Wyoming Mountain Lion Bowhunt: Take two

[Nick87]

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.

I would love to go on a cat hunt with hounds, not to shoot the cat but to just tag along. Just would love to watch em work.

 

[TheJason]

I would love to go on a cat hunt with hounds, not to shoot the cat but to just tag along. Just would love to watch em work.

Dogs have such different personalities and skill sets, it really is fascinating.

 

[Jason73]

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

No disrespect meant.

 

[MTLabrador]

Beautiful lion, congratulations! I’ve only been a part of one chase that didn’t end with a cat in the tree, but even that was exciting.

 

[Trial153]

Some back story. I have started keeping hounds in my junior year of college, 1997ish. Started with beagles to run cottontail and snowshoe hare. Judged about 150 AKC licensed field trials as well. I stopped trialing after finishing 15 field champions of my own breeding.
At times I kept treeing hounds to run cat and bear, the small training season on bear in NY really put a damper on that and driving to Maine and NH was wearing thin. Made few trips out west over years as well. Killing a Cat has always been secondary. So much so that this was my first. I have walked away from many a tree without anything more than a smile on my face.


Bow hunting and hounds have been a constant in my life, pretty much since being a kid from Queens reading Bowhunter magazine on his train ride to school.
Who would have thought a kid from NYC with bad hearing would turn nothing more than dreams into a chance to travel around with his bow from Alaska to Canada and Mexico? I have so many great experiences and memories already but the thing I am most fortunate of is the friends I have made along the way and my family that I come home to.
I know I have been inspired by other hunters when reading about their adventures. I am hopeful and thankful for the opportunity to share my adventure here and maybe it will inspire someone else to go out and turn their dream into an experience and good memory.

 

[Pucky Freak]

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.

Deer eat their placenta after giving birth. The rest of the year they eat bark, nuts, plants, seeds, etc. Deer in many areas will not eat a vegetable their entire lives. Turkeys eat lizards. Grouse and pheasants eat tons of invertebrates. Ducks eat fish and insects. Many fish people eat are obligate carnivores. Unnatural?

 

[MTLabrador]

Many fish people eat are obligate carnivores.

Maybe we should eat carp instead of walleye, halibut, salmon, etc?

 

[Irrelevant]

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.

 

[TheJason]

Last I checked, bitter brush is not a vegetable.

 

[SaskHunter]

Man, I dream of that!

X2

Congrats

 

[SaskHunter]

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.

Eating animals, any animals, is the most natural thing to do. Do you not eat fish? Birds? Etc. Most of what we eat, eats other animals which include insects, invertabrates, fish, etc.

North America was built on killing things to eat them. Most North American indigenous cultures, who have been living here "naturally" much longer than us, have lived off of hunting and eating any animals which included; wolf, coyote, bear, wolverines, etc.

You have quite the post history for a dude who joined yesterday. But eh, your postings are quite entertaining!

 

[TomTeriffic]

Deer eat their placenta after giving birth. The rest of the year they eat bark, nuts, plants, seeds, etc. Deer in many areas will not eat a vegetable their entire lives. Turkeys eat lizards. Grouse and pheasants eat tons of invertebrates. Ducks eat fish and insects. Many fish people eat are obligate carnivores. Unnatural?

When I say VEGETABLE, I mean a PLANT of some kind. Thanks for telling me wild turkeys eat lizards. I would then never want to hunt them. Would you eat a domestic dog or cat as they do in Asia? Mallard ducks are puddle ducks. If one hunts them in rice fields, they eat grains. Diver ducks eat fish. My grandfather once went duck hunting in the marshes of the SF Bay Area and told me they stunk like fish when they were cooked. He said good eating ducks came from the rice fields of Califorina's Sacramento Valley. I thought pheasants ate grains. I know dove eat seed.

 

[Dave N]

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.

I've seen a deer wipe out a nest of baby rabbits! And bear is tasty, by the way. Meat-eaters.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Great cat and pics. Congrats on a fine adventure and truly understanding what goes into a treed cat.

 

[Irrelevant]

I get that we need to all be adults and tolerant of others and their views, that it helps us expand our own bubbles and refine our own ideas, but...

I'd vote this one off the island.

 

[Hem]

Enter Wild Will and his stocking stuffer...

 

[Hem]

Dammit, I'm asking Santa for a flamethrower next year.

 

[Irrelevant]

Dammit, I'm asking Santa for a flamethrower next year.

I've accidentally made my own several times out of a bottle of lighter fluid.

 

[TheJason]

Dammit, I'm asking Santa for a flamethrower next year.

I’ll bring the beer.

 

[Hem]

Unfortunately its likely I would burn southwest Montana to a crisp after one beer.