Wildlife Callers

Patrick Murphree, Arizona resident and predator calling veteran, called and killed a large mountain lion in the AZ desert November 28th.  We asked him to share his story with Wildlife Callers and he agreed. Thank you Patrick!

 

                              The Third Time’s A Charm – By Patrick Murphree

My Dad got me hooked on predator calling more than 35 years ago. With his Circe P-2  or Weems Wildcall hand calls, we would call coyotes from around the farm I grew up on in southern Arizona.  As I started to get more serious about calling, I started buying  a mountain lion tag each year.  I always knew there was a chance a big cat could come in.  Well, it finally paid off! 

Lying on top of the bank of a stock tank listening to the cries of a dying rabbit playing on the remote caller 60 yards away, a huge lion appeared out of nowhere.  I had my two sons with me, Kyle, 15 and Cayden, 9.  Kyle had also invited one of his hunting buddies, Brian Brewer, along.  I had contemplated leaving my rifle in the truck since I had two shooters along, thinking I’d give the boys a chance at the coyotes we were trying to call in.  That sounded good, but shooting coyotes coming into a call is just too much fun to pass up, plus…I had a mountain lion tag in my pocket.  You never know what might show up.

I’ve had two other opportunities at mountain lion in the past.  In 1988 my friend,  Jason Lutjen, and I were deer hunting on a ranch outside of Enterprise, Oregon I had worked on one summer while in high school.  I glassed up a nice lion about 400 yards below me sitting on a rock looking down into the canyon below.  The wind was perfect and the cat had no idea we were there.  However, youth and a surge of adrenaline got the best of us and we both shot right over its back.  I can still see that huge animal leaping twenty feet into the abyss of the canyon below. 

The second opportunity was in 2002 in Arizona’s unit 9.  My friends,  Jeff Lutjen and Doug Clemons, had muzzleloader elk tags and we were scouting prior to the season.  We decided to sit on a wildlife guzzler one evening to see if any big bulls would come in.  Again, with a lion tag in my pocket, I grabbed my rifle.  And then for some reason I decided to leave the rifle in the truck.  We were, after all, scouting for elk, right?  Just before dark, 75 yards away, a huge cat came in, sat on the drinker for what seemed like 5 minutes and drank to his heart’s content.  I had my binoculars mounted on a tripod and could count the whiskers on his face.  He shot a glance in our direction and those chilling eyes staring me down woke me up in the middle of the night for weeks.  Not because I was having nightmares but because I was kicking myself for not following my instinct to grab my rifle out of the truck.

Well, the third times’ a charm.  I had the day planned out the night before.  I knew all the stock tanks we were going to call off of.  Some we had called from before and some would be new stands.  The first would be a tank I had not been to before.  The drive in was slow going because of the deep dust.  The road had been getting a lot of use by cattle going to and from water and the border patrol.  At the first gate, I pointed out to Kyle, as he opened it, the amount of illegal foot traffic through the ravine from the night before.  This area is a highway for Illegal’s coming north.  This particular stock tank had recently been pushed up by a dozer in the middle of a huge mesquite thicket that runs for miles in each direction from the tank.  After walking up on the berm, I was a little disappointed at how thick it was on the back side and the lack of shooting lanes, but figured we’re here so let’s try it out. 

I set the boys up where I wanted them and then took the caller out 65 yards, hung it in a tree about five feet off the ground and ran back to set up.  Brian was 20 feet to my left, Kyle 20 feet to my right and Cayden lying right next to me with his .22 cal Henry.  I didn’t have any .22 shells for him but he worked the bolt, got into position and in his mind he was loaded for bear.   I knew if any coyotes came in it would be fast action because we could not see for any distance and would only see them briefly before they discovered the ruse. 

Ten minutes into the stand, Brian motioned that he saw a coyote, I scanned intently but couldn’t see anything moving, I looked back at Brian for more information and then looked back at the call.  Fifteen feet away from the call I saw movement and it was big.  Oooh my!  ‘El Gato’!!.  Ok calm down! Take a deep Breath! Quit shaking!   A surge of adrenaline hit me like I’ve never experienced before.  I started shaking like a shivering dog. 

