Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
Posts: 5106

Back in the old days we use to ride roads and look for deer tracks to turn our hounds out on. I guess the Lion Hunters and Bear Hunters do this also. We generally started before daylight and most of the trucks had a light mounted that would shine the road. Most old timers that did this were actually pretty good at just looking out in front of the truck and seeing sign in the roads. With the Garmin Drive Track on the scene now I have been wondering if it would work to mount a backup camera on the front bumper in a housing and if it would be an improvement of just looking with the naked eye for tracks? You do any tracking like this?

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: Menard,TX
Posts: 1158

Bruce, I do look for tracks if hunting snow but then, I rarely hunt snow and actually prefer dry ground. When it snows in the mountains where I lion hunt, it is usually pretty difficult to get around. And when it snows, everyone has a lion dog and is looking for that fresh track so there is suddenly traffic where there was none.
I prefer to hunt dirt and let my dogs rig or strike a track while roading. Once the dogs open, I try to find a track so that I will know for sure which way the lion is going. I don't worry much about these dogs barking on off game as they are broke to coons, cats and lions.
Your idea of rigging the camera should work but then a lion track crossing a couple inches of snow can be seen pretty easily.
Adios,
Gary

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: Menard,TX
Posts: 1158

Kinda changing subjects but I find it interesting how the scent leaves the ground and is up in the air as the ground warms up. I had my dogs rig really hard a couple of weeks ago in the Navajo Reservation so I dumped them. They all hit the ground running wide open in a couple of different directions. Pearl and Jill, my two best dogs ran into a bunch of dense pine trees off the road and opened. I could not find a lion track crossing the road so walked down the road in front of the pickup where I could see the tracks of a big bobcat. The dogs could not smell the scent on the ground as it was after 10:00 AM and over 60 degrees; it had been about 35 that morning. I loaded them up and went down the road a few yards and they blew up again. The scent was up in air as the heating of the dirt caused the scent to leave the ground. I have seen this happen on many occasions and on coons as well. And I have seen it work in reverse as well when barometric conditions are high and no wind that will cause the scent to stay really close to the ground. In these conditions, the dogs can generally move the track with few bobbles.
Adios,
gary

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