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I was wanting to hear some stories on some of your guys first lion hunts. Here is my first lion I was 11 or 12. It was long before the quota systems and we hunted with the attitude if it climbs it dies. An attitude no longer used in my hunting but I dont regret the lions that hit the dirt or the lessons I learned from hunting and life in those early years.
This lion was a small lion that was traveling with her litter mate and we had trailed the two the day before with out ever getting them jumped. So the next day we headed back up the mountain having a good idea on where these lions would be. We hit the track early and got the dogs started on the track and off we went. The two lions were makin tracks and covering country. The dogs were locked on and were pullin way ahead of me and my dad. I was learning alot with each step. Figuring out the difference between dog tracks and lion. Seeing how lions traveled and following there tracks to what ever caught there eye in hopes of a meal.
Hours of trudging along had us way behind the dogs out of hearing and me thinking we were waisting our time. So me being smarter than anyone, decided to leave the track and climb a ridge to see if I could hear the dogs. Well this got me in some trouble. Soon I could hear dad yelling for me. When I answered my dad said(as only he could say) "what the hell are you doing over there."
I was told to stay on his track but I didnt. Lesson learned. from that point on I was in his tracks step for step. Finally after hours of trailing we topped the last ridge and could hear dogs treed.
When we made it to the bottom of that rough STEEP canyon the dogs were treed but they were very loose on tree. Blackie the oldest dog would stay on tree good but the two young hounds never really seemed to clik to what was going on.(they quickley learned and never seemed to have that problem again) So we made it to Blackie and there in a beautiful pine sat my little lion. The way she was lying I couldn't quite see which side her head was on. So i picked which I thought was the head side and squeezed off a round of my .32-20 Winchester model 1873. Which was my great granddad's. Turns out I was exactly WRONG. Well in a rush I tried to chamber another round and I successfully jammed my rifle! Well my dad was there to get me out of a bind(which he was always good at). He fixed my mistake and I pulled a bead down between the eyes of that lion and down she came! We skinned her and I packed her out of that steep little canyon.
If my lab didn't chew that lion up I would still have her on my wall today! And thats how I became addicted to hounds and old guns. I hope more folks will share there stories!

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Thanks Ike. Looks like you and I are the only ones that had first lion trees

Patience Joe, heres my first lion story

I had been in hounds for about 3 years and was in my early 20's just getting out of college. The previous three years I had exercised every elk and deer in the woods and was hell on the feral cat population but still couldnt get a lion in a thee. The storys of fustration I could right a book on alone.

I was guiding a deer hunt and one of the deer hunters had been an outfitter in Co. He had just got out of the business. He kept one hound for a pet but she was too much hound to be a house dog. So he gave her to me as a gift. He said she was a good dog and had been on about 10 lions and 20 bears.

Now its early Dec and I had a cow elk tag in unit 15. Took my dogs with me and met some friends up there. 2nd night came a snow fall of about an inch. Me and a buddy drove off looking for elk but I was checking every track I saw. We had gone a mile when we passed Mick Chapel's truck park on the side on the road. I stopped and could hear his hounds trailing. I cussed, dam the luck, a fresh lion track next to camp and I got beat to it. We drove on, saw a few elk and failed to get one. about 11am we were by Mangus mountain and there is was a fresh lion track crossing the road headed up Mangus. I put my three dogs on it(one was the gift dog) and she took the track and off we went. I was so happy to be actually trailing a lion i was all smiles. The dogs trailed about a mile, then hung up in one spot. I caught up to them and was walking around looking for a lion track. Couldnt find one, I noticed the gift dog trying to tree on a big pine about 20 yards from me. i walked to the base of the tree, looked up and there about 10 feet above my head was the most beautiful sight i had ever seen. I nice 110lb or so tom lion. I was jumping up a hollaring and screaming I was so happy. Its a wonder the lion didnt bail out. My buddy was scared to get close to the tree LOL. I got my composure and shot the lion with my .45 acp. Didnt know to ty the dogs back, and he hit the ground very much alive. I had dogs and lion fighting at my feet, i jumped in the middle and two more shots I had my first lion. The beer and whiskey was flowing at camp that night.

