Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Mountain Lion Calling

I'm going to make a point to get out more this year... I'm still over-busy, homeschooling 6 kids, still have to do late deer, late archery elk, and I'm still not completely moved over here to central Washington, but I'm getting lion withdrawls!

How about you guys?

Seems I'm seeing a lot more surprise sightings and livestock damage stories. I predicted that, seems like it's happening.

Not sure how the cougar numbers (or habit patterns, lowland influx, livestock damage, etc.) are going to react to the influx of wolves, but the fact that more big predators are out cutting into the herds has the same effect.... and "they" are still regulating the humans out of the equation. Closing the most impacted areas at the end of the year here in Washington.


What do you think about lion hunting this year? What are you guys seeing?

With the size of a lions range, are you having success calling? I've only called one.

Fireball2 & Rainshadow1: Indeed Mt. Lions do cover a LOT of territory - one of my early Hunting mentors claimed that Mt. Lions have huge circular routes and stop by their favored haunts about every 12 to 20 days.
I don't know about that time schedule.
He Hunted Mt. Lions back when there was a bounty on them in Washington state and brought MANY of them to bag.
The few folks I know who call Hunt Mt. Lions these days do so in two ways:
#1: They concentrate on calling in the small areas where Mule Deer congregate in winter - approach that area on foot and well camoed (usually snow camo at the time of year they call Hunt) and use fawn bleet type calls.
#2: Drive the back roads/trails after a fresh snow and look for fresh tracks then call. Again this driving and looking for tracks is done in areas where Mule Deer concentrate in winter.
Rainshadow1 there used to be lots of Mt. Lions there in eastern Washington near Malo/Lk. Curlew - good luck if you get up thataway.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Your knowledge is endless.

Ya, I get out for coyote, but have not gotten serious about calling/taking a mountain lion. I really ought to get on that this year.

Supposedly there are plenty of them around!

Guy

They're low density, because of their range, they keep it that way on their own, that's why they disperse and become problems. So it's not like Coyote calling. But I've called as many as 2 dozen in a year back when I could go once per week for 3 months. Lots of dry days, burned lots of gas, and hiked lots of snow, (actually damaged my achilles a little bit doing it.) but when you get one coming in, especially if it's calling back to your vocals, it makes then next series of dry days totally worth it!

I was able to take two in three years back then.

Life has interrupted for several years, but the population is just going up, up, up, so I'm excited to get back out. Still can't go once per week, but I'm going to do what I can! Washington is doing what I predicted back in about '09, they're assimilating to rural development, and they're starting to do noticeably more damage. Good opportunities to call on sightings.

It's different compared to calling several coyotes per day, cold calling is very rarely successful. But if you have tracks, or a sighting or a kill, calling with distress and laid back vocals gives you really pretty good odds.

They are out of control this year in Arizona. We have seen 5 already this month out hunting. My son called in 2 on Thursday morning. I'm headed out in the morning, hoping to glass one up.

I have called in two. I used a hand call, a Weems Wild call duo tone, rough raspy sound.

Hey Steve, get after them this winter!

As old and less sure of foot that I am, I wait for optimum conditions and then only set up to call on high percentage sign. That means I don't call much! I'm still stuck at 19 called in, that I know about. Cougar vocals I got from you are a staple sound I use on every lion calling stand. A mix of your vocals plus a recording of my old Weems jack rabbit distress is my standard favorite though we have called cougars with lion vocals/fawn distress as well.

I saw two lions last year, the first non-called ones I’ve seen in years. One was 40 yards off highway 9 a couple of miles south of Acme, WA. The other was in BC, 600 yards away across a valley as I glassed an old clearcut grown up in scattered Christmas trees. I was looking for mule deer in early snow, saw the cat move and thought that it was a deer until I put glass on it. Before cougar season opened there.

Two weeks ago I saw another probable along the Upper Samish Rd. off of Highway 9, but didn't get a clear look and it was gone, natch, when I U-turned. Rewinding the mental tape, I don't know what it could have been other than lion. It was in a field, within 30 yards of me but through a screen of brush on the fence row.

