36-c is overrunnnnn with em

[lionhunter]

I Just spoke with two different friends who were down in 36-c on the Dec . deer hunt. they both glassed up lion, One glassed two different lions on different days, and missed them both, and the other glassed 3 together, (all adult lions) and shot one, found blood, but could never find the lion. At any rate someone with some good dogs please go down and muck some lions out.......

Whitey

[.270]

i don't know if it is because people glass so much more than they used to or what, but folks sure seem to see a lot more lions than they used to. i'd like to konw what the real deal is with em. since the infamous rule where they azgfd took away 25% of lion season, it sure seems like they are trying to make more ways for shooting lions to be legal. now you can hunt em at night with a shotgun? shoot one a day in a lotta units. sure sounds to me like they think there are a lotta lions everywhere. like i said earlier, i saw a trail cam photo of 8 lions together on a waterhole on the strip. sounds to me like maybe we could be on the edge of a real problem. or, maybe they are afraid they are gonna eat so much stuff that the wolves will get hungry. Lark.

[lionhunter]

i don't know if it is because people glass so much more than they used to or what, but folks sure seem to see a lot more lions than they used to. i'd like to konw what the real deal is with em. since the infamous rule where they azgfd took away 25% of lion season, it sure seems like they are trying to make more ways for shooting lions to be legal. now you can hunt em at night with a shotgun? shoot one a day in a lotta units. sure sounds to me like they think there are a lotta lions everywhere. like i said earlier, i saw a trail cam photo of 8 lions together on a waterhole on the strip. sounds to me like maybe we could be on the edge of a real problem. or, maybe they are afraid they are gonna eat so much stuff that the wolves will get hungry. Lark.

 

I have glassed 7 lion in 36c in the last couple of years, killed a couple and have talked to probably 20 friends that have glassed them up down there, more than anywhere else in the state, and I hunt all over.... Crazy.... Somebody go shoot them..

Whitey

[2 Full Curls]

My uncle hunts 36c and his camp has seen several lions over the years. I hunt somewhere else, yet my Dad and I have glassed 3 adult lions while coues hunting over the last 4 years and I have trail camera photos of 3 different lions on one drinker. In total 4 of these lions were accounted for within a mile of one another (needless to say its my OLD coues spot) and the other two are in my NEW coues spot. Unfortunately I have not been able to put a tag on a single one yet.

[ChasinCoos]

They might be coming from the T.O.Res side. Nobody is hunting them on that side

[billrquimby]

The Baboquivaris have always had lions, especially in the Brown, Thomas and Sabino canyons area up near the peak. It's tough hunting them with dogs unless the guys with hounds know the horse trails. It's a tough place for man, horse and hound.

 

Bill Quimby

[firstcoueswas80]

Out of all the time Ive spent in the hills behind premium glass, Ive NEVER glasses a lion... Dont get me wrong, Ive seen 5 of them... All within 30 yards!

[azcouesfanatic]

I was there this past week and between two groups of hunters in 4 days we saw 6 lions.

 

Brian

[CouesWhitetail]

How come you guys that are seeing all these lions are killing any?? Just too far to go after? Or don't want to waste time on a lion while you are deer hunting? I know one guy in this thread said he wounded one, but sounds like no one else is even hunting them?

[azoutlaw]

What are some starting points down there to take the dogs and start looking

[cw4192]

I AGREE WITH AMANDA, IF YOU CAN SEE EM SHOOT EM OR AT LEAST TRY. LION'S ARE COUES KILLING MACHINES.

[Guest Del]

Maybe we should kill them all.

[Tines]

I wonder how many less lions are killed since "25% of the season" has been closed? I'd be willing to bet that the amount of lions killed during that period is a drop in the bucket compared to those during the season we currently have.

 

The greatest evolution in the past 20 years of hunting is optics and rifles capable of long range shots. But optics are by far the most effective tool these days. Because we're talking about SEEING them, not harvesting them. The harvest number hasn't increased as much as people might think. So it's pretty obvious that's why so many lions are seen.

 

Is there an influx in the lion population? Maybe. I've been glassing on a tripod since the early 90's and I finally glassed up my first lion back in mid November. Then two weeks later I glassed up my second (the one in the video). It's easy for me to jump to the conclusion that lions are "overrunning" Arizona based on what I found this year but I won't do that quite yet. Give me a few yrs and I might change my mind, who knows.

 

Lions are fairly easy to make out when they're in your field of view. Much more so than WT in most cases. So my point is this. I'm no better of a glasser this year than I was last. My binoculars just happened to be pointed in the right direction at the right time.

 

I used to spend a lot time deep sea fishing with my grandpa. I'd be on one side of the boat and he'd be on the other. I never understood why he caught all of the bigger fish when we used the same set-up, bait and we were only 5 feet away from each other. Sometimes there's no answer as to "why"....

 

[azcouesfanatic]

Well,

 

My personal opinion is there is an influx of lions in 36C. The unit borders the reservation on one side and Mexico on the other. In rougly twenty years of hunting down there I have seen two lion hunters in the unit. I don't run lions myself but the risk of losing a dog on the reservation or in mexico is not worth a great hound dog. I have personally glassed up 8 lions in 36C and for us to see 6 in 3 days is crazy.

 

Oh yeah, there was lead in the air trust me on that. We wanted to kill the lions but things just did not work out for us. Somthing that I find interesting is when game and fish makes the hunt recommendations do they account for the amount of lions in a unit. I would definately say the quality and numbers have gone way down in 36C, but 36C still has 125 December tags along with three hunts before that, crazy.

 

I have killed one good lion in 36C in 2007.

 

Brian

[.270]

seeing as how the 25% deal is aimed square at me, i'll splain my position. the azgfd screams about increasing opportunity being one of their major objectives, and they take opportunity away? there probably wouldn't be many more lions taken during that time, i agree, but the opportunity to take one is gone, completely, so it ain't worth arguing over it. pretty sad deal if a guy sees a lion in those months and can't shoot it, as far as i'm concerned. but the worst thing about it is that it made no sense to do it. they caved to the treehuggers when the treehuggers weren't even yelling about it. they used the excuse that the "lion hunters" didn't want to hunt that time of year anyway. what about the rest of the hunters that might just see one? outside of the strip, Az ain't overrun with lions. but there sure seems to be a lot more sightings than there ever have been before. i've never glassed one up, but i don't glass a lot either. i have jumped up a couple and killed em. caught a bunch of em with hounds too. and it also seems to me that since they took that part of lion season away, they have been doing a lot of other things to get folks to shoot more lions. i think having a year round season again would be a real good thing and i don't think it ever hurt one d a m n thing when we had one. Lark.