That gift dog made all the differance in my hunting and she went on to catch about 30 more lions for me. Now I turned 40 a couple of months back, still chase'n stupid hound dogs

I think it was around 91 and I had been running lots of bears but not much luck on lions as i didn't have dry ground dogs and it didn't snow much on "the Island".
Anyway I cut this guys track in the mud and after a short race we had him treed and I arrowed him. Pretty uneventful but I was super happy.
The fun came after. I tried to pack him out on my back (damn near killed me) and get him home, skinned, butchered etc. all in time for the wild game banquet which was the same evening. trouble is I am deathly allergic to cats and by the time of the banquet I was pretty much done with welts all over my body, eyes swollen shut and fighting for breath. I phoned the hospital and they said just take a big dose of antihistamine and see how it goes. Got me through the night but it was about 3 days before I was back to normal.

Lil Joes BigGame hounds wrote:Thanks Ike. Looks like you and I are the only ones that had first lion trees

lol!

I have lived in Kansas, all my life. Have always had a hound, of some kind. My thing is bobcat huntin. Got my first at 9. I always dreamed of chasing lion with my dogs, but it is 500 miles to the closest lion. I didnt have any money, to go with a guide, and wanted to use my own dogs anyway. I wrote letters to 2 men that I had read about, and ask advice on where I might try my luck, with my bobcat dogs. This was in the early 1980s. One was Wiley Carrol, the other was Obe Corey. Wiley wrote me back, with advice, his letter came in an envelope, with a lion track drawn on the outside, in green crayon! Mr Corey , sent me a copt of a book he had written, The Lion Hounds, and a letter. Said pay me for the book if it did any good. I decided, I was going to New Mexico. I went in December, hoping for snow. Took my 2 cat dogs and a neighbor,that didnt have dogs. Bought a licence, and started driving roads in northern NM. Snow was patchy but found an old track the first day, near Taos. Let my dogs smell the track, and sicked em up! Couldnt work it but I was excited. The third day, I saw a track,in a patch of snow, that I new was not there the day before. 1 track, then froze ground. I told my buddy, I came to hunt, not drive all over the state. I took the 2 dogs, and started climbing up the ridge this track was pointed at. As I got higher, the snow got better. I found the track, and started on it, with the dogs. I yelled down to my buddy,stay on my tracks, till you find me. 5hours later, I could hear my dogs, bayed on a cliff. I will never forget the feeling, I had, when I saw that Tom and my 2 dogs on that cliff. I crawled close and shot that cat. At the shot he jumped off,and landed about 30 feet below, and 1 of my dogs jumped after him. My dog landed right on top of the lion, or it would have killed him. A permit was 51$ and a 2nd tag was $10 . I checked him in, the largest I have treed to date, 172lbs ,guts in,hand full of porky quills in his stomach. The next day,it snowed, and I found another big tom track, 3hrs later 147lb tom in truck. Two days later we treed a nice female, didnt shoot it. I didnt know how lucky I was!!

I hunted a total of 3 weeks that winter in december, and january. Never saw another hunter.I love hunting lions, but not when its a road race. Damn those Cell Phones!










































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My first lion was not with dogs, we had no dogs at the time. This was over 25 years ago and I was 14 at the time.

I was out collecting snakes with a friend and we came across a dead, fork-buck with its guts eaten out. I knew right away that it was a lion kill so ran all the way home to get my new 30.30, a gift from my dad a week earlier on my 14th birthday. My dad came back with me and helped me set up.

The buck was killed near a spring and there was a 10-15 foot high bank over-looking the kill. We moved a bit of brush for a blind and my dad sprinkled some doe in heat lure about(maybe not the smartest idea when going after a lion). My dad then left and I sat there for around 30 mins before I heard a raven-like call across the creak bed.

Then I saw the lion appear at the time I didn't know it was female but to me it looked big, keep in mind I was 14... I wanted to watch it eat so waited and it circled around disapearing from my sight. Then poped up less than 5 feet from me, we both froze and I unfroze first and shot at point blank. It jumped up and died instantly.

