BigGameHoundsmen.com

This study has had some issues with collars not working and it has ment that a couple of the lions had to be recaptured to replace them.
We caught this big tom today after a short chase.
We located him on the VHF reciever before daylight then took the hounds in on snowmachines to where we thought he would be, when the antenna was set up the lion was within a few hunderd yards or closer, as soon as he heard the hounds in the box he pulled out and was over the ridge in a few minutes.
I do believe some lions learn quick if they have been run before, while others will stay put if they feel safe.
The snow is still deep in most of the back country, this is a 4 strand wire fence, your not going anywhere without snowshoes...
It is amazing how lions can get around in this for months on end.

Brent Sinclair wrote: when the antenna was set up the lion was within a few hunderd yards or closer, as soon as he heard the hounds in the box he pulled out and was over the ridge in a few minutes.
I do believe some lions learn quick if they have been run before, while others will stay put if they feel safe.

Around here, I have trailed several to a road where they pull up short and parrallel it for aways before crossing it, if they will cross it at all. I think this was learned from the Box babblers of the rig guys.

Some have learned to stop running and just turn around and kill dogs.

Some jump and run and jump and run when the human gets close to the tree.

I think lions are the smartest animal in the woods by a longshot. Therefore, they learn quicker than even the wileyest whitetail.

Nice pics brent

You and the Dutchman have the same taste in dog sleds I see Mr. Sinclair

Great photos again!

I am not sure how a lion rates in smarts but they do learn and adapt. I know one thing that will booger most lions quick is the sound of a human voice. I have been poking thru rock piles looking for lions and just knowing they were there and finding out later i was within spitting distance and then have some rube come up and holler. Hey down there you finding anything yet! real loud and next thing you know the dogs are trailing out of there again. Some guys ride along and they are constantly yelling and talking and laughing and screaming at their dogs. this is the reason I use whistles and mosatly hand signals with my hounds because why not let the dogs get up on them bedded if they are close? think about it most guys think when they hit a track the lion is already up and moving. ( come on think about that in the middle of the day?) No usually he has been bedded but he hears what sounds like George Armstrong Custer and the 7th. riding up on him and he leaves out, and trust me he can put some more ugly real estate between you and him quick.


Old Dale lee would get real grumpy with folks even clients who wanted to talk all the time. He would tell them shut up watch and learn somthing. He said jaguar were even worse about the sound of a human voice. In an area with lots of traffic and such lions may get use to motor noise but the human voice will always un nerve a wild animal.


Although lions in our area routinely cross two lane paved roads, wider highways and even railroad tracks have proven deadly for lions. Studies have shown they hate crossing them and will wander up and down and along them a good ways and many times bolt when they see a car or train coming and get killed on the road. We have had quite a number of road killed lions on I-40 in the last year.

houndogger wrote:You and the Dutchman have the same taste in dog sleds I see Mr. Sinclair

That sleigh took alot of thinking to make it work the way I need it to.
It works as a slid in box in my full size Dodge, it fits the rack I made on the back of my FJ 40 Land Crusier, attaches to the rack on the front of the trailer I haul my quad and snow machine on and fits the sleigh all with 2 small pins...

I haul baits into the area I trap wolves on the trapline and there is no resistance with friction as it has a full 3/8" puckboard bottom with two small runners to keep it from sliding on a side hill.
Cost when all said and done $2.200.00

Mike
How many times have you had a lion bail when we tell the client let's go in real quiet and be sure not to talk till we know he's treed good...
I remember the first leopard hunt I was on, the PH threated the client with his life if he said anything louder that a whisper....... and that was over 200 yards from 13 hounds under the treed cat!!!!
We had a big tom this winter stay put as we drove past his kill less than 20 yds off the trail....we stopped and opened the door about 300 yards furtheron...... the lion was still on the kill until someone spoke...then the cat was gone!!!!

