Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk hunt interrupted

On Saturday I planned a good overnighter with some hunting buddies into the southfork, but they couldn't leave until late afternoon. So in the morning I decided I would head up to do a quick elk hunt in a honey hole above my home, just to sit for a while and call, just to see if I could be packing meat instead of sleeping out with the grizzlies in the southfork. It was just getting light when I started up my trail, I didn't need a headlamp, as I could make out the ground pretty well. I could hear ravens a short way off, making kind of "wake up" sounds high in a tree. My first thought was they were sitting above a carcass of some sort, waiting for more daylight to feel safe enough to fly down and peck away. Second thought, oh man, some hunter whacked my bull yesterday and they are cleaning up whats left. I wasn't an eighth of a mile into my hike when off the left side of the trail in some very thick brush I heard a light growl. I instantly thought it was a bear, just letting me know he was there and I should leave. I bent over to look under some limbs and in a perfectly framed window of branches I could see a lion. Ears flattened out, growling, very upset, 25 yards ahead. What followed, took just seconds, but felt like minutes.

My first thought, oh crap, she's ticked, second thought, I got a tag for that! I immediately backed down the trail to hopefully calm the big cat, and started getting an arrow out of my quiver. She is having none of it, slinks out of the timber onto the trail in plain view, then quickly cuts the distance in half. I am now shaking like a dog crapping tacs, trying to knock this arrow. Do you know how hard that is to do with that kind of adrenaline coursing through your veins? I get it knocked, hook my release on the loop, draw way to quick and hard, causing my arrow to bounce off my drop-away rest. Oh Lord... by some miracle, I willed it back onto the rest, centered the pin right under her chin, and touched it off. Thank God she slowed into a crouch at 12 yards. If she had kept coming at that original pace, she and I were fighting hand to claw.

The arrow hit her in the brisket with a very loud smack. She recoiled, and turned up the trail, and bounded off the right of the trail, making the loudest crashing noises, rivaling ANY bull I have ever killed. It seemed like an eternity of crashing sounds in the woods, then in an instant, the forest fell silent. I am just standing there, basically in shock and awe. It's always surreal seeing a mountain lion in the woods, more so, to me, than ANY OTHER species of critter I have laid eyes on in the forest. Then in another instant, the silence is interrupted by another broken growling sound. I know now, or at least believed she just expired. I took note of where the sound came from, broke all the rules of bowhunting, and headed straight in toward the sound. Mind you, this is the thickest crap you could imagine searching for a downed animal. I got in about 80-100 yards, into a small clearing, came to my senses and realized I am not going to find this lion like this, and what if she isn't dead, what if I didn't make a good hit, and now she is sitting within one leap of me, planning my demise. I call my wife and tell her what just happened, then call my very good friend that lives nearby, and ask him if he has a little time to help me find this thing. While he is on his way, I go back to the beginning, like a good bowhunter, looking for an arrow at the point of impact. Nope. Then look for some blood, yep, but not much. Back up the trail, then off into the woods, just as I remember. Very little blood, but just enough to keep the track. I got to a point of losing any sign of blood, and decided to wait for Mike to show. I was sitting there wishing I had my drahthaar with me, she could find this thing in a blink. I hear Mike over on the trail and whistle him over. Within minutes we are both like a couple hounds searching, nearly on hands and knees for blood. �Got blood,� he says, then a little more and a little more, right back into the original clearing I walked to. He looks up, and says, �Is that a lion?� Yep, there she is, under a small clump of piss fir, not 20 feet from where I was earlier.
Together, we carry her back to the trail and onto the waiting game cart he brought up. Easy run back down the hill, and into the trunk of a Honda civic?�.oops.

That is awesome! Congrats!

CONGRATS!

Have you considered the possibility that she may have been rabid?

I'd have certainly treated the carcass as such until proven otherwise.

Two years in a row for you?

Cool!

That's awesome. I would have had to clean my shorts if that had happened to me.

Bow kill in a high stress situation... Very impressive!

Good story!!!! Congrats!!!!

My story would have stopped with the low growl, and the proceeding noise would have been my boots hitting the trail in the opposite direction. If I ever get chance to play cards with you, I'm out.

Very cool and big congrats.

MM

Yes. Last year I called one in, nearly in the very same spot, with a primos can. I blasted that one with a .325 though.

Laffin! Nah, you would do exactly what I did, try to figure out exactly what it was. There are just sooooo many predators in these NW MT woods, you just have to always have it the back of your mind you are gonna run into one, almost every time out.
I still went and slept out last night with my buddies. I did jerk awake once when I heard another growl, but it was just my friend snoring in his bag laying in the bear grass! So it definitely affected me a bit.

I'd have to be thinking hard about carrying some manner of backup. Does MT allow for that? Here in ND things were amended ~3yrs ago to allow for carrying a handgun while bowhunting.

Damn! Way cool.

Great story. Great shot under pressure!

Pretty crazy story. I bet she wishes she didn't mess with you.

DANG !! I would have been shaking in my boots.... hoping only afterwards.

Big. Well fed, but obviously stalking you. Go figure...


That will be a hunt to remember!

Damn that must have been exciting..........congrats!

Best bowhunting story I've heard in a long time! Very cool!!

Cool under pressure. Great kill!!

Wow, what a cool story. Glad to hear you came out ok and found the cat.