My son wants to do a mountain lion hunt, this winter, or next. Do you boys know of, or have experience with a top notch cat man, with good dogs, somewhere out west?

Mad Dog

Yes, Kim Payne Rimrock Outfitters in Salina, Ut. I hunted with him last winter, took a nice cat, and highly recommend him.

I would recommend Wade Lemon of Holden Utah. I hunted with him in may and killed a mountain lion and black bear. He has a reputation as one of the best.

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3411043/m/793108578

http://www.wadelemonhunting.net/

DPS, can you give me a rough idea what the hunt cost?

Mad Dog

Send Yukon Delta a PM. He hunted with a guy who he highly recommends.

quote:

Originally posted by DPS:
Wade Lemon....He has a reputation as one of the best.

Except among hunters and other houndsmen who have missed out on nice cats because Wade's dogs "accidentally escaped" before the legal hour. I was the hunter in this scenario and I still had a GREAT hunt (so this ain't sour grapes) treeing up a nice feline but it definitely pissed me off that someone could tag a big B&C cat after breaking the law like that. There were two tracks in our area that morning and Wade's guys had the dogs out at about 4:30AM after the big tom track. In his defense, Wade wasn't there so he is not WHOLLY responsible for the incident but his guys sure knew what they were doing. Further, their hunter was still asleep in the motel while I was the one out riding with my houndsmen. Nothing like offering a canned cat hunt right? No offense at all to DPS....just saying you might want to get in touch with the Utah Houndsmen Assn, get a list of members, prices, references, then do some research online and locally.

tendrams

I have hunted with Kim Payne and Wade Lemon. Both are great guys and will get you a nice TOM.
I am surprised to hear that about Wade. After, I shot my cat last year with Wade we registered it with the local DNR, they raved about Wade and how he is such a great guy. I would guess this was a isolated incident.

My experience with Wade and his entire crew of guides was first class. Wade has access to a tremendous amount of private land that other outfitters and local hunters do not. I believe this may create a bit of envy on the part of some.

He did everything by the book on my hunt and even talked about the importance of it. Wade has too much at stake not to follow the law. I don't believe he would tolerate anything less than full respect of the law from his guides.

I need to point out that this was not a canned cat/bear hunt. I would meet Wade and all of his guides each morning at 4:30 am to have breakfast, get the dogs ready and gas up the vehicles for the day. We would then travel about an hour or so to the hunting areas. We were always ready to start looking for tracks at daylight. This was not an easy hunt. I've hunted all over the world and this was one of the toughest hunts I've ever done.

MotorCity - My experience was the same as yours when we registered the cat and bear. I've heard very good things about Kim Payne as well.

depends on what kind of cat you're looking for. Most of the southern cats are smaller and less furry than the northern ones. The monsters seem to come out of B.C., but you have to look out there because there are quite a few bums outfitting there. Stay the he-- out of montana because of the way the F&G run the season. The big northern cats are taken in the winter when the fur is heaviest. This means climbing the hills when they are snow covered, which can become physically challenging I believe that most of the hunts today will cost you between 3500 and 5000, plus license and travel.

Randy Epperson -- Rimrock Outfitters in AZ. -TONY

Prices are going up, like everything else! Cabelas has some supper hunts but they run close to $6K, and 100% success.

Wade and Kim, and there houndsmen are all top knotch. No matter what excuses the competition make!

I have a good friend here in Az that is an absolute phenom on cats.
Is a rancher in cat country, lots of country, good dogs and good horses.
Great guy, good prices.
PM me if interested.

DPS and Kudu,

Glad you had great hunts! As I said, I treed up a nice cat so it's not sour grapes or "excuses".

If potential clients want the straight story on any outfitter however, I have found the best way is to call the local wildlife department and chat with the biologists there. What is said when someone is standing there AFTER a hunt might be different than what is said in private over lunch BEFORE a hunt. I do know from first hand conversations that Utah DWR around Carbon County was watching Wade VERY closely a few years ago. At the time they were convinced his operation was cutting corners a bit with respect to the law. Now, that said, maybe things changed very quickly...maybe he had a bad set of houndsmen for a while who he wisely sacked, I don't know. All I know is what I know and what I saw first hand back then (2003). This is all meant as nothing personal against either of you or even Wade if he fixed a problem that wasn't his fault in the short run. I think we can all agree though that potential clients, especially when we are talking big money, need to do their research by talking to outfitter references (generally happy clients) as well as more objective sources. That's at least part of what this board is for after all and it prevents those horror stories that we all hear about in the hunting world.

Best,

tendrams

Mad Dog

I sent you a PM

Thanks

Steve

My cat man in AZ produces some great Tom's. He does Horseback (dry ground with dogs) or "on call" after a good snow. Cost is $3,500
LDK

Ray Marchini in Victor, CO
He owns Cougar Country Outfitters
719-534-9016

Don't know what his success rates are as I've only hunted Mulie and Elk with him(100% on those trips). Ray was more passionate about Cats than any other game, he talked about it alot and had some nice stories.

I aslo have no idea of the cat population in that area, but our groups saw some real nice tracks while elk hunting.

May want to give Ray a call, he is a super nice guy and a great guide.

Good Luck

Reloader

Dick Ray in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. He is locally known to take HUGE lions with pumpkin heads.