Yea Jack, another lion story, gotta love it.
Steve, I do have a wonderful wife who usually asks when I'm going hunting, wanting to get rid of me, rather then complaining about me being gone.
Honest Vance, I was putting shelves into the wife’s room, I mean closet. Got to build up some brownie points for the time I am taking off next month. Also, she gave me her approval this week for my next moose hunt. Her comment “good bye, hope you have fun, and make sure the life insurance policy is paid up”, ya got to love a woman like that.
On with the story:
For the next twenty minutes Lenny and myself scrambled around the rocks and deadfalls attempting to take pictures while John looked for the best shot angle. Here is a picture of John with Baxter and Spike at the base of the tree:
Like most houndsmen I have known John loves to run the dogs regardless of the outcome, if an animal is killed it matters little to their enjoyment of the hunt; they are in it for the chase not the kill. At this time John and I estimated the cat’s weight at around 130 pounds while Lenny believed it to be around 120. Due to the cat’s position on some branches we were unable to determine if it was a male or female but both sexes were open in this unit. Lenny was the shooter and had first shot opportunity on the mountain lion but decided to pass, wanting to shoot a larger mountain lion. However, as mentioned earlier, we have a cat problem in this area and all of us would love to get our big horn season back. After discussing our next move for a few minutes John decided to use Lenny’s Robertson longbow and tag his first lion in several years. John is a traditional bowhunter and lets me tag along on these hunts becauce I am teaching him how to build selfbows. After several shots with a judo point John was hitting his spot at twenty yards and felt confident enough for the shot. I tied the dogs up being the handler, Lenny was the photographer, and John was the shooter with an upward shot into the chest. The first arrow missed to the left and the second missed to the right. The third arrow appeared to hit mid chest and pass through causing the cat to explode up the tree then back down. As the cat was descending John’s last arrow hit behind the front shoulder, mid chest, and was immediately broken off by a branch. the arrow later reveled seven inches of penetration. The cat fell the last twenty five feet landing on the snow head first, but gained his feet after sliding thirty yards down the mountain. I released the dogs, who re-treed the cat three hundred yards later. The bubbly blood trail was easy to follow indicating a lung hit.
Anyway, here is the result of the hunt:
Final notes: Lenny proved to be the best judge of the mountain lions size, it was a 115 pound female. John, who has treed well over one hundred mountain lions said it was the second shortest chase he has been on. Taking this lion will save fifty (+ or -) big horn, mule deer, or elk over the next year. Tracy and Curt, we cut the lion track a hundred yards past the wilderness sign on your favorite Montana trail. I have to cut it short, Lenny and I have an early start scheduled in the morning. Man, I love the fun to be had in Montana!
Topic: Saving the Big Horn Sheep (Read 1647 times)
