Dukats Journal of Hunting

(HUNTING VIDEO)

I called up Layne's hunting buddy and part two of the lion hunt began.  My wife and I had a brand new baby in August and I couldn't get out in the fall, but by December I was ready for some days back in the mountains. 

Ray did some late night sweeping of the Sierrita Mountains and we planned our first hunt on foot. We spent the first couple hours checking for tracks in various canyons in the truck and when all we found were skunk and bobcat spoor, We decided we would make a round on foot.

I knew I was in trouble when he was jogging up the canyons after checking tracks, so I lightened up the load the best I could and we set out with high hopes to cross a fresh lion track.  We didn't, but I got to know Ray a little bit and we enjoyed a nice hike in the cool Arizona morning.

Our next two adventures were again on foot and we made some 6 or 7 mile circles gaining some major elevation and seeing a lot of country.  They found a track or two and we had high hopes, but they never did catch up with the cat.  One day we enjoyed several inches and snow and thought we couldn't go wrong, but the lions had other thoughts and must have spent the night in a cave staying warm.

We planned to hunt the next day in the same area, but Ray called me that night and said one of the ranchers had word of a couple lions spotted and the plan had changed.  We were going to meet back in the general area Layne and I had hunted and see what we could find.  It was New Year's Eve and my wife wasn't too impressed when I was in bed by 8:30, but I wanted to be sharp for a lion hunt in the a.m.

The day started off and most days had and the dogs barked here and there and we found a track or two in the sand.  There had been a lion in the area, but it was tough to tell how fresh the track were.  After a few unsucessful attempts to locate the track, Ray used some lion hunting intuition and we made a loop up one of the several arroyos in the area.  To my surprise, the dogs picked up what appeared to be a good scent and nearly every dog in the pack including Liza was barking up a storm. 

As we picked our way through the cactus the sound of the dogs became more distant, but still echoed down the canyon.  One of the horses picked up a major rock in it's shoe and while we searched for something to pry it out, the dogs began to bark like they had something in the tree.  I knew in my heart it couldn't be that easy as we could still ride to where they were and by the time we reached them, they were trying to sort out the track.

Eventually they trailed up over a mountain and we picked our way up through the ocotillo and rocks to a saddle.  The country was getting steep and when we reached the top of the saddle the dogs were nowhere to be found.  Ray jumped off his horse and cruised up to the top of the mountain to try to get a reading for direction on his locator. 

Sure enough they had trailed over the next mountain and we were back on the horses and headed up again.  As we crested the ridge of the second mountain, we could hear the dogs in the distance and they sounded like they were under the tree once again.  We pushed the horses up the mountain as far as we could, dropped the saddles on the ground, tied up the horse and moved out on foot. 

We were now climbing in and out of the rocks cliffs dropping in and out of cuts along the mountain.  Each time we moved out to the edge of the mountainside, we would hear the bayed up hounds in the distance.  Finally we reached a spot where we could see the dogs in the distance under the tree.  They definitely had something treed and we needed to get there before it decided to vacate. 

I did my best to keep up with Ray and we finally reached the ridge the dogs were on.  We snuck slowly down until we could see the yellow hide in the leaves of the top of the tree.  There was no doubt it was a lion and we spent a few moments savoring the dogs and the lion.  We crept in to around 50 yards and Ray said to "shoot that lion before he bails out."  I raised the old Marlin 30/30, pulled the trigger and out of the tree the lion came. 

We sprinted down the hill and my lion hunt had come to an end.  We finally killed Layne's 100th lion and had a great time in the process.  Dry ground lion hunting in the Arizona desert is an amazing experience and one you'll never forget if you get the chance to try it.  Those who say hunting with dogs is not a challenge, haven't experienced a hunt in the cactus and rocks of the Southwest.  It will test you mentally and physically, but is as challenging of a hunting experience as anything out there.