From all the lions shot each year by the safari companies in a given country how much of them are hunted on foot and how much on bait??

Success rate in each type of hunt?

Does anyone on this forum hunted lions on foot?

I think that one thing is to hunt a lion and other one is to shoot a lion.

LG

Lorenzo,

I have hunted both, and the one on foot is definitely more fun.

I have shot 5 lions so far, 3 were followed and two on bait.

Saeed
You suppose it's considered sporting to use ex wives as bait?
Jim

Jim,

Yes sir, ex-wives and politicians.

In fact, I would like to use the politicians as hyena bait, they do more damage before they kill their prey

Tracking lions can be quite an experience. For instance, in Angola and Botswana where it is very sandy, tracking is fairly easy. This type of hunting has been described by some, as, "Hours of boredom, and 5 seconds of sheer terror" I can vouch for that.
George

[ 02-27-2003, 17:54: Message edited by: George Hoffman ]

Saeed

I can think of a few more ways to use them as bait, but I don't think people would want to know

Gentlemen,

We have spent many hours of following lions, without ever catching up with them.

On the two occasions that we manage to see them, one was after a 2 hour chase, and one of only a few minutes.

Hers is the longer chase.

We were driving around late in the morning, when we saw a lioness not more than 120 yards from us, feeding on something.

As we jumped out of the truck, she got up and ran off with half a warthog in her mouth. We went after her for a few minutes, and then had to give up, as she knew we were after her. She dropped the half she did not eat, and we decided to let her go, go back to camp, have an early lunch, and then follow her.

Hopefully we will find her asleep.

Well, we got back to her tracks, and followed her. It was uncanny how she stopped every now and then, doubled back a few yards, and lay down to look behind.

After about two hours, we could see a boabab tree ahead of us.

Roy, our PH, thought she might be asleep under that tree.

Sure enough, she was, as we got to about 20 yards from her, we could see her lying down fast asleep.

Trouble was, she was hidden behind a log that was down on the ground, and all we could see is her tail, and part of her rear end.

We had two choices, either wait until her ladyship wakes up, or disturb her slumber ourselves.

We deecided on the second course, and Roy picked a stone, and threw it to the side of her. I was ready on the shooting sticks.

The instant the rock hit the ground, she was up and looking in that direction. She was facing us at a slight angle. I put a bullet at the junction of her neck and shoulder. She started jumping up and down, turning around and growling. I fired another shot that hit her in the rear end, going forward. It did not seem to make much difference to her, so I fired a third shot into her. This one hitting her in the rear leg and doing very little damage.

She dropped down, and we went to inspect her. We found her to be a very large lioness.

We recoverd the first two bullets. One was in her neck - this is the second one, and the first one was in her rear leg. These two bullets penetrated her body diagonally.

300 grain Barnes X out of the 375/404.

The shorter story.

We saw a herd of buffalo which seemed to be quite agitated. Roy thought lions might be around, so we left them. With the inten tion of coming back later on, and try to find any lion tracks. Hopefully we will find them aftet they have made a kill.

We came back a while later, and found the tracks of a pride of lions.

We got onto theit tracks, and about 15 minutes later we surprised them lying under some trees. I am not sure who was more surprised, them or us, as there was quite a bit of grass, and hard to see very much.

All of them took off, except one young lion, which we mistook to be a lioness. And as lionesses were on our quota, roy told me to go ahead and shoot.

This one was about 25 yards from us, and sitting on his hind legs. He was not sure where we were, but was looking at his disappearing friends. I put a 400 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw bullet into his neck, and he dropped down.

A few seconds later, a lioness came out of the bush straight for us. She came to about 12-15 yards, turned around and went to stand by her fallen comrade.

Roy suggested I shot her too, which I did. She did exactly the same thing as the lioness mentioned in the pervious story, so I gave her another shot.

Walter was left at the truck, but of course he heard the shots.

Roy went back to get the truck, and as soon as Walter arrived, and saw only two animals dead, this is what he said:

"Saeed, you are so bloody useless! THREE shots and only two liones! Where is the third one?"

I was thinking about the ex-wife's lawyer, but I don't think any lion would get near that much stink. They probably would cut and run for cover. Would a hyena eat a lawyer? I know maggots will not.

Tracking Lion hunts are the ultimate dangerous game hunt, but I imagine a Lion in your hidey (blind) can get pretty exciting, and tracking one of the buggers at night with a torch is a bloody damn nasty job that pumps the adrenaline valve.

My good friend and client Bill Holscher of Chicago had a nice male visit him last year in the blind..He and the PH were sitting with blankets wrapped around them to survive the moskies and Tetsis when Bill heard heavy breathing , no phone was around so he gets suspecious.. He lowers his blanket and turns around and takes a peek, and a full grown male lion is now nudging him with a paw the size of a pillow, he wispers to the PH and the Ph says shhhhh be quite, Bill says quite my a$$ their is friggin Lion in our blind boss, PH says "what the -----!!!" and looks around and yells, jumps up hollers shoot!! The Lion turns a summer salt backwards and walks off 15 yards and stands there growling at them with much indignation at such antics and slowly walks off...

