Gary, the first day the older dog treed three bobcats with some younger hounds. He put the older dog up in a stock trailor and just hunted the younger dogs for the next few days and treed about the same amount but it took them much longer.
Big Joe no they were med size and hunted all day and night and are awesome coon dogs. The male would bring coons back like a bird dog, wagging there tail, catching several on the ground. Texas is very hard and rough country on dogs in South Texas.
A word of warning the pups start at $1000 if you can get one. I tried to buy one of the younger hounds and he would not take $2500 plus a rifle.
Andrew

Unless it is a Big World contender, that's too much money for a hound. Even if it was, it's still tough to warrant. TX is definately different than TN or anywhere else coonhounds are used. Those bigger hounds would probably have trouble getting up to a coon in the thickets I was in. Sounds like good dogs for the area and the purpose. Hound retreiving coons might be a tough to find, but still I think you could find some that could track and kill for a fraction of that price, and pups for half that from great lines. I preferred Uchtman, Smoky River, and Jet lines, but my last hound I never put in the woods was a Rambo bred. Good Dog, but as I said I prefer smaller dogs. Never met a real coonhound that had a stop button. My old female would go till she collapsed, and did a couple times...

If you get one congrats. Sounds like they are good hounds, but no hound is worth that much to me... especially since hides ain't worth a day's worth of dog food any more (unless it came back up last year or so)

I know John from Magnolia and I have Blueticks for 45 years and I can tell you without a doubt there's none better for cats and big game. You may be able to buy one of those other hounds for less but they are coon dogs not cat hounds which are one of the hardest of all dogs to find. I say buy because I am not sure if John would sell a pup if a gun was pointed at his head and he is VERY loyal to Del.In respect to them being bigger dogs, they were 45 years ago when Del bought out Sugar creek but he culled or got rid of all of them. The other thing is there has not been in outcross in 40 or 50 years of the current line. If you look at those you mention there are several different breeders mixing the pot...I know as I had all of them.
Pete

There is also a difference between lion hounds and bobcat dogs. I feel the coon breeds excel at lion but there may be better breeds for bobcat depending on where you are hunting. I know a lot of bobcat hunters in South Texas where there are a lot of cats and most all of them favor the running dogs or crosses thereof.
You would be shocked to hear what some hunters have paid for grade cat hounds...I know of several that sold for over $5,000 and a few over $10,000. Ouch!!
Adios,
Gary

The hunters I know that pay the large sums for the hounds are not looking for any return, just want a top cat dog. This is what they do for recreation instead of golf, team roping or fishing.
Adios,
Gary