Scott Kirko was standing on a rock in the wilderness when he told me this story via cell phone. He was hunting cow elk with a bow and arrow. He uses a Hoyt compound bow with a 60-pound pull. He loves his elk hunting and loves to get up close. Scott does not leave much to chance. At the range he shoots, he can put an arrow straight through an elk with the 60-pound pull.

Scott gets close to mountain lions too. He was up Sinks Canyon with houndsmen Eric Powell and Scott Worden, in January 2004. They were on the south side of the canyon and up pretty high. “We cut some tracks and let the dogs out,” Scott said. The dogs started to howl so Scott Worden chased the dogs. “Eric and I went further up the road, listening for them, because we didn’t know exactly where they were.”

“We heard the dogs bellowing and staying in one spot,” Scott continues. Eric and I went through the ravine bottom and I spaced out the snowshoes. The snow was about four feet deep. We had to swim for about 200 yards to get to the other side. It probably took us an hour and a half to get through that [ravine] and then we started up the mountain and it was easy walking, just two feet deep,” Scott laughed. “We made it up to the top. Scott [Worden] was already up there. The lion was up in a tree. We videotaped it.”
They treed three lions that year “up in Sinks, in Red Canyon and different places where we could find tracks,” Scott said, before they took this one. “These guys love their lion hunting. I am their friend so I do what they want. We treed one and I would have been perfectly happy with it.” It was a female and they said, “Do not shoot it.” “When someone is doing you a favor, I just stay ‘yes sir.’ We got on another one and they said, ‘No, we can get you a better lion than that.’” Scott explained.

“I’ll bet we hunted 20 or 30 days before we ever got this lion. It is a physically demanding thing chasing lions up mountains and down, and sometimes not catching up with them. The chase is the whole thing. These guys don’t shoot lions. If they shoot one, then they can’t hunt because they have filled their tag. If they don’t shoot, they can keep chasing lions. These guys are lion hunting sons-of-guns. They will chase dozens of lions in a season, tree them and then take pictures of them. If they get the right one at the end of the season, they might shoot it. I have great pictures and videotape of lions in trees and up in the rocks where they are 6 to 10 feet away from us.”
This cat was the one Scott wanted. One shot of a .41 mag pistol put him down.

Scott explained some aspects of hunting with dogs. His friends, Scott and Eric have several types of hounds; blue ticks, walkers and black & tans. They are all good dogs. They are well-trained and don’t chase game animals; they stick to the lion. Scott said. The houndsmen will bring half-a-dozen dogs apiece. They turn out two at a time because the dogs will get worn down.

“After you tree a lion, you pull the dogs back. If he comes out of the tree, he will run away from you. If you shoot and wound the lion, he will tear your dogs up if you do not pull them back. This one fell out of the tree after I shot him. He was just quivering, completely incapacitated,” so they didn’t worry. “I have heard stories about a guy trying to pull dogs off a lion and the lion just chomped them. But there are a lot of stories out there too.” Scott said.

Lion is the most incredible eating animal there is, Scott tells me. “It is a white, tender, sweet meat that is absolutely out of this world.” Most people do not realize it tastes better than elk because the only thing cats eat are deer and elk. “Eric and Scott are just friends of mine; they aren’t outfitters. Of course, I gave them some of the meat.”

“I have a body mount at my house. It made Boone & Crocket. It was a heck of a lion. He was about seven feet two inches, as best as you can measure him. With nothing in his stomach, he weighed 140 on an official scale.” Scott said.

“I am not telling you that I did not hurt after that hunt. I am 45-years old,” Scott said. “The guys who own the dogs are a little bit younger and they are in a little bit better shape. I can kind of hold my own.”
By the way, after that one time, Scott never leaves his snowshoes, even if there is supposed to be only three inches of snow, he said. “It is just not worth it.”

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