Headache
Ambassador of all that is Heavy
By request:
A story from Feb, 2009:
So two weeks ago I got up to go coyote hunting down south.... Noticed there were javelina hunters out and about so I turned around and headed north into the pines to scout bull elk so I know where they are going to be once they drop antlers for me to pick up. . . walkin around in the snow I got into a large herd of elk. I sneaked around and catch two smaller 5x5 bulls sparring! Way cool! I snatch my cellphone out of my pocket and begin to video these two bulls. . . getting closer and closer I come to about 25 yards from them and they never see me. I was in full camo as it was pretty cold out. Patchy snow everywhere.
Luckily that day I packed 2 rifles, a scoped 7mm mag, and one of my old lever guns.... When I got to the lines I grabbed the lever gun.
Finally the bulls winded me and moved off. . . . I began sneaking/creeping through the forest trying to catch glimpse of the larger bulls I was seeing through the trees.
That's when I heard something hit the ground to my left. . . not a typical squirrel kind of sound, but something big.
I jerk my head left as fast as I can to see . . .not 1, . . . not 2, . . . not 3, . . . but 4 Mountain Lions! I just about crapped myself! Its amazing how fast your mind can work . . . At first my little brain was spinning and trying to say coyotes...coyotes... but it wasn't a coyote running at me at all..... then I kept thinking "seven shots = four lions" better aim carefully!
The sound I heard was one of them jumping out of the tree he was in... to come at me.
I jerked my old 1971 336 from my back out to meet the assailant.
and Boom! the first cat dropped out of view, (he was about 20yards then) I levered that action as fast as I ever have, to focus on the much larger lion (at about 60 yards) who was sitting there, ears folded back, hissing/growling at me. An image and sound I will never forget!
When I shot, the two cats to my furthest left maybe 50yds away, just hauled out of there! I saw tails flying!
Very quickly though I noticed that the one I shot at was up and moving to my right, kind of circling toward me, my first shot was so fast and SO CLOSE I shot high and the muzzle blast at 20 yards must have just made it cower down! I jerked the front sight to his shoulder and boom! Dropped the hammer again! (By this time he was about 5 steps away!)
This shot hit him high in the back shoulder and he began his squalling and flopping around violently.
I levered it again and stood pointing at the hissing one waiting to see what his next move might be, Luckily for him, he had now began to move off . . . but he continued to growl at me . . . Lets just say I was a bit un-nerved! I grabbed the extra ammo out of my rear pocket and slipped two more back into my rifle . . .
I had never even heard of Four lions being together at any one time before! Never even seen one in the wild before! Luckily I had a Lion tag in my pocket and slapped it on that young male. I humped him onto my back and made the long and tiresome trek back to the jeep in two feet of snow with his stinky stinky stinky body around my neck.
He was not very big, but he was comin my way, and all by myself . . . two miles from any road. . . . he got the business end of my Marlin.
I imagine it might have been a mother with three youngsters?? Maybe a Mother with two youngsters and a Male trying to breed her? Maybe two mothers with a youngster each?? I can only speculate because nobody I talk to has ever seen four lions together. . . . Even my lion hunting guide friends....
I don't think the one I shot was full on attacking me, but he was surely coming to check out whatever it was that big ol one was hissing at!
I can only imagine how hard it would be to fight one of those guys off once they get those awful claws into you! Let alone if his cohorts would have joined in . . . I may have been lion food! But that's neither here nor there . . . I bagged my first lion! And lived to tell the story lol
My only advice . . . Be safe out there . . .never be alone in the woods without a good rifle.
Later I figured out they had killed an adult cow elk and were just sitting in her corpse when I came sneaking through the woods.
Update: since that happened I have shot and killed 3 more lions while out hunting other animals.
I don't mess around with them anymore, just look out for them and kill them. In AZ you just buy a lion tag over the counter and can shoot a lot of them during the year, one after another... depending on the unit.
A story from Feb, 2009:
So two weeks ago I got up to go coyote hunting down south.... Noticed there were javelina hunters out and about so I turned around and headed north into the pines to scout bull elk so I know where they are going to be once they drop antlers for me to pick up. . . walkin around in the snow I got into a large herd of elk. I sneaked around and catch two smaller 5x5 bulls sparring! Way cool! I snatch my cellphone out of my pocket and begin to video these two bulls. . . getting closer and closer I come to about 25 yards from them and they never see me. I was in full camo as it was pretty cold out. Patchy snow everywhere.
Luckily that day I packed 2 rifles, a scoped 7mm mag, and one of my old lever guns.... When I got to the lines I grabbed the lever gun.
Finally the bulls winded me and moved off. . . . I began sneaking/creeping through the forest trying to catch glimpse of the larger bulls I was seeing through the trees.
That's when I heard something hit the ground to my left. . . not a typical squirrel kind of sound, but something big.
I jerk my head left as fast as I can to see . . .not 1, . . . not 2, . . . not 3, . . . but 4 Mountain Lions! I just about crapped myself! Its amazing how fast your mind can work . . . At first my little brain was spinning and trying to say coyotes...coyotes... but it wasn't a coyote running at me at all..... then I kept thinking "seven shots = four lions" better aim carefully!
The sound I heard was one of them jumping out of the tree he was in... to come at me.
I jerked my old 1971 336 from my back out to meet the assailant.
and Boom! the first cat dropped out of view, (he was about 20yards then) I levered that action as fast as I ever have, to focus on the much larger lion (at about 60 yards) who was sitting there, ears folded back, hissing/growling at me. An image and sound I will never forget!
When I shot, the two cats to my furthest left maybe 50yds away, just hauled out of there! I saw tails flying!
Very quickly though I noticed that the one I shot at was up and moving to my right, kind of circling toward me, my first shot was so fast and SO CLOSE I shot high and the muzzle blast at 20 yards must have just made it cower down! I jerked the front sight to his shoulder and boom! Dropped the hammer again! (By this time he was about 5 steps away!)
This shot hit him high in the back shoulder and he began his squalling and flopping around violently.
I levered it again and stood pointing at the hissing one waiting to see what his next move might be, Luckily for him, he had now began to move off . . . but he continued to growl at me . . . Lets just say I was a bit un-nerved! I grabbed the extra ammo out of my rear pocket and slipped two more back into my rifle . . .
I had never even heard of Four lions being together at any one time before! Never even seen one in the wild before! Luckily I had a Lion tag in my pocket and slapped it on that young male. I humped him onto my back and made the long and tiresome trek back to the jeep in two feet of snow with his stinky stinky stinky body around my neck.
He was not very big, but he was comin my way, and all by myself . . . two miles from any road. . . . he got the business end of my Marlin.
I imagine it might have been a mother with three youngsters?? Maybe a Mother with two youngsters and a Male trying to breed her? Maybe two mothers with a youngster each?? I can only speculate because nobody I talk to has ever seen four lions together. . . . Even my lion hunting guide friends....
I don't think the one I shot was full on attacking me, but he was surely coming to check out whatever it was that big ol one was hissing at!
I can only imagine how hard it would be to fight one of those guys off once they get those awful claws into you! Let alone if his cohorts would have joined in . . . I may have been lion food! But that's neither here nor there . . . I bagged my first lion! And lived to tell the story lol
My only advice . . . Be safe out there . . .never be alone in the woods without a good rifle.
Later I figured out they had killed an adult cow elk and were just sitting in her corpse when I came sneaking through the woods.
Update: since that happened I have shot and killed 3 more lions while out hunting other animals.
I don't mess around with them anymore, just look out for them and kill them. In AZ you just buy a lion tag over the counter and can shoot a lot of them during the year, one after another... depending on the unit.
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