Average length of a jumped lion chase?

[not color blind]

I was just wondering what you lion hunters would say the average distance of a jumped lion chase is? Snow and dry ground.

[John Weston]

In the Timber not very far. 1/4 of a mile would be a long jump. In the deep snow it would be a lot shorter, 500 yards would be a long jump.

[Mike Leonard]

The sure can vary but usually not very far in timber or as was said before deep snow. What will really get you setting on the edge of your seat is jumping a spoiled lion in the bluffs and females seem to be the worst. I had seen it go on and on and you go from a jump back to slow trailing again and work and work and then blow them out of another pocket and who knows it could happen all over again. They get pretty savvy when they get away a few times and pull some stuff on the dogs.Females leave less scent as a rule and that makes it tuff as well. I am genraly talking about bare ground or semi-bare froze or blown out stuff. Usually in good snow if the dogs are not just worn plumb out they will either get to it or get above or below it and get it stalled.Some of these deals will remind you of bobcat hunting a lot although they generally don't circle as much once jumped.

I have seen some toms that got pretty smart too and they would jump and do the double backs and run back over their own trails and cause regular confusion at times. I guess the ground and conditions and the stuff they are running in may have a lot to do with it.

Occasionaly a lion will lay tight and if in good timber they may just scoot right up a tree and not much jump to it. Subs are famous for this, and at times I think some have actually been laying up in the tree or playing up there and they just find the dogs looking up at them.


A wicked old spoiled female bluff running lion and she will show you pretty quick if you got some rock dogs or not. LOL!

[poser]

Mike agree with you on those savvy females. We have one we call the "track star" Not hard to catch if she is in the right place, but she doesn't like to stay in a tree and if she gets in her pile of rocks and ledges called the "devils gate" you better have your A-team on her in a hurry. Like you said u'd think she was a bobcat at times. Been humbled by her a few times.....

[lepcur]

Yea they learn where they can get away from the dogs at, when i lived in Mt. I had a old tom give the dogs the slip several times in a set of bluffs behind the house, i know it was the same one cause he was missing a toe on his front right foot and if ya got on him far enough away ya could get him jumped and treed before he got here, but generaly a jumped lion won't go 1/4mi. Ya ever see their lungs, very small for a good sized animal.

Here's the spot I'm talking about. Mike

[Conejos]

I chased a huge tom about six times over a 3 year period in the same little area. Everytime the dogs would jump him he would dissapear. Could never figure out how he was gettin away till I finally saw what he was doing. He would get on some big cliffs that ran maybe a mile long. When the dogs would jump him he would take off running and leap off the cliff landing in one of the huge ponderosas. If the dogs located him they would try to circle around and get off the cliff to the bottom of the tree. He would just sit there and wait till they went all the way around and then he would jump back to the cliff and do it all over again. The snow was always deep here and it didn't take much of this stuff to wear out the dogs. When I finally saw him doing this I just went and shot him while the dogs were trying to get down the cliff. He was an old big lion and he taught me just how smart and athletic lions can be.

[sheimer]

Lepcur - that looks just like where we chase lions and bobcats. I can't say that my dogs catch many, but my friends dogs sure can put them up in that country. We don't have many cats that are as smart as the ones that you are speaking of, but there are a couple still running around up there! It can make for a long hike in short order can't it!!
None of the jumps are too long, but the trail to the jump can get a little long on some days. I think the length of the trail(tired and/or sore feet) determines the length of the jump. The pressure that the dogs can apply has a lot to do with how soon the cats climb.

Scott

[Dan V]

My dogs got after a lion last year that redifined for me what a jumped lion can and will do. Cold trailed from sunrise and jumped around noon. The dogs stopped the lion several times in some bad cliffs and canyons. I found tracks where they were bayed up several times. I was never able to get right to them so I could visit with the lion. I was able to pull 2 of the dogs off the track right at dark and 2 dogs spent the night out there.

This lion made me realize how little I knew about how long a jumped lion can and will keep going.
DV


the one that got away

[lepcur]

Hey Scott, I see you're from s.c. Mt. it might be the same country, it was about 13miles east of Butte between the highways there. Do ya know a guy named Frank from Butte? Mike

[sheimer]

Lepcur- nope, I'm from a little further south. I hunt from Red Lodge to Big Timber along the Beartooth front.

Nope, don't know Frank from Butt (e)

Scott