Tradgangers, please excuse my late story. The mountain lion has been one of my most sought after animals to harvest, but as you will see I never lost the faith or will to pursue a dream. A few weeks prior, we had already started to search for tracks. With Dan (aka The Danimal), my youngest son, we scoured the country near here (west slope of Colorado) with his dogs, only finding some tracks that were too old to run. Dan then had his friend Andrew join us and with his great dogs and experience we were soon on some promising sign. This time Andrew’s dogs just lit up as we cut them loose on a big track. They immediately bailed into a steep ravine with all of us in pursuit---Dan, Joe (my other son) and me. Andrew, who was way ahead, was actually keeping up with the dogs. We were trying to run, but the two feet of snow did all it could to slow us down. We bailed into the gorge and slid down to the creek bottom, which was frozen over. On the other side up the slope Andrew was on site as the dogs barked “chop, chop” which only indicated TREED! I was out of breath, my fingers were frozen enough to make me wonder if I could even pull my longbow. As I arrived at the big pine, one of the boys signaled me to move uphill for a look that I will never forget. Staring up, the first thing I noticed was the size of this animal. Next was that wrinkled face the cat made. He was more than I had expected. Our eyes met and for a second I realized that I was in the perfect landing spot if he decided to jump. We always wish for the perfect broadside shot, but this cat would only face me head on. I was his immediate concern. With just a front shot from below, I focused on a quarter size light spot in the middle of his chest. My fingers were too numb to even feel the bowstring pull, but the familiar back of the broadhead touched my bow hand and that was the signal that my instinct needed to release the Wensel-tipped arrow. The shaft punched a hole right where I was looking. Instantly, the cat recoiled and bit off the eight inches of shaft that suddenly stuck out of his chest. In an effort to end it quickly and keep from sacrificing the safety of the dogs, I put another arrow on the string, I would shoot again if he started down the tree, which he did. The second arrow was unnecessary as blood poured down the tree from the first shot, but still, I shot as he was coming down. The second arrow punched through the base of his neck as he jumped to the ground. Right away the dogs were chasing him the short sixty yards where he expired. I slid down into the ravine, crossing the frozen creek and came upon the six dogs chewing away. This was all the reward they wanted. My son, Joe, was last to cross the creek. As he did so, the ice gave way. Fortunately, it was only waist deep. Now how cold could that have been? Lots of hugs and whooping took place as I silently thanked my Creator for this great day. The work was far from done, though. We used a long climbing rope as we hoisted four feet at a time to reach the top, about 100 feet of ice and snow above. The drag from there was handled by the three young guys while I pulled on the tail until they were dragging me along, also! My personal quest had finally become reality. I finally killed the lion that will go in my trophy room, filling a spot that was a long time coming. I thank my Lord for this opportunity to share. His blessings are endless. The lion was weighed at home at 150+ lbs. Mike
Topic: Grizz's BIG Kitty! (Read 1217 times)
