Folks,

This is Jeff's report on his lion hunt in Idaho with Cold Trail LLC that I work with. I've worked with Bruce Duncan/ Cold Trail LLC for about 20 years. Everyone gets a lion with Bruce so of course I contacted Bruce when Jeff wanted a lion. His experience is below.

Mark


The lion

Jeff and his lion

Hunt dates – 12/10 through 12/19, though we got the cat on day 5.

I arrived on 12/9 Spokane airport and was met by Brandon one of Bruce's guide for the drive to Priest Lake, Idaho – we stopped along the way and got the license ($440, over the counter). Brandon had called ahead and the store was waiting with the license book ready to go. Dinner and an early turn in as I was a bit under the weather from all the travel. “Camp” is a 2500 square foot home with full amenities.

Sunday – 3 guides were out on snowmobiles starting at 0430, running trails looking for a fresh track. It snowed a little overnight, but nothing had moved. We spent the day working out various drainages within 100 miles of camp. Hunting ends about 2pm as you can’t put the dogs out on a track after that without running the risk of losing them in the dark. It gets dark about 4:30 this time of year.

Monday – repeat of the prior day, but we did find a track around noon that looked promising. Dogs were working it, but it was a confusing track. Ultimately, we were able to figure out it was a female with two kittens in a fairly contained area and the dogs were just back and forth as the tracks crossed each other repeatedly.

Nothing moved on Tuesday, but we were averaging some 400 miles a day on sleds and in the truck between 3 different guides.

Wednesday at mid-day we located a track that was a day old. Another hunter was trying to work it, but it was too old – his dogs wouldn’t run the track. Bruce’s dogs would, so we put them out at noon. Over the next three hours they worked the track out of this huge drainage and down to a road. The cat crossed the road and the dogs lost him, but we got them back on the track. Then the cat crossed a river – knee deep, 100 feet wide, not iced over at all. Dogs treed him on the other side of the river. Bruce got one sled across but the second bogged down in the river. I was the on the third with another guide and we didn’t even try to cross – we waded across. By this time Bruce had ferried the second guide up to the tree and come back for us, so we all three pile on the sled and go. Shoot the cat – nice Tom – and get it skinned out. We get back to the river just after dark. We spend 30 minutes standing in the river pulling out the stuck sled. Then we get the one sled back over the river.
Then I waded back across. All in all, close to 3 hours out in 20 degree weather soaking wet – I came down with either bronchitis or pneumonia, doc’s not sure.

"IT WAS A COMPLETE THREE RING CIRCUS COMPLETE WITH WADING THE RIVER TWICE AND A SLED STUCK IN THE RIVER AND I WOULDN'T TRADE A MINUTE OF IT" Quote from Jeff right after the hunt.

This hunt is a full court press. Bruce knows everyone and everything – he’s killed something like 600 cats in the last 8 years. He's the Depredation Officer for the State of WA thus he hunts lions all year. It wasn’t just a one hunter/one guide kind of hunt – there were always three guides running sleds and looking for tracks. It might cost a little more than an average hunt, but remember it’s 10 days, not the more typical 5 or 7.

Fantastic time, great dogs, good food, nice quarters, great people, good gear. It’s the whole package.

Mark

Congratulations to all!
Thanks for sharing.

Ski+3
Whitefish, MT

Congratulations, sounds like an exciting hunt!!

That is a great cat, congratulations!

It’s worth the extra money to shoot a cat like that.

I really like the idea of a 10 day hunt. That gives everyone a chance to be successful. Looks like you made a great choice!

Mark Young has these hunts offered at a discount on the site. 10 days - Bruce is 100% on cats. The level of effort was incredible.....as I noted we were averaging 400 miles a day on sleds and trucks looking for tracks.

We did go a couple days with nothing moving - it happens - but they have the dogs that will track it down once you find it...

Glad to see they are still at it. It was a fantastic time when I went also.