Mustang
01-22-2009, 10:52 AM
I grew up in the Davis Mtns which has been known to house a few cats. I've never called one up, and only saw one in the wild (I'll explain below) There are 4 guys I know of that dedicate their lives to hunting cats. I've hunted with 2 of them. They use live & steel traps, but incorporate another useful method that I just happened to get lucky and take part in.
A lion had been picking off this guys goats. So we went into his goat pasture ( 1500 acre pasture) looking for it. He came across some nice Tom prints/sign and the goats were acting different so he knew he was in the area. We drove through the area painting the mountain sides with red-lense spot lights out either side of the pick up. I was suprised how easily it picks up a set of eyes. He had a set of eyes on his side so he shut down the pick up and I sat on the door and set the rifle up over the top of the pickup and once I had the eyes in my scope he hit it with the big white light. I saw right away it was a cat, it was just laying there licking it's paws, so I took my time and squeezed off a shot. I lost sight of the exact spot with the recoil and we didn't see anymore movement. He gave me a mag light and a glock and sent me up the mountain after it while he painted the area with the white light. Talk about a heart-pounding experience, it took me a good 30 minutes to find it because I was walking so dang slow. It turned out to be a good size female, 71" long, maybe a hundred lbs and I hit her right behind the ear. The shot was just under 200 yards and uphill at about a 25-30 degree angle. I was using his 22-250 so I was a little nervous shooting an "unknown" gun, but man did it shoot nice. He had another 22-250 that he was using also, both scopes are 6-18 50mm Leupolds. I was dissapointed it wasn't the Tom, but we did see another set of eyes in the distance that we guessed was the Tom, but he was boogying out of the area. That is my only experience with lions, someday I'll gain as much expereince as you fellas. Even though it was a female, she still made for a nice rug. Two weeks after that the bordering ranch trapped that big Tom and he measured over 8 feet and weighed in at 180 lbs.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/7024Lion-3.jpg
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/7024Lion.jpg
A lion had been picking off this guys goats. So we went into his goat pasture ( 1500 acre pasture) looking for it. He came across some nice Tom prints/sign and the goats were acting different so he knew he was in the area. We drove through the area painting the mountain sides with red-lense spot lights out either side of the pick up. I was suprised how easily it picks up a set of eyes. He had a set of eyes on his side so he shut down the pick up and I sat on the door and set the rifle up over the top of the pickup and once I had the eyes in my scope he hit it with the big white light. I saw right away it was a cat, it was just laying there licking it's paws, so I took my time and squeezed off a shot. I lost sight of the exact spot with the recoil and we didn't see anymore movement. He gave me a mag light and a glock and sent me up the mountain after it while he painted the area with the white light. Talk about a heart-pounding experience, it took me a good 30 minutes to find it because I was walking so dang slow. It turned out to be a good size female, 71" long, maybe a hundred lbs and I hit her right behind the ear. The shot was just under 200 yards and uphill at about a 25-30 degree angle. I was using his 22-250 so I was a little nervous shooting an "unknown" gun, but man did it shoot nice. He had another 22-250 that he was using also, both scopes are 6-18 50mm Leupolds. I was dissapointed it wasn't the Tom, but we did see another set of eyes in the distance that we guessed was the Tom, but he was boogying out of the area. That is my only experience with lions, someday I'll gain as much expereince as you fellas. Even though it was a female, she still made for a nice rug. Two weeks after that the bordering ranch trapped that big Tom and he measured over 8 feet and weighed in at 180 lbs.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/7024Lion-3.jpg
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/7024Lion.jpg