Lion Hunt

Larry Amos is the head guide and owner of WinterHawk, an outfitting service way up in the Flat Tops Wilderness of Colorado. He describes taking clients on a lion hunt. We start after fresh tracks have been discovered. "We turn the dogs loose and my guys try and stay with the dogs. I usually stay with the hunter and once the lion is in the tree, we get the lion caught, we communicate with radios. I take the hunter and get into the tree and we harvest a lion. When we get to approaching the tree, I like to stop back 100 yards from the tree where we can see the lion in the tree with the hunter because at that time the hunter is out of breath, out of energy, and excited. It is very important that you stop before you get to the tree and explained to him what needs to happen and what is going to happen once we get to the tree. That gives him a chance to settle down and regain his composure and when you approach the tree to kill a lion you usually have all the time in the world to do that. He knows what's going to happen and when we get him into position we tied the dog's back because you do not want to shoot a lion out of a tree with archery equipment. With an arrow stuck in him, the dogs will run in and grab the lion and you end up with a dog with a broad head stuck in him.