I had a different backpack on for the TV hunt because of their sponsorship stuff, and my normal pack had the pistol holster permanently fixed to it.  I got lazy and didn't switch my packs over and still had the old pack on without my pistol when I got tangled up with that mean cat.... Nosey almost checked out twice in one week!!!

[Jonathan_S]

Scary about Nosey.  Do you carry a space blanket and stuff or just body heat and dry them off?

[WAcoyotehunter]

Dried her off and put her in my jacket.  I have had two close calls.  Whisper got caught in the ice last year.  they caught a cat right next to a swift mountain stream. She fell in and got tangled in the brush under the ice where we couldn't even see her.  she let the softest whimper and somehow we heard it over the other dogs barking treed.  we got her warmed up, but not before she lost consciousness and was convulsing. I was surprised she snapped out of it... Super scary deal. 

Falls and cold are scarier to me than the cats nowadays

[Jonathan_S]

Whisper is a calm sweet girl. That is scary for sure. Takes a cool head and some nerves to be out there taking care of those dogs

This would be so cool if meateater would release a long version

[KFhunter]

https://www.themeateater.com/video/general/meateater-tv-web-exclusive-presented-by-onx-hunt

Here is a video we helped the MeatEater crew with a couple years ago.  It just came out last week. 

They were a good group to work with and we're not afraid to get out and hunt hard, it was -10 or so in the mornings and a 20+ mile snowmobile trip first thing was brutal. 

That roast was amazing too!  The fat tasted like it came off a prime rib

I seen that video a few days ago, had no idea it was you, excellent work!  It really put hounds in a positive light for once.

[WAcoyotehunter]

Thanks! That was a fun experience

[bearpaw]

Dried her off and put her in my jacket.  I have had two close calls.  Whisper got caught in the ice last year.  they caught a cat right next to a swift mountain stream. She fell in and got tangled in the brush under the ice where we couldn't even see her.  she let the softest whimper and somehow we heard it over the other dogs barking treed.  we got her warmed up, but not before she lost consciousness and was convulsing. I was surprised she snapped out of it... Super scary deal. 

Falls and cold are scarier to me than the cats nowadays

Close call! Streams are dangerous for sure, we nearly lost a dog this winter that got swept under a log jam and was caught there with just her nose out of the water and frantically swimming trying to stay up, luckily my son happened to come through at the right time and saw what was happening, he jumped into chest deep water and pulled her out, she's fine now and we caught that tom shortly afterward, so it ended well.

[WAcoyotehunter]

Scary.  That is dangerous for the hunter too!  I'm glad Brian was there to bail that dog out and I hope he was ok. 

We have been having more and more cats that jump or just bay up.  Cats in WA have less respect for the dogs, I think after 20 years of relative safety from hounds has made the cats more bold and more dangerous when we do have to chase them.

[idaho guy]

Scary.  That is dangerous for the hunter too!  I'm glad Brian was there to bail that dog out and I hope he was ok. 

We have been having more and more cats that jump or just bay up.  Cats in WA have less respect for the dogs, I think after 20 years of relative safety from hounds has made the cats more bold and more dangerous when we do have to chase them.

Do you think the constant presence of wolves is contributing to this as well? I have no idea but have read about lions killing lone wolves and was concerned that it would make cats more likely to fight dogs than just tree over time. I have also read random articles about wolves killing lions. Just curious of your thoughts on this. I have not really noticed much difference with cats in Idaho personally but some of my buddies have and they hunt more wolf infested areas.      

[bearpaw]

Scary.  That is dangerous for the hunter too!  I'm glad Brian was there to bail that dog out and I hope he was ok. 

We have been having more and more cats that jump or just bay up.  Cats in WA have less respect for the dogs, I think after 20 years of relative safety from hounds has made the cats more bold and more dangerous when we do have to chase them.

Do you think the constant presence of wolves is contributing to this as well? I have no idea but have read about lions killing lone wolves and was concerned that it would make cats more likely to fight dogs than just tree over time. I have also read random articles about wolves killing lions. Just curious of your thoughts on this. I have not really noticed much difference with cats in Idaho personally but some of my buddies have and they hunt more wolf infested areas.      

I think the cats have gotten much tougher to catch in wolf country, I'm convinced the constant threat from wolf packs has made them far tougher for the hounds to catch too.

[KFhunter]

I've been cutting for a lot of cat sign lately and I don't see tracks of cats as much in active wolf areas, are they moving to lower ground below the wolves and closer to people? 
I find more cat tracks near people, where the wolf tracks tend to stop.

I especially find cat tracks where people are habitually feeding deer in the winter <-- my favorite area to cut for tracks, my other favorite area is right near cattle feeding (same thing really)

[bearpaw]

I've been cutting for a lot of cat sign lately and I don't see tracks of cats as much in active wolf areas, are they moving to lower ground below the wolves and closer to people? 
I find more cat tracks near people, where the wolf tracks tend to stop.

I especially find cat tracks where people are habitually feeding deer in the winter <-- my favorite area to cut for tracks, my other favorite area is right near cattle feeding (same thing really)

Cats follow the herds as they migrate to lower elevations and when wolves move into a drainage everything moves out of that drainage.