GRONG

Here's a picture of my good friend Pat Feldt and his enormous lion he got a few years back. He said he weighed it and gutted, it was 130lbs. Now if many of you are'nt familiar with a cat's inner organs, there's not much to them. So Pat's lion was probably in the 145-150lb range. Freakin huge for an Arizona mountain lion.

Buckhorn, I don't remember what lion you're talking about. We've chased several lions(key word there is chased) lately and I can't think of one that disappeared over a ridge. .270, Believe me, I'm not calling anyone a liar here at all but some of that stuff sounds like one heck of a "hunting story" if I've ever heard one. If they were 14 and 11 at the time and killed a 10' long cat and a 1000lb grizzly with a single shot .22, sounds like a whole lot of "hunting stories" going on there. Again, not calling anyone a liar but as far as the weights of lions go, a whole lot of people think a female will weigh 150 lbs here in the desert. Maybe in Alberta but here south of the Colorado River, I don't know. My Dad has been professionally hunting lions for over 35 years and has caught his far share of cats and this is the biggest one he ever caught, by far. Tony Mandile actually killed it. Couldn't tell you how big the skull was as the taxidermist mixed up a smaller lion for this one and Tony didn't get his skull or his full body mount, what a shame!!!! Obviously it's a huge cat, probably pushing 180+lbs but I'm telling you it's the biggest cat he's ever caught. Caught it on Bunker Hill, south of Flagstaff, in 6B. I killed a 120-130lb lion, (we actually weighed that one whole but the scale only went to 120lbs so we guessed at the actual weight) back in '98 and Dad was pretty impressed with that one. At the time it was "just another lion" to me. There's actually a short video clip of me shooting him with my bow on my site. http://rimrock-outfitters.com/images/joshslion.mov Regardless, I've seen a lot of dead lions in my life time and some that I know were smaller than my 120+lb lion and the hunter claimed was around 200lbs. I think it's just an ignorant error that a lot of people make just cause they don't know. The old lion we killed last week, the guy told me that he thinks it'll be 15 1/2". Now I know it's got a big head on it but I'm not gonna say till the thing is boiled out. As you probably well know, a 15" skull is pretty freakin huge! I think it's over 14" but I don't know how much more. We didn't measure the lion either but I'll ask the guy to run a tape over the hide. I know that won't be an actual body measurement, cause you can stretch a hide, but I'll ask him.

Man I'd love to find a nice muley like that someday. Next time, for proportion's sake, have someone hold them that way we can see how big it actually is. That way there won't be any confusion as to what species it is and it'll show us just how freakin nice it is too. Thanks for posting the pics, awesome!!

I'm thinking about hitting it for the next couple of days, we'll see. I'll let you guys know if anything good happens.

TLH, I think I would be spooked but also be in awe of what I was looking at. To be the first person to see something like that since they laid him to rest would be unreal. I woulda loved to have taken pictures of something like that. Like you, and probably many others, I wouldn't have taken anything but just realized how cool and rare it would be to see something like that. Wow man thanks for sharing that was probably the coolest thing anyone has shared so far!! Awesome! Oh and what is naval jelly and where can I get some?

Dude that was awesome! Thanks for the pics and the story. I've got one ? though, how do you post so many pics in one post? Isn't there a 100kb limit or something? I can never get more than one in my posts, unless I make them really small.

Bill, No there wasn't at all. It was in an awful canyon and on the slope of it, bad place for a cabin or a tent for that matter.

Here's another of it.

Lance that was some pretty cool stuff you mentioned there! Vinihunt, that is freakin awesome to find an old pistol like that! I forgot a major one that I found, it was the metal part of an old rifle. You know, the part that houses the bullets and trigger. For the life of me I can't remember what that is called! I was working in Sedona at the Red Rock State Park back in the early 90's and found it while looking for pottery and arrowheads around the old fields that the Homesteaders used to farm. I gave it to the park but I bet it's just in some drawer somewhere. Back in the 80's my Dad was lion hunting on Mingus Mountain horseback in the snow up behind Potato Patch. I'm thinking he was on the Woodchute Trail. Anyway, his horse stepped on the tip of a scabbard under the snow and it popped up and the guy riding behind him saw it. There was a real nice hunting rifle in it that someone during the recent deer hunts had lost off of their horse. I just found this picture and had to share it with all of you. Ol Redbeard and I were hunting in 22 several years ago and found these GIANT agave plants. We'd seen them from up on the rim about 1000 vertical feet up and weren't really sure what the crap they were. Anyway, a launched and missed arrow at a whitetail buck soon turned into a shed antler hunt. We ended up walking by these beasts and Redbeard took a couple pics of me standing by them. I'm 6' tall so that will give you some perspective. I've NEVER seen anything like that in northern AZ, maybe Texas but not here. Has anyone else seen ones like this anywhere? Oh and by the way I think we found 7 sheds between the 2 of us.

