WVA BEAR HUNT

[The Old Man]

 I have been on hiatus from the internet but figured I'd make a pass back thru. Hope everyone here is still doin well.

   Had a good trip to WV treed 13 single bear in 4 days but caught dogs off at the highway the last two days and didn't get one treed. The last 5 hunts before WV caught 7 singles by myself. Pictures are scarce this time, I'll check on them in a few days when I can get Lisa to put them on a server to transfer them here.  Since this time last year I have lost 5 dogs one- was ran over, one died 10 days or 2 weeks after a snake bite, one to a twisted gut, one hog hurt and though it didn't kill her it seemed to have ruined her as she has no stamina so can't run up in a big race and a bear broke one down. I have 6 left, one 4 yr old female, one 3 yr old female, one 2.5 yr old male, one 20 mth old male,  a year old female and a 6 mth old male. Have been able to go right on catching game with the 4 older of the six without missing a beat.  I have always said that if you had to have a certain dog out of your pack to consistently catch game or carry on your breeding program you were just about out of business, and that most all of my dogs were the same amount of sorry, a different one shines a little brighter each hunt. Well I have had a chance to prove that to myself since most folks not having hunted with them all regularly would have probably  picked one of the 5 that are lost  to be the best.
Honestly if I wasn't afraid of things happening to put me completely afoot I'd just hunt 4, but to maintain a good program alone I have to keep several fo all ages and stages to assure being able to keep it going so I usually hunt 6-8 when I hunt alone just because they need to go. Thats my story and I'm stickin to it...

[t-dog]

It’s great to see you back an here Old Man! I was getting worried about ya.

I totally agree with your point of view about being able to get it done with or without a particular dog. Sure some dogs are just exciting or maybe you have little extra special chemistry with one, but for the sake of a program they all need to be able to do to your standards. Pretty much everyone in my little hunting circle is hunting this family of dogs. Everyone kinda has the same mind set as you of trying to keep the ages of their pack staggered so that they always have young up and comers. When Ava and Moon were in heat, we were able to put the load on Outlaw and Ranger. They did good and it made them better I think. Once a young dog shows they understand what we are in the woods for, we try and cast them first and give them a chance to do the job, instead of going to the old savvy dogs that know how to get it done. If they don’t get it done in a reasonable amount time then we cast the vets.

That sounds like a super good showing in just a few days. It doesn’t sound like the last two days would’ve been any different from the rest had those people not put the highway in the wrong spot. You should be proud of your hounds and where your at with them. I lost a SUPER nice AB pup to a twisted gut a couple months ago. He was about 8 months old or so and I was very excited about him. You had a little tougher luck than I have. Hopefully the rest of your pack stays healthy!


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[Shotgun66]

Much respect to you OM for the time & effort you have put into having a productive set of dogs. Sorry to hear about the losses. It seems like that is the tax we have to pay when hunting hard to make dogs. 13 singles on 4 hunts and 7 in 5 hunts would make some of our local coon hunters blush…..and Coons are not scarce!
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I have never had the opportunity to bear hunt. From what I read, I think I would enjoy it.
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Couple questions if you don’t mind…….

Do you expect your dogs to hunt for tracks together or fan out and hunt independently?

Once a “strike” is acquired, do you expect them to honor it and pack up on the track?

Does steady pack pressure make bears climb?

Do you get many split trees?


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[Reuben]

Sounds like excellent dog work…losing those dogs is a bummer, sorry for your losses…
I’ve lost 3 in the last year or so…one from a small puncture wound where a rare type bacterial entered, another from an even rarer bacterial infection and the catch dog from what I believe a twisted gut…the two strike dogs were boar stopping-catchers when working together…

[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.

[Cajun]

  Sounds like a good time Clue. Hope everyone up there is doing well. Sorry about the bad luck with the dogs but the caliber of dogs you feed will step right up. Still sucks loosing the good ones tho.

[The Old Man]

Thanks Mike I know you have often times lost those that count as well, it is part of the deal we just have to cope.

Hey, Lisa is gonna help me post some pics, the tech-guru that I am haha.
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[The Old Man]

  OOPS somehow I posted one pic 3 times I'll try again.


                                   


                                     

[t-dog]

That black and white plott must be a throw back!


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[The Old Man]

Haha that English gyp belonged to another fellow, he had a real good set of English dogs, there was another picture that we didn't get on here with  2 of his Blue colored English dogs and my 20 mth old Plott under a bear that we'd had caught on the ground and prior to that had ran bayed and walked for about 3 hours. When he finally bayed solid he was in the middle of a big chunk of ground Jerry and I went in to them but it was rough very steep, rocky old timber slash where they had selectively logged it and left the tree  tops and it left running before we got there. During this time I had two dogs on it , Jerry had two dogs on it, and Norman had a dog on it, Travis "the fellow with the English pack" was on the road below and when it crossed he dumped the other 3 aforementioned  dogs and was able to catch the worn out dogs as they crossed, it didn't walk or bay anymore and about a mile on up the mountain treed. I was expecting a pretty good bear but it was about an 80 lber. that looked to have some age on him, broad mature head but no body size, there are several small mature bear like that inthat area, sort of stunted. Ind that part of WV there aren't a lot of bear that go over 200 lbs. Since I don't kill them size doesn't bother me if it's black ruzzy and up a bush I'm happy. If I was gonna hunt to kill one I'd go where big bears are are normally found.

[t-dog]

Lol, I had to pick you know. Sounds like those English are nice as well. It’s kinda satisfying when you get to outsmart the game like y’all did there with the fresh dogs.

I wonder why they are stunted? I mean there are a limited amount of reasons what would cause that. Either inbreeding, over population, lack of food sources and nutrients, or a combination of these things. I know with farming fish, you see a lot of farm raised catfish that come up for feed and you think dang, look at the head on that one. When you actually catch one with a head that matches that size, it’s a little disappointing. Their bodies and their heads look like they belong to two different fish. This is from overpopulation and lack of food source.


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[The Old Man]

The folks there seem to think that maybe they got separated from their mother way early, and added to that seems like the genetics there are relatively small. I honestly don't have a real solid answer.

[make-em-squeel]

Thats awesome, great job

[Jones85]

What line of plotts you running?

[The Old Man]

Gantte/Weems crosses, they had lots of common ancestors way back but had been separately line bred for many gens, I thought they may compliment one another as an outcross. Thus far I get along with them pretty good.

[Jones85]

Never been around any gante but I’ve got a stiles bred gyp and a cascade male im hoping to cross soon. I got high hopes for it

[The Old Man]

I wish you well with them, I don't have any experience with either strain, but they have a very good reputation.

[Jones85]

I appreciate it. I was just curious cause you don’t hear of many plotts in this part of the country