Giving these locations isn't revealing much since there are so many cougars in that country and they are always moving unless on a kill.

Best of luck this winter season!

Hope you cut tracks often, Okanagan! Have fun on them!

Happenstance sightings are getting so much more common. I'm still only at one maybe, with a couple for sure by vocals when I was doing other hunting. But then the west side is THICK! Really looking forward to getting into this east side stuff!

We called one more in on Thursday but the bastid jumped off the rock before he could be shot. They are so stinking wary...

The cat population is growing down here in the south eastern part of Washington. I was told that there have been 5 cats taken down here in the blues since season started. My son was showing me his game camera pictures the other night and he had a picture with 3 cats on it all together. I have gotten several phone calls from friends of mine that run cows and wanting me to help them get rid of some cat problems. The problem with Washington game dept. is if they think that to many cats have been harvested they can at any time close that GMU to cat hunting.

.... The problem is their definition of "too many." It's bordering on stupid!

When I retire ML and wolf are at the top of the bucket list .
Selling out everything travelling in a nice 4x4 vehicle that I can camp in , hunting , trapping till I die .

Best of luck to all who are trying to bag the big predators .

I'll be going out in NE Washington later this month. Snow is falling and I hope to fill a tag.

I'll be in NE hunting deer on Saturday. Hope to be busy but bringing the calls!

I got all my gear ready last week. As soon as my local waterfowl lake freezes I'll switch to Cougar. Saw some tracks out there Sunday. Most of my cougar sighting while hunting them are from watching how other critters are acting. Deer act a lot different when they know a cat is around. You can watch them and get an idea on the general area to look. Same with Coyote. If the coyote know there is a kill in a spot. They act different. They will challenge call trying to figure out if the cat is nearby. I watched a cat challenge call right back as it moved in on the coyote. Watch and listen.

Hiked in 2 miles to an area I killed a Cougar a few years ago. Fresh snow for tracking but no sign. Deer were moving into the area from the east. Not a normal action. Unless something was disturbing them.

Hey guys,

Deer/Elk are winding down, I'm getting fired up to run a few Cougar stands!



I posted a couple new Call-in Stories on my page, they're O23 and O24.
http://www.rain-shadow.com/cougar_callin_stories.htm

Still looking for YOUR stories! Please send them to me!


Also, lost a few pictures... if you have a story on my page and your pics are gone, I'd love to get them from you again! Thanks!

No luck calling Sunday. Fresh snow is forecast for this weekend. I plan on hunting both days. If I am not plowing snow.

Hope we get snow up here... forecast is just this cold, sub freezing fog... for weeks! Will go out anyway, have a couple cold calling spots, but a couple inches would sure speed things up!

I"m hunting with an outfitter in AZ in April for lions. Hope I see as many as you have!

To All,

Believe it or not, here in The Alamo City, a DOWNTOWN bank's surveillance cameras recorded a LARGE, male ML, strolling across the parking lot & into a nearby shopping mall about 2000 hours a few weeks ago.
(A local game warden estimated him at at least 100# & "obviously in good health".)

San Antonio has numerous coons, possums, ring-tails, coyotes, feral hogs, whitetails, Axis deer, bobcats & "other livestock" in this very densely populated urban area.
(Some neighborhoods have 200+ WT per square mile, according to the Bexar County Animal Control officers.)

yours, tex

A while back we accidently called one in while using a cow elk call in a thick stand of pine. This was deep in The Bob Marshall Wilderness. Even in there, this poor cat had a wide plastic collar with an antenna. He looked embarrassed!

