BigGameHoundsmen.com

All these coldnosed hounds that trail in the dirt. You guys must have to shoot 20 hounds for every one that makes it down there? In the snow belt most hounds can tree a lion. Certainly not all can be classified as coldnosed though. ????

Wow what a BIG cat you got. I cut a track last month ago and couldnt find him. ! I am jealous!




coonhunter

now that is one big a$$ cat!

Don't be jealous coonhound, it was just a road kill. Looks like you found what you wanted there a day or two late. Man I know, I hate that to!!

Don't be jealous coonhound, it was just a road kill. Looks like you found what you wanted there a day or two late. Man I know, I hate that to!!

My thoughts exactly.......its great to see a cougar reach its full potential, not around here Cougars are treed and taken when they are still juveniles even though the hunter has a permit that is good for 4 months.

One thing for sure though its apperantly that either there are not many houndsmen in that area or the famous dry ground hounds I have heard and read soo much about are not all what they are cracked up to be if that bugger got taken out by a car and not a houndsmen Can't wait to bust ole Coops chops on this one

That guy was a dandy! Where did this story come from, and where around Prescott was it hit? It seems there are a few details about this cat that are missing though. Does anyone know the original source of the pictures cause I can't find any mention of it in any papers in AZ.

Grzyadms4x4, I sent you a pm.

http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?Sectio ... leID=51766

Huge lion is subject of Internet speculation
By Joanna Dodder Nellans, The Daily Courier


+ click to enlarge
Courtesy
Jason Ellico poses with a large mountain lion that Marshall and Barbara Rader’s truck hit north of Williams about a month ago. Photos of the lion are popular on hunting blogs and local e-mails lately.


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Monday, January 21, 2008

A gigantic mountain lion that a truck hit in northern Arizona has become an Internet legend of sorts.

Photos of the lion have been quite a hit this month on several hunting blogs.

The blogs generally tell two different stories about the two photos of a man holding the lion, including a close-up of the huge paw.





Pat and P.C. Potter of Prescott received an e-mail containing one of the stories with the photos on Saturday, and forwarded it to The Daily Courier.

"It was just such an astounding picture, we thought maybe the paper could use it," Pat Potter said.

When Pat was talking to a friend at the YMCA Monday, the friend said she also happened to receive the same e-mail from someone else on Sunday.

"This lion was hit between Prescott and Ash Fork, Ariz., by a car," the e-mail to the Potters from a Sedona friend said. "Game and Fish had to come and put him down. He charged at the Fish and Game guy in the process. Look at his PAWS!"

That story is incorrect, but the other one in blogs appears to be true.

Marshall and Barbara Rader said that on a dark night in early December, they were driving north on Highway 64 about halfway between Williams and Valle when a huge cougar leapt in front of their Ford F350 truck.

Marshall - who hunts lions and displays mounted game animals at his Double Eagle Trading Co. in Valle - knew right off it was unusually large.

"His head was at the right front headlight, and his tail was in the other lane," Marshall said.

He had no chance to brake. The truck ran over the lion.

The couple pulled over and found the lion under a tree, alive but unable to get up. It still was able to put off a serious growl, but it clearly was beyond rehabilitation.

When they called 9-1-1 for help, the dispatcher said they couldn't put the animal down. They had to wait for a Department of Public Safety officer to arrive.

DPS officer Jason Ellico just happened to be a local Boy Scout leader who taught youngsters about hunting and processing game, so the Raders agreed to let him skin the lion as a demonstration for the boys.

It is Ellico who is posing with the lion in the photos all over the Internet, the Raders said.

Barbara Rader said people have told her the photos are making the Internet rounds, but she hasn't seen them.

"He's beautiful," she said. "He's absolutely huge.

"Fish and Game told us it's the biggest mountain lion they'd ever seen in this area."

While the Raders didn't weigh the catamount, it took three men to lift it and everyone who saw it estimated it weighed 200-220 pounds, Marshall Rader said. Its paw was about 8 inches across, and it was more than 7 feet long from head to tail. He could see its head over the hood of his truck.

"If he'd been killed with a gun, he'd probably would have been an SCI (Safari Club International) record," Rader said.

Once the mounting is done in about a year, Marshall hopes to display it at an SCI convention. SCI measures records by the size of the lion's head.

While The Courier couldn't reach the Game and Fish officer on the scene Monday, the paper e-mailed the photos to other Game and Fish officials.

"It is a very large lion," said Zen Mocarski, public information officer in the Kingman office. He and others who viewed the photos were impressed.

The Game and Fish Web site says male lions in Arizona generally weigh 80-150 pounds.

By the way, another blogger rumor that Game and Fish is going to display the cat in one of its offices is not true.

The only question in Marshall's mind is whether to display it at his store or his home.


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