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Hunting ‘23/‘24: Bag ‘em and Tag ‘em


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Posted (edited)

A friend of mine shot this mountain lion. It weighed close to 160#. Notice the lion’s cached bull elk kill next to him. He’s at least 6’ tall, and although I haven’t paid attention, I don’t think he has tiny hands.

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I don’t think he said has had more than a few unsuccessful mountain lion hunts in 15 years. Yes, I’m jealous. 

Edited by ImissWallyPryor
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5 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

I don’t think he has had an unsuccessful mountain lion hunt in 15+ years. Yes, I’m jealous. 

I know cat hunting is a touchy subject sometimes, but I’d love just once to get on a good mountain lion hunt.  About 20 years ago now, I shot a bobcat on consecutive hunts. I had them cleaned up and in a freezer, waiting on funds to do a double mount (just out of college) and the freezer died while I was offshore (sorry llanoestacado), well, llanos freezer died while I was offshore and he was somewhere else offshore. Anyhow, I’ve been giving them a pass for 20 years now out of respect/karma for that incident.  Wife would be very upset but I think if I saw a good one this year, I’d take it.  A lion in Texas probably not, but in a state where they are more plentiful, no doubt. 

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Posted (edited)
On 3/28/2024 at 10:24 PM, fattyflattie said:

I know cat hunting is a touchy subject sometimes, but I’d love just once to get on a good mountain lion hunt.  About 20 years ago now, I shot a bobcat on consecutive hunts. I had them cleaned up and in a freezer, waiting on funds to do a double mount (just out of college) and the freezer died while I was offshore (sorry llanoestacado), well, llanos freezer died while I was offshore and he was somewhere else offshore. Anyhow, I’ve been giving them a pass for 20 years now out of respect/karma for that incident.  Wife would be very upset but I think if I saw a good one this year, I’d take it.  A lion in Texas probably not, but in a state where they are more plentiful, no doubt. 

Yeah, I’ve got mixed feelings about hunting mountain lions because they’re cool cats. But without hunting, they will take a serious toll on deer populations before turning to domesticated pets and livestock. Or they will starve off or die from diseases (like feline leukemia) they contract from domesticated or feral cats.

A large lion can eat up to 30# of meat a day which translates to about 150 deer a year because they also kill smaller deer (and their caches are sometimes raided). A neighbor about a mile from us set up a trail cam by a freshly cached kill, and a momma lion and her two half grown cubs finished it off the next night. I also saw an online article by Nat Geo that included pics of mountain lions that could only eat half of their kill because the bottom half was frozen solid to the ground, protected also from top by their skeleton. Cats’ paws are not designed for digging.

My immediate area was crawling with lions a few years ago. I captured at least 4 different adults on trail cams in a year or so, not including two grown cubs one mother had tagging along with her. So much for the conventional wisdom that they control large territories. Our deer population plummeted, and still hasn’t fully recovered. I caught one Tom on my cameras in January, the first since late Fall 2022, so they’ve moved on to new hunting grounds.

During this same time period when we had higher lion populations and decreasing deer numbers, our next door neighbor started losing sheep (maybe it was goats) to mountain lions. He discovered the remains of 2 or 3 in one concealed spot on the mountainside behind his house.

Back to my friend. He doesn’t use dogs, bait, calls, or mechanized vehicles on his hunts. It’s strictly solo, on foot. It took him from predawn to almost sundown to track down and wait out this particular Tom. He didn’t get it packed out to his truck until 10p which was almost 17 hours after he set out on foot.

Edited by ImissWallyPryor
Can’t shut up about big cats.
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On 3/23/2024 at 3:43 PM, deadshank said:

Had to pop in to Graves Taxidermy today.   Browder has quite the collection of mounts awaiting their owner to come get.  

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Maybe not the best "safe room" during a tornado....

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8 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

Yeah, I’ve got mixed feelings about hunting mountain lions because I think they’re cool cats. But without hunting, they will devastate deer populations before turning on domesticated pets and livestock. Or they will starve off or die from diseases they contract from domesticated or feral cats (like feline leukemia).

