A glimpse at the past

[bearcrzy]

I was lucky enough to spend the past couple weeks dry ground lion hunting with Chris Todd. I really wanted to go on a dry ground lion hunt not just because it is such a challenge but to really watch the dogs work a super tuff track and follow the dogs to see where a lion goes and how he moves. I didn't realize I would learn so much about horses. I guess not being able to sit down is part of it but nobody told me. Lol. I really learn a lot and seen their is so much more than just getting a lion that is really the smallest part. The weather was super wet we did manage to get a few days of hunting in. We bayed a big Tom on a bluff but he managed to slip away seconds before I got their. If anyone thinks this is easy way to hunt try it then give me a shout. This was a first class hunt with first class people. I have read a ton of post on here and thought I would share my experience with Ya. I will attach a picture of the one that got away I guess the camera was a little faster than the gun.

[HighlandHounds]

Sounds like a nice few days out with the hounds, good write up too... and given that every hunt is different, you never stop learning, its one of the things that make following hounds much more than just a kill, in my opinion. Cheers!

[Chris Todd]

Brent thanks for the kind words. Me and Missy really enjoyed your company. And that old Tom out on the bluffs showed me that even after 40 years of lion hunting there is still more to learn. I am on the track of a female this morning and have been since daylight. She is hunting and jumped a herd of deer. The hounds are trying to work her track out hopefully she will kill a deer and we will catch up. Well Chester Molly Brownie and Misty are calling me on. So thanks again Brent and you know you are welcome to come back.

[Spencer]

I agree Brent, I just got home this morning from hunting with Chris for my second time. 5 days in November of 2011, and now 5 days last week. 90 miles in the saddle over the five days covering some of the most fantastic country. Fortunately I do a lot of riding so I didn't have the sore rear end issue. Thanks again Chris! Looking forward to coming out for another five days sometime in the future! Hopefully in the near future

[Chris Todd]

Thanks Rob. True southwest dry ground lion hunting. In other words free casting hounds on bare ground riding horses or mules. Is one of the toughest if not the toughest big game hunt there is. I haven't hunted every big game animal in the world but I have hunted alot of them. And none can compare. I guess that is the reason I can't get enough even almost 40-years later. I have treed lions for hunters the first day and I am sure they went home thinking this lion hunting is a piece of cake. But what they don't take into consideration is all of the scouting time that went into their hunt. Hope to see both of you guys on another hunt real soon.

[houndogger]

Something I'd like to do before I die. Just to watch the dogs from horse or mule. To thick on the coast to hunt like that here.

[Mike Leonard]

Brent,

Glad you had a good time I knew you would. I know where my buddy Chris is coming from still can't get enough of that good dog work after 40+ plus years of it. I hope all those who follow hounds will get the opportunity to some day set in the saddle and watch a dedicated pack of bare ground hounds pounding on an old track, it just does something to you and maybe it takes you back to a time when things seemed simpler and a person wasn't so caught up in watching the clock.
I sat in the saddle this weekend and was as thrilled as ever to see the sunlight just starting to creep over the eastern horizan with a kind of red glow, and hear the sound of the horses hooves on the forest floor and the popping of the hounds noses as they cast about smelling each flat rock they come across or up on the oak brush as they pass thru. A mile ot two down the trail and suddenly the complexion of the hunt changes again as you watch that old red female hound with her stub tail just winding and you know she smells cat. The suddenly she throws her head back and roars to the sky and the other hounds rush to her. you leap off and run in and there among the many hound tracks you see that deep ever familiar flat pug mark of a lion heading north. This way! to the dogs and you swing back into the saddle and then it happens---no other thoughts but this and time stands still.

[Rlillard]

Mr. Leonard and Mr. todd please keep writing! The way you both write makes me, and iam sure other feel as if we were there. This is coming from a rookie that dreams of the day that my buddy and I can catch cats in the dirt in az. Hats off again to those who do. SIMPLY AMAZING....

