Cougar called in and killed
Cougar called in and killed
Went to the Predator masters annual hunt last week and it turned out to be a fantastic hunt. The hunt was held on the San Carlos Reservation near Globe Arizona.
First I would like to say thanks to Weasel and Steve, without them two helping it would not be as good a story and hunt.
The day started out with little action and seemed to get harder and harder to stay out, but between the three of us we marched on. We headed further and further from the Casino going east and found an area that looked like a good candidate for game. The first stand produce a coyote that slipped through without even a shot fired. This made making stands even harder knowing you only get a few chances to get things right and blowing opportunities just seems to create more doubt when the hunting is hard and few animals are responding. We made a few more stands and then ate some lunch. After lunch we made one more stand that produced nothing and moved on.
We came around a corner and noticed a great looking area that had what we had been looking for, water, feed, tracks and plenty of signs of game. With the reservation being very dry this year finding areas with water seemed critical and Weasel suggested that this would be a good place to call. We found a good place to park the truck and walked in. The area had dry yellow grasses with scattered cedars, cactus and a few small oak thickets. Weasel, Steve and I had become almost silent about our stand setups and as we walked in our individual spots were each picked with the wind, shooting lanes and best chance shots almost automatically.
I had the Fox Pro and remote and had motioned were I thought the best spot would be and I received the thumbs up from them. I set the Fox Pro in a thicket of Oak brush and found my shooting and calling position in front of the caller about 40 yards in front of the caller. I heard the squeaks from my partners and started up the Fox Pro using the Woodpecker in Distress sound. I ran the caller at about half volume for about two minutes and then ran it up almost all the way for the next eleven minutes. I then shut down the FoxPro and gave it less than a minute and started calling with a favorite Haastyl call I had made. I called for about 30 seconds then a break of 30 or so and then another 30 seconds of calling. I looked over and could just barley make out Steve and was thinking about how well he blended in and was wondering how my pattern looked from a distance. As I turned to look around, I could not believe my eyes, a Mt. Lion was around seventy yards directly in front of me and was looking to her right, and had not seemed to notice me as I turned to look her way. I felt the adrenaline rush though my body like some drug had been injected without my consent and tried to hold it together. I started to slowly raise my gun, which felt like it weighed a ton, and found her in my scope. She was still looking to her right. I found her chest and pulled the trigger. I watched as the lion jumped high in the air and virtually did a mid air flip. I made the mistake of taking my eyes off her and yelled out that I had shot a lion. I waited for Weasel and Steve to come over and told them I a shot a lion. At this point I figured that she would be lying dead, right were I hit her. As I ran over to the spot I looked around fully expecting to see her any second and the more I looked, the more I started to worry.
I felt very confident that I hit her, but I could not help the doubting. I even remember hearing the crack as the bullet hit the mark, but I have heard that sound on misses when the bullet hit something solid behind the missed animal. As we ran around looking for blood or signs more doubt entered my mind and I began to feel I had been here before. We then started to follow leads of turned leaves, broken twigs or branches. I finally got down on my hands and knees and started looking. When I shot It was around 3:00 P.M. and by the time I finally found the first very tiny drops of blood it was around 4:00 P.M. I had also found hair and something that looked like a track. I felt a great sense of relief and started in on the tracking. We organized and each took a position in the tracking. Steve and I would search for signs of blood as Weasel held the last position. At first the blood and sign was very hard to find and I now know that cats leave virtually no tracks. As we found sign we also noticed a few spots where we figured it had left an impression in the ground, or turned rocks. At times the blood trail seemed to just end and after searching in a circle we would find another small spot, at times the size of the tip of a number .02 pencil, and then we would find spots that you could really see from a distance. At around 250 yards the trail started to get very easy to follow and the tracking went really fast and finally at about 300 yards the trail just seemed to end with blood pooling to a point where I was able to dip my finger in it. At this point the trail just ended and I knew that she was right here somewhere and I began to circle again feeling confident the lion was right here somewhere and all of a sudden Weasel yelled out “Here it is!” She had fallen in the crevice of some large rocks, looking up at the sky just barley fitting between the rocks. Her legs were straight up in the air and her eyes seemed to be glowing. After the high fives and celebration we all realized we had accomplished a highly sought after prize.
She weighed in at around 110 pounds and was 6’ 6”, not a huge cat, but a huge accomplishment. I look forward to next years P.M. hunt!
First I would like to say thanks to Weasel and Steve, without them two helping it would not be as good a story and hunt.
