BigGameHoundsmen.com

I think the key is educating everyone you can when it comes to our sport. My lions hunting buddys are probably sick of me preaching but they too have secumbed to peer pressure and are letting a lot more cats go then they used to. I also dont mind showing pictures of a big mature tom to other lion hunters. Set some standards in our sport for what is acceptable. Dont be afraid to let some new or young hunters know that if were going to have a future in lion hunting that we have to practice conservation. I know that no one else is going to hold us up to that here in NV. Its a free for all and our sport is suffering significantly because of the liberal quotas, seasons, and laws that we have in place.
Before the laws and harvest objectives changed i personally caught six big toms in one year. Since then, (four years ago), I have only caught three big toms. Last season out of eight cats that i caught NONE were harvested. In fact I only found one big tom track in three months! Our lion harvest nearly doubled in one year right after the laws changed and has steadily decreased, especially on mature cats. I only see it getting worse and with the number of guys wacking every longtail they tree it wont take long. Set some standard and live up to them. Give other houndsmen someone to look up to. Not all of them will like you but they will respect you and maybe someday understand you.
I have taken an active approach, attending all meetings that have anything to do with lions or hounds, joining committes and orgaizations that will help us protect our sport, and telling everyone that will listen that we need a more active management program on Mountain lions in NV. I have even managed to make a few enemies at the local and State level because i have expressed my belief that lions have just as much right to be here as deer and elk. Also that lions are not the only one to blame for decreasing numbers of all the cloven hoofed critters.
Dont give in to the fact that we are few because we are a mighty few that can make a lot of noise in a meeting IF and only IF we show up!!!

Around where we hunt we have a female quota system and our cat populations went way down. Our quality of toms have gone down too because they have left the females alone now and are targeting ANY tom regardless of age or size. Our females don't usually reach the quota but our toms get hammered (like 40-50 toms a season). So our quality of toms has gone down hill drastically. They are talking about putting in a tom quota with the female quota so we will see what happens. What we need as well in place here is the guides to be put on quota also separate from the locals, because guides around here kill any cat tom or female. But it will take a bit of experimenting before we get it so everyone here is happy and our cats to a healthy number.