Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Our weekend Lion hunt a great success!

Talus, Sorry not trying to be a tease. It's finally getting to be good lion weather and I'm hunting much of the time now. I come home to recharge the batteries Visit my family and check My Africa news then I'm back out hunting again.

The brief version of this as that we went out hunting in the morning very early to a disgusting location where sombody dumped some elk parts off the side of a road. Guts and hide, bones and the head. I saw blood in the snow the previous day as I was driving by. We set up the speaker right at the edge of the road about 80-100 yards from the gut pile and covered it with grass and branches. Then we hid about 50 yards away. Visibility was good as we were up a hill from the speaker. I fired up the cassette and we sat back and watched to see if we could pull the coyotes off that old spoiled elk carcass.

My thoughts were the big main coyote would be on the carcass and the others would be near by waiting on him to leave. If they heard the deer fawn they would come looking for an easy meal. Quite possibly the big dog on the gut pile would leave to get the nice fresh killed fawn. He would certainly have figured the other coyotes had caught.

The plan worked like a charm, it was a very short sit when the first coyote showed up and trotted directly at the speaker looking for the "fawn". I saw him and motioned to my partner. He was not in as good a position so I shot him. We sat a while longer and although we saw movement from other coyotes now and then none were shot. I figured we over stayed our welcome and we decided to move. We set up on another location and nothing happened. So we moved again.

While driving down the road the higher we drove the more common was the snow. We were driving through a big patch and saw some tracks, big tracks. I said either that is one huge dog or we have a nice set of lion tracks. When I got out of the truck to look I could see instantly the straight line gait typical of a cat. We removed all our excess clothing and packed our needed gear into our day packs. Then we were off on foot following the tracks.

The details of things regarding our tracking experiences could go on for ever. I can't make that kind of a post just now. However I will tell you that the old saying "anything that can go wrong will go wrong" is usually the case when tracking lions. They tend to go down hill when your on the edge of the snow line so you lose the track, or up hill into waist deep snow so deep you sink to your knees on every step. Rare is the tracking job on flat level ground with consistant snow conditions. When that is the case we usually end up with the lion. That is how critical the snow conditions are to being successful!

On this morning we had old snow, slushy and only in patches. We followed the tracks for a long time but probably not a very long distance. When we realised the creek was too big to cross comfortably and the snow was getting thin we decided to call from that location. We were on the undercut edge of a bank and with a high ridge behind us where an old logging operation had left a big pile of branches and limbs. This was covered in snow and looked at the time to be a difficult bit of terrain for anything to get through.

After calling a while with the speaker pointed in the direction of the last good tracks we saw. There was movement across the clearcut probably 175-200 yards away. We were pretty excited so I left the volume and consistancy of calling alone. I still don't remember who saw the cat first, or if we both noticed him walking across the clearcut at the same time. I did not matter who saw the lion first. My policy is that we take turns shooting so this was my partners lion if a shot came up, because I had shot the coyote earlier this morning.

We had no idea of sex or size at this time and it really does not matter with lions as far as I'm concerned. They are so hard to get this way we just shoot them when the chance comes up. Their was no further sightings in the next 10 minutes or so. Then we, or I should say, I saw this big pumpkin sized head about 40-50 yards from the speaker staring right down at it. It was gone as quick as I saw it. There was something odd about this as well. I could swear I heard noise from this cat in the bush before I saw the head. Lions walking in soggy ground with wet brush don't snap twigs, and rustle the brush? I actually thought a bear was coming because they usually bust right in.

He was gone again but I could still hear an odd bush or twig now and again. Then from behind we could hear some lion sounds. Low growl, or purring mixed with heavy breathing. Or at least what sounded like heavy breathing. I slowly tilted my head back and could see the front half of the lion staring down at the speaker . He was about 30-40 yards behind and above us and looked to be figuring out the easiest way down that snow covered branch pile from the logging operation. The speaker was about 50-60 yards in front of us, so he was still close to 100 yards away from the speaker and had complely circled us. Maybe more then once?

With the lion standing and looking down towards the speaker my friend leaned back and shot him through the chest with his 30/06. The lion at the shot launched into the air like a high diver and landed in the middle of the huge brush pile. I had only my 44 mag revolver so my hands were free to climb up there. The blood trail was significant and visible from 30 yards in the snow. I got above the suspected location and saw he was stone dead and only then realised he looked pretty big. When I climbed down to the lion, I saw he was huge! I don't swear, or use foul or vulgar language ever. However if there was ever an appropriate time this may have been it to describe just how big he was!

He also had a damaged front left foot. It was deformed or possibly bitten in a fight. He could not use the claws and the dew claw was extended and could not be retracted. I think he would have struggled to climb a tree or pull down a big animal. Although we was fat and very big so he must have made it work good enough! I think this is why he made so much noise walking in with a partial stump instead of a normal foot.

It took a hella long time to untangle him and get him out of that tangled mess of brush. Once he was out My buddy drove the truck around the bottom of the canyon and I slid/ dragged. stumbled and fought to get him down the side of the hill to the road. It was why he looks so dirty in the picture. I did not have my digital camera with me for some stupid reason while I was hunting. It would have been nice to get a better photo to post then the one in my shop!