A large lion can eat up to 30# of venison a day which translates to about 150 deer a year because they also kill smaller deer and scavengers sometimes raid their cache. A neighbor about a mile from us set up a trail cam by a freshly cached kill, and a momma and her two half grown cubs finished it off the next night. I also saw an online article by Nat Geo that included pics of mountain lions that could only eat half of their kill because the bottom half was frozen solid to the ground, protected also from top by their skeleton. Cats’ paws are not designed for digging.

My immediate area was teeming with lions a few years ago. I captured at least 4 different adults on trail cams in a year or so, not including the two grown cubs one mother had tagging along with her. So much for the conventional wisdom that they control large territories. Our deer population plummeted, and still hasn’t fully recovered. I’ve only caught one Tom on my cameras in the past year, so they’ve moved on to new hunting grounds.

Back to my friend, he doesn’t use dogs, bait, calls, or mechanized vehicles on his hunts. It’s strictly solo, and on foot. It took him from predawn to almost sundown to track down and wait out this particular Tom. He didn’t get it packed out to his truck until 10p which was almost 17 hours after he set out on foot.

According to Steve Rinella it it the BEST white meat you will ever try - like immaculate pork.  He also does a great job as you have articulated how successful they are as predators and how if unchecked, can decimate local populations

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8 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

Yeah, I’ve got mixed feelings about hunting mountain lions because they’re cool cats. But without hunting, they will take a serious toll on deer populations before turning on domesticated pets and livestock. Or they will starve off or die from diseases (like feline leukemia) they contract from domesticated or feral cats.

A large lion can eat up to 30# of meat a day which translates to about 150 deer a year because they also kill smaller deer while their cache. A neighbor about a mile from us set up a trail cam by a freshly cached kill, and a momma and her two half grown cubs finished it off the next night. I also saw an online article by Nat Geo that included pics of mountain lions that could only eat half of their kill because the bottom half was frozen solid to the ground, protected also from top by their skeleton. Cats’ paws are not designed for digging.

My immediate area was teeming with lions a few years ago. I captured at least 4 different adults on trail cams in a year or so, not including two grown cubs one mother had tagging along with her. So much for the conventional wisdom that they control large territories. Our deer population plummeted, and still hasn’t fully recovered. I’ve only caught one Tom on my cameras in the past year, so they’ve moved on to new hunting grounds.

During this same time period when we had higher lion populations and decreasing deer numbers, our next door neighbor started losing sheep (maybe it was goats) to mountain lions. He discovered the remains of several in one concealed spot on the mountainside behind his house.

Back to my friend. He doesn’t use dogs, bait, calls, or mechanized vehicles on his hunts. It’s strictly solo, on foot. It took him from predawn to almost sundown to track down and wait out this particular Tom. He didn’t get it packed out to his truck until 10p which was almost 17 hours after he set out on foot.

Yeah I wouldn’t think twice about it in an area with a population like that.  Texas I’d probably pass. Maybe. 

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8 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

Yeah, I’ve got mixed feelings about hunting mountain lions because they’re cool cats. But without hunting, they will take a serious toll on deer populations before turning on domesticated pets and livestock. Or they will starve off or die from diseases (like feline leukemia) they contract from domesticated or feral cats.

A large lion can eat up to 30# of meat a day which translates to about 150 deer a year because they also kill smaller deer while their caches are sometimes raided. A neighbor about a mile from us set up a trail cam by a freshly cached kill, and a momma and her two half grown cubs finished it off the next night. I also saw an online article by Nat Geo that included pics of mountain lions that could only eat half of their kill because the bottom half was frozen solid to the ground, protected also from top by their skeleton. Cats’ paws are not designed for digging.

My immediate area was teeming with lions a few years ago. I captured at least 4 different adults on trail cams in a year or so, not including two grown cubs one mother had tagging along with her. So much for the conventional wisdom that they control large territories. Our deer population plummeted, and still hasn’t fully recovered. I’ve only caught one Tom on my cameras in the past year, so they’ve moved on to new hunting grounds.