Like you say not sure how smart they are to things but they know alot more than some of us give them credit for and are quick to learn things , this becomes clear if you have ever had the opportunity to work with the same cats and see how that can change over a bit of time.
Some guys think you can catch a lion all you want and he'll just tree quicker as he knows he can get away and after a bit the hounds are gone...there is some truth to that I am sure , but dart and handle one 2-3 times and it's a whole different game from my experience.
They are quick learners in that field.

Brent,

Your question brought to mind a hunt from some 20 years ago that was a real learning experience for even and old time hunter.

I was in a winter hunting camp with and old fellow who had been a professional predator and lion hunter in thye northwest. this guy was a great companion and had some really nice cat dogs out of some very famous lines of hounds. He no doubt had a great deal of experience hunting the coastal areas and more huting the forested areas. We had about 20 hounds in camp and we were splitting them and changing out old dogs every other day and trying hard to get some of the younger dogs some needed trailing experience. We had cold weather but not any real snow to speak of just an occasional skiff that would burn or blow off by 10 AM under the bright New Mexico sun. Well we had hunted about 3 weeks and we had ran and caught a few lions nothing to set the world on fire but had some fun and the young dogs seemed to be making progress.This man had some breathing problems so although he was a steady walker and climber when on the ground he was slow and had to stop often to rest. No worries for me as I could run those hills like a wild man and was just crazy enough to try to keep up with the dogs on foot. Unlike the areas where this man had previously hunted with very thick foilage and giant trees this was bad canyon and bluff country. Very little vegitation and sand,clay and sandstone. Well we had turned the few lions loose we had treed or bayed and our hunting time was winding down in that area. Well this guy had killed quite a few lions in his early days but after some life changes and changing vocations he had been out of the hunting for a number of years but was getting back into it with a lot of energy. The well known old trapper hunter from East Ely, Nevada Wiley Carroll who was a friend of mine had directed this guy my way when he told him he was coming to my area. Well this guy said he would like to harvest one extra large male lion for a mount in his house and he would most likely never kill another lion. Well this sets the stage.

We

Contd.

WE LEFT CAMP AS USUAL IN THE DARK ONE MORNING AFTER A NIGHT OF LAYING ON OUR COTS IN THE BIG TENT AND LISTENING TO THE WIND HOWL THRU THE CANYONS AND OCCASIONAL SNOW AND SLEET PELTING OUR CANVAS SHELTER. IT WAS COLD AND CALM WHEN WE GOT UP AND THE STARTS WERE SHINING BRIGHTLY AND WE KNEW THE SKY HAD CLEARED.
SEVERAL MILES OUT FROM CAMP WE WERE RIDING DOWN A SANDSTONE RIM THAT RAN ABOVE A STEEP CANYON THAT WAS FAIRLY WIDE IN THE BOTTOM AND RAN WATER AT CERTAIN TIMES OF THE YEAR AND HAD SOME COTTONWOODS GROWING IN IT. THE DOGS WERE FEELING GOOD AND FRISKING AND PLAYING AS THE SUN BEGAN TO ILLUMINATE THE CANYONS TAWNY WALLS AND ONCE AGAIN IT WAS A GREA TDAY TO BE IN THE SADDLE. A TRACE OF SNOW WAS ON THE GROUND BUT NO MORE THAN A DUSTING NOT EVEN A TRUE SKIFF. WE KNEW E WOULD HAVE TO HIT A TRACK EARLY OR THE SUN WOULD LIFE THIS MOISTURE OUT QUICKLY LATER AND WITH IT MUCH OF THE SCENT LEFT WOULD ALSO BE LIFTED AND TRACKING WOULD BE VERY DIFFICULT.

