I had no idea how to hunt mountain lions, but I came home from school one day and my dad said, “Congratulations! You have a mountain lion tag.” I had just shot a whitetail in Idaho, so I was already excited about hunting, and that tag got me even more excited, even though I had no idea what was in store.
A lot of questions followed about where we would hunt and what gun I would use. I learned a lot about dogs, tracking, tracking collars, tracks, and fresh snow. I expected a lot of cold, early mornings and a lot of snacks in the truck while we were driving around the mountains every time a snowstorm came through.
We got Mom out of bed and met a friend with his dogs on a Saturday morning at 3:00 and drove forever in the dark. There was about six inches of fresh snow, but deer tracks were the only ones we were finding. I was glad I brought a blanket because I kept falling asleep in the backseat.
It was about 11:00 when the cold air from the wide-open door woke me up. Dad said to come look at a lion track. It just looked like a dent in the snow to me, and they said it was about a day old. We drove around the hill on a different road and found the track again. It still wasn’t fresh, but it was fresh enough that the dogs could smell it and off they went.
Tony has six Blue Tick hounds, and they were loud barkers and fast runners. The dogs were headed straight back to where we first saw the old tracks, so we drove around the mountain again. We drove as far up the canyon as we could and then we had to park because of the snow. Tony said the dogs were barking treed, so we started hiking. I didn’t know what that meant, but I followed them up the mountain in the snow. They said it wasn’t very far, but it seemed like a long ways to me. I could barely hear the dogs until we got to the top of the hill and then they sounded really close! The dogs had torn up all the snow around the tree and had even chewed some of the bark off of the tree. I looked up but couldn’t see anything in the tree. It was a bushy cedar tree, and it wasn’t very tall.
Tony said, “Come and look right there.” He pointed to a giant lion that was staring right at me and said it was a big tom. It was super close, and I started getting nervous.
I asked my dad, “What if I miss?”
He said, “How can you miss? It’s only 20 feet away.”
I have a 6.5 Creedmoor, and I love shooting it, but I was scared to make this shot. We set up in another tree where we could see most of the lion. I was breathing hard and shaking like a leaf. I guess I was mostly scared because if I wounded him he could come after me. I had to aim and re-aim a lot before I settled down and felt good about my shot. Finally, I thought I was ready. Everyone started rolling their cameras, and I slowly squeezed the trigger. When the gun went off, branches, snow, and limbs went flying everywhere and the cat was gone! I asked, “Did I hit it?” My dad said that I did great and showed me the tracks and the blood. The cat only ran about 50 yards. Talk about a relief! I’m not sure why I was so nervous.
I went from nervous to so ecstatic that I couldn’t stand it. I had thought we would have to get up at 3:00 a.m. and go out a lot of times, but here we were, successful on the first try. The guys were all saying the cat was huge. It looked huge to me, and it stunk really, really bad. I figured it must be big because they made me pose for about 1,000 pictures. They were making me hold it up, and my arms were so tired. Finally, we started back to the trucks. I’m not sure if I was exhausted from the hike, the early morning, or the excitement, but I slept all the way home.
I’m only 12, and I guess I was lucky to draw the tag the first time I ever put in. I sure am glad my dad puts me in for hunts, and I hope I draw something fun like this again. Big thanks to Tony and Tara and their dogs!
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