Abbreviated Lion Hunt
I went over to White River yesterday morning with the full intention of photographing some big bucks. It was snowing with 5" of new already on the ground. I don't have an overcoat for my camera and lens so I decided to cruise some roads hoping for some photo ops until the snowfall let up.
Several miles down a road I came across some lion tracks. They were fairly fresh (early morning), but had some snow in them. Since I wasn't seeing much deer activity I decided to do some tracking. I had my .308 in the back seat for just such an ocassion. I thought the tracks might lead to a fresh kill or possibly the cat itself. But after following the tracks for several hours they didn't seem to be getting any fresher, so I turned back toward a road.
I have a friend who lives at Rock Creek Res., who found a fresh lion kill last winter. He went back the next morning at daylite in fresh snow. The cat had spooked off the deer, but he started following it's tracks. After about 200 yds the tracks stopped and reversed course. Gary was standing around trying to decipher the tracks when he looked up in a tree next to him and saw the cat 20 ft above his head. He shot it with his .218 Bee, and it turned out to be a 100lb female.
Three years ago I was walking thru some thick timber near Pine Grove with my camera and tripodslung over my shoulder and heard something crashing thru the brush. I thought I had jumped a deer out of it's bed. I crouched down and saw a lion stretched out on a dead run for White River Canyon. Not 75' up the trail I found the remains of a yearling doe under a pile of pine needles. I had to work the next day, so I couldn't come back to the killsite. Probably had a chance of getting that lion with a little luck!
For all you would-be lion hunters on this forum. You don't have to drive all the way across the state to have some hunting. Fuel up the ole "family truckster", take some provisions, and get out in the woods. The deer herds will thank you!
sliverpicker
[ 12-11-2003, 06:29 AM: Message edited by: sliverpicker ]
__________________
Team Anti Copy & Paste
"stickbows...putting the arch back in archery"
"if you rattle, they will come!"
|
:grin: 
Linear Mode