[Chris Todd]

I was going to start a new topic but decided that a glimpse at the past fit this subject real well. With lion hunting just around the corner I was thinking , how many of todays hunters think they could hang with the greats of the past. No trail cameras,no roads to ride their four wheelers on. For that matter no four wheelers. No snowmobile's . When you went to a new area to hunt you depended on your hounds and hard work to catch a lion. How many of todays hunters would want to follow Dale Lee day in and day out on the back of a horse 20to25 miles a day. And maybe at the end of 2-weeks of this finally get on a good lion track. No cell phone so the local rancher could give you a call if he found a fresh kill. When you lost a hound you had to hope he had enough brains to find his way back to camp. Because there were no tracking collars. So the next time you hear somebody talking big about some lion they caught. And thinking they are the greatest thing since Dale Lee. Ask them this simple question. Do you really think you could hang with the greats.

[mark]

Ya Chris, i think about the old days a lot even though some think i lived them lol. I started hunting hounds before telemetry, and the snow mobiles we had were almost worse than snow shoeing. Days of driving and listening for dogs that didn't show up at the tree or just got out ran. Waiting by the phone for a call telling you they had a dog with your phone number on their collar.
I have never done a hunt like you guys do down in that country but would love to someday and will try my hardest before i cant physically do it.

Now for another hunt that doesn't get the publicity that the SW lion hunts get. My biggest mentor as a hound hunter hunted lions and bears on foot in the Cascade Mountains of western Oregon in the big old growth timber before any roads and very few trails. They drove to the end of the road and unloaded the dogs and everything they could pack on their backs to survive for 1-2 weeks or however long they figured to be out. All they had was a compass and their woods lore to get them to their chosen hunting spot (which i have figured out was 40 miles as the crow flys) When they were hunting bear in the spring would require them to go over a high mountain pass with deep snow to reach the valley the bears came out early in. I wish i could of been with them and lived even one of the many stories i have been told.
Not many hunters today would hang with the hunters of the past day in and day out year after year, but i would sure like the freedom and time to try!

[Chris Todd]

Mark I have had times in my life that I couldn't afford to feed a horse. That I hunted on foot. And did some of the pack in trips with my camp on my back. I gotta say that is a tough way to hunt lion. When I read some of the stories of lion hunters from the past. All I can think is they had to be some tough son of a guns. But I am like you I would have loved the chance to try and hang with some of those hunters.

[ALEX]

I'm inclined to believe that if the legendary houndsmen of the past readily had access to all the conveniences and technology that aid us in our hunts today, they would have embraced it in a heartbeat. Everything from the way we travel through hunting territory on blm/forest service roads, our 4x4 vehicles, the equipment to correct and track our dogs, trail cameras for scouting game, GPS, and advanced firearms/ammunition all came to be because the outdoors men of those eras had to do without it and it was them who pushed for these advances. To be successful with hound hunting back then, they had no choice but to be tough and operate with very little. They probably didn't think twice about what assets they didn't have for a long time, it's just the way things were.

[Chris Todd]

Alot of what you say is true Alex. I started lion hunting when there was no GPS or Telemetry. And if nothing else for the sake of the hounds I think a guy is crazy to hunt hounds without it. But when do you say technology has gone to far. And the challenge is no longer there. You have guys that really don't even hunt anymore. They sit at home and wait for their trail camera to send them a picture on their phone. Then go out and turn loose on a fresh lion track. But then the question was if hunters of today could hang with the greats. There is no doubt that technology has taken away from the hunt. Whether or not the old timers would have embraced these changes I don't know that is another question.

[Big N' Blue]

Thanks guys for awakening many fine memories of something I truly love and may never be able to do again!! Been 5 long years since I have been in the saddle and I do miss it so!

[Cowboyvon]

I have used the trail cameras and during the summer heat I've been known to drag a road with my buggy... I've pulled all my trail cameras and unless I'm exercising the hounds I'm always on a mule or on foot now days... I like to think like Henry McEntire "take good hounds in good lion country and make circles" I'm pretty fortunate because I can hunt right out my back door .. but reading the stories about the old timers and what they had to go through.. trying to stay with the hounds or riding up on top of mountain just to listen to see if they could locate them.. Orville Fletcher was telling me about hunting jags down in S America.. I got all excited and told him man I would like to of tried that.. he just looked at me and said "your not tough enough" lol