Lion season

[longtailrunner]

With the lion season about to open back up in Colorado I'd like to ask guys to think before taking a lion, especially the females. It's getting harder to find the big toms that we all like catching, and guys are hitting the females hard in too many units. Hunting in many areas has turned into a race against the next guys, many which are illegal outfitting, looking for the next pay check. What's happened to the true Houndsmen? What's wrong with leaving them in the tree so they can be run again? Yes, even the big ones. It's a good feeling walking away from a tree. Be a good example to the young guys getting into the sport.

[wyohunter12]

I agree. Lion hunting is becoming more and more about the money. A lot of areas in Wyoming close extremely fast. If you don't shoot the lion out of the tree when you catch it, the next guy will and the season is closed. I myself would rather kill the lion and close the season than see the guy down the road run the same cat the next week and pocket cash for taking his buddy out. It is definitely a double edged sword hunting areas with a lot of pressure and a lot of lions.

[longtailrunner]

Some of my friends say the same thing, "let's hit it hard and close the unit down ourselves". We never do that, since we all like to run lion and our dogs too much. We don't have a problem if you take a big tom, but we rarely do, we all want to keep running or dogs too much. It's definitely created a lot of tension among the guys.

[1bludawg]

Look at it this way,some if not all of the money grubbers and kill everything crowd will quit when the hunting gets tough .For some of the others the light will come on and they'll realize they're killing their own sport ,then they'll start taking more pictures before they leash their dogs and walk away.

[icehole]

Good luck with this. If I had my way guideing for cats would be illegal. I also wish bobcats were worth about a nickel . I know most won't like this but it's the way I feel about it.
How much pride can you have in killing a cat someone else's dogs caught? Kind of like shooting elk behind the tall fence.

[wyokid]

I agree with most of all the comments on here, what you have to keep in mind is if us houndsmen's shoot the cat right away we are not doing any good, we are meant to protect the lion population and mange it. People who go out and call for lions will most likely shoot the first lion they see, not knowing it could be a female with kittens of a very young lion itself. This is what is ruining the populations in are lions. We are meant to take close inspection of a lion when he or she is in a tree or on a bluff and it actually gives us time to see what it is and how big, and old in a way. Now if you are one of those people who take the side of illegal guiding, if your going to do it do it right and don't shoot the first lion you tree or see so you can just take a little pocket cash. I would love to see the populations still in good hands so the younger generation can be out chasing lions with hounds, because there is no better feeling seeing a younger person getting involved with what we all love doing most.