Like to go During or After a Snow?

[BuckNAze]

Just a question on what some people prefer. I know probably most people would go right after it snows, but how many of you out there go out during a snow that is kind of tapering off and becoming light? I figured some people would like to go during a snow so they know they will probably catch the cat that they turn loose on or know its a pretty hot track. I know some people prefer to start a cold track but Im sure no one would pass up a hot track, so which do you prefer?

[Rockcreek]

Just after is ideal imo, maybe like 6-10 hours for travel if it was a hard storm. 5 days after (Like today for us) is a wild goose chase if you have any lions around. Tracks everywhere, some look old and aren't, then some look good and aren't. Goodtimes.

[Ike]

I've had to do it about any way you can think of BuckNaze, from the dirt to patchy snow, to during a storm or after that white, fluffy stuff is down. And I've found lions moving in each and every situation a guy can imagine, daylight hours, evening hours, before a storm, during a storm and after a storm. But when the sky has cleared and the snow is fresh, a fresh track is a thing of beauty. If the track moves out well then it's all fun and the time period that lion crossed doesn't matter--but a fresh snow and tracks in it is about as sure a thing as exists in lion hunting.

A buddy and I have speculated on lion movement and what causes it for many years, and that would be a great topic of discussion...........

ike

[Cal Bryant]

After a snow for sure and depending on your climate and how long the snow usually lasts in your area. right after a snow you are right if you find a track it is going to be smoking hot, but wait till the day after to to start cutting for tracks and you will have better odds of finding tracks. Basically you need to give them time to make a track before cutting for them.

[larry]

After a snow for sure and depending on your climate and how long the snow usually lasts in your area. right after a snow you are right if you find a track it is going to be smoking hot, but wait till the day after to to start cutting for tracks and you will have better odds of finding tracks. Basically you need to give them time to make a track before cutting for them.

Well said, never had much luck finding a lion moving during a storm, it happens, just not to me.

[Ike]

I had a buddy call me one morning on a tom that had crossed in the mud and frozen the night before. It hadn't snowed in weeks and all of the southern slopes were bare with only the north facing sporting old snow. To make things tougher, it had started to snow heavily and by the time I reached that track it had three or more inches of snow on it, but I found that track right where my buddy said in a narrow canyon leaving the road in old snow with several inches of fresh snow on top of it.

That tom had made several miles and laid up on the south face where his tracks were in the mud and covered with that fresh snow--three or more inches of the crap. But I started four of my best dogs on it and hoped for the best. The ledges alone in that country can and does stop the best of dogs, and why one makes it and others don't was always a mystery to me, but hours later (and snowing all the time) that blue Ryan dog had that tom in the tree.

My hunting buddy and I had walked into the jump where the lion had laid up, and Ike and Choco were hung up in the ledges looking for a way around; Ryan and LionHeart had jumped with that tom or found a way through. As we were walking into the tree I could hear my LionHeart dog chopping on the way into the tree and her famous locate war cry--but Ryan already had the meat in the tree before she got through the rocks.

They say every dog has it's day and that was one of those many days for the blue dog, and the tom lion ate lead...............

ike

[Mike Leonard]

A current GPS lion study has indicated that large tom lions many times pull out for a long walk right in the midst of a storm period. Not sure why but for those of you who have gone out the next morning after a snow storm and found those snowed in tracks there is probably some truth to it.


