Howdy,

Another cat season has come and gone which is my signal to send out another newsletter.  The season really couldn't have gone any better.  I took one more lion hunter since the last newsletter and he also got a nice tom on the first day of his hunt.  It was an exciting hunt that started out with miserable conditions. 

WARNING: What follows is a detailed account of this hunt.  Buckshot Outfitting will not be held liable for any damages incurred by boredom inflicted by reading this story.  By continuing to read you are implicitly agreeing to hold Buckshot Outfitting harmless for any such damages.  To avoid any such problems we suggest skipping to the next paragraph.  We were in the midst of the dreaded freeze/thaw cycle in which daytime temperatures warm up above freezing making the snow heavy and wet, and low overnight temperatures freeze the slop into a solid block on which a cat won't leave a track.  So I was snowmobiling along looking for lion tracks and feeling very pessimistic about catching a lion until the weather changed when I noticed a set of old lion tracks, made when the snow was soft, frozen into the crud.  I got off the sled to investigate and noticed that the lion had actually gone both ways there which made me suspicious so I followed the tracks off the road and up the hill for a ways.  Soon I came to where the walking tracks suddenly began running and shortly after that there were drag marks and traces of blood going up the hill.  I followed these for another 50 yards and came to a mound of dirt and pine needles where the lion had covered his kill.  There were lots of old tracks coming and going and it was impossible to tell if he'd been there recently on the icy snow but based on the amount of deer left and the fact that it was still covered I guessed that he probably had been there sometime during the night.  We brought the dogs into the kill and they picked up a line and began trailing away although it was tough going on the crusted snow where the lion left no mark of his passing.  The cat had zig-zagged up the mountain and every time he changed directions the dogs would get hung up while they circled around trying to relocate the track.  These delays made it possible for me to follow along without getting too far behind.  Finally around mid-day the dogs suddenly took off making much better time and sounding very excited and I could see that the lion was now sinking into the softened snow.  About that time I looked up and saw the lion running down the hill directly at me!  He had apparently made a hairpin turn up above and the dogs hadn't reached the turnaround yet and were still heading up the hill.  For a few seconds it appeared the lion was going to run right over top of me, possibly using my face as a launching pad, but at the last minute he swerved and ran past me.  I watched him run another 75 yards and then he climbed a tree!  Soon the dogs came by me, located the tree and began barking treed.  Jon and his wife Kerry made the steep climb to the tree and Jon collected his trophy.  It's always especially rewarding when we have successful hunts under tough conditions like these.  I've added pictures to page 13 of the web site's photo gallery of this lion.  I also caught an unusual bobcat which had white toes on its hind feet and there are pictures of that too. 

Our success was 100% on nice tom lions this year and I hope to see that trend continue.  I still have good dates open for next winter but to assure a spot they should be booked soon.  Spring bear season is just around the corner and that's booked full, still good dates available for 2008 though. 

Normally the last 2 weeks of November are the prime time to take a trophy whitetail buck and those were booked solid for the coming fall but I recently had a cancellation so the last week of November is available again.  I really don't expect that to last long so please let me know if you're interested.  We had a spectacular deer season last fall and I'm really looking forward to the '07 season.  In addition to all our usual stomping grounds I'll have a large block of additional hunting territory by the coming fall.

For those of you who haven't keeled over in a boredom-induced coma by now, thanks for reading.  If you have that kind of stamina I hope to see you on a hunt soon! 

Clint Gray
Buckshot Outfitting
208-267-3885
www.buckshotoutfitting.com