Western Montana lions offer unique hunting experience

High in the snow-covered mountains along the I-90 corridor houndsmen across Mineral County run Forest Service roads with hunting partners and their dogs, scanning for mountain lion tracks and ready to set their canines loose on a fresh cat trail.

Committed cat hunters will putt along all day and all night on the snowy back roads of Western Montana. Maybe it’s just a swoosh of a tail on the snow, or even better a set of paw prints crossing their path. They're on the prowl for signs of the elusive Felis Concolor, the mountain lion.

A couple decades ago mountain lion hunting was a quiet season pursued by a few brave locals. Fast forward and today’s modern technology coupled with well-trained hounds generates a unique hunting experience unlike any other wild game quest. But with the availability of out-of-state tags, and a quota system in place for various hunting districts the chase has grown significantly in popularity.

Kip Rugg, of Ruggs Outfitting in Superior has witnessed this trend himself. But as a third-generation outfitter living in Mineral County for nearly 30 years, he doesn’t pay much attention to these developments, he’s too busy guiding his clients and training his new hounds.

Ruggs family run business offers full-service outfitting opportunities to people from around country. He said, “We provide hunts for elk, deer, bear, moose, sheep, wolves and mountain lions.” Rugg explained, “The winter season for using dogs starts December 1, through April for most of the state. And they are over the counter tags. We are in what's called a hybrid unit meaning you have to apply for a license to be able to harvest a lion in December and January. Your standard over the counter tag becomes valid February 1. Although they are over the counter tags there is still a quota for each unit meaning you can only harvest so many males and so many females.”

He has guided clients with the use of hounds to cats using all sorts of weaponry. “We've had hunters that have used Longbows, compound bows, crossbows even black powder rifles to harvest their lions,” noted Rugg.

But his own background in mountain lion hunting began long before his outfitting days. Rugg recalled, “The way I started was with a friend from high school that raised his own hounds, Tim Johnston.”

Rugg shared, “I've found with a lot of houndsmen, it's the chase and not the harvest. It's the baying of the hounds while on the scent of a track, hearing them running across the mountainside or up-and-over into the next drainage. It’s the dedication of the dogs for what they were born to do, that's why I do it.”

He explained the training of the dogs is an entirely different experience. He said, “Like with all animals and people, each has their own way and every dog has their own way of learning. They have that natural instinct you just have to focus on that and help them develop it.”

Certain aspects of hound training are crucial to a hunter’s success. Rugg mentioned, “You want them to focus on the animal you're pursuing and not wander off on every track they cross. I personally just started raising and training my own a couple years ago. We've always had too many other animals to afford a pack of hounds as well but I've always had friends to be able to go out with year after year. You don't have to use dogs but with having a quota, you need to be able to properly identify their gender, especially if one gender has already the been closed or is close.”

When you think of the dynamic of chasing a predator that is known for being the hunter, the question of safety is considered. But Rugg reassured, “It's not so much dangerous for the hunter as it is for the hounds. In our area it started to become more dangerous especially because of the wolves. Before, you had dogs occasionally get into tangles with a lion from time to time but now if you're not careful and prudent, the baying of the dogs at a treed cat can and have brought wolves in. I know of a few houndsmen who have lost their dogs to packs of wolves.”

On a typical hunting day, Rugg would head out early in the morning hours before dawn, preferably after a fresh blanket of snowfall. He described, “I essentially drive all available roads, sometimes on snowmobile, looking for tracks. Doesn't matter if it's slightly residential or way back into the hills. I've helped neighbors with problem cats that have gotten pet goats or they've seen tracks and they have small children that play outside a lot. I myself have beat them off of my herding dogs in the middle of the day just outside my house. They really can be anywhere.”

One of his most memorable lion hunts was with a friend on a guided hunt. Rugg detailed, “We had treed at the top of the ridge, my friend headed up the hill while I stayed behind with the hunter. When my friend got to the tree the cat bailed out and the snow is deep enough that his easiest way out was the trail my friend had made up to the tree. Luckily, we were still a ways down the hill; the dogs had jumped him off a fresh kill he had been gorging on then from being tired from the run he didn't tree again. He just made a stand at the base of a big Cedar. I had to grab two of the dogs by their collars and pull them off so the hunter could have a clear shot at the cat. This was easily the second largest, body wise, that I've seen.”

In all his years he’s kept his own quota quite small. Rugg shared, “Personally, I've only harvested one, but have chased and been with countless others that have harvested theirs. I don't care for mountain lion meat so I don't need to harvest one every year. Same goes for the hunters on our guided hunts. Most will try it. Any meat that doesn't get taken for processing or ate; we always give it to some locals that do eat it. Nothing goes to waste.”

Another fellow lion hunter down in the West End, Scott Best has harvested one cat as well. But he is fairly new to the area and to the chase. He stated, “I was introduced to my friend Shawn a few years ago who has dogs and is a dedicated lion hunter. I went with him looking for lion tracks to let the dogs chase and I was hooked even though we were out at 4:00 a.m.!” Best got hooked right away, he detailed “Once you find a set of tracks and its fresh enough for the dogs to run the noise, they make running through the mountains chasing the lion is like music.”