During this same time period when we had higher lion populations and decreasing deer numbers, our next door neighbor started losing sheep (maybe it was goats) to mountain lions. He discovered the remains of several in one concealed spot on the mountainside behind his house.

Back to my friend. He doesn’t use dogs, bait, calls, or mechanized vehicles on his hunts. It’s strictly solo, on foot. It took him from predawn to almost sundown to track down and wait out this particular Tom. He didn’t get it packed out to his truck until 10p which was almost 17 hours after he set out on foot.

We've got the same situation, here, in Pecan Plantation. We have so many deer, they net around 1000 each year. Someone will post a mountain lion picture about once every six months. We usually have three to four in here at any given time (momma, two cubs, and a Tom). It is a buffet on the hoof.  A lot of coyotes as well.

CHIEF

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Dogs are only needed if the state needs to get involved with cats impacting livestock or domestic animals.  We had this OLD cat that lived off roadkill near Millersview.  She had worn down teeth and zero fear of people.  So many deer got hit by cars that she was able to live longer than usual in the wild but she started encroaching into deer camps and more urban roads (if there is such a thing out there) so the Wardens used dogs to find her and put her down.  Guy was telling us so was the oldest cat he'd ever seen.  

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10 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

Dogs are only needed if the state needs to get involved with cats impacting livestock or domestic animals.  We had this OLD cat that lived off roadkill near Millersview.  She had worn down teeth and zero fear of people.  So many deer got hit by cars that she was able to live longer than usual in the wild but she started encroaching into deer camps and more urban roads (if there is such a thing out there) so the Wardens used dogs to find her and put her down.  Guy was telling us so was the oldest cat he'd ever seen.  

Hunting with dogs, predator calls, bait, etc. are all illegal here. I only mentioned it to illustrate that he hunts pretty much unassisted, except for his 300WSM. 

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Posted (edited)

It’s been a while, but finally got a little work done last night:

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Spotted this one on thermal scanner across a field and set-up on sticks. DRT.  8 year old ATN XSight still getting it done.

Hogs around here have wised up over the last year.  They’ve been running only in the small hours, and they are skittish as hell.  Numbers have been down as neighbors have been putting the hurt on them with hunting and trapping, but what’s still around has been more destructive as of late.  

I’ve been chasing a particular spotted hog for about 4 months, and he only comes around every so often.  With me happy about last night, he showed up this morning to mock me:F5C5916E-4E87-4B67-BC86-69C948C00479.jpeg.4db67106ade173613946e41b6c9c4374.jpeg

Time to get back to work…

 

Edited by solamente73
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Posted (edited)
On 2/26/2024 at 11:04 AM, 686 said:


Do you have turkeys?

Can confirm yes, we most certainly do. Had a short day at work Friday, so took the opportunity to head up to the lease for the first time since New Years. Saw a big ass gobbler just chilling under the feeder at the first stand I drove up to check on. Turkey tracks all over the place near the watering hole (that actually had standing water for the first time in 2 years), and could hear a large pack warbling at each other in the woods near the camphouse around sunset. 

Productive quick trip as I cleared out about 50 lbs of long expired/freezer burnt crap out of the fridge and pantry. Explored some of the more remote parts of the property and think I found a good location for the new stand my Dad is currently building. Gotta get back out there before too long with some of the other guys for a proper work weekend. Aside from setting up the new stand, need to do some brush clearing and cleaning and put up a new feeder at one of the older stands that is still serviceable. That would put us at 4 huntable stands for November '24 season. Would like to have all 4 up and running so we can start running the feeders around Labor Day.

Edited by Storm the Field
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I am heading to South Texas Friday for Spring Turkey.

As for mountain lions, they have to be rare in South Texas.  I have hunted for 40 years and never seen one.  The guy who flies our ranch for surveys has piloted helicopters for 25 years in South Texas and has never seen one.

