This report is old, but nonetheless new to AR.

I had a chance in January of 2005 to go on a Mountain Lion hunt with some friends in New Mexico. There were four of us hunting, with a fifth guy observing and filming. We hunted in two separate groups; a guide for each group and the fifth guy alternating days between our groups. My friend Bill and I hunted near Castillo on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant. The other guys hunted in the center of the state in portions of the Lincoln National Forest. Our home base was the Ohkay Casino and Hotel in Espanola. Needless to say, lots of driving every morning. We would drive 90 minutes to meet our guides in Castillo before light. But given the days were fairly short, it wasn’t bad. We were 50%, one cat for each group. I’ll focus on my hunt. I spare details of our shopping trip in Santa Fe and our nightly adventures in local Espanola eateries.

It was cold. Most of the days were between 0 and 10; though it got into the teens and twenties later in the week. We spent our time riding trails in the mountains on snowmobiles. When we found a track, we would check the size and age, and then decide whether to “release the hounds” to track the cat.

Our guide was Dirk Neal. He had been hunting cats for about 30 years at the time. He was one of the first guys to run dogs on Leopards in Botswana years earlier. So he knew his stuff. He also runs other hunts, like Elk around Chama, but loves cat hunting. I’d have to say, he was probably the hardest working and best guide I have ever had. And while we were hunting between 8K-9K feet, he lived at 10.2K feet and made it look easy, while my friends and I were dying from the altitude!

We started off hunting on a Sunday. We met Dirk and Mickey, one of the land grant owners, at Mickey’s family restaurant in Castillo. It was cold. One they way there, my buddy took a leak in a big cup and then threw it out the window. When we arrived, it was all frozen on the side of the Ford Excursion. The temperature read -7 before sunrise.

We spent the day riding trails on the sides in the mountains looking for cat tracks. We had two snowmobiles. Dirk had one, and then my two friends and I took turns on the other. It was the first time for us to ride. And the snow was light packed and deep; so if you slowed down in the wrong place you got stuck. Luckily, Dirk had a snow shovel and could dig us out.

We spent the day cutting trails and only found small tracks, most likely females. And thank goodness for heated handles on the snowmobiles. Did I say it was cold?

The second day we went into a new area on the land grant. We started early in the morning and found a fresh track within 5 minutes. Dirk and I continued to ride for another 30-45 minutes looking for where the track went. We started in deep canyon and ended on top of a mesa. We could see forever. It was incredible. We didn’t find the tracks, so we parked the snowmobiles and started to walk down from the mesa back to the canyon to see where the cat was. It was somewhere between where we parked the truck and unloaded the machines and where we stopped.
While walking across the top of the tree covered mesa, we stumbled on a large elk herd and got to see them run through the trees in front of us for a few minutes. It was really surreal. When we came to the edge of the mesa and could see the canyon below, Dirk decided to go down and get the dogs. At the same time, my buddy started the hike up to bring me my rifle. It was a Winchester Model 100 in .308 Winchester wearing nothing but iron sights and shooting 180 grain shoot points. Any shot I would take would be close and I could shoot a 1” group at 50 yards with the iron sights.



Well, right when my buddy got up, I managed to twist my foot into a crevice and fall down. My knee ranked a sharp edged rock that I expected to cut my pants and knee wide open. Luckily, it didn’t. It hurt like the dickens, though. And as my friend said, I went down like a yard dart.

About this time the dogs that Dirk had let loose found the tom. He was about half way between us and the canyon floor. If we had only known! Anyway, the cat was held up in cave formed by boulders and quickly ran downhill, right in front of Mickey, and up into a tree by the truck. Damn, that was easy. Dirk called in on the radio to me that we had the cat treed and to come on down and take the cat.
Well, by the time we dot down, the cat had climbed all the way to the top of the tree, which was against a sheer cliff face, and jumped onto a ledge and hauled ass. The dogs took a few minutes to figure it out and ran around the cliff face and up into the mountains on the other side of the mesa. When I got down there; no cat.

Since we left one snowmobile on the mesa, Dirk and I had to ride back and get the other one. We got back to the truck and had a quick bite to eat and then set out for the cat. The dogs had radio collars, but they were only directional. We decided to ride the snowmobiles until we had a good signal and/or could hear the dogs. We spent about an hour riding and eventually got a signal and could hear the dogs.
At this point, we were up high on top of the mountains. It was really an incredible view. We got to a point and picked a direction we thought the dogs were in. The snow was so soft, we had to park the machines and walk, plus we didn’t want t scare the cat. We ended up walking about a mile before we could clearly here and see the dogs. About a mile away we could make out one dog and the cat on some rocks. We were so close.





The dogs had corned the cat on a rock ledge on the south side of a mountain. We carefully crept towards their location. About 100 yards before we got there Dirk said no more talking and to chamber a round.

We slowly walked through the trees and found a small opening where we could see the four dogs and the cat. Dirk said not to look the cat in the eye and to move slowly. As soon as the dogs saw us, three of them ran up to us to greet us. One dog stayed to keep the cat on bay. We slowed crept up on our hands and knees to about 40 feet from the cat. He was hissing and clawing at the dog. Since he was on a rock ledge, he was sitting on his hind quarters. I carefully took aim and placed a round right into his breast bone. He took the hit and went backwards over the cliff and slide down on loose rock about a 500 feet down.

Dirk’s biggest concern at this point was the dogs chewing on the cat, so he hauled ass over sliding down on the rock to tie them up. I followed, sliding on my butt.

When I got down, Dirk had the dogs tied up and was jumping around hollering about the size of the cat. He got on the radio and said we had a “hog”. I asked him if it was a big cat (it looked big to me) and he said it was at least 10 years old and that it was the largest cat he had taken in 5 years. He said I could hunt mountain lions the rest of my life and probably never take a cat this big again. He was so large, I couldn’t even lift him up; and I’m 6’3” and pretty strong. Dirk had taken a cat a few years earlier in the same area that weighed 268 pounds.









The cat was 7 ½ feet long; skull measurements (taken later) qualified for B&C. My friend and I had flipped a coin when we found the track. He was using a bow. Had he won the toss, he would have set the state record for archery.

We took some pictures and then Dirk pulled put some itty-bitty pocket folder knife and proceeded to screen the cat in about 10 minutes or less. He carved off some meat and fed the dogs. He rolled up the hide, along with the head and paws attached, and tied it to his backpack. Now mind you, Dirk is probably 120 pounds wet; so when we put the cat on his back it was the first time I saw him slow down.
He grabbed three dogs and I grabbed the biggest one and we started back up. It was so steep; we ran a zigzag pattern. The dog I had literally pulled me up the hill. Thank goodness for that dog!



When we eventually got back to the top of the mountain, it was another two hours walking and riding back to the truck where Bill and Mickey were waiting.

Time from first track to now: 8 hours. Damn, I was tired.

We loaded up and headed for the taxidermist in Espanola – and then on to a good dinner.

Great! I Hunted my mountain lion in the same area. Great memories.

Awesome Hunt.
Getting me pumped form my lion hunt in early december.
W.

Great hunt and great cat to boot!

I'm on stand-by with an outfitter here in AZ right now for any depredation hunts that may come up during the summer months.

That's real hunting - dry tracking a cat!

Great cat and the mount looks outstanding!!

Good story about a good hunt. Although the 268lb cat is a real stretch of the imagination. Your cat although a big tom would have a tough time making 180lbs. Still a big tom and one to be proud of. Good report

Simply awesome, congrats!