He doesn’t own any hunting dogs himself. He added, “They are a handful and it’s a lot of work keeping them in good hunting shape and on top of their game.” He buddy Shawn works with four to five dogs. Best offered, “Anyone wanting to get started with hunting lions with dogs should definitely find someone that’s willing to help them out.”

Every hunter has a different technique or process but their end game is finding fresh cat tracks. Whether on foot, in a truck or by snowmobile. Best noted, “Sounds easy enough but I’ve gone an entire weekend without finding any tracks. Once you find tracks the handler will usually get his best dog to start on it then the others quickly follow. Once the dogs’ tree the lion which can be rather quick or it can also take quite a while.”

At this point it’s usually a steep hike uphill through the deep snow to the dogs. “Once you’re there your choices depend on if you or someone with you has a tag to harvest the lion. You can chase and tree lions during the winter without being legal to harvest one. Its good practice for the dogs and hunters. I have actually seen a lot more lions treed, then you simply walk away after admiring the lion for a few minutes, than I have seen them harvested. Pretty common practice among lion hunters who aren’t outfitters,” explained Best.

Anywhere you find a lions food source, primarily deer and elk are good places to start looking for lions. Best said “I have my usual spots I’ll check that I know of where lions like to cross the road. Sometimes they will surprise you where they show up though.” On a day when he checks on all his favorite spots Best covers just under 100 miles on a snowmobile.

One lion adventure that Best fondly recalled, “Shawn and I had to get to the dogs before it got dark so we were moving up this mountain to get there. Of course, he beat me to the dogs, he’s fast. It was a nice big male lion in a Ponderosa Pine and we had a great view of the Clark Fork from just outside of Paradise right before sunset.” He continued “Hissing lion, dogs baying and that view was beautiful. We gathered the dogs, and headed down the mountain back to the truck. It was quite the workout!”

Like most houndsmen and mountain lion hunters will profess the work of the dogs and the encounters with these apex predators is what makes it so enticing. Best echoed, “The dogs and just seeing the lions is what make it so exciting to me. Most of the time the lions are calmly hanging out in the tree waiting for you to leave but I’ve seen a few that weren’t very happy with the noisy dogs.”

Trekking through remote terrain with radio-collared dogs is something very familiar to hunter and houndswoman, Adeline Richardson, from Huson. She remarked, “I was raised into mountain lion hunting by my father. He has been running hounds for over 30 years and therefore I have been hunting lions since I was a toddler.”

Richardson currently helps guiding big game hunts for an outfitter in the state, while she is also trying to start her own hound kennel. She’s been training and running her own hounds for mountain lion hunting for the past five years.

She exclaimed, “I love cat hunting because of the dogs. My absolute favorite part and the driving factor in me pursuing lions is training and running my hounds. I believe managing the lion population is important in lion hunting but I do believe they have their place and prefer to see less of them killed.” Richardson feels that cat hunters are of both mindsets. She added, “Most of the houndsmen I run with chase lions because of the hound training aspect, however, there are some houndsmen out there that feel harvesting lions will improve their deer and elk populations.”

With seven hounds of her own, three of which are pups they keep her very busy. Richardson explained, “Training dogs is the driving factor in mountain lion hunting for me, I got started with my dad. He gave me and helped me train my first hound puppy eight years ago. The best way to get into hounds is to buy a finished hound from a houndsmen or get a puppy and go out with your local houndsmen.”

Like other local houndsmen, Richardson’s hunts start long before daylight. When a track is located, her GPS collared hounds are released and put on the chase. She described, “The dogs are the MVP’s after we find the track, we occasionally will help them move it if it’s an older track but for the most part they do all the work. Lion hunts can last anywhere from 15 minutes to 8 hours, it entirely depends on the cat.”

Some trails are short while others can be up to three days old, making it a challenge for the dogs to catch up and cover ground. Richardson stated, “Once the cat is treed, I typically like to take pictures, reward the dogs with some love, and then leave the cat in the tree to chase another day.”

She has harvested two lions and three bobcats. But she added, “I tree many more than that each year but typically let them go.”

“One of my favorite things about cat hunting is the variability in it. No two cat trees are the same and we never know where we are going to end up on a cat chase! I wish cat hunting was year-round,” Richardson noted.

Mountain lion hunting hinges upon the aptitude and instincts of the hunters’ trusted hounds. It’s cold nights and long days, and miles driven up and down mountain roads. The thrill and anticipation of setting the dogs loose and bounding up the steep hillside focused and determined. Arriving at the tree and staring up into the eyes of a lion isn’t the climax, it’s the culmination of every ounce of work and sweat invested up to that moment.

The training, the physical exertion, the hiking, the hours combing for tracks, the comradery between houndsmen, all these things can’t be summed up in the picture of a dead cat. Perhaps that’s what makes cat hunting so perplexing, for those who don’t hunt with these skilled hounds? And even more, that’s probably the reason why hound hunting is so extraordinary in the eyes of those who do.