Wyoming Mountain Lion Bowhunt: Take two

[Valley1320]

Beautiful cat!! Not sure how I missed this thread. Congrats!!! Nothing like watching the hounds work and hearing their music.

 

[Trial153]

The only time I'd be personally interested in shooting a cougar, a bear, a wolf, etc. is if it were menacing livestock, pets, people and children in populated areas or in self-defense. I have no interest in eating meat-eating animals. If a predator is lawfully taken for sport, I can't knock the lawful taker. I can only hope the game-law makers are allowing predator hunting through sound biological and conservation reasoning.

Thats why no one forces you hunt, predators or anything else of for that matter. If it not something you want to do that’s your prerogative.
Eat whatever you like. I have no interest in eating salad.
Mountain lions in WY are on quota system, the units/area have Quota that is is set by the biologist. Seems like a pretty sound conservation minded approach to me. They also check and inspect each lion harvested which I am sure gives them data to use in their management. Considering that thankfully we share the landscape with predators like mountain lions, it makes sense to manage them through hunting.

 

[Trial153]

I came across guys hound hunting and they invited me to walk along to see the treed cat. I found nothing appealing about chasing cats up trees then shooting them. As stated and is true, if it's legal then so be it. Definitely wasn't for me.

If your experience was limited to walking into see a cat that was already caught, you missed 95% of the hunt. Shooting the cat is a infrequent formality for most of us, as we get way more out of the hound work that leads up to the catching. The great thing is we all get to define and Pursue our own experiences

 

[Trial153]

Beautiful cat!! Not sure how I missed this thread. Congrats!!! Nothing like watching the hounds work and hearing their music.

Yes agree nothing like watching and listening to a good chase

 

[OpenCountry]

If your experience was limited to walking into see a cat that was already caught, you missed 95% of the hunt. Shooting the cat is a infrequent formality for most of us, as we get way more out of the hound work that leads up to the catching. The great thing is we all get to define and Pursue our own experiences

This 100%. To see it click with the dogs the first time is a proud moment after the countless hours of working and training with them. To see the hunt drive grow even more is better. Congrats on the lion @Trial153!

 

[Gerald Martin]

If your experience was limited to walking into see a cat that was already caught, you missed 95% of the hunt. Shooting the cat is a infrequent formality for most of us, as we get way more out of the hound work that leads up to the catching. The great thing is we all get to define and Pursue our own experiences

I am always amazed at how many people reduce lion hunting to “shooting a cat out of the top of a tree. No thanks.”

I watched a video about bird hunting one time. For the life of me I can’t understand what is sporting about having a dog find a pheasant and point it out to the hunter. All a guy has to do is walk up and shoot it. No thanks.

 

[el unit]

Very cool! Congrats on a good hunt and great table fare. On my lion, we smoked the the hind quarters, made breakfast and italian sausage out of the fronts, and the loins/straps were just like pork tenderloin!

 

[TomTeriffic]

If I ever had to lawfully shoot a cat, as for reasons of depredation on my farm or ranch, I would probably make a full-body mount as a souvenir. Still, I would never have any interest in eating the animal. Texas is the only state that doesn't regulate cougar and that's troubling for me. Bad wildlife management can lead to overpopulation or extinction either way. I knew a man at work years ago who said he would like to shoot a nice buck someday. I asked him what he thought about hunting cougar, and he said he had no interest in killing a "beautiful animal". I'm sure a rancher at a loss for livestock will think a formerly depredating cat beautiful in his trophy room stuffed.

 

[Gerald Martin]

If I ever had to lawfully shoot a cat, as for reasons of predation on my farm or ranch, I would probably make a full-body mount as a souvenir. Still, I would never have any interest in eating the animal. Texas is the only state that doesn't regulate cougar and that's troubling for me. Bad wildlife management can lead to overpopulation or extinction either way.

Why wouldn’t you eat it? Mountain lion is delicious. It has the texture and flavor of lean pork.

 

[Irrelevant]

Why wouldn’t you eat it? Mountain lion is delicious. It has the texture and flavor of lean pork.

I found it to be slightly sweeter than pork, but delicious.

 

[TomTeriffic]

Why wouldn’t you eat it? Mountain lion is delicious. It has the texture and flavor of lean pork.

It's not natural to eat meat-eaters. It's only natural to eat vegetable-eaters. Deer is appealing to eat for me because it only eats vegetables.

 

[Hem]

Great thread Trial.
Congrats on the lion.

I was fishing the Gallatin one winter day years ago and located a missing hound...or he located me. After reuniting dog and owner I was offered a day in the mountains chasing cats.
Never did catch up with those dogs dawn to dusk. I think I lost 10lbs running through knee deep snow.
Pretty cool experience without a kill.

 

[brownbear932008]

I found it to be slightly sweeter than pork, but delicious.

Very good to hear they are good table fare. I'd love to chase a lion someday with a pack of hounds. Bear hunting with hounds is very popular in my area and those guys love the dog work. My uncle was a huge bear hunter and took around 80 bears over his hounds.

 

[Valley1320]

I think it was Warner Glenn that they got hounds out of necessity because the lions were killing so many of their colts on their ranch. We in our part of NM have way to many lions right now, not very many houndsmen in our part and lots of extremely dry terrain. If you catch a lion and its a legal lion and you don't kill it and the rancher finds out, that will be the last time your allowed to run lions on his place. In the last 10 years I've seen deer numbers plummet due to lions on a couple ranches near me. We we took out 3 females and a big tom they started to come back but now it's been a few years and the deer are getting more scarce again.

 

[Irrelevant]

Great, now we have to deal with OH 2.0 (TT). Wonder what this one burns in his campfires.

 

[Nick87]

Great, now we have to deal with OH 2.0 (TT). Wonder what this one burns in his campfires.

Crack.

 

[Hem]

Over exuberance usually leads to demise with some elder newbies.

 

[rtraverdavis]

I just can’t understand jumping on and shitting on someone else’s thread to give opinions on something you obviously know nothing about. Sorry, @Trial153

 

[TheJason]

I just can’t understand jumping on and shitting on someone else’s thread to give opinions on something you obviously know nothing about. Sorry, @Trial153

It’s a common occurrence for idiots.

 

[TheJason]

Nice pictures Trial.

For those who don’t understand the allure, as the OP stated above, killing the cat is such a small portion of the hunt. I’ve been on a number of cat and bear chases. Watching/hearing the dogs work out the puzzle is fascinating. What’s even more fascinating is getting to watch a hounds man work with his dogs as a team. The hounds men I know and have run with are excellent woodsmen and have a very good knowledge of lion behavior.

Like Gerald alluded to with bird hunting, 99% of the satisfaction is in watching a dog work a scent and work out the puzzle in front of them. If you’re not the dog owner or don’t have an appreciation for watching dogs work, you’ll likely miss the bulk of the satisfaction that comes from these kinds of hunts.