I didn't start big game hunting until the late '60s when I was in college and working summers in Steamboat Spgs, CO. I remember seeing a couger rug that the local game warden had on his living room wall. From then on I wanted one, and for probably 40 years I would buy a lion license, just hoping to see one while I was out deer or elk hunting.
I think that I saw my first lion in the wild one summer when I was working on a road project near West Yellowstone, MT. I saw several on the county road just below my house, and even saw probably my biggest out my kitchen window one day when he was chasing some deer on the hill behind my house. My sister lives on top of a mountain just west of Denver, and she has seen quite a few lions by her house. A few winters ago, my GF and I were playing pool with my sister at her house and we saw one walking by, not 20' from her door.
So finally I gave up trying to kill a lion on my own and I booked a hunt with JT Robbins in western Colorado. I'd be in Denver anyway for Thanksgiving, so I booked the hunt for the week after.
Colorado then required you to pass a lion identification test before you can buy a license. It was a simple test with maybe 10 questions, but every time I tried to take it, it would lock up on about question 7 or 8. I tried the test of several different computers and every time I would get to that question, it would lock up.
I finally went to a Colorado FWP Regional office in Denver, took the test on their computer, and again it locked up on question 7 or 8. It just so happened that the guy that wrote the test worked there, and he came out and again after several tries we got through the test and I was able to buy my license.
It had snowed the night before my first day out with JT, and about mid morning we cut some fresh lion tracks. JT let his dogs out and it didn't take his dogs too long to tree the cat. The dogs had him treed high on a plateau above some cliffs, so to get there we wound around some old uranium exploration two track roads that we had to cross into Utah and back.
The lion was in the top of a pinion tree which wasn't very high and JT's dogs could just about climb up to the cat. I had wanted to shoot it with my Ruger .44 pistol, but because we took so long to get to the tree, and JT's dogs were so close to it, that he asked me to shoot it with my .30-30.
One shot and a 50+ year dream came true here on the ground just under the tree, but on the edge of a cliff. The blood on my hand is mine, not the lion's. Just thin, old skin that easily tears going through the brush.
Back on flat ground...
And finally, here at home. His spot in front of the fireplace is just temporary until I can remodel my living room for some higher wall space.
