Mountain Lion Hunting

sdeshazo

sdeshazo

New member
OK, I'm going on a predator hunt to a friends new ranch outside of San Antino, TX in a couple weeks & he's telling me they have found several dead deer that loook to be killed by Mountion Lion (lion tracks, etc around the kills). My question is other than dogs what chance would I have of baiting, calling, etc, etc one into range. Is it even possable to call/bait a Mountain Lion?
I'm only going to be there for a long weekend & would like to try & help him out & get rid of a cat, but we don't have access to dogs.

Any ideas on how to get a cat in the bag? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
Yes you can call them in, However the range on a cat is several miles, and there are not enough of them to gurantee one is close enough to come in. try a fawn bleat, that has worked for us, just never got a shot at one. IMO, they are the ultimate predator, and anyone who can get one by calling has my respect. There are several on the colorado river where we are, along the cliffs. Never heard of or tried to bait one though. I would stick with a good e-call using a fawn bleat. Good Luck!

...if he needs anyone else to come down, let me know!
 
Rowney, That;s about what I thought. I've had good luck calling bobcats down here & would sure like to step up a notch & call in a big cat. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.
 
sdeshazo,

A search of the Lions, Bears and Houndsmen forum will turn up a lot of good info on calling lions. Yes, they can be called and watching a kill also works. An acquaintance of mine got one that way, though he sat up all night and got the shot at dawn. Several guys here have deliberately called lions, successfully, and done it repeatedly.

On a one weekend hunt, unless you find a fresh kill or have some other way to locate a lion, your chances of having a cougar within sound of a calling stand is very roughly one in however many square miles a lion covers in its territory. If its territory is 20 miles by 20 miles, that's one random chance in 400. That's assuming your call sound reaches one square mile. So anything that you can do to narrow down the location of a lion before you start calling is in your favor. I'd spend some time looking for fresh tracks if there is any surface good for tracking.

Calling them is relatively easy compared to seeing the ones that come in to the call. Having mentioned the odds against you however, if I had one weekend to try, I'd go for it anyway. YOu may find a kill, etc. And probably the majority of lions called are the random luck kind taken when one comes in to a call and shows himself to the surprised hunter. Good luck.
 
What Okanogan said... Locating a lion inside calling range is the tough part, they travel so far so fast, and if you don't set up on a kill, then it's mostly pure luck.
 
I've hunted several specific livestock killers. It's not easy. In Eastern NM they can take a week or more to go around their circuit (range).

In general lions won't intrude on each other's territories so (outside of mating season) there will probably only be one lion in an area. They seem to hunt in a big circle (circuit) that can take them a week or more to get all the way around.

If you can nail down the parameters of their hunting circuit (by kills etc), you can make a pretty good prediction of when they will be back into a given area, and you can be there in a blind waiting for them to come through and yes, at that point calling and baiting will work. I've seen a couple by accident over the years but that's the only way I've ever successfully hunted them.

Even then it's not a sure thing that you'll get it right the first (or second) try, and you can spend a long time hunkered down waiting for them without seeing them as they pass through (remember they are largely nocturnal).

Just making stands, calling, and getting one to come in would be pretty much luck. Don't let that totally discourage you though, luck has worked on many occasions. The guy I hunted lions with is very very good and one of his favorite sayings is, "I'd rather be lucky than good."
 
As has already been suggested, run a search on the lion & bear forum. Lots of information there. If your friend can pinpoint the location of a fresh kill that hasn't yet been abandon, your chances are excellent. Set up a calling stand nearby. Electronic or mouth blown, either will work.
 
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