John's first lion

[Big Horn Posse]

George,
Thanks. The area the lion was harvested is in an unlimited year round area. Wyoming has done away with the female harvest quotas as the seasons were being closed too early by quotas being met. I spoke with a warden at the regional office in Sheridan and asked about this and the unlimited areas. He said the reason they made the unlimited areas was because the quotas were being met and they had to keep raising the quota numbers. These areas are high depredation areas and they were seeing more and more cats causing trouble with the ranches. The female quotas were also removed after more problem cats were moving into civilized areas like Sheridan and the surrounding communities. Just last summer they had a few lion incidents coming around homes. Seems the lion populations have been doing well and that is why the Game and Fish has done what they did. I would also like to add this was the first female I have had harvested over my dogs. I have turned down tracks I believed were females or have known there were kittens with a female in the past. This was a good healthy female and I know if anyone else would have treed her she would be harvested just the same. I appreciate your kind words and those of everyone else that have spoke up and supported me and my sharing this story. I always enjoy the hunt much more than the harvest, but sometimes when you have someone who has never harvested one and has earned his right to do so it is a great thing to be a part of. John has worn out a lot of boot leather with me over the last few months and has helped me with the hounds. He was not a client just looking for a trophy he is now a fellow houndsman and that is one more person to keep our sport going. More people should introduce people to our sport and not get jealous or competitive. Anyone that has ever hunted with me knows I am as laid back and easy going as anyone can get when sharing the mountain with them. I want to learn from them as I hope they can learn from me. I have hunted with newcomers and old timers a like and they have been some of the most fun times I have ever had. If anyone has an issue with me or anyone else they are in it for the wrong reasons in my mind.

[razorrb]

Good job Tessa!!! I would have done the same thing. One thing that has gotten me to not be on this site are some of the people on here. They just talk shit plain shit!!! I hate coloradans that act like thier shit don't stink either and for utah people its becuase you shot a female not the hard work or success of the hunt. Someone always has to be there to questions your every move. I hunted Laramie for awhile when I was there and I understand fully about the rancher deal. I get so pisssed at "houndsmen" that just jaw jack for not reason and don't have anyting good to say that would credit the hunter or huntress. Whats funny is it goes for other hunting as well not just lion hunting, deer and elk too! Like it or not fellas women are coming on strong in the hunting world so we either have to put our big boy pants on and deal with it or maybe its time to go find you an new pair of balls!!!! I don't give a shit who I piss off here becuase this forum is retarted! Literally! Again good job Tessa!! I hope you kill catch a bunch of cats this year, more than some of these bastards complaining on this post will ever!

[anarchy kennels]

Well good to see someone is catchin cats in wyoming now. Lol. Very nice pics and good luck with more.

[Powder River Walker]

And if u do everything that a rancher wants then they want u to kill everything that u see including females and cubs and see how far that gets u. I am not saying that u killing that particular female is bad cause a 150 pound female that has most likely not had kittens is probally baren and is fine to kill (in my opinion) but u will get a lot of shit doing that

I suppose you are one of those guys that think we don't need ranchers and livestock I get my meat from the store.

[kehrer10]

Congrats Tessa! I would have shot her in a second! No wonder the anti's keep winning noone can get along and stick together, seems like a lot of people think there shit doesn't stink. I just started hound hunting this year and it's amazing how many of the hunters out there bitch about what everyone else does, I haven't put a lion in a tree yet but when I do, I will knock it out, I hope it is a nice mature tom, but I will be honest if it is a mature female with no kittens she's hittin the dirt. After that you can jump all over my ass. GOOD JOB TESSA!!!

[guy54]

I know I am going to regret getting on this post because someone is going to jump all over me for it. First off I would like to say congratulations to Tessa and John. You go girl!!!! It is hard when someone can see all sides of the coin. I ranch, I outfit private ranch mule deer hunts, and I enjoy my hounds and once in a great while I get fortunate enough to put a cat up a tree. I have permisssion from most of my neighboring ranches to hunt lion. Yes most of them are of the opinion that if you tree it you kill it if you want to continue hunting. Being a rancher myself I can understand their thinking. When ones lively hood is affected it tends to make you single minded. It's the same way with lion outfitters and killing females, your lively hood is affected by that. A lot of deer outfitters dislike lion as much as the ranchers, once again it is all about cause and affect. About five years ago my daughter and I treed a female lion on our ranch that was jumped off of a deer kill. We took some pictures and walked away letting the lion go because she was a female. On our way out in the dark we came across the deer that was killed and it was an impressive buck that would have brought good revenue to our deer hunting operation. As a lion hunter we did the right thing, but as a deer outfitter I have to be honest, I often wonder if I shouldn't have harvested that female. I make no revenue lion hunting but I do deer hunting and ranching. So I can see all sides of the argument.

[TomJr]

Congrats on the first lion! That was a big ol female!

