Lion Fever
Once Ollie felt I had learned enough about handling hounds and lion hunting, he started letting me borrow a couple dogs now and then to go by myself. It wasn't long before I bought a hound of my own and a pup that Ollie said he would help train.
One thing led to another and I started scouting for an area near my home where I could hunt for a day when I could get away from the pecan farm. I had learned enough from Ollie that I knew I didn't want to hunt in another lion hunter's area without discussing it with them first. I called an old acquaintance, Clay Howell, who has been lion hunting in the Santa Rita Mountains for many years. I explained to him this fever that I had contracted and he was real quick to understand the problem. We met for coffee in Nogales and talked about an area that he was no longer active in, and he said he would be very pleased if I would hunt this area. He also went on to tell me some of the areas in particular that the lions used most frequently. So I started hunting in this area and started finding a little lion sign. After making a lot of horse tracks, I felt I had an area picked out where I could catch a lion.
In April of 1986, I asked an employee of mine, Juan Lopez, if he wanted to go hunting Saturday morning. He had been hunting with me some and really wanted to kill a lion. I had killed one with Clay Howell and Ollie Barney, so I was more interested in catching one than killing one. Well, we had this hunt all lined up but when Saturday morning came I realized I was one horse short. A friend of mine had borrowed one of my horses to work cattle with on Friday and failed to return him as he said he would. So I called Juan and explained my problem to him. Well, anyway, I decided to go ahead and make the hunt "solo" to exercise the dogs. I took two of Ollie's dogs and one of mine. I rode up the trail to this saddle I had named "Lion Saddle" because of the sign I had been seeing there. As soon as I got there, Abe and Sport barked about the same time and took off down this ridge. I jumped off my horse and checked for sign and I saw the scratch of a big Tom, and the dogs were headed in the right direction. This ridge was too rough for my horse, so I tied him up and grabbed my canteen and rifle and took off after the dogs. I could still hear them trailing, but not very fast. All of a sudden I heard Pepper start yipping and running, and I knew they had the lion jumped. They went about a quarter of a mile when they started barking treed. I slipped up there and stayed high on the ridge so I could see what was going on. There was a big Ponderosa pine and those dogs were really excited. I looked and looked, but I couldn't see the lion. I was afraid he had jumped out and got away. I finally saw this big Tom walk out on a limb and just stand there and watch those dogs. I shot him out with my trusty .30-.30.
It was then I realized I was a long way from my horse, and it was getting hot. I sharpened my knife and went to skinning this lion. It was a steep hillside and hard work. After I got him skinned out, I took the last drink out of my canteen and took off for my horse. That horse was sure a welcome sight. After the drying period, I had the lion measured for the record book and have since entered it in the AWF state record book.
I have hunted many species of big game including nine of the Big 10 in Arizona. I have hunted in several of the western states including Alaska, as well as in Mexico. But for my money, I'll take lion hunting with a good pack of hounds over any other hunting I that I have done.
Thanks to the help and support of friends and family, I am able to do enough hunting to keep the fever down and, with Allen now seven years old, I look forward to the day when he can go hunting big game with me. He will be the fourth generation hunter in our family; and, who knows, he might even get a case of lion fever someday himself.
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