We did have a confirmed track around 20 years ago per the TPWD biologist who came out and inspected.  It was next to a fawn that the lion had covered up with grass.   None on any game cameras ever.

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We had hard evidence of one making it's rounds through our place east of Falfurrias about 10 years ago.  Quite a few people were losing livestock in a 10+ mile radius.  Never saw it and it hasn't been an issue since.  Not sure what I would have done if it had come out while I was hog hunting.  I know the guy running cattle on our place wanted it dead.

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47 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

I am heading to South Texas Friday for Spring Turkey.

As for mountain lions, they have to be rare in South Texas.  I have hunted for 40 years and never seen one.  The guy who flies our ranch for surveys has piloted helicopters for 25 years in South Texas and has never seen one.

We did have a confirmed track around 20 years ago per the TPWD biologist who came out and inspected.  It was next to a fawn that the lion had covered up with grass.   None on any game cameras ever.

Virtually impossible to hunt without dogs (unless they're hunting you).  They're ghosts when they want to be.  

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15 minutes ago, Lat22 said:

We had hard evidence of one making it's rounds through our place east of Falfurrias about 10 years ago.  Quite a few people were losing livestock in a 10+ mile radius.  Never saw it and it hasn't been an issue since.  Not sure what I would have done if it had come out while I was hog hunting.  I know the guy running cattle on our place wanted it dead.

Ridiculously efficient hunters.  So much that packs of wolves will sometimes trail them (per reports) and steal their kills

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One doesn’t usually think of mountain lions in North Texas, but this one was shot by a deer hunter just a couple of miles from my place near Celeste back in Dec 2020.  I wash my truck at the wash where the photo was taken:

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Supposedly he was spotted near the Metroplex (Rowlett) the month before.  According to this write-up here, he had been covering some serious ground, so he could have come through my place.  /csb

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Dogs are only needed if the state needs to get involved with cats impacting livestock or domestic animals.  We had this OLD cat that lived off roadkill near Millersview.  She had worn down teeth and zero fear of people.  So many deer got hit by cars that she was able to live longer than usual in the wild but she started encroaching into deer camps and more urban roads (if there is such a thing out there) so the Wardens used dogs to find her and put her down.  Guy was telling us so was the oldest cat he'd ever seen.  

Man, we hunted right by each other. Hunted out past Millersview the past 10 years, till my friends sold their place there.
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8 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


Man, we hunted right by each other. Hunted out past Millersview the past 10 years, till my friends sold their place there.

For today's lesson in Texas synchronicity - it's actually my friends place.  I'm up near Coleman.  We met decades ago at the same company, but both families settled more than a hundred years ago not too far from one another.  Turns out her g-mother used to sell cattle to mine back in the day and they knew each other quite well.  Crossed paths' all the time.  Now fast forward, he knew my wife in college (both in Greek system).  He's easily my best friend and we've been tight ever since.  His place is actually between Millersview and Dule, bifurcated by the road.

 

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3 or 4 years ago there was a bobcat contest in the Abilene area. Some young fellas I’m vaguely familiar with were calling in Bob’s between Lawn and Tuscola when a 170-ish pound cat damn near ran them over to get to the speaker.


The year after we lost our lease in Graford (so 2018 I believe) a high school kid smoked a 200 pound cat on his way to school about a mile from the front gate of the lease we used to be on.

Cats are out there, but like Baba said you aren’t seeing them unless they slip up.

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3 or 4 years ago there was a bobcat contest in the Abilene area. Some young fellas I’m vaguely familiar with were calling in Bob’s between Lawn and Tuscola when a 170-ish pound cat damn near ran them over to get to the speaker.


The year after we lost our lease in Graford (so 2018 I believe) a high school kid smoked a 200 pound cat on his way to school about a mile from the front gate of the lease we used to be on.

Cats are out there, but like Baba said you aren’t seeing them unless they slip up.