Bill didn't shoot him because he had no tail,He now wishes he had, but thats spilt milk...Probably some other spilt stuff around that blind....Should have been a closed blind in the first place but that's hindsight....I suspect it is and will remain one of Bills highs in his hunting career...

There is a third way not on the east coast though, which is calling the lion, like you would call moose, with a huge buggle.

Both pursuits are quite exciting. I shot mine while following elephant tracks. Sometimes luck is better than skill!!

Hunted them both ways and enjoyed it all.

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
Hunted them both ways and enjoyed it all.

You must be possessed with the long past.

I tracked my only lion. Very exciting! You learn alittle more about yourself after you do that.

In Burkina Faso we offer lion hunts. They can only be tracked as baiting is not allowed, unless you find a natural kill which has happened! The Burkina lions are big bodied but dont have much of a mane, I always say to clients if you shoot one of those you are entitled to grow the mane .

Arjun Reddy
www.huntersnetworks.com

quote:

Originally posted by Will:

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
Hunted them both ways and enjoyed it all.

You must be possessed with the long past.

Obviously ozhunter has been searching the wayback instead of hunting the outback.

At least he hasn't been hunting Brokeback, at least as far as we know.

465H&H

I've also hunted lion both ways. Any lion hunting is exciting, as long as you see lions. Baiting lions is like flying a super cub in the bush 99% boredum and 1% pure fear.
I did kill one tracking, picked up the track leaving camp in the morning, killed him right a dark. The pure fear part with that one was going into the thick brush with flashlights after him. Turns out the bullet hit a small tree first, deflected and took him way to far back.
This past year in Moyowosi, we couldn't get any lions to bait, but we found lots driving and would stalk them before determining they were too young. Lots of fun as the area was always open and the lions saw us coming.
I spent 8 nights in just a mesh tent at night and had a young lion 3 feet from my head at 3:00 am. I could see him well and heard him breathing. The 470 was pointed right at him, but he didn't seem to even notice me. Tried to get in the cook tent and staff ran him off.
Lions are a hoot no matter how you hunt them.

quote:

Originally posted by 465H&H:
At least he hasn't been hunting Brokeback, at least as far as we know.

465H&H

The only "BrokeBack" here is when the Woodleigh FMJ hit the high shoulder.
My first Lion was taken after three days of tracking in 40" Celsius heat. Got onto him three times before we took him. Awesome hunt with Gibbo and Tracker Robert.

Tracked up Lion taken at 12m.

Done it both ways and each has its own qualities. On foot is more rewarding but that is not to say over bait is not hunting. Like leopard out of a tree it takes work, skill and experience to get the right lion on bait. Plus there are only a few places where you can consistently track them. Even if you can see the track they go into places where it is insane to follow like high thick grass. Both are great hunts. On a percentage basis my bet is 90% bait 10% on foot.

A friend of mine shot it 2006 in Burkina Faso . Hunting only on foot in BF !

Have baited cats me 2 leopards zero. Lions baited lions 2 me zero. I like the idea of tracking cats. 2012 will try for simba for the third time.


Mike

I have killed lion both ways, and both felt very rewarding. The lion I killed on track was one of the most physicaly demanding hunts of my life. Cat would walk ten to twelve miles a night and never hit the same bait twice. The last three days we were on him I got nine hours of sleep. Shot him on day 15 right as the sun was setting. Sat next to him on top of a tall hill and watched the sunset. It was one of the happiest times of my life.

Killed my second lion on a bait. He was much like a leopard, and pulled many tricks on us. Greed finally got the better of him and I got my shot. Normaly that would have been the end of it but I flubbed the shot and we had to track him into a kopje. It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life and by the time it was over my nerves and body were ready to shut down.

Take a lion how you can get him, wild and legally. You will feel like a winner.

On one episode of TAA they set up a bait and then went tracking from the bait. Which would you count that under, tracking or baiting?

I am unlucky and my experience is that the two Lion that were walked up ended up being problematic and resulted in wounding and a charge.

A ground blind does put you in very close proximity and more especially when you walk to it in the dark of early morn. The feeling or emotion of expectancy is difficult to describe. For me a blind scenario offers the opportunity to carefully study and age the Lion.

From my limited experience tracking up has its flaws and is more likely to result in a rushed shot. However I must agree that it is very exciting.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
The feeling or emotion of expectancy is difficult to describe. For me a blind scenario offers the opportunity to carefully study and age the Lion.

From my limited experience tracking up has its flaws and is more likely to result in a rushed shot. However I must agree that it is very exciting.

Having hunted mostly on foot due to regulations here in Botswana - have also done baited Lion and with hounds on problem Lion.
The walk and stalk is without doubt tops as is hunting behind hounds ( if you are a hound man ) but also without doubt hunting from blinds ensures you only take a old mature male as you can turn down the younger ones. So in the long run the best conservation method is by bait. And as the Lion debate is gaining momentum the sooner we ensure only old males are taken in every country the sooner we can secure our continued huntng of these great animals.

Bob Kelez from Salt Lake City took our first Lion in our NG 47 concession in 1997 and then the last Lion in 2007 - both on foot far from vehicles or cover. Great hunter great trophies.

In Tanzania many hunters also get to take their cat on foot but its because they often shoot the cat which is at bait before they make it to the blind .