Calling lions with lion calls

[HuntnMyselfBroke]

Anyone have any tips for using lion sounds to call in lions. What type of sounds? What sequences?

 

[roosiebull]

I generally start with distress (5 minutes tops unless I’m cold calling and wouldn’t mind whacking a coyote, then I’ll run distress for 10 minutes)

After that, I stick almost exclusively to whistles, and will pause the call fairly often just to break the cadence, but don’t mute for more than 30 seconds at a time, towards the end, if I have time, I may pause for 5 minutes at the end, then listen while the call is paused, then do 10 more minutes.

I use rain shadow call sounds, and like them. I have mixed in short sequences of different lion vocals during a setup and have had cats come in, but I don’t think it really matters… sometimes I think different calls may carry further in different conditions. I do use different whistles certain days, will usually try the different whistles paying attention to what carries better on that particular day, then will stick with that.

I don’t think they are smart, and think they are easy to call in relative to other critters, but it’s hard to get close enough for one to hear you.

I used to do a lot of cold calling, but have decided it’s usually better to use my time trying to cut sign… cut fresh sign, and the odds of calling a cat goes way up. If I do a big loop through a lot of country and come up empty, I might do a cold set on my way back out.

I hunt the coast, so sound never carries that well, so cold calling is a hard way to kill one. Calm frosty mornings are kinda the exception, sound seems to carry better.

Any time I’m hunting anything, I’m paying attention to lion sign and where I see it, they are fairly consistent how they work through country, so if you see scrapes or tracks, that’s a good place to look when you are going to call… the more spots you can decisively check, the better your odds of finding a fresh track or scrape, and the better your odds of killing one.