Trying to judge a cat?
- Thread starter shoots-straight
- Start date
highmountian
New member
Yep wouldn't even think twice about it! Shoot Shoot Shoot!
HUNTMAN
New member
arrow is nocked and on its way.
Gerald Martin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2009
- Messages
- 8,957
Done and you did! Good job!
shoots-straight
Well-known member
I had no equipment, but the two dudes with me, are ready!
T
tjones
Guest
Hmmm let me think,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
highmountian
New member
Yep, checked again and same result! Shoot Shoot Shoot!!!!!!
shoots-straight
Well-known member
Moosie
Grand poopa
If AZ402 had a Dollar for every time he heard that at a gay bar.............
Looks like a great cat. Probably 200#
<---- (Please notice)
T
tjones
Guest
ok, so I am done thinking,,,arrow away!
Horn Seeker
New member
Got more pics! Congrats!
wingman1
New member
Well done!
Kill em...... kill em all.
Kill em...... kill em all.
Gerald Martin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2009
- Messages
- 8,957
Surely you've got more pictures than that! C'mon don't be so stingy!
noharleyyet
Well-known member
Can you fix the eyes?
Purty kitty Jones.
Purty kitty Jones.
wingman1
New member
I forgot to ask how your hounds did? Did you get any pics of them at full cry. That's the best part for me. Did shoot straight run his dogs? What did that cat weigh? Was he a subadult? Details, details, details.
T
tjones
Guest
Sorry for the delay, dang real job has kept me distracted this morning.
So this whole story starts back early fall when Montana finally got around to drawing special mountain lion licenses. This was the year shootsstraight, little ss and myself all got luck and drew the license. A good friend of ours has dogs and so we thought we were golden. After a quick call to him he told me that he had been real lucky and had drawn a Montana moose tag, a Idaho antelope, Oregon blacktail, NM elk and his wife had drawn a premo mule deer tag and he would have no time to get the dogs in shape and ready to go. Bummer!
He called back then and said if I would take the dogs at my house, feed them and get them in shape I could have them for the season. Hell ya! He brought up the dog box, shock and GPS collars, dog houses and 2 hounds. We are in business all though I was a bit worried about the neighbors burning me out, once the hounds started barking. Turns out they don't do much of that. Lucky for me.
So I got them middle of Oct. and started running them along side my 4 wheeler, and worked are way up to 7 miles a day...at times my thumb got damn tired. The dogs were ready to go Dec. 1.
SS has snowmobiles so once the season opened we started looking for tracks, finding bobcat and lion tracks didn't seem to be a problem, the problem was wolves. Seems every fresh cat track had wolf tracks near and we really didn't want to kill borrowed dogs.
So Sunday we decide to try a new area, not know for having wolves, but really popular with other houndsmen. We get an early start running roads and find mule deer a fresh bobcat, but no lions. We head back to the bottom of the drainage and head up another road, damn a fresh rig track headed up, and no coming down track. There is a great locked gate road we are headed to thinking we will be the first one out that. As he head up SS slams on the breaks of the snowmobile and sure enough there is a fresh cat track across the rig tracks. He crossed behind them. We turn around head back down a short run to get the dogs, little SS, and bows.
Now I should have sat on the track while SS went and got the gear, when we get back the rig that went up is parked on the track. It was a young guy with a pup. His partner had turned out on another track up above and he was just looking at the track. He was great about it and said no problem if we wanted to turn out on this track.
The track was smoking hot and the dogs had no problem and were gone like a shot. Up and over a ridge and out of ear shot. We get our bows and head up after them. Its about 300 yards to the ridge top, and when we get there it looks like the dogs had jumped the cat right there, within sight of the main road just above where we left the snowmobile, cool!
Once we top the ridge we can hear the dogs baying just a little below us. Now can this be real? That short of a chase? We go about 200 yards and there the dogs are, baying treed and a nice lion up the tree. There wasn't much talk about weather arrows were going to fly. Maybe an 8 yard shot, perfect broad side and wide open. At the shot the cat jumped straight in the air, and down he came, dogs hot the trail and the arrow, after the exit still flying as far as we know.
The cat made a mad dash down hill about 100 yards, dogs on his heals. He piled up dead in the nasty draw. Not a fun drag but was worth it. One down two to go!
This is Gus
So this whole story starts back early fall when Montana finally got around to drawing special mountain lion licenses. This was the year shootsstraight, little ss and myself all got luck and drew the license. A good friend of ours has dogs and so we thought we were golden. After a quick call to him he told me that he had been real lucky and had drawn a Montana moose tag, a Idaho antelope, Oregon blacktail, NM elk and his wife had drawn a premo mule deer tag and he would have no time to get the dogs in shape and ready to go. Bummer!
He called back then and said if I would take the dogs at my house, feed them and get them in shape I could have them for the season. Hell ya! He brought up the dog box, shock and GPS collars, dog houses and 2 hounds. We are in business all though I was a bit worried about the neighbors burning me out, once the hounds started barking. Turns out they don't do much of that. Lucky for me.
So I got them middle of Oct. and started running them along side my 4 wheeler, and worked are way up to 7 miles a day...at times my thumb got damn tired.
The dogs were ready to go Dec. 1.SS has snowmobiles so once the season opened we started looking for tracks, finding bobcat and lion tracks didn't seem to be a problem, the problem was wolves. Seems every fresh cat track had wolf tracks near and we really didn't want to kill borrowed dogs.
So Sunday we decide to try a new area, not know for having wolves, but really popular with other houndsmen. We get an early start running roads and find mule deer a fresh bobcat, but no lions. We head back to the bottom of the drainage and head up another road, damn a fresh rig track headed up, and no coming down track. There is a great locked gate road we are headed to thinking we will be the first one out that. As he head up SS slams on the breaks of the snowmobile and sure enough there is a fresh cat track across the rig tracks. He crossed behind them. We turn around head back down a short run to get the dogs, little SS, and bows.
Now I should have sat on the track while SS went and got the gear, when we get back the rig that went up is parked on the track. It was a young guy with a pup. His partner had turned out on another track up above and he was just looking at the track. He was great about it and said no problem if we wanted to turn out on this track.
The track was smoking hot and the dogs had no problem and were gone like a shot. Up and over a ridge and out of ear shot. We get our bows and head up after them. Its about 300 yards to the ridge top, and when we get there it looks like the dogs had jumped the cat right there, within sight of the main road just above where we left the snowmobile, cool!
Once we top the ridge we can hear the dogs baying just a little below us. Now can this be real? That short of a chase? We go about 200 yards and there the dogs are, baying treed and a nice lion up the tree. There wasn't much talk about weather arrows were going to fly. Maybe an 8 yard shot, perfect broad side and wide open. At the shot the cat jumped straight in the air, and down he came, dogs hot the trail and the arrow, after the exit still flying as far as we know.
The cat made a mad dash down hill about 100 yards, dogs on his heals. He piled up dead in the nasty draw. Not a fun drag but was worth it. One down two to go!
This is Gus
T
tjones
Guest
And here is Doc.
The dogs getting theirs!
The dogs getting theirs!
T
tjones
Guest
Here is the crew, shootsstraight, little shootsstraight and me. Randy11, no comments on SS's hat, ya hurt his feelers last time.
We guessed him at 120 pounds, he had a full belly and yes he was a tom.
We guessed him at 120 pounds, he had a full belly and yes he was a tom.
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