The Tom that would not tree

[liontracker]

It was 6:30 am and there was 2 inches of new snow that had fallen during the night to freshen things up. I had been cutting tracks for a half hour when I started to top out on a steep grade. Right at the crest, the headlights were shining up in the sky for a second before the truck leveled out and they would shine on the ground again. Out of the corner of my left eye I caught a split second glimpse of the telltale pattern, size and stride we all look for. I slammed on the breaks and when I opened the door, I was sitting on top of big tom track. When I got out to examine it, I determined that it was made about 3:00 am and had frost standing up in it with a small amount of new snow in it as well. It had a 54” stride on level ground. This was the size track that I had been waiting for, so I called the guy who was with me that day, as he was on the other end of the ranch cutting track. We dumped three dogs at 7:30, my lead Cameron bitch Zia, Mike Leonard’s Lilly and her ½ GS daughter, Poppy from last year. I went track for track with them in order to see what Poppy was doing. As we started trailing up to the top of the ridge, I noticed the dogs were going slower than I thought they should be. The scent must have been frozen in harder than I thought. After a mile we came to where the tom ran across the tracks of a small female kitten that the mom had stashed away. The tom was scent tracking this kitten and I suspect he was intent on killing it. We trailed around there for 20 minutes or so and then the hounds went for the top, still another mile and a half further on. The tom had lost interest and was heading for his lair. When I topped out, I went over to look at the tracks and I only had two dogs on it. Poppy was still back behind us. I called, but she did not come, which was strange because she is very obedient. I made up my mind to leave her and hope she would go back to the truck and wait for me. The rest of us had business to tend to.

As we walked across the top to the other side, I remember thinking that this was an exceptional morning. The snow covered peaks were sticking up through the low lying cloud bank. The Ponderosas were giving off a silvery glow from the snow and frost on their needles. Everything was dead silent, except the sound of our foot steps. At 9:30, Zia and Lilly made the jump and the race was on. In about a mile they had him bayed up on a yellow, icey ledge. Even at that distance, I could here the roar coming out of the side canyon. We were shooting video and I told the camera man to get ready for some world class footage. Mistake #1 – too confident…

About ½ way to them, things went silent as the tom made another run. They had held him for an hour, but I couldn’t get there in time as it was horribly steep and icey. When I got to the bay-up I read the open book that lay there in the snow. Zia was in the lions face and Lilly was on her right. Lilly must have seen an opening and went in for a piece of him. He was at the very edge of the ledge with his tail hanging over. When Lilly went for him, he slipped and fell about 10 feet to the next level. He made a run for it from there.

A couple of miles further and they had him stopped again. As I got closer, I could only hear bits and pieces of their bawls coming out of the side canyon. What I could hear, was
so intense, that I knew they were right in his face…and on the ground. It seemed like forever to get to them. At 2:30 I came around the corner of the last side finger from them and they were fighting a big red tom in the 180 lb. class. They were about 400 yds away and I told the shooter that today was his lucky day...possible Booner. Mistake #2 – don’t get cocky.

As we climbed the steep, icey north slope I started to get goose bumps. Then all went totally silent. When I got to the ledge, I noticed it was made up of three levels and they had fought him on all three levels and were on the lower one when I saw them. They had held him here for 3 ½ hours. I looked across canyon at the north slope over there and he had not left yet. I could only see Lilly, as Zia was gone. I looked back at the camera man and gave him some directions and when I looked back about 45 seconds later, there were the red runners' tracks going over the top. A few seconds later, there was Zia trailing up the slope – limping on a hind leg. She was hurt and there was blood on the rocks were the middle and third level bay-ups had taken place. Zia’s mom had got knocked off a cliff by a lion two years ago and is a three legged cripple for life now because of it, so naturally I started to fear the worst. I beeped her off the track and called her to me. She had taken a fall alright and the blood was from the loss of all five of her toenails on her right rear foot from trying to hang on. Her hip was bruised, but did not appear broken. This tom had plenty of chances to tree, yet refused to do so. He passed by some awesome photo-op trees where his shoulder almost had to rub against them as he passed.

So now, there we sat, just 400 yds from the reservation boundry with only one dog that could run. It was amazing how things went from Paradise to Hell, in 30 seconds. The dogs did not want to quit, but that was enough fun for one day and we ate, drank and rested some, before climbing up over the top. We had gone 8 brutal miles, up and down, through the steep, icey and nasty. Once on top, I discovered that we had run an L-shape and it was only 4 miles back to the truck. I turned on the tracker and it sounded like Poppy was back at the truck. We marched on.

About one mile from the truck we cut the track of a female with two kittens. Zia opened and wanted to trail away. We were only ½ a mile from the kitten track earlier in the morning. Just then Poppy opened back, very near us. I was sure, right then, that she had at least one of the three up somewhere in there. We went to her and looked for awhile, but the place was so tracked up by lion and Poppy, that I did not want to sort it out after all that climbing, so I petted her up and praised her and headed on for the truck. Once at the truck, I checked for Poppy’s tracks and she had indeed come to the truck, but did not stay long. She took it upon herself to go back up the ridge and hunt lion the rest of the day alone. I hope she had fun. I imagine she learned some from it.

