Those of you new to lion hunting take advantage of the snow

[chancemarquette]

why wouldnt you put the dogs on it and then walk it you learn the same thing but your dogs learn also.

[George Streepy]

I agree it can be helpful and useful for the pups if you have them along on this study. the reason I reccomend going it alone some of the time is the simple matter of concentration. If you have dogs you are going to want to speed yourself and the dogs along, you will have the tendancy to cut the dogs in when they get exciterd and then you will most likely cut to them the shortest route possible to help them or to get in on the action. By being alone you will truely take the time to study the lion's travel techniques and marking areas, when he goes from travel gate to hunting or stalking patterns. You will note as you hit areas of higher elevation where you can actually see the track line why the lion heads out the way he does and the structures or vegitation he may choose. You may at times be very surprized how close the lion comes to dwellings or highways or maybe even sites with human acitivity and still goes undetected.

In Mikes last post he answered your question. I wouldn't have the patience to do it either.

[chancemarquette]

ya but idk about you but i dont need to concentrate to follow a fresh track in snow

[George Streepy]

I think the goal is to concentrate and remember. To try and realize what makes the lion turn and go where he went, the routes he took. Where he stopped and the way he moves. To try and learn as much as you can about a lions behavior. It makes sense to me. When following dogs the tracks are stomped out, you don't get the oppurtunity to really look and learn why the lion did what it did. Your usually going as fast as your feet will take you.

Like I said it makes sense to me. I just don't have to patience and I am far to lazy.

[horshur]

did you guys know that a mature Tom will catch a mouse and just eat the guts out of it??????

It is why I enjoy hunting a tight dog that hunts close......the dog and I can walk the track...

you just miss a whole lot the other way.

[Big Horn Posse]

ya but idk about you but i dont need to concentrate to follow a fresh track in snow

Be one with the peuuma Chance. If you can do this then you will be able to successfully harvest the magnum thomas you are after.

[Mike Leonard]

horshur,

Now that is great stuff and that is the little interesting things you pick up along the way as a lion detective. I have seen where a lion spent a lot of energy and time chasing a mouse, and then batting it around and then also just leaving it lay there without ever even biting it. Why? I don't know just having fun I guess. I have seen where big toms have taken a rock and rolled it around in the snow until they had a snow ball about the size of a volley ball. why I don't know but it sure was interesting. I took one of these snow balls home one time and becasue of the weight I thought I was really going to find somehting interesting iside when it melted. Nope just a rock. guess he was just having some fun. but if I had been plowing thru the brush hot on the heels of some bellowing dogs I probably wouldn't have even slowed down to give the snow ball a second glance.

[liontracker]

Exactly! This is a great tip and one I learned the value of many years ago, while trying to figure out trophy swamp bucks in Michigan when I was younger. An oldtimer told me that, "in order to more accurately predict where that buck, that is leaving those monster tracks is going, a person needs to know first, where he has been". But by trial and error, I figured out that you can learn more in one day backtracking an animal, than you could in one year following one. The reason is, that eventually you will jump the animal and from then on it's movements are not normal. But by backtracking, you can follow and learn, day after day on the same animal, until the tracks dissapear. One of the greatest attractions that hunting holds for me is woods lore, knowing the most that I possibly can about why my prey does what it does.

[logger57000]

I believe no truer words were ever said. I am 53 years old. I have hunted and trapped all my life. Awful lot of miles studying tracks and sign. I've always said that to consistently and I mean consistently catch an animal you must know that animal. Pay attention to that animal and he will teach you everything you need to know.