Wildlife Callers

My calling partner, Dave Martens and I actually called and shot three lions this past season and now we’re scouting and getting fired up for this fall. Each of the lions we’ve called has a different story, and each story is worth sharing. As time permits I’ll post them. It’s taken us three-plus years to establish a system that allows us to consistently call cougars and then go a step further and actually shoot them (we’ve called a few we couldn’t successfully harvest). This post is certainly an abbreviated version of what happened in the field this past March ’09 and fellow forum members will have questions.

Mark Healy and his Central Arizona Mountain Lion - March 28, 2009

I will be discussing this hunt and others on the Predator Talkcast with Brian Downs this coming Sunday the 16th at 6pm EST – please tune in for that. Also, feel free to ask questions and I’ll do my best to post timely responses.

Here’s the scoop:

Every year I always make an attempt to officially wrap up my predator calling season in the last week of March. In Arizona, bobcats are off limits beginning April 1st and it starts to get hot. Lions are legal in some places year-round, but it’s officially hotter than Hades in the middle of an Arizona April day and it just keeps getting hotter from there until sometime in September.

My calling partner, Dave Martens, and I planned for a 3-day “lions only” (reject all urges to shoot “bonus” predators that respond) calling trip on March 27th, 28th and the 29th, 2009. We got in a total of five stands on the 27th and finished the day empty handed. All of our calling stands are selected based on lion sign, and carefully planned out in advance with pre-scouting we’d done.

On the 28th we headed out and using our maps, began working a circuit of locations that were areas know to us to have lions travelling through them. On the final stand of the day, with about 90 minutes of light left, we set up on a narrow drainage that led into a large, brushy, rocky mess of a canyon. There was a mud hole with stagnant water nearby that was close to getting dry, but with the little bit of pungent water left, it had attracted a group of cows/calves that were making quite a mooing racket.

I set up with my Wildlife Technologies KAS-2030 electronic game call across the drainage from me, about 50 yards away. I called for about 20-25 minutes with a variety of prey distress sounds. The location looked like a winner for calling gray fox, so I was surprised when there were no takers. I then launched into a series of cow-calf distress calls, and mixed in some goat distress sounds too. Later in the stand I started mixing in some female lion vocalizations. My hope was to create a territorial response from a resident lion.

At about minute 44 of the stand, Dave who was seated to my left about 15 yards away, whispered “get your gun ready”. I was seated behind a limb that didn’t allow me to see the area he was very intently staring into, so I brought my DPMS AP4 .308 (LR-308 semi-auto) to the ready on its monopod. For about a minute I watched the drainage below me, when finally a fully grown lion stepped into view. The lion was very focused on the caller and moved deliberately up a small rocky funnel until it was on-plane with the caller. At this point the lion was about 30 yards from the bush I’d hidden the caller in.

I moved my gun slightly to my left to get a clear sight picture of the full-sized cat. At 65 yards, the lion detected my movement and immediately snapped its head in my direction. The lion froze in a broadside position and stared into my scope. I gently squeezed the3lb trigger and shot the lion directly behind the front shoulder. Having shot and lost a lion before, I readied for another shot. Lions are far more resilient than any other animal I’ve shot and after two more shots, the cougar was down for good.

Called Cougar - Where it Dropped

After crossing the drainage and reaching the lion I found it was a mature female lioness. I carefully skinned her for a full rug mount and packaged the meat in my cooler.

Mark Healy and his March 2009 Called Cougar

Dave and I celebrated the following day by grabbing the Canon GL-1 video camera and making some additional stands. Despite our best efforts, we didn’t have any other takers.

Good Hunting and I’ll see you in the field,

Mark Healy

info@wildlifecallers.com