safe lion hunting alone...

[southwestwalkers]

Just figured I would get a idea about how many of you don't mind hunting the big cats alone. I have hunted with other folks and by myself I really don't mind either way.
I will say it's a safer with a partner but I don't find it a necessity every time.

I always tell folks where I'm hunting and when I expect to be back. I also take my compass and GPS and plenty of water,food extra gas and all the other usual gear. I know how to camp in bear country.

I have talked to a few folks who don't like the tall timbers when hunting by themselfs or in bear country. Just wanted to see what the thinking is..

thanks, Robb

[Conejos]

I like to hunt alone only because its hard to find a partner who likes to hunt like I do. Too many guys just want to cruise and drink. Im sure my wife would sleep better if I didn't go alone but thats usually the way it is.

[BlacktailStalker]

I never give a time when I'll be home because it never happens if I do say when.
I tried it before but the days you say you wont be long ends up with ledged dogs and the days you say I'll be gone all day are the days with no tracks/strikes.
If I'm not back by midnight... just wait longer

[houndnem]

I agree with the stalker. I don't think anybody would look for me till I had been gone atleast 5 days. Half the time I head out with intentions of going on one mountain and end up hunting 100 miles away from there so telling somone where I am going is out. this past season I spent the night in the woods by myself quite a few times. not by choice, but just pushed it to hard and got in a pickle and couldn't make it out. I guess if I lived in grizz and wolf areas It might be different. I go by myself 50 % of the time, but I think it is lots funner goin with a whole bunch of people.

[southwestwalkers]

Thanks for the replies folks!

[TomJr]

I have not hunted with anyone else that had dogs, have taken a few folks along to kill a lion but thats it. I do most of my hunting within 5-6 miles of my house so am never too far away and my dogs know thier way home if they get sperated. Most people don't want to walk into the places where those lions go... maybe they do it once but never again

Its not the animals that one should be concerned about but rather the terrain, if you fall and break a leg in a remote area its going to be a while, if ever before you can get help. Another thing I have some concerns about in my area is the smuggler traffic, but I am always armed and usualy see them well before they see me so can avoid them.

Cell phones work good in my area as long as I can get up on a ridge-line to get the signal out so thats a big plus. If I was to go into even more remote areas I would definatly like to have someone along... Biggest thing about being safe while hunting alone is not to take unnessisary risks, go around that cliff rather than climbing over it for example.

[Benny G]

I have hunted alone probably 95% of the time. I always tell my wife the general area where I will be, and who to contact if she should need to reach me. I have found it hard to find anyone else that can just take off & go hunting. Most guys are tied down to a real job, or don't have family set ups that will alow them to go without some long range planning. My work doesn't always let me plan very far ahead.

[Mike Leonard]

I always hunt by myself or with somebody!

No really I do hunt a lot by myself, and I hunt really rough country and horseback and I just go do it. I don't tell my wife where I go because she wouldn't know anyway, I call my sone who lives about 1000 miles away and tell him where I am and he has a photogrraphic memory and he can guide anybody to the exact place I am .

But like I say if I die out there with a big old horse flipped over on me in a dark canyon. Just roll some boulders over me and go on and find my dogs cuz they are most likley treed by now. LOL!

Me an this old wood savage get out in a bad blizzard one night and we are lost in the middle of nowhere still following the sounds of the dogs way out there, No light, no good clothes and no real hope. Well My oldest son was at work but I had told him generally where we were going. Well Charlie and I are down to our last ounce of try and we are wadded up on a rock chilled to the bone no light, no fire and not happy. He lived his whole life pretty much like a Ben Lilly and never cared much but that night he was even a bit worried. I was sure worried about my dogs and figured that we would be froze solid when they found us. Well along about midnight a see a light coming and in a bit it get brighter and then I see headlights. Before long Scott pulls up and he has all the hounds in the back of his company truck. Figured I would find you down here on the La Jolla, get in and warm up. Charlie just looked at me and said : Reckon he is a keeper? YEP!

[Ike]

...

[Brent Sinclair]

I always hunt by myself or with somebody!

No really I do hunt a lot by myself, and I hunt really rough country and horseback and I just go do it. I don't tell my wife where I go because she wouldn't know anyway, I call my sone who lives about 1000 miles away and tell him where I am and he has a photogrraphic memory and he can guide anybody to the exact place I am .

But like I say if I die out there with a big old horse flipped over on me in a dark canyon. Just roll some boulders over me and go on and find my dogs cuz they are most likley treed by now. LOL!