My BiL just this past year+ bought some land out in graford, I still need to get out there and pop some hogs.
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Posted (edited)
22 hours ago, solamente73 said:

One doesn’t usually think of mountain lions in North Texas, but this one was shot by a deer hunter just a couple of miles from my place near Celeste back in Dec 2020.  I wash my truck at the wash where the photo was taken:

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Supposedly he was spotted near the Metroplex (Rowlett) the month before.  According to this write-up here, he had been covering some serious ground, so he could have come through my place.  /csb

Speaking of covering some serious ground…

Quote

This mountain lion traveled a distance of more than 1,500 miles from its original home in South Dakota - representing one of the longest movements ever recorded for a land mammal and nearly double the distance ever recorded for a dispersing mountain lion.

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/DEEP-Mountain-lion-killed-in-Connecticut-16849367.php

Edited by ImissWallyPryor
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Had a good weekend at the ranch. Put in 4 culverts over some low water crossings, and got in a morning of hunting. The 4 toms were locked in on two hens and the hens were kinda moving erratically. They were 200 yards across a field with no cover, so I waited for awhile and they started moving towards a springfed Creek area that has some cover. I made a long circle around and got in front of them and came up the creek bottom quiet and concealed. Watching the gobblers strut in the green grass in that Creekbottom area was really great. Got him at about 40 yards. Also made it really satisfying is that this creek bottom area was completely brushed over a few years ago and I spent a lot of time clearing it out and making it productive. We had a huge bluebonnet year.

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Here’s another view of the creek bottom, I food plotted it with cereal rye and oats last fall and I planted apple trees in the cages a few years ago. It took at lot of work to make it like this, but Wildlife and livestock love this spot.

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On 4/10/2024 at 9:54 PM, solamente73 said:

One doesn’t usually think of mountain lions in North Texas, but this one was shot by a deer hunter just a couple of miles from my place near Celeste back in Dec 2020.  I wash my truck at the wash where the photo was taken:

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Supposedly he was spotted near the Metroplex (Rowlett) the month before.  According to this write-up here, he had been covering some serious ground, so he could have come through my place.  /csb

There are a lot more cats running around Texas than people think.  We had several neighbors in West Lake Hills that had spotted a mountain lion over a period of about six weeks in 2020.  A lady sitting in the parking lot of a church at dusk as the cat trotted right past her car, cat seen on people’s decks, and caught on security cameras.  

Around 2010, there were lots of sightings in Barton Creek Greenbelt.

My buddy and I found this cache on their family ranch out in Llano County in January 2017:

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My cousin and I had a close encounter with a mountain lion back in late 1980s in Osage County, OK.  We were predator calling a canyon for bobcats in some really wild country.  There was a light snow cover on the ground, we walked to edge of the rim rock and there were no tracks in the snow as we made our way to the calling location.  When we had finished and didn’t have any takers, we were walking out the same way we came in a some huge cat tracks were 20 yards uphill from our calling spot.  Much larger tracks than a bobcat and the lion must have scented us and left in a hurry.

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14 hours ago, 686 said:

Had a good weekend at the ranch. Put in 4 culverts over some low water crossings, and got in a morning of hunting. The 4 toms were locked in on two hens and the hens were kinda moving erratically. They were 200 yards across a field with no cover, so I waited for awhile and they started moving towards a springfed Creek area that has some cover. I made a long circle around and got in front of them and came up the creek bottom quiet and concealed. Watching the gobblers strut in the green grass in that Creekbottom area was really great. Got him at about 40 yards. Also made it really satisfying is that this creek bottom area was completely brushed over a few years ago and I spent a lot of time clearing it out and making it productive. We had a huge bluebonnet year.

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Camo doesn't match.  Still successful hunt.  Umpossible.....;)

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I think the mountain lion and bear sightings are a combo of more trail cameras with expansion of territories.  I think I posted these previously, but we saw a black bear two summers ago on the banks of the Devils getting some water right at dusk.  Probably 200 yds away from a kayak, so the picture quality sucks.  And, a buddy of mine caught a lion and a bear at two separate water troughs within the same week at his place outside of Comstock last winter.  I've never seen a big cat in person, but they're out there.  Especially in the southwestern part of the state.  