It was a 70lb female that had very worn down teeth. It also had some milk in the teats and looking back I am sure she was calling to her cubs with that raven-like call I heard. The game warden took the lower jaw to age it and I never got it back but he gave me an estimate on 10+ years on her age. I taned the skin myself because money was tight and still have it hanging in my basement.

This is a great topic. I would like to tell you about my first lion but I haven't caught him yet. LOL! JUst kidding I remember it well over 3 decades ago and I will get back to that when I have a little time but it is so good to hear some of these stories.


Kirk now I know you have caught plenty of bobcats and some lions but you really should show these folk the photos of that mythical cat they have all been looking for for so many years. To my knowledge you are the only man that has brought one back and hung it for a photos.

Hey Mike, You posted that pic, the only time it has ever been shown to the public. I dont have much skill at that sort of stuff, but might figure it out. If you still got it, and you want to mess with it ,ok. Hey, I still remember coming by your place at Aztec, then catching that lion the next day, when you had to work! Thanks Amigo, that was about 1982??? and lion #7 for me. I sure liked huntin New Mexico. Hope you are doing well! Kirk

Well, being kind of a "newby" to the sport....I recall several "firsts".

The first lion tree that I made it to was several years back and well before I owned dogs. I went with a friend that had just started running cats. We turned out on a smoking hot track and were treed within a half hour. We jumped that cat two or three times out of the tree and eventually just lost intrest and walked the half mile back to the truck. I thought to my self "boy this is easy". First impressions are sometimes not exactly accurate.

The first time my dog actually participated in treeing a cat was a few years later and it was even better than the first tree I made it to. I was so excited that I shot that tom. It was probably only 130 pounds or so, but it was the first cat that I shot and it seemed soooo big in the tree.

Later that year, my dog treed his first solo lion and he hapened onto a male and female running together. Turned out to be my first double..... and only for my dogs.

This year I got to experience the first solo lion for both my pups. That was probably more exciting than all of the other firsts. I seem to get more pleasure from the dogs first than my first.

Scott

Kirk,

that was a long time ago but I remember it well. Still sorry I had to work. LOL!

I knew right off this Kansas bobcat hunter was going to be hard on the lions. He came in late and i had to go after work in the dark to show him some lion crossings and then off to work the next day. Boom! He follows my lead and goes out there and them little high tan bobcat dogs show that old New Mexico tom who is boss. I was trying to remember but it seems your buddy was going to do the shooting that day as this was a good tom but he hadn't made it to Dodge City and got any lessons from Marshall Dillon. LOL!

