Hi Folks, Just thought I'd share my recent Utah lion hunt. A few weeks ago I was surprised by an email that said I drew the only non-resident cougar tag for the Paunsaugunt, my first attempt. Just finished this past weekend and this is the result.
Booked a 7 day hunt. The first 5 days were dry (no snow) and although I think we saw tracks everyday there was little that the dogs could hold on to. The days were spent canyon climbing looking for tracks.
On the 5th day I found a good tom track in a dry wash and again the dogs couldn't get locked onto it. The sand with the sun and wind just wouldn't hold the scent, you need some moisture to keep things fresh. Day 6 came with a snowstorm and -5 temps. That day we mainly rode around checking to see where there was snow and where there wasn't. It was altitude dependent and probably anything over 6500 feet had snow.
Day 7, last and final day we went back to the wash and sure enough the big tom that went through earlier returned after the snow. The dogs were put on it and off they went. About 2 hours later I could see the dogs had the tom in the top of a tree on the far side of a VERY STEEP AND DEEP canyon. After finding a way to the other side I took the cat with my Taurus 4" 41 mag revolver. The lion fell out of the tree, hit the ground, and bounced right off the ledge at least 200 feet straight down into a "slot" canyon. A slot canyon is a deep and narrow canyon where you can touch both sides with your hands.
Initially we weren't even sure the cat would be recoverable. But eventually and with great difficulty (fear on my part) we found a way into the slot canyon and the rest is pictures. I chickened out about halfway back up the canyon wall, returned to the bottom and found an easier way up and out about a half mile farther down the canyon.
Here's a link to some more pics of the hunt:
http://sports.webshots.com/album/556244825wUmZkv
