How far will a lion travel in one night.

Talk about Cougar Hunting with Dogs
justahunter
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Re: How far will a lion travel in one night.

Postby justahunter » Fri Oct 21, 2016 1:21 pm

I have had similar events happen with the lion jumping at me . usually it's the desert cats . I have had a lot more bad issues with females than toms . two winters ago we got on a nasty female that when I got to the tree she had my old kamphouse bitch dead hanging out of her mouth up in the Tree . that lion was nasty mean luckily my dog was revived when the lion dropped her 12 feet . hitting the ground on her side must have helped along with me pumping on her chest until she started breathing again . I have had eyeballs popped out of dogs by big toms, gutted dogs with lungs exposed and many more things and luckily have not had a dog killed by a lion and hope I never do. The funny thing is that all the worste lion I have been on were In country that they have not been pressured much if any like nevada on huge ranches or here in Idaho on big ranches . when I hunt those high pressure areas I get a lot of lions that constantly bail or just stay high in a tree and won't come out for nothing . maybe the wolves have changed the way those lion are?
Hunt hard cull hard !
Mike Leonard
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Re: How far will a lion travel in one night.

Postby Mike Leonard » Fri Oct 21, 2016 3:26 pm

Kyle, I bet the wolves do change the game. Lucky so far here we get a scattered single wolf occasionally that drift thru but none have set up camp yet that I am aware of.
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Re: How far will a lion travel in one night.

Postby duck duck goose » Fri Oct 21, 2016 3:27 pm

That's a wild story Mike, thanks for sharing it. I'm glad to hear everything worked out in the end.
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Re: How far will a lion travel in one night.

Postby perk » Sat Oct 22, 2016 9:39 pm

great story mike!
Tales like that make the website worthwhile!
'If the hounds dont catch him on top, It doesnt count'
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Re: How far will a lion travel in one night.

Postby Chris Todd » Sun Nov 06, 2016 7:47 pm

Post Script to how far will a lion travel in one night.
I knew I would get another chance at the Tom I was trailing in my original post. It was just a matter of time. Molly sounded off good and early in the morning. It started out fast and stayed a fast race for about 4-hours. But with no water and the temperature getting up to about 80 the hounds started to slow down. And with each lose it took them that much longer to straighten out the track. But the hounds continued on. At about noon I heard the hounds jump. They were headed right at me. And in just a minute I see the Tom running under a bluff about 75-yards from me. The hounds came by not a minute behind him. I thought we had him. But he wasn't done yet. The lion went through a high saddle. Down the other side. Went down a big deep canyon. Then turned came back through the same saddle. Then back into the bluffs the hounds had jumped him out of. Well by this time most of the hounds were about to faint. I reluctantly gave up knowing the hounds were just to hot.
Next day I had to make a guess as to where I thought this lion would go. And see if I could change my luck. There are two long ridges leading to the north from this line of bluffs. And I figured he would hit one of those two ridges and leave the country.
So the next morning I was out early and going to cross those two ridges. I figured this to be as good a guess as any. I hadn't made it to the first ridge. And out probably 100-yards I hear Scout bellow like a grizzly bear . And the race was on again. The hounds with me never hesitated. They knew Scout and knew he had struck a lion. I had Scouts half sister with me Little Brownie. She can move a night old lion track on dry ground. Like no hound I have seen other than her and Scouts dad. My original old Scout. Brownie had crossed over a mountain to the north of me about a mile. And was really moving. The rest of the hounds were about 100-yards behind her and really raising heck. I topped the mountain on my horse quite a ways behind the hounds. They had went off the other side into a deep canyon and headed down it. I hurried my horse off. When I got to the bottom they were headed back up the side we had just come off of. So back up the mountain I started. The hounds were most of the way back up. I looked in a tree just above them near the top of the mountain . And there sat our tom. I won't go into detail of how I am being paid to take lions out of this area. But I will say that this tom had brought me a great challenge. And I hated to be the one to take him off the mountain. But like I say that is what I am being paid to do.
Now the last four days I have been trying to catch up to another big tom. That doesn't ever seem to stop for a rest. And so it goes.
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Re: How far will a lion travel in one night.

Postby Uncle Dave » Mon Nov 07, 2016 1:46 am

Great story Chris. So far in my limited experience my longest was more than 10 miles. Last year I cut a big Tom track in the snow and it looked fairly old to me (frozen). One of my dogs somehow opened up on it so I figured I'd walk it out with them to get some experience. Well many many hours later of slow working we had made it about 10 miles in a big loop and not once had that Tom stopped to lay up. The tracks we were on at dusk looked about the same condition as the ones we started on so I can only guess that he had gone much further. Unfortunately work beckoned the next day and we couldn't try it again to see where it ended up.

Reading stories of trailing cats over great distances is inspiring but also making my legs sore! If my dogs ever get to the solid long trailing level like some of you guys, I'm going to need a new pair of boots to keep up ( or maybe just get a mule).
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Re: How far will a lion travel in one night.

Postby 406hound » Wed Nov 16, 2016 5:04 pm

How long is a rope.....
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Re: How far will a lion travel in one night.

Postby Dan V » Fri Nov 18, 2016 5:43 am

I know I've trailed some all day and I don't think I was any closer at the end of the day than I was at the beginning!

A thought I've had on Toms:
I've heard the biologist believe the biggest motivator for a Tom is reproduction (spreading their genes and measuring their prowess with other males). Now I'm not saying Toms don't eat, but how many of the toms that you kill have empty stomachs? I think a lot of these toms have reproduction on their mind when they are on these big walkabouts, all strung out, making tracks for us to follow.
Mike Leonard
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Re: How far will a lion travel in one night.

