Mountain Lion 2010

[nmtaxi]

Tagging a mountain lion has been on my wish list for quite a while. A few years back I was fortunate to meet and become friends with Nathan, who happens to be a houndsman.

Two years ago, Nate offered to help get me a lion in southern New Mexico. I went with him a couple of times, and even though we cut some tracks, we never came up successful. Nate seemed to have much better luck when I wasn't along.

A year and half ago, Nate moved to Fort Collins, CO to go to school. This year, he began having luck finding lions in the area, and invited me to give it go, once again.

Over the last couple of weeks we started watching the weather closely. Early last week, the weather report was looking promising, so we decided that this would be the weekend. I got everything set up to head out Thursday afternoon.

Thursday morning, Nate called to let me know that it appeared the storm was going to miss the area, and it may not be as good as we first thought. We were very close to cancelling, but in the end, my desire for a mountain lion over-ruled my common sense, and I headed north Thursday afternoon.

I hit bad weather between Santa Fe and Las Vegas, and again south of Pueblo, but things cleared the further north I went. I knew that we were going to be hunting on old snow, but that's still better than not hunting at all. Once I reached Fort Collins, I bought my tag, then met up with Nate. At that point, things started looking up. We heard a report that the mountains to the west had recieved a skiff of snow...

 

[nmtaxi]

Even with the report, my expectations were low. I had never even seen a mountian lion in the wild, and really couldn't even imagine tagging one. But, chasing those dogs through the hills is pretty fun and exciting (better than Christmas shopping).

We got up early Friday morning and headed to the mountains. The snow looked good, and we began looking for tracks. Nate informed me that there was a good area one the road where lions had been crossing that was now closed for the season by the forest service. He wanted to drop me off on one end of the locked gate and pick me up on the other side. The road went over the top to the mountain.

So, with headlamp and flashlight, I began what Nate described as a "2 mile walk" looking for lion tracks. On mile 3 of this "2 mile walk", and having seen no lion tracks, Nate called me on the radio telling me to hurry up, that he had cut a track on the way to pick me up. I began speed walking/running/falling down the mountain. He said where the track was, the snow wasn't very good, and we needed to get the dogs on it as soon as possible...

 

[nmtaxi]

I finally met up with Nate when the sun was in the sky. We were worried that the snow was going to melt of quickly.

Along the way, we met up with another of Nate's buddies that was out looking for tracks. He asked is he could run his dogs with Nate's after the lion. We were more than happy to let him.

We reached the tracks and put a couple of dogs of them. They got the scent and headed into the mountains. We watched the dogs on the GPS, and they appeared to be on the cat quickly. When it appeared the dogs were stationary, we headed after them with more dogs.

To my absolute amazement, the first two dogs had a lion treed withing 800 yards of the vehicle. The other dogs caught up, and we could hear them howling at the treed cat.

We caught up to the dogs, and found this big tom up in the tree. This was my first look at a wild mountain lion.

 

[UngulateFoe]

And theeeennnnn????


The Beast is Dead, Long Live the Beast.

-The Nuge

 

[nmtaxi]

Iwas almost in disbelief. After all the miles we put on in NM, just like that I was looking at a treed lion in Colorado.

Nate told me to take my time and enjoy the moment - the cat wasn't going anywhere. It was relly indescribable being that close to such an amazing animal - little did I know that I was going to end up being much, much closer in just a few minutes.

 

[nmtaxi]

After admiring the cat for a while, we determined it was a big tom, and definately a shooter. We got the dogs tied up, and I lined up for what seemed like somewhat of an anticlimactic shot.

I lined up on the lion, and squeezed off a shot. The lion jumped up as the bullet struck, and began the long fall from the tree. I was fully expecting the lion to hit the ground dead. To my amazement and shock, the lion hit the ground, and sprinted right by me. Talk about needed to change your drawers.

I didn't know how bad the hit was, or if I had completely missed. It was hard to believe I could hit it bad at that range.

We unleashed the dogs, and the chase was on once again....