Even though we did not kill, it was one of my best days on trail ever, all things considered. Moral of the story… when on the trail of a lion, never get too cocky or over confident…else father Karma will spank you!LOL

Sorry I could not get the world class pics of a bayed up Tom in the ledges that I set out for. I guess it wasn’t meant to be…

[SHADOWHUNTER]

GREAT STORY WITH VERY INTERESTING AND SIMILIAR EVENTS.

[DC DOGGIN]

Liontracker I have disagreed with you in the past, but I am still able to give credit where credit is due and am aware of your skills as a houndsman. Wish we could have seen some pics but it is what it is and was still a good read. Good hunting.
Daniel

[houndogr]

Tracker great story. I too am impressed with your skills as a houndsmen. Anyone who can go track for track with their dogs on a 4.5 hr. old lion track must be a hell of a man. Where were these french hounds at? Did you leave them at the truck for fear they might stretch the red runner before your hunter got there?

[liontracker]

Thanks guys. Pics will be coming as soon as we gather up our video footage that we need. When it was all said and done it was a 12 mile death march, round trip, in 8 hrs. No big deal, really. I have been doing it like that my whole life, I just don't know any better. Ah, the French hounds. Well Poppy is 1/2 French, does that count?LOL Actually I laid them up for awhile when we got all the good snow. I have some young dogs needing air time, so it is their time to prove it or loose it. However, here is a French hound accomplishment that just happened 3 weeks ago before the good conditions came in here. I was trailing a younger tom in the 130 lb class. I started the track at 9:00 and the snow was hit or miss. The south slopes were mud and thawing mud. we cold trailed for a couple of hrs and the tom went out onto a 2 mile long mud slope. The dogs got to it and flat stood on there heads. I went back home, as it is only 30 minutes away from there and got one of my secret weapons...Dakota...one of those goofy male French hounds and went back to the same spot and with the same dogs that couldn't move the mud track. We climbed up there and I showed Dakota the track and he took it away. He moved it slow and steady all the way across that mud face until the lion went over the top. At that point we were back in business tracking condition wise and in just a few minutes we had a jump and a short race to the tree. We never could have done it without him, unless I sight tracked the lion myself. It was just an experiment, but he did it. He has a pretty good nose. I hear 3 of his sons and one of his daughters have been treeing lions as well. It has been warm and raining now for several days and conditions have went to hell again. If it doesn't get better soon, then I will have to get 1 or 2 back out, or stay home like everyone else and I don't like staying home much during lion season.

[chancemarquette]

3:00 am huh? are u sure it wasnt 3:30 lol from the looks of the track about how long did you think the cat was?

[foxcat]

cold traied a cat for two hours? what dogs do you hunt that move a track that slow?

[liontracker]

Yeh pretty damn sure. It could have been 3:30, but no later. That track was only 8 miles from my house and I got up and watched the snow stop at 2:45. Then there was the frost in the track, it had plenty of time to grow. I would not call it a cold trail by any stretch of the imagination. I think the reason it took them 2hrs to make the jump, was all the kitten tracks and the female tracks we trailed through, that were made about 1/2hr before that tom walked over them. I had a tape measure in the truck and by the 54" stride and a viisual on the tom at 400 yds w/binocs, I would say he was about 8 feet long. The last one we dropped like that went 7' 10" unskinned. This one was slightly larger.

But now that I think back on it, maybe 36 yrs of tracking down game animals and shooting them in their bed, at point blank range, does not qualify me to make those assumptions. I appoligize and shall defer and concede to the experts...so sorry.

[Coyote]

Sounds like some good times. Congrats Tim.

[coadycurbow]

Thanks for the story, I really enjoyed reading it. I wish more people would tell stories like these. They probably would if these smart asses would keep their mouth shut.

[foxcat]

i am not a smart ass but i do have logic. so im confused do you hunt with hounds or are you sneaking up on them on foot? you say that you shoot them out of there bed. did they not run? did they just stay in there bed bayed up? maybe im not understanding. if you do have dogs do they only run toms? wouldn't they hit the hotter trail and catch the kittens or mom? not to say you would kill them but how does the dog decipher on what to run?

[liontracker]

Yes, you are misunderstanding what I wrote. Sorry I wasn't more clear.

[Bo D]

Why in the hell is it that whenever someone posts a story of a hunt there's always some skeptic that jumps in and makes some smart ass remark to try and belittle the guy and his dogs.

Get a life...

[HuntingNevada]

It is obvious that Foxcat is not a hunter. Since this person just joined up a couple of days ago to start some sh** maybe Buddy can just do a little culling. Thanks for sharing the hunt with us!

[houndnem]

I've cold trailed a lion for two days and never jumped it. I don't see why 2 hrs is so hard to belive. we made over a 15 mile loop and he was still in the next zip code. as for estimating a lions size in a pair of binos, that's just retarted. it's hard enough to judge them from 10 feet away in a tree. judging a cats weight or legnth without a tape and a scale will always bring critisism. as for the dogs trailing over the female and kittens I am truely baffled? maybe shed some light on that for us. I'm not trying to be an ass like this foxdude, nor am I taking away anything from what sounds like an awesome chase. congrats, jared.