Lion tracks?

wyoutfitter · Post by **wyoutfitter** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 4:32 pm

Hey I'm a rookie to this houndin' for lions game, absoulutely love it though. I recently aquired a few pups and a 4 year old "finished" dog. I've been going out the last few weekends and I've been covering A LOT of miles on the snowmachine, but can't seem to find a lion track. Am I looking in the wrong places? I know the cats are here, should I be looking in the bottoms of draingages? Tops of ridges? I'm not sure why I can't find a track, there seems to be plenty of elk and deer around the places I've been going, anyway......thought someobdy might have some advice for me. By the way, if anybody up here in NW wyoming would be willing to let me tag along, that would be great! I'm just looking to have a good time and let my dogs run. Thanks guys!

snakerivercatman · Post by **snakerivercatman** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 5:37 pm

I live in NW Wy. Where do you live, we might be able to help each other.

wyoutfitter · Post by **wyoutfitter** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 6:29 pm

I'm in Alpine, how about you?

wwy · Post by **wwy** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:01 am

There are a couple of local outfitters/guides that have most of the lions killed out of your neck of the woods. I would guess that is a big part of your problem

snakerivercatman · Post by **snakerivercatman** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:57 pm

i'm in Alpine too, Josh, it's me, Jason R. All the lions I've caught this late in the season have been found hovering around the food sources. The lions that are used to being seen crossing the big drainages have more or less settled into the areas above the wintering game or as stated above, shot by everyone that thinks they need to kill what goes up instead of taking a picture. I do, occasionally find one or two hanging high in the deep snow living off what is left up high toughing it out, but for the most part, my best advice to you is the rule of thumb that most lions this time of year are found around a mile or so above the wintering herds.

Brent Sinclair · Post by **Brent Sinclair** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:00 pm

wwy wrote:There are a couple of local outfitters/guides that have most of the lions killed out of your neck of the woods. I would guess that is a big part of your problem

I thought the same a time or two when I had just started out and couldn't find a lion. Figured they had all been killed and few cats left in the area....
I just kept hunting maybe 2 weeks would go by and nothing....after I was about to give up I'd find one!!!!!
I hunted one area for the past 2 1/2 months this winter,driving through almost every day and never saw a track, there was little game sign and few other lion hunters as it is all private and no hunting...but it looked good and I had seen lion sign there over the years
I decided to take one more look the other day as we had access to capture but not to kill a lion and just before dark this caught my attention!!!
The following day this was waiting for us in the tree after a 40 minute chase.
We darted and collared him and it is going to be real interesting to see if he uses this area as part of his home range or if I got real lucky and just found him passing through.

Patients...it'll pay off!!

wyoutfitter · Post by **wyoutfitter** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:42 pm

Hey Jason!! I was wondering if that was you, I've been wanting to get ahold of you for a while, but I always hate inviting myself to tag along. I apreciate the advice, It all makes perfect sense, I guess it'll just take time to learn some new country. Have you been out lately? I'm getting a couple new areas added to my permit, just to have them for future use. Anyway... I hope all is well, we should do something sometime

snakerivercatman · Post by **snakerivercatman** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 1:12 pm

sent you a pm

snakerivercatman · Post by **snakerivercatman** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:18 pm

Brent Sinclair wrote:
wwy wrote:There are a couple of local outfitters/guides that have most of the lions killed out of your neck of the woods. I would guess that is a big part of your problem
I thought the same a time or two when I had just started out and couldn't find a lion. Figured they had all been killed and few cats left in the area....
I just kept hunting maybe 2 weeks would go by and nothing....after I was about to give up I'd find one!!!!!
I hunted one area for the past 2 1/2 months this winter,driving through almost every day and never saw a track, there was little game sign and few other lion hunters as it is all private and no hunting...but it looked good and I had seen lion sign there over the years
I decided to take one more look the other day as we had access to capture but not to kill a lion and just before dark this caught my attention!!!
The following day this was waiting for us in the tree after a 40 minute chase.
We darted and collared him and it is going to be real interesting to see if he uses this area as part of his home range or if I got real lucky and just found him passing through.

Patients...it'll pay off!!

Brent,
that's a cool story. I, too have been a part of collaring a lion or two. I wrote an article in Full Cry a few years ago about a monster tom that my buddy and I had chased for 4 days and finally caught up with and we gave him to the study group out of Jackson to do a re-collar. His battery on his existing collar had gone dead for 5 years and they had lost contact with him. He was one of the biggest toms I had ever caught, and a lot of times I was chastised for not killing him, but I just figured that he had eluded hunters for 12 years, and since I got to put my hands on him while he was alive, it just didn't make sense to whack em even though we caught him two more times after that. Ironically, the day he died he had killed a cow and calf elk within 100 yards of each other and never ate a bite of em. He wandered about a mile from the kills and crawled into the den where he was collared as a 40 pound kitten and curled up and passed away. Talk about coming full circle!

Brent Sinclair · Post by **Brent Sinclair** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:52 am

Snakerivercatman
My hats off to you for not killin that big ol lion,it's about the hunt not the kill.
I do not think less of a houndman or hunter that kills a collared lion ,it's a part of why we are out there... it's also a part of the data for the study, just return the $6.000.00 collar, but I feel if I am the one that collared it, it's off limits to me...just the way I feel..
We have a few good lions wearing collars and if I ever tree one with a paying client I have made it clear to them we walk , no matter if it's the last day of the hunt..
To know you had your hands on that big tom and get the info as to where the ol boy went to lay down for the last time and how old he was is pretty amazing...
Thats as much if not more of a memory and trophy as his hide and skull in your game room.
Thanks for your story, good huntin

JasonBB · Post by **JasonBB** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 12:53 am

Brent just wondering who your doing the collaring with/for? what study is it-i know there was some cats caught a few years ago in cypress area which was some interesting reading material

Lion tracks?

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