A friend of mine, Robbie Hurt, one of the best dog men in South Texas took this big lion and posted the story on South Texas Hunting Association.
Robbie Hurt - Well....had a little excitement yesterday morning! A friend of mine called me about 2 weeks ago saying he had gotten a picture of a lion on a trail camera there at their ranch. He was wondering if we had a chance to catch him with the hounds but it had been 3 days since the picture was taken. I told him the lion could be long gone by now but what I’d do is put up trail cameras around all the water holes in that area. This is when we were hitting 100 degrees plus every day so I figured if he was anywhere around they would catch him on camera. Our plan was to come right behind him with the hounds if they caught him on camera.
Now it just so happened that another good friend of mine was on the neighboring ranch and this picture of the lion was taken about 400 yards from their fence line. So I called and alerted him of the lion sighting.
Well....nearly two weeks went by, then Friday after dinner I received a call from my friend that they had found a fresh deer kill and it looked like the doings of a lion. The kill was real close to a stock tank and after checking for tracks around the tank they found a fresh lion track in the mud and the mud was still soft.
It’s at this time we decided we might should make a round with the hounds. I called a good friend of mine that has dogs too, to meet me there and we’d make a round that night around the kill, if we didn’t do any good we’d take a nap and get up and make another round the next morning. Hoping the lion would come back into the kill.
Not 30 minutes after we arrived that evening it started raining. At first we just figured it was a little cloud that would blow over in a little while. Well it got to raining hard and raining and raining and wouldn’t stop. Finally at 10:30pm we decided to call off the hunt that night, it was still pouring down rain, and we’d get up at 5:30 am and make a round. Hoping it would quit raining some time during the night and give the lion a chance to lay a track that wouldn’t be washed out by the rain.
Next morning it had quit raining, so we drove down within about 400 yards of the deer kill and dropped the dogs out. We roaded them down toward the kill. When we got down to the tank where the kill was we could see some of the dogs over at the kill. Just smelling around checking things out but no indication that they were smelling cat. We kept roading the dogs on past the kill down a draw that feed into the tank. About 100 yards past the kill we noticed, on the gps tracking collar, that one of our dogs had dropped off behind us before we ever reached the tank. She was about 300 yards off to the right of the truck. Just about that time she opened up. All the dogs heard her and pulled to her. One by one as they got to feeding into her they joined in. In just a few minutes we had a full blown race going on and that’s with nineteen dogs in the race. They ran up ahead of the truck on the right, then veered left and crossed the road ahead of us. In just a few minutes they sit down treeing. We pulled down the road to them. Got them straight out from us on the drivers side and stopped the truck. They wasn’t 30 to 40yards off the road. Got to shining the light from the road and sure enough, there he was! A lion sure looks big in a tree compared to a bobcat! From the time we dropped the dogs out of the truck and started hunting till they sit down treeing couldn’t have been over 15 to 20 minutes at the most. It was fast action and exciting for just a little bit but sure was fun.
They had found two other deer kills on the ranch during this two week period but by the time they found them they were to far gone to tell what had done the killing but very possible it could have been this lion.
This was a tom lion that weighed 124 pounds. Just another one of my hunting stories.
Now it just so happened that another good friend of mine was on the neighboring ranch and this picture of the lion was taken about 400 yards from their fence line. So I called and alerted him of the lion sighting.
Well....nearly two weeks went by, then Friday after dinner I received a call from my friend that they had found a fresh deer kill and it looked like the doings of a lion. The kill was real close to a stock tank and after checking for tracks around the tank they found a fresh lion track in the mud and the mud was still soft.
It’s at this time we decided we might should make a round with the hounds. I called a good friend of mine that has dogs too, to meet me there and we’d make a round that night around the kill, if we didn’t do any good we’d take a nap and get up and make another round the next morning. Hoping the lion would come back into the kill.
Not 30 minutes after we arrived that evening it started raining. At first we just figured it was a little cloud that would blow over in a little while. Well it got to raining hard and raining and raining and wouldn’t stop. Finally at 10:30pm we decided to call off the hunt that night, it was still pouring down rain, and we’d get up at 5:30 am and make a round. Hoping it would quit raining some time during the night and give the lion a chance to lay a track that wouldn’t be washed out by the rain.
Next morning it had quit raining, so we drove down within about 400 yards of the deer kill and dropped the dogs out. We roaded them down toward the kill. When we got down to the tank where the kill was we could see some of the dogs over at the kill. Just smelling around checking things out but no indication that they were smelling cat. We kept roading the dogs on past the kill down a draw that feed into the tank. About 100 yards past the kill we noticed, on the gps tracking collar, that one of our dogs had dropped off behind us before we ever reached the tank. She was about 300 yards off to the right of the truck. Just about that time she opened up. All the dogs heard her and pulled to her. One by one as they got to feeding into her they joined in. In just a few minutes we had a full blown race going on and that’s with nineteen dogs in the race. They ran up ahead of the truck on the right, then veered left and crossed the road ahead of us. In just a few minutes they sit down treeing. We pulled down the road to them. Got them straight out from us on the drivers side and stopped the truck. They wasn’t 30 to 40yards off the road. Got to shining the light from the road and sure enough, there he was! A lion sure looks big in a tree compared to a bobcat! From the time we dropped the dogs out of the truck and started hunting till they sit down treeing couldn’t have been over 15 to 20 minutes at the most. It was fast action and exciting for just a little bit but sure was fun.
They had found two other deer kills on the ranch during this two week period but by the time they found them they were to far gone to tell what had done the killing but very possible it could have been this lion.
This was a tom lion that weighed 124 pounds. Just another one of my hunting stories.
Comment