Nothing today. Maybe tomorrow. Saw two nice Mule deer bucks. No snow

I wouldn't call 100# lion a big male. That would be a nice sized female for sure. I big males start at 150. I wonder if they could see his junk?

dennisinaz,

I have no idea. - What I posted is "second hand" from a bank employee that's a member of my service club & who has seen the video recordings from the bank's parking lot. = He told me about the recording of the cat two weeks ago Tuesday PM at our bi-weekly meeting.
(One thing is likely certain: With all the deer & other "prey animals" in our very urban SA, he won't go hungry.)

yours, tex

dennisinaz,

Fyi, speaking of big cats, a retired SGM & his lady returned from a day-long shopping trip to the Ft Meade commissary/PS/Class 6 to their retirement home in western MD a few weeks ago. - The wife took an armload of groceries into the house, propping the front door open while the SGM started carrying in their many sacks of purchases.

On the 3rd or 4th trip into the house, he was horrified to discover a ML in the living room (between him & his lady) & the cat was quietly stalking his wife.

His wife saw the cat, locked herself into the pantry & then he thereafter managed to get the cat OUT of the house without any major damage to either the house or to either of them. = I count them: LUCKY.

yours, tex

Wow ! LUCKY ! How in the hell, do you herd a M,L out of your house while said cat is stalking you ?

WildWest,

According to the retired SGM, he went around the house, entered the kitchen door & continually YELLED AT the cat until the cat left the house through the front door & disappeared into the woods.
(Trust me, the Sergeants Major, that I knew during my career, had BIG voices. - Sounds about RIGHT to me.)

LOL, tex

Maryland.... told you so! (They're moving back east!)

I was out sat/sun. Birds where missing, So I did not get to excited in the two areas I hunted. Missed a coyote sunday. Which I really should not have. It was not called in, spotted it cruising through a draw. I have been using an Elk call. The area I am hunting gets a lot of E-caller traffic. So I mostly just use Deer or Elk closed reed calls. If it gets windy I have a very loud custom that I can make some seriously growly death of deer sounds. Its type of sound has been the most productive over the years. But it is a call any predator call. Coyote - bobcat come in most often but cougar and bear have also.

Thanks gents for the great lion stories. It is always stimulating to see lion tracks, kills, and naturally, the lions. All my sightings have been while hunting deer, elk, wild turkey or such.
As you know, mountain lion are legally considered varmints in Texas and can be taken at any time possible.
I know only one Texan that calls mountain lions on his ranch, but then he also calls leopard in Africa, so he must be quite accomplished.

Best of luck to you this season.

Really curious about calling Leopard! Would love to talk with that guy sometime!

Looks like my paypal buttons on the website were goofed up... and it LOOKS like they're fixed now... PLEASE Let me know if you're trying to get sounds or calls and something doesn't work!

Rainshadow1,

Calling Leopards is a sport I think I'd rather read about from the comfort of the easy chair in front of a fire rather than actually doing....

I have gotten jumpy enough calling at night in mountain lion country that I won't go unless my partner goes with me. Last autumn we had a lion walk across the meadow about a half block from where I am typing this right now. A couple of guys hanging Christmas lights saw him and called 911. A handful of deputies and a G&P officer showed up and looked for it but couldn't find it. The day before, one had walked around the senior high school about ten miles north of here.

I am not scared of big hairy monsters that can eat you, during the day, but at night I am much more opened minded.

Calling any predators at night from the ground is spooky! (But if I could I'd do it for lions here!)

I just am pretty convinced that Leopards would also be very callable, especially with fellow leopard vocals.

Just got back from Mexico, lions are a real problem on many of the ranches there. Last season 8 lions were sighted buy the 5 hunters in my buddy's group and they killed 4 of them. This year only killed one. A lion killed a calf about 300 yards from the house but they didn't bother to tell us or I would have gone out and called it in for them. Going back in March to remedy this!

They're starting to run in herds!


Just posted two more good stories from Western Washington!

Stories O25 and A21 are bran-fresh as of today!

http://rain-shadow.com/cougar_callin_stories.htm

Our yearly Cabin lake/Fort Rock area Cougar camp is 2/9 thru 2/19 this year. This will be year 9. Looks like we will have a pretty good turn out this year.