Lion hunters only: Vote for your states top lionhunter

[BuckNAze]

Anyone know any greats from Washington State for when they use to be able to hunt lions?

[HoundDawg]

My buddy has hunted with a guy from southern Utah and talks a lot about him, a guy named Charlie Leeder. Serious lion hunter down out of St. George and been at it a long time. John Childs is another top hunter who has been at it many many years, both bear and lion.

There were some old timers from So. Utah who could get it done in their day as well, Jack Butler and those Emmitt boys from over around Enterprise... Bert and Smoke Emmitt I think was the name, not positive.

Mike, a question that's driving me nuts... Who was the AZ lion hunter (Famous) that kind of came in and "saved the day" on Harley Shaw's lion study? They couldn't catch **** until they got this guy to help and suddenly they were catching and collaring lions. What was his name, driving me nuts?

I've read some stories of people who hunted with him and I figured he was about as good as they came... but the name escapes me. Famous AZ lion hunting family... Harley Shaw set store by this guy.

Kevin, congrats on your number 2 ranking!! LOL!! Well done. I did a quick check on myself... just for curiosity.

Wikiepedia lists me as the 239th best lion hunter in the state of Utah. Oh wait, I read that wrong... 239th best lion hunter in Utah County. Maybe I should move to Sanpete County. I'd probably jump to at least 215 down there huh?

Mike, get me the guys name.... driving me nuts. Also some stories about him in Frank Hibben's Hunting American Lions book. Has anyone from AZ mentioned Ollie Barney yet?

[Al Vallejo]

Here in Colorado, I'll vote Cap Atwood first and Bobcat Peters second.

Cap had over 1,000 lions under his belt before he passed on. Cap once told me that Bobcat Peters was close.

Any old time Colorado hunters remember these guys? An article on Cap was in Outdoor Life years ago with his hounds down in S. America and Mexico chasing jaguars.

Al

[Big Mike]

Not sure if this is the name your looking for but in Hibbens book he hunted with Frank Colcord and Giles Goswick, Homer Pickens

[WHutchingsJR]

Come on lets hear some more good lion hunters from utah.opinions?

[HoundDawg]

Giles Goswick... THANK YOU!! Been driving me nuts!

I knew a guy that hunted a bit with Cap Atwood and had some dogs out of his stuff, he raved about what a good hunter Atwood was... and this guy was no slouch, so I figured Cap Atwood was the real deal.

Don't know about just lion hunter... but one of the famous Utah hounding characters was Willis Butolph... Wayne Jr. in this area your grandpa was probably the best hound guy or as good as anyone we've seen around here... Bud Hutchings.

But maybe more well known as a bear hunter, but probably caught more lions than any of us will ever have a chance at.

A more modern lion hunter in Utah that would stand mentioning... Clint Mecham. I hear a lot of pretty good hunters that gush about Clint Mecham and I've seen some video of his dogs in action on the dirt and that video was pretty impressive.

There was an old man who hunted for years down around Wayne county... Phil Taylor and there are still some Phil Taylor redbones around if you know where to look.

Jeff Allen is another Utah lion hunter that has made a name for himself... Probably someone I'm forgetting.

Can't believe someone from AZ hasn't mentioned that Hendrix guy. I remember reading the story about him getting busted and in trouble... and I didn't care about any of that but what caught my attention was the number of lions that guy was catching in the AZ heat and on the dirt. It was pretty impressive and probably would have never come to light if it weren't for the trouble.

But that guy was a lion catching machine on the dirt down there, and they got court documents to prove it.

He sounded like a real deal kind of hunter, legal or not.

If I had to choose one living hunter in the west right now... I'd have a real hard time choosing anyone besides Warner Glenn.

Oh dammit, they just updated Wikipedia and I've now dropped to 243rd best lion hunter in this county. Haven't seen a plummet of this magnitude since my last 401K statement.

[cab]

I never met Willis Bouthoff (spelling) but was told by an old fellow that once hunted with the Lee Brothers as a hired helper, that Willis was the hardest hunter that he ever met. He said when he hunted with Willis, he only had two plotts. They hunted lions every morning until mid day, returned to camp for a little sleep and coonhunted the same plott dogs every night on coon. Jeff Bingham hunted with Willis and had some of his plott bloodlines for some time. Jeff said that Willis had to take two weeks vacation from his Govt. hunter position. He used those two weeks off to do some hunting. Don't know how he ranked as a lion hunter compared to others.

