Finally had my first lion encounter

[azhuntnut]

I headed out this morning to a pond a friend told me about in a wilderness area. He built a blind in a tree years ago and said I was welcome to give it a try during the deer season. I got into the stand about six this morning a waited for the action to start. After sitting for about four hours I decided to take a walk and look for some deer sign, plus set up a few cameras. I got about a half mile from the pond and started doing a circle around it. At one point I stopped to check out a spot to hang my camera but noticed a wierd noise. It sounded a little different than anything I had heard in the wild. I then realized it was a mountain lion that must be in heat. I have the same sound on my foxpro fx3. I started walking towards the sound, but it seemed to be moving away from me. I picked up the pace and managed to catch up. Just when I thought I was fairly close, a lion walked out about thirty yards from me. It looked like a good cat based on all of the pics I have seen. I got up to the spot and marked it on my GPS so I could come back in September to try and get it.

After calling my buddy and telling him what I ran into, I started to walk in the direction that the lion went. Within about two hundred yards I ran into a ravine that went down into a canyon so I walked about 100 yards up and around the ravine and started heading towards the pond. I sat down for a moment to glass back across the ravine and heard the lion again about 125 yards away. I must have walked right past it on my way out. So I sat an listened for about thirty minutes, but could never see it since it stayed in the trees. At this point I wanted to get a picture of it so I headed back towards the sound again. Once again it walked the other direction so I gave up on seeing it again.

So now I started heading to the pond again which was only a little over a quarter mile away at this point. I stopped about 75 yards from the pond to set up a camera and heard the lion once again. I figured the sound was being carried down the canyon about twenty yards from me. It only took about five minutes to set up everything and get my pack on. Right when I pulled on my pack the lion let out the noise again, but this time it was now at the edge of the canyon where I was setting up the camera. I hoped it was heading to the pond so I took off running to get up into the stand so I could get some pics. It ended up staying about forty yards out making all kinds of racket for another twenty minutes. It eventually headed back down to where I heard it the first time, but not before it left me pretty shakin. It seems as if it followed my tracks from where I first found it all the way to the pond. I won't be carrying my little .22 into that area anymore. Hopefully I will get a pic on one of the cameras I set up in the area. David

[Huntn coues]

 

Jeez louiz!

[JHAM357]

thats crazy man, pretty exciting. i have only seen a bobcat in the wild out here when i was fishing at canyon. he was right down at the edge of the water so my cousin got off with his pistol and took off after him, never got to see him again though. i think it would be neet to see a lion but kind of nerve racking at the same time. saw an ocelot hunting in texas last year. that was pretty neet. but hope you get some pics of that lion!

[willhunt4coues]

Thats scarey.

[Lance]

Nice! That is awesome!

[bearbait]

I was bear hunting in 23 on Sunday and had a lion come out of a old mine and walk the mine trail to where I was on a 25ft rock cliff. Then she jumped up the cliff to eye level at 20 yard. A little too close for comfort considering my rifle was 20 ft. away from where I was glassing. So I stood up and ran to my rifle and pack to get my camera and she just watched me for 10 sec. then trotted up the rest of the mountain. I tried to snap of a picture but with the 2.5sec delay on my digital I'm not sure if she is in the shot or behind a bush or what not.

 

Good story btw!!

[mattys281]

I only ever heard them make that noise one time. I was actually parked on top of a hill in Lynx Estates, between PV & Prescott, trying like heck to get the girl I was with to "come into heat" (I was in high-school what do you expect!) when this cat started making that squaking sound. I thought it was a bird or something, but she actually i.d.ed it as a lion, said her & her family had just been at the local zoo up there & heard the lion over there making that same noise. It sounded like it was getting closer, so I flicked on the head lights of my truck & sure enough, a lion popped out of the brush right across the road from us. Trotted about 50 yards down the road & darted off into someones yard. I hope that cat had better luck finding a ready partner that night then I did.

 

Here's a pic we caught on trail cam a couple weeks ago:

 

 

& another from June:

 

[azhuntnut]

I felt a little under armed on my last trip out, so I picked up this gun to carry during my archery hunts. It is a Taurus Tracker chambered in 45lc. It is made out of Titanium and only weighs 19.8 ounces and comes with a ported barrel. David

[JimmyHat]

Good story. I've come across several lions the last couple of years. I only followed one, a very large one, that showed NO fear of me at all. I followed him because I intended to put an arrow into him. I lost him in a canyon and started to feel pretty skittish so I backed out and hunted somewhere else.

 

Other than that, if I know theres a lion in the area, I'm going the opposite direction! Definately wouldn't have gone looking for her like you did.