I got an interesting e-mail in today from a PH that hunts in Tanzania that told me about a new way he has been working on to hunt a lion. Most lion hunters do the tradtional bait hanging 5 1/2 to 6 feet off the ground with daily visits back there to see if a lion has found it. Some places, like the Selous, allow for tracking. But below is a technique I have never heard of. Check this out:

quote:

As an aside I've spent two years working on calling in Lions with a "Lion Trumpet".( Basically a cone made of very thin sheet metal about waist height in length.) I've got it down quite well... This has got to be one of the most exciting and interesting ways to hunt Lion. The biggest and most rewarding Lion I've taken with a hunter was taken this way...It was truly incredible.

So this extra tool has upped the averages quite a bit. It works for Lions that are slightly educated. But you've got to have all your stuff together, ducks in a row...

What do you think? Have you ever heard of this before? Do any of you have any experience with calling in a lion?

Vic,

Its not a new thing as I have read about it several times. Sounds pretty exciting as I would imagine the lion might circle around and come in from anywhere.

Mark

We had a tracker who could do the same thing with a galvanized bucket. He liked to do it at night when the clients had just gone to sleep.

Rich Elliott

I saw video of the trackers using a 5-gallon jerrycan to imitate the 'locate' call 15 years ago.

George

My PH made in Zim wanted to see if learning to call by mouth with a cone shaped call would be worth the effort, so he made a tape of a lion calling one night. Later he took his truck out into the bush and played the tape on a portable stereo set on the roof so he could rewind and replay it from time to time, to see what would happen. about a half hour later, while sitting in the truck, he herd something and turned on the lights to find a very pissed off, very large lion running at the truck. Thankfully, it stopped in the lights and didn't continue on

If a guy could learn to call it would seem to provide a very exciting oportunity at dawn and dusk.

JPK

Spring,

As Mark Young pointed out it is not a new thing. I saw a photograph in a book or magazine of a ph with a sheet metal funel held to his lips.
Using this idea we took a 25l plastic drum cut out a part of the bottom and then attached about 30" PVC piping at the spout.
We sat in the mountains one day overlooking a waterhole where 7 or 8 Lions were lazing around and it certainly got them up and moving in our general direction. They lost interest when we did it too often. They have different calls to comminicate different things. Bottom line is it works.

I use one from time to time..... they work fine........ although it does scare the shit out of any locals who don't know it's there!

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Vic,

Its not a new thing as I have read about it several times. Sounds pretty exciting as I would imagine the lion might circle around and come in from anywhere.

Mark

In 1993, we were hunging in Deka in Zimbabwe. We arrived at the camp about after lunch, then went out in the afternoon.

It was cloudy and a storm was brewing. Late in the afternoon, we heard a lion calling, so we decided to go see what is going on.

We found a large number of vultures on a big tree in a grassy area. The lion was still growling less than 200 yards away in the grass.

Off we went to try to shoot him.

We waded into the high grass. We looked around, trying to follow the sound of the lion, and the lion circling around us!


We did not find his kill, and could not see him. But, from his sound, he could not have been more than about 20 yards away from us at some point.

It got too dark to see anything, so we decided to withdraw.

As we got to the truck, Walter launched a verbal attack on both me and Roy. And by teh sounds of it, you would have thought it was HIM that we forced to go after the lion, not us.

We thought if it was not so cloudy, which caused the light to fade much quicker than normal, we would have gotten our lion.

Or the lion would have gotten us, according to Walter.

the big stock killer I got a couple years ago we ended up calling in. he came in at a trot to see who the hell was messing with his kill

quote:

Originally posted by Rich Elliott:
We had a tracker who could do the same thing with a galvanized bucket. He liked to do it at night when the clients had just gone to sleep.

Rich Elliott

HAD??

Did they eat him (clients or lions)

He was a rascal by nature and his employment became and hindrance rather than a help.

There didn't I phrase that nicely?

Rich Elliott

Our esteemed member jbdernuz shot a lion in CAR I believe and it was called in..He has a pic of the lion call and a story about the hunt..

Mike

I thought I read there were legality issues with calling lions in many areas. Did I make that up?

Kyler

quote:

Originally posted by Kyler Hamann:
I thought I read there were legality issues with calling lions in many areas. Did I make that up?

Kyler

All I have read (and not verified) is that electronic calls may be illegal in some countries/areas. I do not remember reading about lions, but I miss a lot.

That is really interesting that this technique has been around a while and clearly does work. I suspect it works best once you have generally located a lion and know you are in its proximity. Usually, however, once you have located a lion by baiting, the need to call him in isn't particularly high as you'll try to be there when they come back to feed, if not find him at the bait when you arrive. But if you can't get him to feed during the daylight hours, or time is becoming an issue, I can certainly see where trying to jumpstart a lion's activity would make a lot of sense. Sounds exciting---and I thought calling a turkey was fun…....

I've read a 3# coffee can with a hole drilled in the end, then a wet leather shoelace drawn thru the hole makes a pretty good lion call

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:
Our esteemed member jbdernuz shot a lion in CAR I believe and it was called in..He has a pic of the lion call and a story about the hunt..

Mike

MIKE !!! FLATTERY WILL LEAD YOU NOWHERE

Last year, I had the pleasure to shoot a fine lion thanks to my PH calling him.
He roars strongly and the most important and the most teasing...after the roar, he coughs 2 or 3 times. We tried it last month again : the coughs are the most important. Very efficient in the CAR and in Tanzania.

Spring,

In Elgin Gates' book Trophy Hunter in Africa, The Lions of Korannaland he describes calling lions with a five gallon petrol tin. Great reading.

Is it legal to call lions with a manual call in Tanzania....



Mike

Mike,

The picture I posted displaya my PH who is working (managing the whole outfit and guiding) in the CAR from december to may, and in Tanzania, where he has learned the trick, from july to october.
The call is extremely efficient to hunt the lion and to estimate lion's population too.

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:
Is it legal to call lions with a manual call in Tanzania....



Mike

Not quite but then again, using baits in hunting isn't either but everyone does