My first and only lion (kill) was not with dogs either. My best friend John Farner and I were in the Quemado, NM area calling coyotes on the 12th of December 2001. I remember the day as if it were yesterday. It was -14 deg, perfectly calm and a semi fresh snow on the ground. We made it to my favorite calling spot before any light shimmered through the horizon. We had to sit in the truck until there was enough light to even see a dog coming in. The area is a place any caller would love, a big open flat adjacent to a large mesa covered in Pinon, Sedar and Juniper trees. We walked out to the last 3 trees, 2 big enough to hide our silouettes, and 1 only about a foot tall or so. I carried about a half dozen calls back then, esp on cold days because the reeds would freeze up between calls, so I would have to change them out, placing the used one inside my coat to try to thaw it out. About 10 minutes into the calling, we had a pair of dogs "hung up" about 500 yards out. We could see them, didn't think they could see us, but they were running in circles and howling and barking right at us. I was determined to not be out done by these dogs, so I called like there was a pack of coyotes tearing the ears legs and guts out of a rabbit... It probably sounded like the worst calling anyone had ever heard. But I was pulling out all the stops. I remember seeing just a slight movement in front of me by that lil 1 foot tall pinon, I looked square in the eyes a LION! I have no idea where she came from, how she got there or why she was there, I had never even heard of lions being around there, and my step dad had lived on this ranch his whole life. Well it didn't take me a second to drop that cat in her tracks with my .22-250. My buddy John asked what the hell were you shootin at? I was jumping up and down and said I shot a LION! BullS#*t he said, I pointed to that lil tree and his eyes were big as soccers! To this day that is the only lion I have killed.
Almost to the day a year later, in Socorro county here in NM, I cut my first lion track in the snow. I set up quickly as possible as the snow was fresh and the track was fresher. I called for over a half hour when I heard a truck coming up the road, I left mine in the middle where there was no getting around it, so I packed up and headed back, by the time I got there I saw this lanky cowboy standing there looking at the track, he also had a truck full of dogs. Did you call him in he asked, nope I replied... He asked if I minded if he turned his dogs out, I said only if I could follow. Looking back I thought that was probably the bug that bit me. He turned out an old blue dog, and he struck and off he went, then a walker female, a red female and another blue dog. I stood up on that ridge and could hear those dogs crying out! Man what a sound. We stood there until they were out of range, he said, lets go get them. So I was ready to walk down the mountain, he said where you goin? I must have looked completely puzzled as he said, there's a road down the bottom comes right to the last place we could hear them hounds, lets take a drive. He gave me a bit of a smerk and back to the trucks we went. After about a 30 minute drive down the mountain, we crossed the tracks where the dogs crossed the road. We stopped the trucks and got out, you could here those dogs from where we were, I didn't know it then but those dogs were treed! We took a short walk up the hill, and across the ridge, as we got closer, that good-ole-boy said, stay here, we don't want that cat to jump out of the tree, I'll come and get you when I locate it. Well about 5 minutes later there he was, grinnnig from ear to ear, we got a nice one, come look. We walked slowly through the trees, and he asked do you see it? I said see what, he chuckled and said I didn't think so. He pointed to the tree just over the edge of the ridge, there was a slight brown spot through the branches, there it is he said.
I have some pictures of that cat in my photo album, but we did not harvest that cat, he said it was probably 140# tom, and he had a friend coming in tomorrow to hunt cats and now he knew where one would be.
That day stuck with me until last year when I bought my first hound, which turned into 7 now. My first hunt last year I took my first 2 1.5 year old pups out to Cuba NM after a fresh snow, my buddy Roger and I cut a track on the first road we went down. I put the dogs out, they just wanted to play at first. So I told Roger that we would just follow the track by sight, the dogs should probably pick the scent up sooner or later, well we hadn't gone 100 yards and my lil walker Hank put is nose to the ground and started trailing, my blue dog just went by his side. We went in about a mile and I could hear the dogs, but it wasn't a tree'd type of bawl. So we started hurring up a lil more. We had to cross a small meadow, there were dog and lion tracks 200 yards wide and 100 yards deep, looked like they had caught up to the cat and chased it around that meadow for awhile. I could still hear my dogs, and they were close, but it was a more desperate bawl now, I thought for sure they were hurt and dying, as I got closer I was releaved to find it was Hank, and he was ok, but was down a bluff and couldn't/wouldn't move from where he was at. Well I crawled out on that frozen bluff and grabbed his collar, and with one big toss, threw him as high and far as I could, he almost flew over my buddy's head, but Roger caught him, but now I was stuck. I had one choice which was to jump down the 15 foot bluff, but at the bottom, if I slipped was a crevase that was an additional 30-40 foot drop. I let go and when I hit the ice at the bottom I know I made a mistake. I landed with a big THUD!!!! Roger looked over the edge, I wasn't moving much, as I was afrain I'd slip off into the bigger hole. Are you ok? Well I think so, it hurt my pride, and backside, but I got up limping a little and yelled back, we got to get the dogs down here, cause heres that cat's track. Once we found our way down the hill, got the dogs on the tracks, it wasn't 10 minutes and they tree'd! I looked at Roger and said, we gotta get up there, they got it! Well Roger is in much better shape than I, well at least he's not as round as I am, and he headed up that mountain like a goat. When he got there the pups came a running to him! And that was all those cats needed, the big male bailed out, and the lil female took out the other direction, needless to say, Hank went after one cat, Chic went out after the other, and an hour later I found both my dogs wondering around tired and no cats... I haven't tree'd another one yet, but I am going to someday! Or it'll be the death of me.

I know it's a long read, but they are all my firsts'. SW

sswhitney, Its a small world. I was the guy you ran into that day and treed the lion. I just watched the video of it the other day. So you have me to thank for turning you to the dogs.

Funny thing we went back to try to catch that tom and the next day, trailed maybe a 1/2 mile and the scent ended. never caught him again. LOL