Good day for a rookie

[Top Gun]

The dog and I went for a short hike in the morning but we were both ready to get back in the truck. The temp at 2 degrees with a slight wind was chilling to the bone. we drove some roads with no luck, and just parked the truck and sat for a while hoping to see the temp rise, but it never did. Afer a while I was thinking about heading home, but the fresh snow from yesterday, fisrt snow in two months was too tempting. Ghost Rider, just as much of a rookie as I am, looked at me as if to say "We will never find a track sitting in a parked truck." He was right, so we put on collars and coats and headed out. No more than thirty yards out of the rig and there is a lion track. Second one we have seen this year and we are both still trying to learn what to do at this point. So we start hiking. After a short while I realized we were following a pair. First for me, and I thought this should make the dogs job easier with more scent. I kept him focused on the tack and he loved it putting his nose in every step of the way pulling hard on the leash, but never vocalizing. We followed over huge rock piles, and wind blown open areas, through trees and sage for about two miles, struggling not to lose it. Then we came upon what the rookie in me thought was cats sliding in the snow and cat tracks everywhere like I had never imagined. A light bulb went off and i realized the marks in the fresh snow were drag marks from a kill, looking down the trail there lay an elk. We followed two different sets of tracks leading away from the kill with more than one lion in each set. I don't know but it seemed to me there had been four lions eating off this elk. Less than twelve hours since the snow quit falling I am sure it was not the same two cats leaving the site after two different feedings. If the Dog or I had a clue, I am sure we could have put a cat in the tree. We were both cold and tired and out of ideas so we headed back to the truck after trying to make something of both sets of tracks leaving the kill. But this was a great learning experience and a lot of fun.

[mondomuttruner]

Sounds like you were just getting the track warmed up, should have kept going....

I'm no lion hunter but the track by your hand looks very small. When we find a bobcat track the size of a snuff can you know you have a keeper and that track doesn't look much larger than a snuff can. Am I looking at this wrong? Fill me in?

[bullseyecowboy]

Good job though, looks to me as if the cat will be back, I am in the same boat, got a new dog she is only 1 year old so we are walking tracks out to.

[houndnem]

you've probably got a female with several kittens visiting the kill a bunch of times. I would bet money that cat wasn't more than a couple hundred yards away while you were there and has probably been back since you left! good job, your doing it right, just gotta keep going down the track till the dog opens and wants to leave. then cut em loose and make sure they stay with the track. I actually treed my first lion by myself and called my dogs back to the tree. sounds stupid, but from that day forward I never had to try very hard to catch a lion. good luck and keep poundin it!

[silentnight]

Nice job man keep it up ! This is my first lion season solo as well where in wyo you from ?

[Top Gun]

Thanks for the input, you are right that I probably gave up on it too soon. I will have to keep going next time. Never occurred to me to tree the cat myself, I was waiting for the dog to really pick up on it. I turned him loose at the kill and he would take the track a hundred yards or so then come back to me. He would lose the tracks at the top of a ridge, then finally left me and ran the track backwards toward the kill. I should have probably put him back on the lead and got him lined in right direction again. Lesson learned.
Yeah the pair of tracks that led me to the kill appeared to be pretty small. Looking back I believe they were young siblings that are starting to leave their mother. I believe she was at the kill also, I think they returned to her just like people come home from college to do laundry and get a meal. And I think she may have had even younger kittens there too, some tracks were really small. Perhaps offspring from two litters. Don't know if that was the case, but there were lots of tracks that appeared to be many different sizes. Would that be typical behavior? Not keepers, probably not worth shooting, but I won't pass an opprtuninity to get my dog on a track. At this point success would be seeing a cat, not killing one.
I don't think they had visited the kill more than once, I could be wrong. based on the last snowfall I think the kill occured that night and I found it around ten in the morning, I dont know if that is enough time for more than one Feeding.
Sure wish I could have could have gone back this morning. Work always seems to get in the way. How long will the revisit the kill, will I have a chance next weekend?

[bighorn_hounders]

should have went back straight to the kill at the crack of dawn the next day, and the next day, and the next day. Every day is a new day and you could have had your dog on the best possible situation. I started that way too, solo with 1 dog. You won't see a bunch of these opportunities and you gotta get on it. You need a cat and this was it. A winter calf elk will take a family of 3 about 4-5 days to consume, but it might take longer, you'd be smart to go back there next day off, just in case.

as for the little tracks, more likely to be a bobcat alternating feeding bouts with the lion family. or else you are looking at front tracks and hind tracks of mom and cubs and so you are seeing 4 different sizes. If you got a male cub and female cub, you'll have 6 different sizes.

[dandavidson]

Great Pics, Great strory!
D