Bearpaw Season 2009

[Wacenturion]

Thanks for all the updates.......enjoy following all you have going on.

[mulehunter]

   I cant wait to go after my daugther birthday and I am GONE for two weeks.

I am excited!

Mulehunter 

[bearpaw]

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

Special T, that's a good question for those who don't know why those collars are on the dogs.

One collar is just a regular dog collar with name & phone numbers.

Another collar is a radio collar, we do not turn any dog loose without one. Hounds can cover a lot of ground quickly so the radio collars are very important in case you lose a dog, it gves off a beeping signal and with a directional antenna it aids in finding your dog. This is especially important after an unsuccessful hunt when the dogs are no longer barking and are still in the field, you need to be able to find that dog and take him home.

The third collar is a tri-tronics training collar, we normally run them on any younger dog so that if they do something wrong we have some way to train them about what is wrong.

[mulehunter]

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

Yes  What Bearpaw just said exactly, When I run hounds I am deaf but I usually bring my dogs home safe. What I use and LOVE IT!

Link http://www8.garmin.com/astro/  Its GREAT STUFF! Need practice on this in deep TERRIAN then  you will get GOOD at this.

If it past 16 hrs live battery on Gps At least I put Westcoast collar on my dogs in Case.. Cuz it hold 8,000 hours or 16,000 So I have three collars on my dogs. GPS, Westcoast, Trino Shocks.

Mulehunter

[bearpaw]

I forgot to mention that in addition to hearing a beeping sound, there is also a meter that shows signal strength on most radio collar reciever boxes, I would imagine that is how mulehunter reads his reciever.

Prior to having radio collars I lost numerous dogs back in the late 70's and early 80's and have no idea what happened for sure to those dogs, possibly heart attack, killed, or stolen? In 1983 I bought my first radio collars and since then I can account for what has happened to every single dog I have turned loose. This equipment is similar to what bio's use for tracking wildlife, except they operate on a different frequency.

[mulehunter]

I forgot to mention that in addition to hearing a beeping sound, there is also a meter that shows signal strength on most radio collar reciever boxes, I would imagine that is how mulehunter reads his reciever.

Prior to having radio collars I lost numerous dogs back in the late 70's and early 80's and have no idea what happened for sure to those dogs, possibly heart attack, killed, or stolen? In 1983 I bought my first radio collars and since then I can account for what has happened to every single dog I have turned loose. This equipment is similar to what bio's use for tracking wildlife, except they operate on a different frequency.

I am learning everyday how to pick up signal after Gps collar battery died. I am getting better everyday with using Antenna reciver collar! 
My LONGEST LOST hounds were 6 days and found them alive!! NEVER AGAIN! Recently spring I couldnt catch them after passed 17 hrs and I had to pick up last dog next day noon. Bears are hard to Run sometime in Idaho LOT EDUCATION BEARS! Not Funny after working hard finding myself. I am glad Lord is right behind me.

Mulehunter 

[Special T]

I figured you must be running both aGPS and a RC but couldn't figure out why. Thank you for the explanation.

[bearpaw]

Well it warmed up and a big storm set in last night, snowed heavy with high winds last night and today. About 8 AM this morning we found another tom cougar track and put the dogs on it. It was pretty snowed in but they were opening and going good, in my mind I was already guessing how big he would be and starting the skinning process.

Then the cat tracks went over the other side of the ridge and everything stopped. 

The high winds had literally removed all tracks, no cougar tracks, no deer tracks, no nothing. We spent another couple hours trying to find tracks everywhere we thought they could have gone. Nothing.....   

Well I guess that is why they call it hunting and not getting. 

It's still snowing and there's a foot of snow drifted against the house door since we came in and the forecast says snow through tommorrow. We will hunt in the morning, but we are probably just going through the motions until this storm ends. 

[bearpaw]

Since I last posted we have ran another nice tom and we chased a female, on both cats the wind was blowing so hard that as soon as the cats went over the ridge top, the tracks were completely drifted away.

This morning conditions were perfect, I knew it was going to be the day. I hit another fresh track only this time there was no wind. I checked another couple roads and found the tracks crossing another road, this cat was really moving. About an hour after daylight we started the dogs on the track. Off they went all three opening good. At another point in the race we were able to get one of our 10 month old puppies on the trail. All four dogs were treed after a couple hours and we started the long trek in to the tree. We took the other 10 month puppy with us on a leash.

Dan (age 74) told us that a cougar was on his bucklet list, he didn't care how big, as long as it was a legal cat he wanted it, in fact he has wanted to get a cougar his whole life. I videod many parts of the hunt for him and as we neared the tree he exclaimed, I'm glad I didn't wait another year, I might not have made it to the tree.

We slipped quietly into the tree the last hundred yards and sure enough all four dogs were there, even the 10 month pup. We took some photos and some more video and then Dan readied for the shot. I told him to put one right through the cat's chest and he placed the bullet perfectly. The cat hit the ground dead with only a few dying quivers remaining, just enough to excite the pups whom we had left unleashed to get in on the action. They did a great job and after we got them leashed up we set the cat up for photos.

Dan told us he has had a lot of great experiences in his life but this day ranked right up there as one of the best. A remark like that from a man as accomplished as Dan really makes you feel good.

[rainshadow1]

Great stuff!

[Pathfinder101]

Great looking cat!

[bucklucky]

 

[Machias]

Sweeet!!!!

[Houndhunter]

nice, im leaving for idaho soon

[bearpaw]

hound....good luck in Idaho, I think mulehunter is headed there too.