You know I've thought about wearing my Thrasher shirt incase I killed one. I'd have to take some trophy shots with my buck and my shirt just to crack you up! LOL!! Maybe it'll do just the trick to turn things in my favor.

Oh man that is a freakin nice lion for sure!!! Way to go man and thanks for sharing. Some pretty hounds that guy has! Glad some of our luck rubbed your way. Must have been the comment you had just made to your friend before you got to the kill that made it all work! LOL! Great picture of your cat in the tree too!

WOW, freakin nice!!!! Love the cheaters for sure!!!

Uh oh. I kinda like Remodeled. Sucks to have to change your handle though, not that you do but I know what you're saying. How bout Retired?

Good grief, a guy brought by his 18yr old son's first Coues buck and I measured it at 104 5/8" gross! What a nice buck for a first buck, sheesh. I also got a picture of the 123" gross NT buck killed in 6A too. I'll ask the guy if it's OK to post it b4 I do.

I can't believe all the stories about big bucks being killed in 6A this year. My dang backyard for crying out loud!! I know of a couple legit bucks so far that have been taken that are toads! A 122" NT buck, a 115" typ 4x4, a gorgeous 108" 3pt with big butt eyeguards and just this morning a friend of mine from Cottonwood hammered a monster 122" gross 3x4!!! GAACK!!! Unfreakin real! I'll try to get a lot more of the specifics for all to read and see. I'm hoping to get my hands on the one my buddy killed tomorrow eve after I'm done smacking that big 2x4 from my stand of course! I'll get pics soon!

Happy birthday to Bowhunter89 and Ryan today!!

HAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHA!!!! I hate pit bulls and I wouldn't trust them for nothing!

RAC, it was in 6A. No problem BUCKHORN. ARIZONA GUIDE, That's an awfully nice comment, I'll pass it to my dad. You're right, dry ground hunting is as tough as it gets too. As dry as it has been the past few months have been PERFECT for what we love to do. Soon as it snows you'll have every wanna-be lion hunter out there running every road in the state 24 hrs a day. That's fine with us cause we'll already have caught them by the time it snows. .270, the head on that lion is pretty darn big. It's hard to tell from pics you see of guys holding a lion under the armpits that looks like it's got a african lion head on it. You cut away all the meat that's on a lions head and you'll see how big they really aren't.... most of the time they'll fool ya. This lion had no meat on his head or the rest of him for that matter. In his day he was probably well over 130lbs, when we got him he was lucky to be 80lbs. Seriously, if you can't tell from the pics the thing was all withered and just plain shrivelled up. It'd be like going into an old folk's home and taking out the oldest dude in there. I'm curious to see how big the skull is and how old he was. Hopefully our luck will continue and I'll post a few more pics of dead lions before it's all said and done. Later guys

Nice bucks for sure!! JEEZ!!!!!!

That's Erv Earl and his buddies, they took those back in Oct. Gil is the name of the guy that shot the drop-tined buck. I think it went 109". Freakin awesome!

No thank goodness!! There would be a serious problem if that happened seeing that our hunters are paying a lot of money to hunt lions with us. I hope that never happens!

Shiras that was funny! The hunt lasted from mid-morning till about 3:30 or so. The thing tried running up the side of a freakin STEEP mountain face but turned, crossed a creek and ran up another slope where I think his give-a-shitter just wore the heck out! He'd been treed for a while before we could all catch up and get there.

Here's an upclose of his grill.

Dude that was sweet!

Bowsniper, what is an adrinal gland? I hope to have some more exciting stories in a few days, I'm headed out around noon for a few more.