My first lion was a female. I was 14 years old and found a lion kill so my dad set me on the kill with some doe in heat lure to kill my scent... maybe not the best idea? Anyhow the lion came in across the creek from me. It was making a strange call something like a yelp-raven croak. I had no idea what that ment but wanted to watch it feed so didn't shoot then, even though it was a 30 yard shot. It went out of sight and popped up less than 5 feet from me. It froze and I froze... I unfroze first and shot it point blank with my bran new 30.30 still have that gun and still use it over 25 years later. I also still have the skull and hide even though I taned it myself it held up. Its not prety because she was old and beat up with missing teeth and scars all over her back. I believe she was calling kittens with that call as she had wet nipples... I never saw them and didn't know much of anything at the time so was as happy as a young kid could be with my "trophy".

My feelings on shooting females is, if the area has a large population and you are not going to close a season there is nothing wrong with it as long as you feel good about it. If its a low density area then think about letting her go. I would never shoot a female if I saw cubs or thought she had cubs. And now that I hunt with hounds I can realy look a cat over before shooting. That black dot under the tail on males is realy noticable and if I don't see it I just assume its female and go from there.

[Geno]

wow thats a pretty big statement powder river walker you must not know me!! Yea not to big into ranching just run 1800 mother cows and turn out 3000 steers every summer. Im not to sure were my steaks come from though and dont really know much about ranching lol. What i said is if u do what a lot of ranchers want is every lion dead no matter what first off it can get u in trouble and secound off u will ruin the hunting for everyone else. And if u go back and read what u quoted me on then u will see that i said a 140 baron looking female probally isnt bad to shoot just not what u want to post on the internet cause it doesnt look good. I run dogs and cattle so and love bolth of them with a passion and i dont care what most ranchers say not every cat needs to be dead. I run cattle were we have a lot of elk i hate having to fix fence every day and makes me sick that they get into hay stack in the winter the state does pay for that and i hate to sit there and watch them eat grass all summer that cattle could be consuming and i could be making money on but thats the way the world works. Sorry tessa did not mean to affend u just threw my two cents out. And powder river walker what do u do? guy45 i think that u made a very good statement and its hard to leave a good female in a tree but u did the right thing we have to have something for our kids to run!!! Thanks Gene
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[BigHornPosse]

This was MY first cat so stop giving Tessa crap. No damage or injuries but still interesting I suppose. Anyway, I was driving home on the 5th of Dec. when my partner Tessa called and said they just cut a track. I decided to come over whats called the "slip" road out of Kaycee, WY. (Chris Ledoux was born there for all you country folk). I got up and found them, not far from nightfall, and we had no luck with the cat. I decided to continue up the mountain and try to get down without having to drive around. Ended up getting stuck and had to spend the night on top. Knowing I was only 2 miles from cabin I hiked the best I could, staying in wheel ruts to orient myself. I finally made it to a cabin and slept off the -2F night. The next morning I continued hiking toward the highway, it was still 11 miles out. An hour into it I see my father fly by twice looking for me, and neither time did they spot me. Now I know how helpless people feel on TV when that happens. 10 miles to go, damn this snow! I end up being found by an old timer living up there and on the way back to her house we spot Tessa (the original Big Horn Posse) We start heading down and sure as shit we find a BIG track. After a 21 mile race (Thanks Garmin!) we hike to our dogs and sure enough, there's my 140lb female! After dicking around with her for awhile and letting her outta the first tree I climbed up a neighboring lodge pole pine and smoked the kitty from ten feet away. What a rush!

[Powder River Walker]

Geno,
Sorry for calling you out like that , that was not right on my part. It just gets me on how these people on here get so worked up over a big dry female. I figure that a cat that size is good for a $hit load of calves and twice as many sheep. So when you live in an area that we have such a big problem we need to be on an all out war with in legal bounds on lions. Once the quota is put back on then yes back to the "houndsman rules".
Also FYI John Chris Ledoux was from Tennesee area of the country and came out to go to school at Casper College. there were also some guys from Kaycee rodeoing there and he got to running with them came to Kaycee and decided that he would marry a local girl and call this home.

[Onza]

congrats on the catch! that was a HUGE catch

If I owned a dog that made a 21 mile race that included burned off south slopes I would wack the cat too... female, subadult,youngtom...whack em and stack em....smaller the better...easier to pack out over the 21 miles.

[Big Horn Posse]

Onza, Ozzy did it again today. He ran one all by himself, my blue pup went aways with him and didn't finish the race. It was her first real lion race. Ozzy treed it 3 times as it kept jumping. Didn't harvest this one as we didn't get into him till after dark. Was freezing today and snow knee deep made it slow going for us. I seriously need to get a GPS of my own. This old school tracking system makes getting into the treed long and tough. Didn't get off the mountain till 8pm. I am still cold from the ride off the mountain on the snow machine.

[Big Horn Posse]

Onza, also the lion was treed 3 miles from where we turned loose. The Garmin said the dogs had worked 12.5 readable miles from start to finish as they had zig zagged from ridge to ridge and finally treed it in the bottom of a canyon. I don't know where John got the 21 miles. Maybe he meant 12. All I know is I like those Garmins for sure. Neat deals being able to see the dogs progress. We were able to get the truck 1.8 miles away from the tree and walked in from there. Still rough going in the country we were hunting, but beats the walk we did yesterday relying on the telementary.