Message #582798

[The Old Man]

Thank you all.       I rarely free cast for bear but if I do I hope they are close together when they strike so they all get together.

 My dogs do not hark well to another dog especially if they are smelling something on their own, that can be a plus or a minus, I like the independence but they can wind up miles apart if they go opposite ways.

Dogs being packed up can be a help on a bad bear that don't want to tree.

It was surprising to me how many split races you have bear hunting, it can come from a sow and larger cubs splitting, from a breeding pair splitting, from more than one boar following a sow, in the fall when the mast hits spotty or really strong in consolidated places there is often more than one bear feeding in that area and those independent dogs that run pretty loose on track will often leave on a different one. Last year in WV we had a cold rig strike that was about 150 off the road put 6 dogs down  they trailed up on the mountain basically all together to a real good patch of hickory and jumped not long after they jumped dogs went 3 different directions  all 3 directions had a bear up a tree in the end and none of them were cubs.

To clarify the 13 bears were cumulative from 3 trucks I was not under all 13 bear, but had dogs under some of them that I didn't go in to due to being headed to a different tree.