BigGameHoundsmen.com

Choose your state by ease of hunt, accesability and number of lions

sorry guys there was supposed to be three choices

I chose Colorado over Wyoming here's why.

Although Wyoming has decent cougar populations in the mountain ranges and the semi mountain badland areas nearly all of these areas get heavy snow and extremely cold weather. The lions hang in the high country and then follow the migrations of prey animals to some extent. Ok same in Colorado? Well yes in spots but Colorado has many more areas of high desert chapparal and canyon country. Here the mule deer and elk flourish and although some heavy snows and cold are encountered not the extremes that one sees in Wonderful Wyoming. I have lived and hunted both places. The Big Horns of Wyoming lovely country, but when lion season comes the snows hit and it's a mad rush to the mountain and a lot of the quotas are filled in just a few weeks. Now what do we do? Some huge lions come out of Wyoming and the Saratoga ares is famous for B&C lions but it still takes a back seat Colorado as far as the books go.

Back in the days when you could still chase bear with hounds in Colorado it very well might have been the houndman's paridise. But then come to think of it for some houndsmen it might still be.

Mike, . I still run Bear with hounds in Colorado

I like the quota system CO. has. You never have to worry about drawing a tag to go hunt. Tags are over the counter and you can hunt every day from mid Nov. till the end of Mar. I've been hunting a month now and haven't seen another houndsman.

tags are over the counter in wyo to

I would have to say Wyoming by far. I have never hunted in Colorado, but have been there many times. I am basing my opinion not just on that. Mike is correct about the quotas in some areas, for example the Black Hills fills up very fast. There are many areas that do not ever reach quota and there are many that only close cause a bunch of yahoos will go and kill females. The areas that do not reach quota may be tougher to get into in the winter, but a few are year round areas and if you have the dog power and are willing to hunt in the dirt you can run all year.

Another reason I choose Wyoming over Colorado is we have less population and that mean less people to deal with and less chance of your hounds getting on private land where they might not be welcome. I have had a few "do gooders pick" up my dogs off the mountain here and take them to town, but all in all we do not have the problems of people picking up or stealing dogs like they do in CO.

I also would say due to our management plan and the habitat available we have a very healthy lion population and should continue to do so due to the management plan we have in place. I do wish more of those "Yahoos" would stop harvesting females though.

Nevada