[hunt14]

I am with hounddawg on this one, and Wiley Carroll agreed too.

Deceased lion hunters in Utah-Jack Butler, Smoke Emmit
These two crossed on each others dogs

Now- Jeff Allen

[rh]

Chris and Brandon Jacobs very quiet soft spoken guys not many people know, In my opinion they are the best in Utah right now they keep six to eight dogs that will catch lion anywhere any condition no one hunts any harder than these two from start of season til june they hunt, very tough ,humble guys with first class lion hounds.

[AZDOGMAN]

AZ --- Randy Epperson, Sam Deringer, jr murdock, a few of the best that are not real well known but the real deal. These are the guys that pray it doesnt snow. lol

[Mike Leonard]

Dawg,

Actually it was George Goswick who was Giles's son who cam in and helped Harley out. Georgie has passed on now but his son Rink is still in the Mayer area and developing all that land out there near Treed's place. Don't think Rink ever did a lot of hunting after he got grown up he saw the ranch property being worth more selling it to pilgrims rather than punching cows, and chasing lions.


Giles would be my number one choice for Arizona lion hunter of the past. He caught as many lions by himself as the Lee Brothers did collectively.When I first got into real cold trailing lion dogs i was lucky enough to be introduced to a relative of the Goswicks by wiley Carroll. this man hunted with Giles for years and begged a few hounds off of him and it helped me out tremendously.Wiley Carroll always told me the best cold trailing lion hounds he ever saw came from Giles Goswick of Arizona and Smoke Emmit of Utah. wiley crossed these two strains with good results.

[Yaak attack]

B.C. boasts one of the finest houndsmen of our era. Although he was better known as a bear hunter, Albin Hochstiener has probably caught more game than anyone in western Canada. He started hunting hounds in the early sixties and has run everything from lynx to griz to wolverines. The lion he caught for Ted Razook in the 70's was #3 at the time. He lion hunted a who's who of hunters from around the world in the sixties and seventies and eighties.
New Mexico boasts the man with the most cougars in B and C. How does Robert Seeds Stack up. Last time I checked he had Something like ten entries under his name. I also know of a 15 15/16 tom one of his clients killed that was scored after drying for a couple of years.

[Catman]

I hunted with a plott dog out of Willis butolphs hounds. I don't know what he had under that brindle besides plott, but that dog was one of the best cold-trailing hounds I have seen. He was old when I hunted with him so his speed was down, but he sure had nose and desire. I'm glad there's still people around to talk about hunting with some of these legendary houndsman. Would have been a real treat to learn even a little of what they knew.

[Everlast]

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[Ike]

Some time back, there was a topic on great hounds and someone made the comment saying that a really great hound had to withstand the test of time--that the hound had to live a few years and do enough deeds or finish enough tracks to own that title. I'd say the same probably goes for great houndsmen......

To me, a really outstanding houndsman would be a guy that trains hounds, hunts them, a guy that has been successful on the game he hunts, a man who has shared his knowledge of the sport with young and old alike, a man that has shared many camps, perhaps a man that has put his hounds and the game they chase above relationships and money, and then that guy would be tougher than nails and still doing it when he reached sixty, a guy that can and still walk behind the hounds with the young bucks and truly enjoys watching a hound work whether that hounds is his or belongs to someone else. And through my limited knowledge, Hal Mecham is one of the few men that fit that description around here. And he's probably ran down and caught more lions than lots of people have seen photos of......

Shawn Labrum, another truly great hunter and houndsmen, told me the story about a time when Hal was young, tough and killing lions across the West. Labrum claimed that Hal had his hounds trained to lay or sit in the back of his truck until he called them out, no dog box or chain just the truck bed. And I guess I've always admired to some degree a man who has control over his hounds; I also respect a man who is willing and has been willing his whole life to put boot tracks on the mountain.

Shawn Labrum was also a pretty tough lion hunter who busted his butt for clients over a number of years and taught his hounds to pound out an old track, tracks across open southern facing slopes that is a mandate to fill clients tags. They both have lived the dream, and that is the dream of the hunt and life on the mountain in modern times and my hat is off to them............

ike