I've been reading the latest issue of the African Hunting Gazette the last week or so.

The one story about a Lion hunt started out like a standard bull shit story. Hunting Lion in a 7500 acre pen called Reitzdale Game Reserve in NE RSA. I've seen bigger cow pastures here in Idaho.

The end of the story ends with some "hunter" shooting a Lion, that the PH told him weighed 270Kg. 270 Kg!! That was definitely a well fed Lion, if he truly weighed 594 pounds.

Rich

Rich........... hey I am no expert on guessing the weight of lions, but I did see one of these canned hunts on film last year that was of a guy and his PH/trackers/camera crew/family and friends following a lion in a high fenced area. You could see the high fence in the background.

The lion, which was in some bush growling was shot a couple of times and that was that. The up close footage showed a big MGM maned lion which was incredibly overweight and soft looking........ that probably did't go far on the "hunt" before he holed up. To my eye it was easily over 500 pounds.

I know the odd one makes that in the wild, but as with hunting situations I doubt very many are actually weighed to obtain a live weight, so as with bears and moose.......... I am guessing most weights are just that, a guess. Still pretty easy to get a heavy lion if it lives in a pen and gets enough Purina Lion Chow.

Cheers!

Most Lions that we weighed have been in the region of 400 pounds. Although the one Frostbit took probably was closer to 450 maybe more.

Pen raised Lion would easily be in excess of 500lbs.

In my youth the largest Lion in the world was at Knaseborough (spelling?) Zoo in Yorkshire, UK and weighed in at over 800lbs. It was massive beast.

Biggest wild lion I have heard of was 380kg in Northern Namibia.
I did not see it myself and I cannot vouch for the manner in which it was weighed, but the guy who told me about it is a pretty sharp fellow.

Females in the same area regularly push 180kg mature males average 280 and up.

quote:

Originally posted by Hunting the Box H:
Biggest wild lion I have heard of was 380kg in Northern Namibia.
I did not see it myself and I cannot vouch for the manner in which it was weighed, but the guy who told me about it is a pretty sharp fellow.

Females in the same area regularly push 180kg mature males average 280 and up.

Those are big lions.......... I wouldn't care if it had a mane, a big male that size would be a hell of a trophy even if it looked like Telly Savalas.

I have definitely seen wild lion over 500 pounds. Its genetical. Some areas just don't produce big cats. Just like Leopards. Everyone shoots a 180 pound leopard. Then you see video footage of the hunter bending over and picking the cat off the ground by himself , or taking one arm away to adjust his cap ... that's not happening with a true 180 pound leopard. However true 200 pound leopards are still out there and so are huge wild Lions.