PEAX Equipment

Running Bobcats vs Lions

TheHunterBiologist

New member
Joined
Mar 12, 2017
Messages
19
Location
Bishop, CA
A houndsman I know well told me running lions is like building a corral out of railroad ties and running bobcats is like building a violin. I love the analogy, but do other houndsmen think the same thing? Should I look for another houndsman?
 
I have only treed one lion this past January and two bobcats in 2016/17 and one in 2015; so my experience is very limited. And I only have two average grade young hounds. I have used experienced hounds in another state when I was younger and hunted bobcats at night and we treed a few. I have trailed probably 20-30 bobcats in the past two years with my hounds and only ran/tree one lion. We tree lots of coons when hunting in productive areas.
Here is my opinion. Lions can be readily treed with most any type of dogs once it’s up running/jumped. They don’t seem to loop over their tracks like bobcats. Lions travel in a straight pattern and don’t use logs, boulders, thick brush, and jump onto trees and immediately jump off like bobcats do. Lions seem short winded, especially if they have a full stomach. Two very good hunters I know in Montana Can tree lions in 15-30 minutes once the cold trailing part is done. I seen the one hunter tree one female within 5 minutes, and the second lion was in another tree about 100 yards away and jumped as I was walking to the tree.
Since I have young dogs I walk out the tracks with my two dogs until they get it running/jumped or can really smell the track good. And then turn them loose. While walking out bobcat tracks in the snow, they will walk logs above the ground for 50-75 ft, this will make the hound think its treed. Bobcats will also sit on top of cut stumps and use them for lookouts while hunting. Bobcats when being chased will jump onto a tree about 10 ft up and jump off the downslope side 10-15 ft and this will throw the dogs off. Every time this happens the hounds loose time on treeing bobcat and the bobcat gets further ahead. Bobcats can flat run and cover ground that takes me hours to go through.
If you have one or two hounds that tree bobcats consistently you are very blessed. My hounds ran and treed their first lion twice in less than 30-40 minutes, so lions seem like running coons. I have had coon chases in eastern Montana/WY and other eastern states that took longer to tree than lions. Hope this helps and a lot depends on which region of the country you hunt and if it’s snow or dry ground or coastal rain forest. I worked in western Oregon three years ago and my silent walker treed a bobcat in 5-10 minutes. So I think every area if different. Good luck, Preston
 
Back
Top