The day started out with little action and seemed to get harder and harder to stay out, but between the three of us we marched on. We headed further and further from the Casino going east and found an area that looked like a good candidate for game. The first stand produce a coyote that slipped through without even a shot fired. This made making stands even harder knowing you only get a few chances to get things right and blowing opportunities just seems to create more doubt when the hunting is hard and few animals are responding. We made a few more stands and then ate some lunch. After lunch we made one more stand that produced nothing and moved on.
We came around a corner and noticed a great looking area that had what we had been looking for, water, feed, tracks and plenty of signs of game. With the reservation being very dry this year finding areas with water seemed critical and Weasel suggested that this would be a good place to call. We found a good place to park the truck and walked in. The area had dry yellow grasses with scattered cedars, cactus and a few small oak thickets. Weasel, Steve and I had become almost silent about our stand setups and as we walked in our individual spots were each picked with the wind, shooting lanes and best chance shots almost automatically.
I had the Fox Pro and remote and had motioned were I thought the best spot would be and I received the thumbs up from them. I set the Fox Pro in a thicket of Oak brush and found my shooting and calling position in front of the caller about 40 yards in front of the caller. I heard the squeaks from my partners and started up the Fox Pro using the Woodpecker in Distress sound. I ran the caller at about half volume for about two minutes and then ran it up almost all the way for the next eleven minutes. I then shut down the FoxPro and gave it less than a minute and started calling with a favorite Haastyl call I had made. I called for about 30 seconds then a break of 30 or so and then another 30 seconds of calling. I looked over and could just barley make out Steve and was thinking about how well he blended in and was wondering how my pattern looked from a distance. As I turned to look around, I could not believe my eyes, a Mt. Lion was around seventy yards directly in front of me and was looking to her right, and had not seemed to notice me as I turned to look her way. I felt the adrenaline rush though my body like some drug had been injected without my consent and tried to hold it together. I started to slowly raise my gun, which felt like it weighed a ton, and found her in my scope. She was still looking to her right. I found her chest and pulled the trigger. I watched as the lion jumped high in the air and virtually did a mid air flip. I made the mistake of taking my eyes off her and yelled out that I had shot a lion. I waited for Weasel and Steve to come over and told them I a shot a lion. At this point I figured that she would be lying dead, right were I hit her. As I ran over to the spot I looked around fully expecting to see her any second and the more I looked, the more I started to worry.
I felt very confident that I hit her, but I could not help the doubting. I even remember hearing the crack as the bullet hit the mark, but I have heard that sound on misses when the bullet hit something solid behind the missed animal. As we ran around looking for blood or signs more doubt entered my mind and I began to feel I had been here before. We then started to follow leads of turned leaves, broken twigs or branches. I finally got down on my hands and knees and started looking. When I shot It was around 3:00 P.M. and by the time I finally found the first very tiny drops of blood it was around 4:00 P.M. I had also found hair and something that looked like a track. I felt a great sense of relief and started in on the tracking. We organized and each took a position in the tracking. Steve and I would search for signs of blood as Weasel held the last position. At first the blood and sign was very hard to find and I now know that cats leave virtually no tracks. As we found sign we also noticed a few spots where we figured it had left an impression in the ground, or turned rocks. At times the blood trail seemed to just end and after searching in a circle we would find another small spot, at times the size of the tip of a number .02 pencil, and then we would find spots that you could really see from a distance. At around 250 yards the trail started to get very easy to follow and the tracking went really fast and finally at about 300 yards the trail just seemed to end with blood pooling to a point where I was able to dip my finger in it. At this point the trail just ended and I knew that she was right here somewhere and I began to circle again feeling confident the lion was right here somewhere and all of a sudden Weasel yelled out “Here it is!” She had fallen in the crevice of some large rocks, looking up at the sky just barley fitting between the rocks. Her legs were straight up in the air and her eyes seemed to be glowing. After the high fives and celebration we all realized we had accomplished a highly sought after prize.
She weighed in at around 110 pounds and was 6’ 6”, not a huge cat, but a huge accomplishment. I look forward to next years P.M. hunt!
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great story and way to go.last year when S.D. opened it's first lion hunt in who knows how many years almost all the cats were taken by calling.We are not allowed to use dogs so you gotta call em or cut a track and follow yourself.I've had cats come in while calling turkeys but that is in spring when you can't hunt em.hoping to fill my lion tag this fall.