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8 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

Working on those S.Texas racing stripes I see.  Noice.  

The road from the ranch house to the river takes about 45 minutes to traverse.  Getting down into the river flood plain is where one's truck gets off the tire shredding rocks and into the overgrown area that takes off the paint.  The vegetation gets "cut" once a year.  We would haul a trailer down there chock full with a smoker, gas grill, gas oven, griddle, a full bar with tufted leather sides, party tents, generators, lights, tables and chairs.  All of this to hang out on the Devil's four days during the Labor Day weekend.

 

After 30 years of it the feds finally shut us down.  Commies hate a good time.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Welp, as of lunch today, I've got a new unpaid, thankless side job. I'm now in charge of "managing" our deer lease. Met with the guy who's been the point man for our group the last few years, but he never has time to go out anymore, and has been wanting to pass the torch and implied he may drop out entirely.

No possible way this can backfire and end up being a pain in the ass!

Brother and I's new stand should be ready fairly soon, so first order of business will be heading out sometime in the next few weekends to drag it out there and hopefully we can convince a couple of the other guys to come out for a minor work weekend to do some brush clearing and beer drinking. 

Edited by Storm the Field
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We had a guy drop, and I’m taking his pasture. And just 6 months after I went from 4’ legs to 12’.  Because of course.  I might just break down and rent a zoom boom for the weekend. Erecting it about killed me the first time.  Don’t know about down and back up again.  

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1 hour ago, deadshank said:

Being in a camp that does not have community blinds is mind-bottling.  
 

Would not bang. 

Same here.  And we look down on folks that don't talk honestly about what they've seen each hunt.  No private silos.

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6 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Same here.  And we look down on folks that don't talk honestly about what they've seen each hunt.  No private silos.

Game cams are open for all to view.  No subterfuge.   No hiding images of deer.   Go be dishonest on your own place.   Not here.   If you’ve got that big an ego and hard on to out do your camp mates then you’re gone.   
 

 

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56 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Same here.  And we look down on folks that don't talk honestly about what they've seen each hunt.  No private silos.

Not ideal but that’s what they have always done, long before I arrived.  We have a few guest blinds, but every person there has offered up their blind for guests without hesitation in the past. I’ve known all but one of the guys for coming up on 20 years, and the guy I didn’t know knows the ones I consider family for over 45 years.  We switch it up when someone wants a change of scenery etc.   The issues I have are with the place and it’s proximity to town, not the members.  I also don’t have the investment into it that you or @deadshank have.  Shit I think there’s only 1 other blind I’d crawl into on that place - way different blind spread than shanks setup.  We also don’t have the kind of deer that people fight over, unfortunately. 

I think of it as a family spot that we happen to not own, that has great quail, ok deer, and a great atmosphere where no one is that mad at it. if it was 10 miles further East I’d have not a single complaint. 

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Made it up turkey hunting to our panhandle spot. It had been COLD last week so the birds had turned off. I didnt think about cold weather and only had a raincoat to bundle uo with. First morning was in the 40s. The weather turned out of the south and it got really hot into the 90s. The birds turned on and the last morning we must of called in 20 gobblers in 1 set.
Was alot of fun. We used a buddies new hand held gobbler decoy and it worked like a charm. U can attach it to a bow and ahot with it attached. Worked amazingly good. Killed 4 using a Brileys Tungsten Turkey choke and TSS #9s and #7s. 12ga Benellii SBE. One shot was 70 yards with #9s. That shit is crazy legit. Check it out if you havent already. Then ranch is GREEEN! Deer hopefully gonna be off the charts, we hope.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Results came out today and I was able to draw a first rifle season bull tag this year in Colorado. My partner was successful as well. Hell yeah.

We’re thinking about having a pack-in service take us up high and farther into the wilderness this year. Drop us there with our gear and then pack us out when we’re ready. We bought a lightly used wall tent so we have that; just need cots, a stove, and a few odds and ends and we could do a “diy” drop camp hunt. Another step for us up the ladder of hunting adventure.

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