During my early years as a Professional Hunter I was using dogs to hunt lions and bears. I took out a number of guys from the mid-west and eastern states for bears during the spring Idaho hunts and the fall Washington hunts. It was not unusual to take 20 or 30 hunters out per year and shoot 30-40 bears per season. The Idaho regulation allowed 2 bears per hunter per year and the Washington regulations allowed only one fall bear per person.
JJ,
What did you feed your hounds so they could tree that many bears? Is this hunting both the spring and fall season?
The best houndsmen/guides around here have treed/killed up to near 20 bears per fall season for their clients in a good year but these are exceptional houndsmen/guides who have great hounds that won't run trash. A great "strike" dog is a must if one wishes to be successful and consistent in treeing bears. These houndsmen also rest their hounds so they are top notch for each outing. At best their hounds might tree up to 4 bears a week but they would have to do it consistently for at least 7 weeks to kill 28 bears which would be an incredible pace for the best pack of bear hounds. Even doing everything right with the right conditions, high bear densities, great hounds etc the best houndsmen around here would be darn lucky to kill over 20 bears in the fall season.
I know you are a "Professional" hunter so share your secrets for killing 30-40 bears a year. Did you run bears started off bait? Surely you had more than one pack of hounds to tree bears?
Sorry if I hijacked this thread a little (grin).
MtnHtr