Many years ago and old hunting friend who has since past on and I were in our winter lion hunting camp. This was in some rugged canyon country and offered a lot of room to look for lions. I recall one evening we were tired out and a storm moved in on us as we tried to make out way back to the camp. We had the dogs loaded in the old truck and the trailer behind and we had chained the tires up just in case. He was driving and I was setting in the passenger seat looking thru the hypnotizing swirls of snow in the headlights. As we plowed along all of a sudden i noticed fresh tracks going down the road in front of us. I told Pete to stop and I got out and sure enough a lion was going right down the road in front of us and it had to be very fresh because the snow was coming down very hard. I got back in and we started out again and after a mile or so the tracks were still visable and as we rounded a bend there in the tracks stood a very live very snow covered lion. He didn't even bolt for the brush as we pulled up but rather turned sideways and gave us a look as his greenish yellow eyes lit up like huge orbs. from the headlights. The noise of the old truck and the clinking of the tire chains didn't seem to un-nerve him. After a few seconds he just walked off the side of the road into the oak and disappeared. Well with the dark and the storm we didn't turn out but made our way to camp and figured we would go catch him the next morning after the snow quit. Right? Another story but it didn't happen and he was long gone, so maybe he went on a long walk as well.

[liontracker]

I know one thing, and that is while I was growing up in Michigan, I learned that if I wanted to kill one of those Northern MI nocturnal swamp bucks, the BEST time to do it was during a snow storm. The falling snow on their ears and eye lashes put them at just enough of a dissadvantage, that I could slip up on them and put one in the freezer. Maybe a hungry old tom knows the same thing.

[red angus]

I know one thing, and that is while I was growing up in Michigan, I learned that if I wanted to kill one of those Northern MI nocturnal swamp bucks, the BEST time to do it was during a snow storm. The falling snow on their ears and eye lashes put them at just enough of a dissadvantage, that I could slip up on them and put one in the freezer. Maybe a hungry old tom knows the same thing.

I think that you hit the nail on the head!
When it storms,the deer hold up and it is easy for cats to get close.

[open ears]

Havent had the experience that some of the previous replys have had but when I start the day to hunt,storm or not i hunt.But i have noticed in my travels that if i stay in a good area where i know there are lions and bobs and travel the area over many times throughout the storm, i may cut a good track that will soon be covered up by the storm!Theres a good chance that he just crossed his one road for the day and only i know it! I have done this very thing and had a race when others are gazing out the living room window when the storm breaks,

[BlacktailStalker]

Here we always have better luck the day after the storm ends.
Always thought the cats (like any animal) can sense the barometric pressure change and they make a kill and lay up on it for a couple days.
You'd think during the storm all their senses would be dulled.
But with any hunting I am sure there is no rule or everybody would have it figured out.

[Eric Muff]

BIG TOMS TRAVELLING IN A SNOW STORM THAT IS THE QUESTION I THINK NEEDS MOST OF THE ATTENTION.
THESE BIG FELLAS GET BIG FROM GOOD MANAGEMENT NOT GOOD LUCK.
THEY ARE HUNTERS FIRST AND HUNTED SECOND.THE SAME SKILLS THEY USE AGAINST THEIR PREY BE IT DEER,MOOSE OR WHAT HAVE YOU THEY USE TO PROTECT THEMSELVES.
CATS CAN AND DO PURSUE THEIR NEXT MEAL BY SIGHT JUST AS WE MIGHT BY LOCATING GAME VISUALLY OR FOLLOWING A TRACK BY SIGHT,HUNTING IS HUNTING NO MATTER WHO IS THE HUNTER OR THE HUNTED.
A BIG OLE TOM MOVES IN A STORM BECAUSE HE HAS THE HUNTING SKILLS THAT HAVE PROVEN TO HIM OVER THE YEARS THAT LEAVING TRACKS IS NOT A GOOD THING.THOSE HOUNDS PRETTY MUCH ALWAYS COME FROM BEHIND TO TREE EM AND SO DO OTHER NATURAL PREDATORS LIKE WOLVES.
WHY DOES A CAT HIDE IN THE SHADOWS WHILE HUNTING?HE DOES THAT BECAUSE HE HAS LEARNED THAT HE IS LESS VISIBLE THAN IF HE WERE TO WALK OUT IN THE BRIGHT SUNSHINE ON AN OPEN HILLSIDE.
IF YOU WANT TO INCREASE YOUR ODDS OF FINDING THE BIG FELLA GET OUT THERE WHEN THE WEATHER IS AT IT'S WORST,THATS A FACT.