When the Gods Show Favor

[Ike]

I did take the Wolf Pack out yesterday after a lion or bear to get them some exercise after hanging on the chain during elk and deer season. I have a harvest objective tag and there are year round units open for lion. However, I figured to get along with the ungulate chasers and stay out of their hair.

Anyway, I did cut a lion track and put all seven of my hounds down the tracks. The track indicated it was probably a brute tom lion and sure enough it was. Those hounds were just as proud of their catch as mother after her baby won a blue ribbon in a contest of any sort.

I filmed that ol' tom for over an hour and tried to decide whether to kill him or not. You see, my harvest tag expires in the next couple weeks and I'll have to buy another one ha! Finally, I used the cell phone to talk to my wife and a hunting buddy who both encouraged me to take it. However, I must be getting soft-hearted in my old age cause I pulled the hounds and walked away--I call it recycling!hump

Keep'em Treed!
Ike

 

[SWNMHUNTER]

Good looking hounds and great pics. Keep'em coming.

 

[Ike]

Good looking hounds and great pics. Keep'em coming.

Thanks SWNMHUNTER!hump
ike

 

[mtmiller]

Nice pics Ike. Awesome to be on a lion like that and then decide to walk away. You won and maybe you will see him again.

 

[Ike]

Nice pics Ike. Awesome to be on a lion like that and then decide to walk away. You won and maybe you will see him again.

thanks mtmiller. The taking of a great animal is a really neat thing, and one for any man or woman to be proud of. However, we shouldn't measure ourselves on what we have taken as much as what we've learned along the way. I figure the real skill is in locating and running to tree a monster bear or lion........the killing is just killing!hump

I will be back out looking for that tom another day.....and hopefully have my son with me. If that ole tom makes the mistake in crossing while he's (my son) along then he'll surely die, as my son has a tag as well.|oo

Keep'em Treed!
ike

 

[JoseCuervo]

Ike,

How far will that Tom roam between now and the next time you are out?

 

[Ike]

Ike,

How far will that Tom roam between now and the next time you are out?

That's a good question and one that's hard to answer. There was a guy that wrote a book named the Long Walker, can't remember the hunters name. However, he claimed a traveling tom lion could walk thirty to forty miles in a single walk. I haven't looked at any studies lately but a tom's home range is 20 to 40 square miles I believe. It isn't a true homerange because the lions follow game migration. However, some of those big dominate tom lions get started some direction and just keep on going. That tom might have left the country after getting his butt pushed up a tree by seven hounds, or he might just go for a walk about, scratchin and marked to prove to himself that he is still the king of that mountain?????????????hump

I've had hunters tell me that a tom will scratch and then circle back in a week to ten days to check his scent line. However, I've found where a large tom had scratched early in the winter and never returned all winter long. Now, that either means he didn't come back or he couldn't come back. |oo Then the next year you cut his tracks again or another just like him. I have learned one thing about a moving tom lion, you better not get started too far behind him and be on the wrong end of his travels or the hounds will never catch him. To me, that indicates that the guy that wrote the Long Walker book knew and understood something about traveling tom lions.

Keep'em treed!
ike

 

[supersiderJR]

dang that was a huge cat

 

[LILIDAHO]

Nice kitty kitty! I would love to just go on a hunt and see one of those big guys up a tree. I wouldn't care about the killing part as the fun to me would be in the chanse and hunt! Way to go on that big guy!! LIL

 

[MarvB]

Nice Ike...that cat has some huge paws on him! Admire you for walkin' ...I think he would have been on my wall (course that would be illegal in Cali now wouldn't it |oo )

 

[Ithaca 37]

Great pictures of great lookin' dogs! Good lookin' cat, too.

 

[IDHunters]

Thats a big tom for sure. What do you think the cat population is in your area? Increasing or decreasing?

I have heard if you kill a big dominate tom like that there will be several lesser cats move into the territory and conversely with a big tom there won't be any other cats in the area....what do you think?

If it were me I would have popped him and saved a few dozen deer.........

Great pics by the way.

 

[Ike]

Thats a big tom for sure. What do you think the cat population is in your area? Increasing or decreasing?

I have heard if you kill a big dominate tom like that there will be several lesser cats move into the territory and conversely with a big tom there won't be any other cats in the area....what do you think?

If it were me I would have popped him and saved a few dozen deer.........

Great pics by the way.

I'd say the lion population across the region has shrunk considerable over the past six or eight years. I have had lots of toms knocked from the tree by clients and dumped a few big toms myself. And that's one of the things I thought about before walking away, did I really need to kill another big tom or not?hump I was alone that day as I am on many other days, and there wasn't anybody to run the video camera. |oo In my opinion, if I missed the footage then the kill is probably wasted no matter how big the cat was. On a different day, maybe one when I have my son along or a friend he'll surely die.

Lion studies show that you are correct with you comment about removal of a dominate tom will result in additional recruitment of younger lions. Therefore I question whether killing a big tom really benefits the deer hunters much. It would appear to me that several young cats might eat more than one older one???? But who knows!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep'em treed!
ike

 

[IDHunters]

Thanks for the reply Ike, I would be happy to run the camera.....and shoot the next one.

Tough call, lots of young toms or 1 or 2 big toms..big toms would be better/more efficient hunters, more young toms might take more deer. I wish the deer herds had the same problems, you know, kill one big buck and several new bucks show up to take his place! Killing more deer = more deer! Ha Ha.

 

[The Hedgehog]

What the #*^@#*? The key is to kill them all, toms, hens, and kittens too... Same with bears, coyotes, and wolves. Train them dogs to climb that damn tree and rip the coggsucker's throat out. What, your dogs part pussy or something? Get to work. I'm not that impressed yet.

 

[wyomingtim]

Wow, nice cat - that is one more thing that I am looking forward to hunting since I moved to Utah. Never got the chance in Wyoming and I have been kicking myself over that for the past 3 years.

 

[Ike]

Wow, nice cat - that is one more thing that I am looking forward to hunting since I moved to Utah. Never got the chance in Wyoming and I have been kicking myself over that for the past 3 years.

There are probably lots more cats and fewer dog boxes in Wyoming than in Utah hump Unlike Wyoming, our state's population has double twice in the past thirty years whereas Wyoming's population hasn't. But good look as there are still a few of those toms around.hump

Ike

 

[Ike]

Nice Ike...that cat has some huge paws on him! Admire you for walkin' ...I think he would have been on my wall (course that would be illegal in Cali now wouldn't it |oo )

Yeah MarvB, it's too bad we can't change that California ban on lion hunting, cause it would be fun to smoke one out there for sure!hump I was in California just a week before the voters banned a proposed lion hunt by the fish and game--think it was the late eighties?, and got to read the voting pamphlet. Man, those antis did lay it on pretty darn thick didn't they?|oo Maybe some of these right wing, pro-hunting guys from Utah could move out there and beef up the pro-hunting vote huh?

Keep'em treed!
ike

 

[TheGreatwhitehunter]

Great pics man that cool

 

[iowabuck]

Very nice congrats and thanks