NCMTNHunter
Senior Member
following a dog w/gps collar for a few hours to shoot a bear in a tree vs. weeks of scouting. my scouting isn't ez or quick. its a matter of perspective
But your not talking apples to apples. You have to compare the weeks of scouting vs the hours spent year round training dogs. If you started buying pups right now it would take running them 3+ days a week for 3-5 years before you would have a pack of dogs you could tree bear with. It is truly a full time job and thats the reason that most of us on here who truly love it fall in to the "used to" category. It is a young man and retired man's sport.
You also have to keep in mind that houndsmen do the same scouting you do. They spend weeks finding where bear are using so they know where to hunt.
It is also anything but indiscriminate. Bear dogs are not just let loose to run anything and everything. They are kept on leash until the hunters find a track that is warm enough for the dogs to be able to take. If a track is too small, too cold, or a sow with cubs you just keep going until you find a suitable track. Some days consist of walking 15+ miles and analyzing many tracks without turning a dog loose.
Shooting a bear out of a tree is by far the least difficult and least important part of a hound hunt. It's kind of like telling a still hunter there is a bear at 20 yards and your bow is at full draw, how hard could it be? Well as we all know the hard part is everything that leads up to that moment.
Just trying to give enough information to help with perspective.