Running lions with one dog????

[twist]

I'm pretty sure he is talking with no dogs. Andy

[Mike Leonard]

Andy I agree it was talking about no dog at all. As we who have hunted lion a long time know it's all about conditions and age of the track, and at times even in the best snow conditions with a fairly fresh track to begin with it would be folly to try to walk it down. Terrible canyons and bluffs that lions like at times to go thru make it very slow and treacherous for humans, and also there is the factor of the unknown for the lion may decide to not lay up anywhere near and just leave the country. When a grown lion decides to head for other parts and drops into a long trot you are going to be left in the dust regardless of how fast and fit you may be. But if you have a lion in a killing area or off a kill it may be quite easy to follow him around using the wind and glasses and get a shot at him laying up. I have an old Buckaroo friend of mine from the Elko , Nevada area who spent many lonely winters in a cow camp. A lot of deer migrated into his area and with them came the lions. He had a lot of time on his hands some days so he would find a fresh kill, get the wind right and tie his horse off and slip up their and watch it with his binoculars and his trusty 30-30. He got quite a few lions in this manner and said that he got pretty good and spotting the lion before it ever moved to get up and go back to its kill. Just watch the likely lay up spots and be very patient and before long he would see an ear twitch or a tail, and he would have his cat.

I use to know a gang of hunters who got a lot of lions by doing what was mentioned secondly in this post. They would head out on a fresh snow with a number of trucks and when a fresh lion track was found they would get on the CB's and gather and one or two of the tougher guys would take a dog on a leash and just head off down the track with a radio. They seldom turned their dogs lose until they were jumped or almost jumped and the dogs were pulling their arms off. I never really considered it my kind of lion hunting but to each his own and they got all their friends a lion rug.

I took it on as a challenge one day after a friend of mine had called and said while coming in from work the evening before he had seen a lion cross the highway at a certain mile marker. there was about 4" of fresh snow on the ground and I knew the country well. I got his line of travel and ascertained it was a young tom. I then used my knowledge of the roads and trails in the area to cut him down with my truck. When I finally hit a header he had not come out of I trailed him to a small boulder pile, sat down and pitched some rocks in there. It took a few minutes but finally he poked his head out and looked around and it would have been simple to pop him with a 22 at 40 feet. I didn't want him but I sure got a kick out of it when I said< HELLO LION! He left out of their in a hurry with that tails high over his back. LOL! Just got lucky on that one but like I said under certain conditions it can be done.

[J.T.]

I dont post much anymore but I used to own a big walker male around 75lbs that was in serious shape. Looked like he ate gunpowder and steroids. Any way I walked into a tree that had around a 130lb female in the tree. She was startled and ran to the lowest branch and swung with one paw and hooked that big male by the jaw and picked him up by his head and started chewing on him while his body was just hanging there. He could not fight back and If that would have happened before I got to the tree he would have been dead. I had 2 hounds and a border collie at the tree. The border collie freaked out and ran off. I caught him on the road heading home about 5 miles away. The other hound couldnt help him. She let go when I tried to hit her with a stick. I tied one dog back and she jumped. I was able to yell the walker off her and she ran off. Quickly learned some extra respect for a lion. I prefer at least 3 decent dogs or two finished and one year old pup that wants to hunt. On the other hand I have a fast young dog that makes trees before the rest and sometimes it is several minutes before back up arrives. I believe its just a matter of time before he gets killed as he gets wrecked almost every time. Sometimes bear bred dogs are not a great idea for a lion in the rocks or on the ground.