Returned from the Mountain

#1 coyote

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Posted 02 November 2009 - 09:24 AM

Got back to Menard last Thurs. Was supposed to have stayed at Tucumcari and hunted mule deer for another week but had a head cold and needed to take care of some business after having been gone for 10 days.
Had a good time with Fred Eichler while shooting for PREDATOR NATION. We got several coyote kills and a great encounter with a gray fox on tape in spite of having a tough time with the weather. It was genuinely 80 degrees on day with clear skies and 30 the very next with over a foot of snow in the foothills where I was camped. Winds were tough but the Compucaller III was up to the task.
Left Trinidad and drove to Tucumcari to help on a mule deer hunt. Saw 16 bucks the first two days bigger than fork horns and then the weather went south, too much wind and heat. One of the three MS hunters took a nice 4x4 and I had my hunter within 350 yds of a really nice 4x4 that would score over 170. We ended up loosing a lot of the 5 day hunt trying to find the buck again.
Got back to Texas and got a call from Scott Black (Retired Warden) last Fri. nite. He wanted to know if I wanted to get after a lion and though it was nearly 9:30 p.m., loaded Jimmy and Lizzie. I get a lot of lion reports (usually black)and generally find big bobcat sign. The trailing conditions were nearly perfect though the lion had been sighted at least three hours earlier.
I led Jimmy and Lizzie into the area where the hunter claimed to have seen the lion. I turned Jimmy loose and he did not go 50 steps before breaking loose with two extremely loud bawls telling me there was a critter there that he hated. He trailed away from me a little and I turned Lizzie loose. She went to him but turned around went trailing east in the direction where the cat was last seen traveling. Jimmy hit in there with her and away they went. Long story short they got the the cat really moving (almost jumped and covered a mile and a half to two miles) and put him over a deer proof fence into the neighboring ranch. My dogs were piled up on the fence, jumping and digging, trying to get under or over but the 8 ft. fence was too much of an obstacle.
Scott and I are planning to walk the creek bed where the dogs ran and see if we can find any sign of a lion. I know that Jimmy was running a cat for he was chopping and bawling as he does on a feline. When he is running a coon, he has a pure bawl.
Adios,
Gary

#2 tx.44hunter

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Posted 02 November 2009 - 10:11 AM

GREAT Report.....THANKS! 4 sharing. :wub:

"I will hunt them down" - Atty. Jim S. Adler (The Texas Hammer)

Is it 1/20/2013 YET????

#3 Boomy

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Posted 02 November 2009 - 10:18 AM

Sorry to hear about the cold :rolleyes:

. Good luck with the cat

"Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA –ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the state."
--Heinrich Himmler
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#4 Bennie

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Posted 02 November 2009 - 11:40 AM

Great story, would have had an even better ending with a picture of a Cat. I would have been looking for that 170 Buck also.

Hico, Texas
Member of Ducks Unlimited, NRA, Delta Waterfowl and VHA and proud former member of the 101st Abn Div.

#5 Ole Blood

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Location:Clarksville, Arkansas

Posted 02 November 2009 - 06:35 PM

Sounds to me that you might need to take a break for a bit and rest up fore you get really sick.

Also sounds like you have been in the midst of a couple of hunts with great potential. Better luck next time.

Rick

The early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese.

NRA
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#6 coyote

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Posted 03 November 2009 - 03:53 PM

Bennie
You are correct, I am spoiled. A free mule deer hunt on a 200,000+ acre private ranch. If I did not let business get in the way of pleasure, I would still be there.
I have been back in the country where we were running the cat and after studying the terrain, feel that the dogs made a loose when the lion jumped up in a tree. A lion is not like a coon who has to go to the trunk and climb, he may hit the tree 8 or 10 feet above ground level. A scared lion can jump much higher than a deer. I feel the loose they made was when the passed the tree with the lion in it. After they passed the tree, the lion snuck back down and continued on his westerly course which Jimmy picked him up on. I pulled up Google Earth and have found exactly what I suspected, a rough canyon off the river as his next destination. I visited with the rancher and he took me on the ranch after lunch and gave me the green light to hunt until Fri. when his deer hunter will begin arriving. Chances are pretty good he was in this canyon on Sat. and perhaps Sun. Today is Tues. and he might be in west of Fort McKavett. I am planning to look for sign along the canyon for future reference.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy deer season and kill the big one.
Adios,
Gary