I had a good shot at him as he walked to within 10 feet of the call but I had a lot of thoughts going through my head and I didn’t want to screw this up.  Did I have my tag? Check!  I motioned to Kyle and Brian not to shoot and to stay still.  Was my 22-250 big enough to kill this monster?  Should I grab Kyle’s .243 and use it?  He walked behind a tree and now I didn’t have a shot.  After a minute, I muted the call to see if he would come out from behind the tree.  As I was looking through the scope at him he kind of just disappeared.  I knew he was right there but he blended in so well that at 65 yards he was almost invisible in the brush.  This made me nervous.  I was thinking ‘I don’t want to tell the story of the lion I called in and came up empty handed’.  Another minute went by and I turned the call back on.  The cat came out, turned left like he was going to leave and paused.  I had his shoulder pegged in my crosshairs and as he took another step I pulled the trigger.

Blaaam!!! All hell broke loose!  He jumped six or seven feet straight into the air.  Arms, legs and that huge tail were flailing through the air as he took off running to our left.  I jumped up, jacked another round into the chamber, found him as a blur in my scope, fired and missed.  As I stood on the bank, I had time to reload and take another quick ‘Hail Mary’ shot as he ran 35 yards below us and into the mesquite thicket.  The first shot I took felt good and I knew it was a solid hit behind the shoulder from the loud thump and the cats reaction.  As the smoke and dust cleared, the boys were in total amazement.  Cayden said “Now I know why you were shaking and breathing hard dad”.  We stood there for a minute questioning each other on what we saw.  Kyle and Cayden had not seen it until I fired.  Brian had thought it was a coyote at first and then saw its tail, realized it was a lion and then lost it in the brush. 

We gathered the rifles and Kyle ran out to get the call.  Now came the job of tracking and following his blood trail.  At first we had some good blood but he was hard to track because of the distance of his leaps and the thick mesquite brush.  Each time he touched down we had a little splatter of blood.  Again, I had some doubt creeping into my head.  Did I just wound him?  No, I know it was a good hit.  How far could he go like this?  Am I going to have to call someone with dogs to help track him down?  It took us about 15 minutes to follow the trail 100 yards. 

Kyle was really keying in on the blood trail and keeping us on the right track.  Even though I had to keep telling him to stay behind me, Cayden at one point got us back on track after losing it for a few minutes.  I wasn’t sure if we had a wounded lion on our hands.  After Cayden got us pointed back in the right direction, the lion’s tracks were becoming closer together as he slowed down and we also had more blood.  I started feeling much more confident now.  Kyle, rifle at the ready, tracked him as he turned into some really thick mesquites. 

I crouched down to scan up under the thicket and there he was laying under some trees.  I knew he was dead but I had the boys back off as I circle behind him to make sure.  After poking him with my rifle and there was no response, I let out a whoop and holler that could be heard for miles.  I couldn’t believe what just happened.  Wow! 

The shot placement was perfect right behind the front shoulder and there was no exit wound. However, he still traveled close to 200 yards.  I thought I could pick him up by myself but needed help from Kyle on one end and Brian on the other to get him up on my shoulders.  He was no little kitty.  I packed him out the 100 yards to the two track road and Kyle ran to get the truck.  After taking pictures and loading him up, I couldn’t wait to get within cell range to call my wife and let her know what just happened.

At the mandatory inspection, the Game and Fish biologist estimated his age at 10 to 12 years.  They’ll be able to pin-point this once the analysis of the tooth they extracted is complete.

Kyle and Cayden are both already infatuated with predator calling and are constantly wanting to go hunting.  Every once in a while, out of the blue, Kyle will shake his head and say, “that was so cool!” or “I can’t believe that!”.  I’m thrilled that they were able to enjoy this with me and maybe someday tell their own story  “My dad got me hooked on predator calling years ago…”.        

Patrick Murphree

 

Wow Patrick, great story!  We know, all too well, how difficult it is to call a lion and congratulate you on your success!

We encourage our readers to share predator hunting success stories with us, we are always happy to post a good story with photos or video!

Good hunting!

Marc Reindell

marc@wildlifecallers.com