Airedale56
Member
Saturday morning at dawn I was west of Wheatland, WY to hunt with my old dog man.
We started out to the west and headed SW of town along the Laramie Range mountains.
About 0945 we cut a real fresh track in the fresh snow and turned the hounds loose. I thought it was less than an hour old. After sticking their nose in the track we found, they were straight away on the track, bawling like mad dogs.
Well, of course the lion took the worst country he could find. They bayed him with in 1/4 mile, but he skipped out and the dogs continued the chase; Rocky country.
After about a mile, they treed him. It took us until 1130 to catch up. Man, lion hunting is a LOT of work, especially for an old fat guy like me.
The country was up and down, varying around 5250 feet elevation.
We had to use radio telemetry to find the dogs as the wind was blowing all the sound around. After getting the general direction, we moved in and found the dogs had this Tom treed about 20 feet up a Pondersoa pine.
As we moved in the dogs continued their baying. We eased into position to try to get the shot. It was 1135 AM.
I got set up to take a broadside right shoulder shot to take both shoulders. We had 4 dogs under the tree and didn't want to get any of them hurt when the lion came out of the tree.
I wanted to take some photos of the Tom in the tree, but my dog man said the cat was about to bail, so I lined up the sights on my John Linebaugh Custom Sixguns Ruger Blackhawk conversion in .500 Linebaugh caliber.
This revolver shoots a .512 diameter 410 grain cast bullet at 1200 fps. At about 12-15 yards I lined up the sights to take both shoulders and to wreck everything in between. In case he landed in the dogs, he'd have a hard time swiping at them.
I pressed the trigger, recoil followed ( I didn't hear the shot) and the cat went rigid and launched backwards out of the tree, dead in the air, and about landed on his back on top of one of the dogs, Ketchup, the big Bluetick.
My dog man said he had never seen anything kill a lion so fast, even when hit with rifle calibers. He didn't climb, jump or anything. Just DRT. (Dead, Right There)
The dogs closed in and started wooling him around, getting their reward for chasing this tom down.
Lots of work to get him skinned and haul him out followed. We had to tie the dogs up. They wanted to get some teeth in him.
He was 8' 7" from nose to tail, about 165 pounds. His belly was empty. His face, nose and gums and even the right corner of his mouth were severely scarred from a RECENT fight.
The wounds weren't even completely scabbed over. The right corner of his mouth and upper right gum line were open. I was surprised he even had a functional right eye. I wonder where the guy is that whipped him. His skull measures about 8" wide by 9.75" long. EDIT: Those measurements were taken with the hide off, but the meat still on. I don't know anything about records and such. He's surely smaller with the meat off and dried. I wasn't trophy hunting. He just happened to be the guy in the tree. I still want to see the one that fought/whipped him.
When we skinned him out, imagine my surprise when the bullet was recovered under the skin on the left shoulder. It weighs 397.5 grains after punching both shoulders. I was sure it had sailed right through. Lions are DENSE.
Game Warden estimated his age at 4 years old.
Tom is in the bottom of the freezer in the garage right now. I haven't mentioned that to my wife yet..... I'm just too tired.
I love living in Wyoming.
Best wishes from Cheyenne, Wyoming.
John
]
Hope you enjoy the pics!
Is it a bullet failure if the gas check comes off?
Big Ol' Punkin-Head!
We started out to the west and headed SW of town along the Laramie Range mountains.
About 0945 we cut a real fresh track in the fresh snow and turned the hounds loose. I thought it was less than an hour old. After sticking their nose in the track we found, they were straight away on the track, bawling like mad dogs.
Well, of course the lion took the worst country he could find. They bayed him with in 1/4 mile, but he skipped out and the dogs continued the chase; Rocky country.
After about a mile, they treed him. It took us until 1130 to catch up. Man, lion hunting is a LOT of work, especially for an old fat guy like me.
The country was up and down, varying around 5250 feet elevation.
We had to use radio telemetry to find the dogs as the wind was blowing all the sound around. After getting the general direction, we moved in and found the dogs had this Tom treed about 20 feet up a Pondersoa pine.
As we moved in the dogs continued their baying. We eased into position to try to get the shot. It was 1135 AM.
I got set up to take a broadside right shoulder shot to take both shoulders. We had 4 dogs under the tree and didn't want to get any of them hurt when the lion came out of the tree.
I wanted to take some photos of the Tom in the tree, but my dog man said the cat was about to bail, so I lined up the sights on my John Linebaugh Custom Sixguns Ruger Blackhawk conversion in .500 Linebaugh caliber.
This revolver shoots a .512 diameter 410 grain cast bullet at 1200 fps. At about 12-15 yards I lined up the sights to take both shoulders and to wreck everything in between. In case he landed in the dogs, he'd have a hard time swiping at them.
I pressed the trigger, recoil followed ( I didn't hear the shot) and the cat went rigid and launched backwards out of the tree, dead in the air, and about landed on his back on top of one of the dogs, Ketchup, the big Bluetick.
My dog man said he had never seen anything kill a lion so fast, even when hit with rifle calibers. He didn't climb, jump or anything. Just DRT. (Dead, Right There)
The dogs closed in and started wooling him around, getting their reward for chasing this tom down.
Lots of work to get him skinned and haul him out followed. We had to tie the dogs up. They wanted to get some teeth in him.
He was 8' 7" from nose to tail, about 165 pounds. His belly was empty. His face, nose and gums and even the right corner of his mouth were severely scarred from a RECENT fight.
The wounds weren't even completely scabbed over. The right corner of his mouth and upper right gum line were open. I was surprised he even had a functional right eye. I wonder where the guy is that whipped him. His skull measures about 8" wide by 9.75" long. EDIT: Those measurements were taken with the hide off, but the meat still on. I don't know anything about records and such. He's surely smaller with the meat off and dried. I wasn't trophy hunting. He just happened to be the guy in the tree. I still want to see the one that fought/whipped him.
When we skinned him out, imagine my surprise when the bullet was recovered under the skin on the left shoulder. It weighs 397.5 grains after punching both shoulders. I was sure it had sailed right through. Lions are DENSE.
Game Warden estimated his age at 4 years old.
Tom is in the bottom of the freezer in the garage right now. I haven't mentioned that to my wife yet..... I'm just too tired.
I love living in Wyoming.
Best wishes from Cheyenne, Wyoming.
John
]
Hope you enjoy the pics!
Is it a bullet failure if the gas check comes off?
Big Ol' Punkin-Head!
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