Airedale56
Member
Well,my lion dog man called and said he was going to make a pass this AM and asked if I wanted to go along. Was at his house before daylight and we climbed in the Rhino which was packed with a bluetick dog and 3 bluetick/walker crosses females. 2 of the B/W crosses were sisters and the other female was a pup from one of them.
We hit a lot of country that was known to harbor lions
We saw six bull elk, three bighorn sheep rams(1/4 curl, 1/2 curl and 3/4 curl) and one ewe: none of which were close enough to photograph. Sorry.
Lots of mule deer bucks like this guy.
We stopped for lunch and I used a timer to take this pic. (Yes I was wearing orange while hunting, took it off for lunch/photo.) I had my .500 Linebaugh in case we treed a lion.
Didn't find any tracks in what little snow was present; so we did some free-casting of the dogs and covered the tops of ridges trying to let the dogs find some scent.
One of the Bluetick/walker females found this kill and opened up. There was a lion scrape at the kill and we figured she had urine scent pretty strong. This buck was killed within the last month we figured. Pretty nice buck, but lions only kill the sick and old right?
We never found a lion today, but we had a great time. Froze our butts off this morning early, warmed up while free-casting the dogs.
On the way out I spotted some magpies flying out of a draw and told my dog man to stop. We found this coyote-killed buck, no rigor, still somewhat warm from a couple hours old, magpies hadn't removed the eyeballs yet.
We could tell it was a coyote kill from the rear legs trauma that brought him down. No lion claw or tooth marks along the neck and head/nose. And if it was a lion, it would have fed differently; going for internal organs first rather than feeding from the rear first, coyote-style.
None of the hounds opened up when run by the carcass. If there was lion scent the symphony and race would have started.
We'll head back and work on the coyotes as well as the lions.
Had a good day anyway. Hope you guys like the pics.
MOD: If the coyote attack carcass pics are too graphic, I apologize. I included them to help folks ID depredation styles.
Please remove them if they're too graphic.
Oh yeah, found a matched set of elk sheds from last winter/spring.
We hit a lot of country that was known to harbor lions
We saw six bull elk, three bighorn sheep rams(1/4 curl, 1/2 curl and 3/4 curl) and one ewe: none of which were close enough to photograph. Sorry.
Lots of mule deer bucks like this guy.
We stopped for lunch and I used a timer to take this pic. (Yes I was wearing orange while hunting, took it off for lunch/photo.) I had my .500 Linebaugh in case we treed a lion.
Didn't find any tracks in what little snow was present; so we did some free-casting of the dogs and covered the tops of ridges trying to let the dogs find some scent.
One of the Bluetick/walker females found this kill and opened up. There was a lion scrape at the kill and we figured she had urine scent pretty strong. This buck was killed within the last month we figured. Pretty nice buck, but lions only kill the sick and old right?
We never found a lion today, but we had a great time. Froze our butts off this morning early, warmed up while free-casting the dogs.
On the way out I spotted some magpies flying out of a draw and told my dog man to stop. We found this coyote-killed buck, no rigor, still somewhat warm from a couple hours old, magpies hadn't removed the eyeballs yet.
We could tell it was a coyote kill from the rear legs trauma that brought him down. No lion claw or tooth marks along the neck and head/nose. And if it was a lion, it would have fed differently; going for internal organs first rather than feeding from the rear first, coyote-style.
None of the hounds opened up when run by the carcass. If there was lion scent the symphony and race would have started.
We'll head back and work on the coyotes as well as the lions.
Had a good day anyway. Hope you guys like the pics.
MOD: If the coyote attack carcass pics are too graphic, I apologize. I included them to help folks ID depredation styles.
Please remove them if they're too graphic.
Oh yeah, found a matched set of elk sheds from last winter/spring.
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