Me an this old wood savage get out in a bad blizzard one night and we are lost in the middle of nowhere still following the sounds of the dogs way out there, No light, no good clothes and no real hope. Well My oldest son was at work but I had told him generally where we were going. Well Charlie and I are down to our last ounce of try and we are wadded up on a rock chilled to the bone no light, no fire and not happy. He lived his whole life pretty much like a Ben Lilly and never cared much but that night he was even a bit worried. I was sure worried about my dogs and figured that we would be froze solid when they found us. Well along about midnight a see a light coming and in a bit it get brighter and then I see headlights. Before long Scott pulls up and he has all the hounds in the back of his company truck. Figured I would find you down here on the La Jolla, get in and warm up. Charlie just looked at me and said : Reckon he is a keeper? YEP!

I expect a book one day Mike ....need somethin to read when I can't run after the hounds no more, hope that's a while off though...

My son took off after a lion this past winter alone...climbed into sheep country after the hounds and it was late in the day...to make a long story short on his way up he fell through about 3 feet of crusted snow onto a grizzly denned up on the side of the crest under an overhang...he said he felt the bear move under him while he was wallowing around trying to get out of the hole...
He got the lion but it was 2am before he was on is way off the mountain with 2 hounds hoping they would let him know where the bear was if he happened to bump into it...he saw where the tracks came out of the hole but never saw the bear...I went back with him in the morning to get the lion that had died after he had left tree...his arrows for his recureve were all broke from the climb in the heavy deadfall he was in and he taped two of them together to shoot at the lion but they came apart from the force of the bow, the lion was up 40' in a big spruce and he was out of arrows and legal light so he sat there until he was so cold he had to leave...
It could have been a bad deal with the bear but likely it was just to groggy to do much....The arrows being broke when he shot them is a different story, alone and no one knowing where you are with one of those through your arm!!!!. He learned a bit and has a great story to tell of his first lion...

[Mike Leonard]

Brother Brent, what a wonderful and lively story!

You recurve shooters could use a few lessons from an old longbow man who was first inspired by Howard Hill himself in person.

No problem we have plenty of time. Right!!! Wink!

Well boys and girls it's dang near summer again: time for lemonaide and catfishing and hammocks in the sun. Well for some I guess it sounds quaint and romantic, but we just quick curry saddle and trot em out. Whistt! come on dogs! Go look for em! July is the month we have more lions problem calls than any other month and it is right around the corner.l


HAPPY TRAILS!

[M Evertsen]

I hunted 2 days last fall/winter with someone. The other gazillion days, I hunted by myself.

There are two people I know for a fact will come looking for me.

Last year I told someone where I was going, and when I expected to be back. I ended up spending the night underneath a juniper tree, wishing that person would show up, but he never did. I talked to him when I got back in, and he thought I had gone to town when I hadn't made it back that night.

One time a good friend called me several times on my home phone worried about where I was. He was about to come looking for me, when I got home and got the message. My cell phone was acting up, so I never got the message there.

My dad will also come looking for me, no matter what. Problem is, he knows that I know how to survive, and it will be day 3 or 4 before he starts looking, lol.

One thing I do have, and like having, is SPOT. I can send the ok message and let my dad, and two other friends know I am ok. I can't think of a time it has failed yet, and I hope I will never have to push the 911 button.

I love hunting by myself. No one to argue with, no one to get home on time, and I can better fabricate the lies when I do get home

Later,

Marcial

[Big Mike]

Hunt by myself alot. try to ride my gentle stock when im hunting in wilderness alone.
Still end up going places I shouldnt go, and cussing myself for going there. Walking around on frozen bluffs looking for a lion in a crack sure gets the pucker factor up, but I keep doing it. Someday I will learn!

Cant remember what book I read it in but the author said "Lions aren't dangerous but the country you hunt them in sure is". I would have to agree with that

[razorrb]

I hunt alone also. Although I like to hunt with the cowboy folk, its usually by myself or with my daughter in the pack. I have been on some hunts where an old lion hunter and I were looking like flag poles taped to a horse hunting lions and I have looked like the the man that was dead on jerimiah johnson movie ya know when Robert Redford grabs that 50 cal out of his hands yeah that one. The wind blows so hard and cold in Wyoming in the winter it sucks but its worth it sometimes. I just came to the realization that I don't have near the stories Mike Leonard has!

[Dale T]

1/4 of the time I hunt the wife go's with me, she came from a hound hunting family and knows better not to ask me "when will I be home," and it never fails when you want to get home early you run late and when you have all day you can't find a track to save your life!