Postby Mike Leonard » Fri Nov 18, 2016 6:59 pm

Dan,
I have done the same thing and those toms with traveling on their minds and an empty stomach are at times nearly impossible to catch up with. A long track is one thing but tracking an up and moving tom especially when he is in that swinging trot not even award of a hound on his trail he will leave you in the dust. He will trot across a mesa top drop off at times 15-20 feet bail offs and hit the bottom rung of the ladder and drop right back into that trot and cross the bottom and then just start leaping up thru a maize of rocks hit another top and repeat the process. He has someplace to go and he feels like he is going to be late to the dance.

I trailed into a place one time where two toms had run into each other and really had a big to do. the ground and brush was all tore up around there and there was hair some blood on the ground and rocks. Well the hounds didn't know what to do they blew up ran around came back and circled and came back and there was a lot of tracks on that dance floor, and I had to tie old Gus up and wander around there scratching my chin trying to figure it out. From the size of the track the boys were pretty evenly matched but as they say you never know because it is not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog that matters.
Finally I found where one of the toms had hit a small sand wash and went down it no blood or anything with his tracks. For the life of me I could not find where the other lion went, and later I got to thinking maybe he was still there someplace maybe in a tree but the hounds didn't find anything and they were acting as puzzled as I was.
Well I got my horse and figured I would try to trail up the one that hit the sand wash. I got the dogs with me and we rode down the sand wash for about 400 yards, and of course not a dog made a sound cuz that scent doesn't hold any time in that wash sand. We found where he left the wash to the right and was heading northwest. About 100 yards or so out from the wash the old Ben picked it up and went to work but it wasn't fast and I figured he had a pretty good start on me. Well we made a couple of miles in about 2 hours and danged if he didn't come right out on a good hard road that was being traveled a lot by some oilfield trucks. Well here there was no scent at all, so I kicked my horse into a lope and just went up it looking off on both sides to see if I could find where he left it. Well I went a good long ways maybe close to a mile and right before a cattleguard I saw where he left the road and he was in a trot heading out across some big sagebrush country that had some big rims on the other side of the basin about 4-5 miles. I decided I would go back where I started load the horse and dogs and drive around there and see if I could pick him up on the next road that ran parallel to those bluffs. this I did but it took a good while to get over there and as I was driving down that road hanging out the window looking I was surprised to look down and see what looked like the same trotting lion track going up the road the way I was going. I evidently missed it where he came up on the road. Well I followed it up there a ways, and saw where he left the road going left or pretty much west at that place. I stopped and got my horse and dogs back out and was just about ready to leave out on it when a pickup truck coming back my way stopped and a fella got out. He said you hunting lions? I said yes I am. He said well I got a story for you. He told me how he had been out there pretty late the evening before working on a piece of equipment, and when he got done and was leaving a site he saw a big lion rush a little bunch of mule deer. He said the lion looked bigger than the deer and he just took one deer down like it was nothing. He said as he drove closer with his truck the lion was standing there with the doe's neck in his mouth , and he dropped her and just sort of trotted into the brush. He said he wanted to go look at the deer but was a little bit afraid to do so not having a weapon of any kind. He returned to the site first thing this morning and where the deer had been he saw a drag mark and some hair where the lion had come back and carried it off. He said if I wanted to he could lead me right to the place. I said might as well sounds better than what I have here. So I loaded up and followed him about 4 miles to the site.

Sure enough big as day there was the drag marks fresh and the big old splayed out toes of a big lion carrying weight. He wanted to stay and go with me but said he couldn't because he was on the clock but if he got done early he would come back and check on me. Well I unloaded and road to the drag mark and the dogs picked it right up but instead of just bellowing like they would one a lion track they yipped here and there and just sort of trotted down it looking back at me. I guess the deer smell mingled in there had them a little worried I might be setting them up. Anyway we went about 150 yards and found the doe laying in a shady spot opened up but not much ate off her and she was not in the least bit covered. It appeared that the lion had just ate her lungs, heart and maybe some of the liver and then just left her.
As I was looking her over the old dogs already had lined out and were trailing away from the spot heading into the bluffs. To shorten this story I will say after some work we ended up jumping him and treeing him but it wasn't easy, nothing like jumping a full lion off a kill this one had plenty of go still in him. I just think he caught a little fuel on the way to keep him going and we just got lucky and caught him taking a little siesta after eating.

When I got up there and looked at this caught he was a mess! He was cut up and scratched up and looked like he had been thru a salad shooter.

So I got to thinking if that was the same lion and I am nearly 100% sure it was he had been in that fight and whether he won or lost or maybe it was a draw he left out of there and had to have traveled as the crow flies a good 15 miles some pretty rough but some roads and that was the day before. And then got him a deer had a snack and was getting a bit of rest, but I will say he was a good long way from that dead deer when we finally jumped him so I don't think he had any plan to come back. I just got lucky that guy tipped me off or most likely it would have just been another story about the one that got away.
MIKE LEONARD
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justahunter
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Re: How far will a lion travel in one night.

Postby justahunter » Sat Nov 19, 2016 9:28 am

Call bs but have turned loose on a set of 8 different tracks following and feeding off of a heard of mustangs . spot lighted all of them one night all in a cluster of rimrocks . only caught the big Tom the first night . slowly weeded out the others over a few days with the clients . I had a blast that week tagging along . they Made a killing out of it . lol . don't know why they were tight like that but maybe because That was the only food in the country at that time ?
Hunt hard cull hard !

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