Difficult to say from that picture but I estimate around 10.

Jim, An outfitter and his ph's should have a good idea of the genetic capability of their hunting areas and based on that should be able to tell the estimated age or whether a particular lion they are seeing has mane growth potential or not. One is never 100% sure but there are many ways to arrive at a very good calculated guess. that is what is important in my view.

The first cat I shot belongs to an old lady who use to live in my same block, he was killing my birds so one night I bait him with a white dove and spend the hole night in a blind I made in the middle of my garden!!
I shoot the bastard with a 4,5 mm air gun between the eyes, it was a very good trophy for an eleven years boy

Obviously I prefer to shoot a big old black mane lion, and I apologize if I dissapoint someone, but I promise I will shoot a lion whatever his age, size, sex or religion is!!

Most of the oldtimers (everyone's heros) shoot everything!! including young lions and it seems that this doesn't bother much to some people. If you are a trophy hunter or you have had the luck of hunted lions before, it's ok if you prefer to pass it, but I'm just a common hunter who hunts for the experience, not to make a mount to brag infront of someone else or to appear in some book. To each its own.

LG

I love those hearty souls that hunt canned Lions..

That means to me that one more wild lion will remain alive for those who wish to hunt him on his own turf...Canned Lion hunting really does take a lot of pressure off the Wild Lions of Africa...

Sometimes folks tend to let emotion blur reality. Carefull you don't become a liberal democrat!

10 years old? I didn't know lions lived that old or at least while in charge of a pride.

This is one of two pride males. Both looked in fine condition and especially after this photo having just consumed a wildebeest. I have more photos elsewhere plus the one modified for the web photo. I may be able to find one or two.

Thanks for the guess.

I am right there with you on this one Ray.If someone wants to sell a lion and someone else wants to buy it and the two can come together on a price ,I say that is a marriage made in Heaven.Free enterprise at it's best.

Now I know that someone will jump in with the "it makes hunters look bad to the anti's and non-hunters" argument.I for one will no longer apologize for hunting and killing of game.In the version of the King James that I read that is what God said he created them for and that is good enough for me.

Up front, I'll likely not ever get to shoot a lion.

But chew on this, that I learned (or figured out!) by watching a taxidermist I know. Spent a fair piece of time there, watching folks bring in deer heads. He never had much good to say about them. I watched quite a few people become depressed over nice deer that they had worked hard for.

What I learned was that one man's trophy is just that, one man's trophy. If he worked hard for it, and it was legal to take it as he took it, and it's a legal animal, then that's HIS trophy, and you should be happy for him. We've all seen the 14 year old with his first doe...and he's probably happier than ole Ray with a nice 8 point buck at this stage of his life. I bet everyone here remembers his FIRST deer, but not the 8th.

One more item to consider. I just returned from a really shitty caribou hunt with my dad. Bad weather, bad planes and a 6 day hunt became two and a half. I got a bull -- a smaller bull, with one antler broken off about six inches over his head. He would be average, if he had both antlers. Not a trophy in anyones books - BUT MINE. Dad didn't get his bull...he's 67, and he couldn't move fast enough through the tundra to get a shot. But it'll probably be our last "big" hunt together. I'll treasure that rack, and the memories of hunting with my dad.

Not really on point anymore...I must be getting old. Manes, points, skull size -- they don't really define "trophy" for me anymore. At least not by themselves.

jeff

Jeff,
Well stated, its the missed shots, the trophies that gave me the slip that I remember not the ones that pile up in my shop, nor for the most part the ones that hang on my wall..All those will come to pass, dry up and detereate but the memories will be with you until you die...

Its all about the game, the lure of hunting, the hunt itself, because the kill is quick and over in a heartbeat.

How many of you have considered that you paid $15,000 for a millioneth of a second trigger pull on a buffalo..figure that up by the hour! I hope their is more to it than the pulling of a trigger or the size of a horn, tooth or skin.

Right on, no matter what we say or do the antis will not just jump up and be our friends...I no longer care about apeasing them nor any other liberal democratic idealogy....

Considering the few possibilities of hunting lion in my life (if I ever have one ).....I'll shoot that cat, it's like everything, my first deer was a doe, my second a young male and the third one a good one!!!

So I will not hesitate to shoot a lioness or the one in question as my "first" lion.

LG