Bearpaw Season 2009

[Machias]

That is a nice head on the skinny one.  Any health issues you could see that would explain his poor weight?

[Pathfinder101]

That's awesome!  He's skinny 'cause the wolves are eating all his food...

[bearpaw]

No health issues visible at all, that tom traveled a long distance into rugged country and was very agile in the tree, thought he was going to jump before we could get him killed. I think he was just a loverboy cat that was too busy making his rounds to take time to eat, or possibly the worst hunter in the cougar world....

We cut some tracks this morning, turned loose on a single track but ended up with a female and three (2/3 sized) kittens. Surprisingly the kittens had no spots. This was the first hunt for one of my son's 10 month old pups and she treed one of the 60 pound kittens at a seperate tree on her own. We left them all unharmed on the mountain of course, but it was still a great first hunt for my son's pup.

It's still colder than heck here, supposed to be below zero tonight and tomorrow morning...bbbbbbrrrrrrrrr.

[mulehunter]

Nice job!  Cant wait to go soon... Plann to go before Xmas.

Mulehunter 

[bearpaw]

Hope you get a good one mulehunter...

[bearpaw]

Our hunter "Bob" was running out of hunting time and the cold spell is only getting worse, at the coldest time early this morning it was -20. We found a fresh cougar track shortly after daylight and we started the dogs on the track about 9:00 AM, it had warmed up to almost 0. A tropical heatwave...

We treed the cat pretty quickly and didn't have a very long hike in, that was nice after the long hike the other day. Bob brought both his bow and a modern firearm just in case. (Either way, he wasn't going home without a cat.)

As you can see in the photos the cat was perfect for a bow shot. I had the video going and Bob put an arrow right into the lungs. The cat jumped out of the tree, hit the ground right in front of us coming our way, just as I shouted "look out" our eyes met the cat's eyes and she turned and headed away from us, (whew).

Brian and Anthony cut loose two young dogs who were right on her tail and then they were right on the dogs tail. The cat went about 100 yards and bayed up on the ground. Bob and I hurried to catch up and then Bob put a couple more arrows into the cat to quickly finish it off.

After the cat was down Bob looked at me and said "you know I don't have any 3 yard pins....and now I know what you guys mean when you say things can get western at times....

The cat is a young female about 90 pounds, not a big cat but a representative cat that will look good in Bob's house. Best of all Bob had one of the most exciting hunts in a while and all the western action is on video that we copied for him to take home to show friends and family....

I love it when a plan comes together.....

[mulehunter]

  Great job!!! I know how you feel when its sooo COLD Geez... I better pack up and get going before xmas! Hopefully I could find something for my dogs to catch one.

Great action, I would pass this one.   Looking for Bigger one!

Bad news I must stay here for my daugther happy birthday this weekend. Dang... but I am working on going and finish my first kill Cougar ever in five years! 

Mulehunter  

[bearpaw]

mulehunter, it's supposed to warm up this weekend, cats should really move after all this cold weather....

[Machias]

Nice job, got any photos of your dogs on the track and at the tree.  I need a dog fix. 

[Houndhunter]

lovin the hound pics. you runnin a good breed too , better then those curs some other guys run eh machias

[Machias]

lovin the hound pics. you runnin a good breed too , better then those curs some other guys run eh machias

[rainshadow1]

Great stuff, Bearpaw. Really appreciate you posting here, it's great to follow your trials and triumphs!

Bob's Cougar is about the same size as the "Star" of my new calling sequences (only alot fluffier over there in 20 below!) This captive cat here is something like 20 months old last time I recorded her.

[bearpaw]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

We like the walkers, but we are not color blind either. We have a couple blueticks, a couple plotts, and a couple mixed breed hounds. Actually I have owned top dogs of all breeds through the years.

My son is breeding up a small sized strain of House bred walkers that start hunting early and can hunt more often than larger dogs that get too tired from a hard race. Most weigh 42 to 48 pounds. They are hard treeing, quick on their feet, and will stay with a mean bear or bayed lion on the ground. The photo of the three walkers is one of his best females on the left, her 10 month pup in center, and a 28 month pup on the right, who is already one of our main dogs. This was the 10 month male pup's first hunt and he bayed the lion on the ground well. The day before, another 10 month female pup on her first hunt, treed a 60 pound male kitten on her own while the other dogs were treeing on the adult that we had started.

It takes a lot of self confidence for any dog to tree alone when it can hear the other dogs treeing not far away. We were happy to see the pup do that on her own on her first hunt.  

We have enough video to do another two or three youtube cougar videos for the Bearpaw website, just need to find time to get them edited.  

[Special T]

BP it looks like you have multiple collars on the dogs? What for?

[bearpaw]

This morning it was 10 below in town, don't know how cold it was on the mountain, but i can honestly tell you it was colder than he??. We found the tracks of two lions traveling together, a male and a female. We turned the dogs loose on the tracks and off they went, but the wind had drifted the tracks so badly that Anthony and Brian headed out on foot to help the dogs. The cats headed for the top of the mountain and the higher they went the worse the drifting. Soon the tracks could not be found at all, finally we had to give the cats up. We were wanting that tom pretty bad....

On a positve note we came back to the house and had a huge breakfast of bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, and eggs....we are all better and ready for tomorrow.