One of the most memorable trips I've had hunting I experienced in my home state of Arkansas. I had killed my buck the first 45 minutes of muzzle loader season and you could only shoot one deer with a smoke gun in those days. But I could still take a deer with a bow, and since it was a scheduled 10 day hunt, I had 9 days of bow hunting to enjoy.
I was walking back to camp late the 2nd morning of season when I saw what looked like deer in front of our camp, probably 600 - 800 yards away. We were camped just off a gas line right of way and I could see down the right of way for quiet some distance. Even though I could see for long ways I really couldn’t see most of the right of way because it was overgrown with brush & briers and had a rolling type terrain. It had one lane barely open where a gas truck had gone down it once every couple of weeks. It was thick enough that you wouldn’t want to have driven a nice truck down it. I knew that I was looking at wild animals by their movement and it was too far from any residence to be domestic animals like farm dogs. The area I was hunting was some of the roughest in the 250,000 acre WMA. I stood still and decided just to watch and see what they would do. As luck smiles on us sometimes, they decided to come my way. I stepped back into the edge of the trees and watched and waited. I would catch a glimpse of them every time they came to a high point on the right of way. So, about every 5 minutes I would see them for maybe a minute. As they got closer I realized they weren’t deer. Thinking they were big coyotes I still remained hidden hoping to get a shot. Then they came into view about a 100 yards away I realized they were not coyotes or deer but they were someone’s coon hounds that were lost. I got out from behind the cover but other than that I stood still. The next time they came into view they were only about 20 yards away and I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. There in front of me were 2 grown mountain lions walking down the middle of that right of way. There was no cover between us and I knew they had seen me, but they didn't change their course or speed. There was a shallow swale about 10 yards in front of me and when they dipped down into it I never saw them again. What a rush to get to see animals that I didn't think even existed in the state.
AS a side note, the Arkansas fish and game called me the next summer to verify a rumor that I had seen lions. They said there were a few in the state and took what little info I had.
Topic: I confess... (Read 508 times)