WELL LUCK WAS WITH US THIS DAY AND AS WE ENTERED A LITTLE ALCOVE IN THE ROCKS WITH GAMBELS OAL AND JUNIPER TREES, OLD BROWNIE ONE OF OUR STRIKE DOGS STARTED TO WRING HIS TAIL AND THE NEXT THING THREW HIS HEAD BACK AND MADE THE CANYONS EACO WITH HIS LONG QUIVERING BAWL. THE OTHER DOGS RUSHED TO HIM AND SOON THERE WAS A CHORUS OF BARKS AND YELPS AND THE DOGS LINES OUT DOWN THE SANDSTONE RIM. WE GRINNED AT EACH OTHER AND TROTTED AFTER THEM AS WE GOT TO THE HASHED OUT AREA OF HOUND TRACKS RIGHT THERE IN THE MIDDLE WAS A LION TRACK AND LET ME TELL YOU IT WAS A BIG ONE! ALTHOUGHT WE HAD SOME PRETTY LARGE FOOTED HOUNDS IN THE BUNCH THIS TRACK STOOD OUT LIKE A BEACON, AND I LOOKED OVER AT MY FRIEND AND SAID WELL HERE'S YOUR WALL HANGER PARDNER!

WELL THE DOGS ONLY WENT ABOUT 400 YARDS AND WE CAUGHT UP TO THEM AND THEY WERE MILLING AROUND OVER A FRESH MOUND OF DIRT ,PINE SCRUFF NAS TWIGS AND SURE ENOUGH THEY HAD FOUND A FRESH LION KILL. IT WAS A FORKHORN MULE DEER AND ONLY ONE FEEDING TAKEN OFF HIM.

WELL FROM THIS POINT THE DOGS EXPLODED AND WE KNEW THE LION WAS CLOSE AND HAD NOT BEEN GONE LONG AND THE RACE WAS GOING TO BE A FAST ONE. PROBELM WAS FROM THAT POINT THEY LEFT THE RIMS AND WENT OFF INTO THE BLUFFS LEDGES AND STEEP COUNTRY WHERE HORSES HAD TO BE LEFT BEHIND AND IT WAS ALL FOOTWORK AND TREACHORUS TO SAY THE LEAST.

to be contd. later

Sorry for the breaks but duty calls at times.

Anyway the dogs took the lion down into some very bad bluffs and then jumped him out and ran him at breakneck sped thru this stuff for about 1/4 mile and treed. I thought well this is easy and my friend will have his trophy lion in no time.

Now while in camp over these days we had spent time discussing approaching lions in trees and bayups and it was my contention that i always stayed quiet I always tried to stay low and come in below the lion or no hgier than lever and then very slow and cautious. My friend said oh lions like that are no problem if they jump the dogs will just get some training and they will put them right up another tree. I said well trees are darn scarce here in the high desert and if they jump and get in the bad bluffs you may never get them. He just scoffed and said well you must have slow dogs.

Anjyway this lion treed in a small juniper and was only up about 10 feet at the most. I had to work like heck getting there but being young and agile it wasn't too bad and soon I slid in under the tree with the dogs and looked up. Now this was a real lion he had one of those big baskerball heads, and wrinkled and huge feet he was a dandy. Well i settled down with the dogs and just waited for my partner. The tom relaxed and just settled and eyed me and the dogs and it seemed we had all day. Well what seemed like an eternity went by and suddenly the lion stood up on the branch and snarled and I knew my friend was coming. I had a moment of panic becasue he was coming from directly above and sure enough he popped into view about 35 yards up the slope. winded and gasping he bent over with his hands on his knees wheezing and trying to get his breath. He then straightened up and looked at that lion and his face lit up and I covered my mouth with my hands and shook my head looking at him.

Oh No! He had this high peircing voice as it was and he hollored. Hey Mike that is a big SOB!

BOOM! that's all it took and out that tom went into the bluffs and that is the end of this story and try as they would they could never catch him again.

Sad part is my friend died not long after that and he never did get a big tom for his wall.......................

Mike
That's a great story.
Almost like being on the hunt.
One day you best give some serious thought to gettin startd on that book!!!!!!
I'm sure there are alot of hound hunters out there that would really appreciate one .
I know I would.

PS ...do we get another one tomarrow!!!