 

[nmtaxi]

It didn't take long for the dogs to catch up to the wonded cat. About 100 yards away, the fight was on. We ran over there to find the cat cornered under a lot, and a hound and Nate's small terrier going toe to toe with the big cat. That terrier (Cole) has more balls than brains, and is right in the middle of the cat attacking it with the cat fighting back.

Everything was pure chaos. Hounds barking, cat fighting, and Nate yelling at me to get in there and finish off the cat. Nate told me to put the barrel in it's chest and pull the trigger. I got what I thought was close enough (barrel about 6 inches from it's chest) then waited for Cole to clear out. I pulled the trigger, and the second bullet just seemed to make the lion more mad. Being just a couple of feet from a wounded cat was pretty un-nerving, plus worrying about shooting one of the dogs.

Finally the next shot put the cat down for good. So much for anticlimactic. I don't think I've had a shot of adrenline like that in years.

Once the cat was dead, we were able to check out the dogs, and they all seemed okay. Cole had a newly pierced ear, and a couple of small puncture wounds, but didn't seem phased. All the little dog wanted to do was chew on the lion some more.

Here's Nate with my new hero Cole

 

[mickeyelk]

Wow, nice step by step! I have never taken a mountain lion, but one question I have always thought of was, can you eat them? Way to go and congrats!

 

[nmelktrout]

Awesome stories and pictures man. And, congrats on taking that deer killing machine out of the picture, 52 deer and elk are thanking you for not being killed by that lion in the next 12 months. Fish and game departments should reward a successful lion harvest with a deer permit for the unit the lion was killed in. That way they would encourage lion hunting AND work towards accomplishing a stronger deer herd. New Mexico has a few units that would benefit from somthing like this. Giving out a handful of deer tags to successful cat hunters in a unit sure beats losing a deer a week (or something like that) per cat...

Nice gato,
Cody

 

[OLBUZZTAIL]

nmtaxi.....Awesome story and pictures!! Congratulations on a great Lion!


Hunting is Life...everything else is
Just details.
Ol' Buzztail...

 

[khart]

Wow. Great story & pics!--Kevin

 

[MnMike]

Incredible story with awesome pics. That was one heck of an ending. Congrats.

 

[chops24]

great story! i like the idea of earning a deer tag per lion..

 

[elkmuzzleloader]

congrats on a very nice lion. It is such a blast running dogs. I hope to get my first cat this year as well.

 

[tayhot]

Awesome hunt.

 

[nightstalker]

i've been hunting NM for 20 plus years and have never seen a wild lion anywhere. One of my goals is to take one with an arrow without dogs...i know, prob impossible.
Congrats on a wicked story and pics. That pic with the red eyes staring into your soul gave me the chills.

 

[NMPaul]

That little terrier looks to be less than 25lbs. That is awesome.

Would love to see a better picture of that terrier. I got a little dog vs a bear story to tell you some time.

Definitely the old saying it is the size of the fight in the dog is true.

Sounds like that hunt was a blast.

 

[crazeymaez]

Nice Cat.Brings back memories

 

[mozey]

Great cat and cool story. A cat is on my bucket list too, but I could do without having to get that close to wounded one--not sure my old ticker could take it... ;-)

 

[Gator]

Great looking Cat and a good story, That little dog gots a ton of heart. LOL

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".

 

[nmbighorn]

Congrats on a great cat. Nice pics and an even better story, made me feel like I was there.
Yes, I agree that cat had some fire in its eyes.
nmbighorn

 

[twdjr]

Congrats on the great looking Tom! Nice story & pics, thanks for sharing!

 

[Pitbullth33]

Awesome cat. And cool story. I just moved to Ft. Collins and was wondering if your buddy Nathan ever wanted to go run his hounds and keep them on point with the cat scent and take along a cat hunter with him. I'm available. Let me know. I've been wanting to go lion hunting for a few years but haven't had the funds to hire anyone or don't know anyone with hounds
Thanks, Ryan

 

[outdoorsdude]

What a way to wrap up the year. Thanks for sharing a great story, and congratulations on the lion!

 

[JFWRC]

Very Cool!...... and yes thanks for taking one more deer eating machine out the state. Jimbo

 

[tailgunner]

Great story, nice pics, awesome hunt.Congrats.