Don't post to much but like to read some of the stuff on here, mainly about who won the hunts and pedigrees of the hounds winning , me myself I don't field trial , outside hunt on bobcat and grey fox ! so I will tell yall abt what went on last night ,I live in south ga and do a lot of hunting abt 3 nights a week , have plenty of land to hunt , wish had more grey fox , but beggers cant be choosy have more cat than fox, last night started trotting hounds abt 11 oclock and didn't go far abt maybe 50 feet and hounds started wagging , got out and looked but ground was so hard couldn't see the track,didnt think it was fresh enuf , cause there was not a bark out of none of them , had 8 in the road ,all running hounds , chase registered, 5 off jeffs blackjack and mcfanns bobby joe liq with her being off wilsons punch and tyres Dixie T Game hounds is what they are , went on down the road and hounds started winding rearing on ther hind legs trying to get higher, got one gyp and put her ontop the box and she started opening every breath, the rest was in the woods , trying to find it still wasn't sure what it was grey fox or cat, gyp on box jumped off the truck, and went in the woods , one male picked it up , started opening they covered him up and trailed back to the truck just ahead of it , they swept the road,and in the woods on the other side, nothing so they went back in where they came from, started opening again , was a blew over live oak right side the road and to gyps was wagging at the base of a big limb well up it she went then another gyp and another gyp, had 3 gyps in the tree on the limb opening every breath coming towards me , with me shining the light on them watching , they were prob 10 to 15 feet off the ground when they made it to the trunk coming everybreath to the stump right side the road, it had a bunch of vines grew up all over it and when they made it there out jumped the cat, it was on, there were 5 hounds under him , he went inn the wad, it was a sight race out the tree jumped the others hounds , they were abt a foot behind him , I tried to kick him when he came by but missed the woods were real clean where they had thinned the timber , he was in a bad place open woods and fast hounds , they didn't go prob 100 feet and he came back across the road infront the truck and went in a water hole that he musta been catching frogs around to start with , they caught him in there but he had a full tank of gas and managed to eat a few up and left the water , it was on again , they had him in trauma after his hind inn , he finally got a break , for abt 15 seconds or so seconds and managed to get ahead , for anybody that don't know abt cat hunting 15 seconds a lot of times means your race is close to being over, cause he will stink it all up where he runs in such a tight place and its hard for a dog to destingush where he went ! well he ended it there for them , got slam away , but oh well that's why its called hunting

Brian, Really enjoyed your story, would like to hear more, that's real huntin, wish I had one to share but it's been awhile since I had one to tell, but turkey season is over so maybe I will have one to talk about soon!

Talked to man that ran cat back in the 50s when he was 12 yrs old. He hunted with his dad and 4or5 more young boys. Their job was to get the cat moving again after he squatted and wouldn't move with dogs workin all around him. They each had a sweet gum sapling about 6 feet long when they spread out and hit the briar patch beating and hollering the cat would usuall get up and move out wher a dog could pick him back up and the race was back on. He said his dad would have never caught as many cats as he did if they had not done this. He said cats can't cut their sent off or slip off from a dozen dogs, they squat and will not move unless a dog steps on them or a strange sound suck as beating the briar patch moves them. I believe he knew what was going on. What do you think?

I asked the same fellow how they tranined their dogs and he said they could never train a real good cat dog, he said they bred extremely good cat dogs to extremely good cat dogs with very little success. In the 50s every body had a pack of outside fox dogs cause pens were unheard of. This is the way he put it, when a dog decided he wanted to run cat and started breaking off fox races, the owner would call his dad and tell him to come get him another cat dog. A real fox hunter couldn't live with that. His answer was, good cat dogs want to run cat and decide that for themselves it's not much training you can do to make a real cat dog but you can train some to run a cat somewhat and catch one now and then

I know your right abt the sent cause the earth just don't open up and suck him in or does he fly away ! cat has no lungs much so he got to do all he can in a small are if there under him he cant keep running like a fox ! but I have seen male cats run hours in bad thick places,sow cat is worse than a male ,she will crawl around in a briar patch and stink it all up dogs couldn't get under them right for it being so thick, and for a dog being bred for cat only , I have been line breeding these I own for a long time , here is what I have seen with what I have , all will run fox , running cat a lot don't have the brains to be able to run cat , a hound has to know how to make the turn and be able to distinguish he isn't running a covered track cause at one point or another the cat will turn around , a wide hunting or turning hound will make a cat dog, man get 3 or 4 like that and get them broke and eat everything up in the woods, personaly I wont keep a hound like that long cause I run fox also and they will eat all the fox don't have enuf for them to eat, gators bad here and the cat will take you to the water,when its hotand the woods full of gators here so I run a lot more fox thru the summer, some run fox better than cat , and some run cat better than fox , But they all mouths change when they running cat seem to want to give a lot more tongue, and holler out on a pick up a lot harder and longer, cat race is richer than a fox race when there under him !!! I believe a man that's never heard a cat race that's right has never heard the potential of a hound cause it is really something to hear , to every man his own with what he likes .

Really enjoyed your story...thanks for sharing!

Sky

How long does the cat races usually last? Most of the ones around here go up after bout 15 mins. That's in the daylight, maybe they stay on the ground longer at night?

not sure abt daylight how long one will last, never hunted much in the daylight for them , I know people out west that uses tree dogs , well half tree half running dog and they say some go up some don't , but they say most do , know people , montana, Washington state that get in the 100 count with treed cats, and seen a pict of one that weighed 47 pounds that was a big tom, bet he would run the whole pack to the truck if caught on the ground, me I have never seen one in the tree cause my stuff wont tree , caught lots on the ground, but usually you know they went up cause dogs hunt the truck when they do , I have ran some several hours , before catching them and have seen some as you say go up in abt 15 mins ! but most don't have to go up cause he has a huge bag of tricks , and he uses them , a lot thinks he went up but usually its the first turn where he lays it to the dogs , and don't have to go up , it takes hounds that's used on cats a lot to catch one on the ground , a lot of hunting and a lot of cat tracks, most anything can run a fox , but it takes cat minded hounds to run a cat , have seen all kinda things take place running a cat that will leave you ****** off, knowing they abt had him and just like he dissapered, seen one one night look like he was going to go in a pipe under the road, but didn't , didn't cross the road either, didn't go up or turn around or squat , just like he disapered ! will never forget it cause dogs didn't run him another step , and I was standing 20 feet watching !!! don't know where he went, seen hounds make a 15 second bobble on one never run him again , and will be just like they trailing him again , cat is a bad boy to run if they been messed with much cause he don't want to run.

I'm in eastern nc, only been on a handful of cat races, there just aren't alot of em around where we hunt. I was always with fox hunters, and they would get after one every now and then,but they never ran long at all if the hounds were really running him, he would go up, they had few that would hang out at the tree long enuf to get there. Have shot em with pellet gun to make em jump out a few times cuz they ain't run 2 mins. before climbing.

Ive jumped a cat out of a tree but I've never jumped one in a tree that I know of. That pretty neat Brian, you were able to watch it. I have seen the dogs standing on their hind legs trying to wind something several times, had all 4 I was roading doing it one night, they hunted all around that spot and kept coming back to the same spot, standing on their hind legs and sniffing as high as they could but never struck anything. We shined all around there in the trees but didn't find anything either, wish i would have thought of putting one on the box. I've never actually seen one disappear but nearly every cat I run does. I know some guys that got a shor-nuf tree dog and added to their pack to get those 15 min. runners out of the tree, they found out that ain't where it was.