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Cash and Steel recently took Matthew Phillips on a Lion Hunt. This is what Matthew had to say about the AZ Ground Pounders Outfitters.

"These guys are the real deal. They are self made. They have 26 of the best dogs you will ever see. They are trailing a lion or looking for one to trail right now. They go lion hunting 6 days a week no matter if they have a client or not. From the second I met them I knew I had to try to get a lion with them. Over the last two years I have spent 12 days on horse back and walking all over with a great Houndsman we just couldn't get it done. The guy has great dogs just having a long streak of bad luck. So elk hunting this year I hunted with Cash and Steel and knew from the first day of hunting not only would I kill my lion with them but I would have two new friends to hunt with when ever I wanted. I signed up for my lion experience and I had to wait for two months because of work. While I was working for those two months it seemed like I would get a picture of another huge Tom with a guy holding it and Cash standing next to him about once a week or a video of them letting a female go, Torture. Then I packed up and prepared for a long 4 day adventure. It turned out 10 minutes after leaving the truck the dogs struck a track and we were in snow (which they hate hunting in snow but knew how bad I wanted a lion) the dogs were gone and they found the track and said it was a nice cat not the biggest but nice and they said we can pull the dogs and wait for a big Tom you have a lot of time and of course after previous adventures I just wanted to see one in a tree. So I said let them tree it and then we will see. 20 minutes later they had it treed. The cat jumped the tree as soon as it saw a human. They had it treed again in 200 yards and Cash and I snuck up to take a look and he looked at it and said its a pretty good cat but its a female, a big female, I asked him you don't shoot females right. He said not usually but we are in sheep country now and you like sheep a lot don't you and thats all he had to say, He started to say something and boom. I had my first beautiful lion. About a 100 yards away we found a coues deer doe she had killed the night before which I didn't like to see but there wouldn't be anymore like that from that lion or from kittens she would have had in the future and their Kittens. Turned out to be a beautiful cat and an awesome 1/2 day adventure (it doesn't happen that way very often no matter who you hunt with). That was a month and a half ago and I still talk to them 4 or 5 times a week about all the lions they are chasing and treeing and videoing with no client on some of them. If you want a great lion hunt with great people and unbelievable dogs, these guys are who you want to hunt with."

Thanks Matthew for everything and we look forward to your Dad's Hunt.

 

 

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I disagree. Congrats on a beautiful lion. I am sure the deer and sheep approciate it!

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Lion hunting is always awesome and tons of fun but sad to see outfitters killing females.

It comes down to what the client wants and since the client had already spent a lot of time chasing cats without luck he decided to shoot. If I was in his shoes I would have shot as well.

 

Nice lion and good job.

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It is so sad to see someone kill an animal that is the most efficient killer of all the animals we love to see in AZ and because you don't see them everyday doesn't mean that the population is declining. It is far from that and like I said before those sheep, mule deer and coues deer that would have been eaten alive by this female or any one of her future kittens are thanking me tremendously.

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Congrats on the hunt but obviously we're not gonna agree on the subject as I have had this conversation with many hunters. Those that are deer/sheep hunters think lions kill everything in sight. Not true. GandF claim lions kill a deer sized animal a week. Let's think about that for a second. 3000 lions in Arizona X 52 deer sized animals a year. That's 156,000 deer sized animals! According to AZGFD there are only about 80,000 mule deer and I couldn't find numbers on Coues but let's say there are 80,000 of them (which there aren't) So that's a total of 160,000 deer in the state and lions kill 156,000 of them a year? Huh? Plus throw in the 1000's of deer killed by hunters every year. Why aren't the deer extinct yet? How many lion kills have all of us on this site combined found? I bet it's under 100. If lions were massacring every living creature why don't we find them EVERYWHERE when we are out there. haha get my point? I'm just saying that people have the wrong view on lions that they kill everything near them. I hunt deer,elk,antelope,(hopefully sheep one day), and lions. Killing females is only going to hurt the lion population and isn't going to save all the thousands of deer and sheep you think it will.

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Congratulations on a great hunt Matthew! That was quite and adventure! This topic is about you and your success, you did awesome! If some wants to start a diff. topic they should do it some where esle, not here and respect your space. The day I pay for your hunt, your outfitter, your gas, food, ammo etc. that day...maybe thay day I will have the right to criticize your actions. You did not do wrong and nothing illegal either.

 

So again my friend congratulations on an awesome hunt!

 

Ernesto C

 

P. S. Now let me start a topic about idiots some where else ;) haha LOL

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Congrats on a great hunt and taking your first lion! I am curious to know what unit this was in. You referred to there being sheep in the unit so it could possibly hve been a "Multiple Bag" unit.

The “Multiple Bag” units allow night hunting of lions and allow more than one lion per hunter this to encourage hunters to take more lions... There is a problem with the big cats eating too many sheep and studies have proven this other wise the AZF&G would not have changed the rules! Not every lion has the potential of becoming a “record book” or produce a “record book” off spring but it's guaranteed that all lions eat lot's of deer and sheep!!!

It's a hunters right to pass on these smaller lions in the multiple bag units but when they do they are doing so at the cost of more sheep and deer being munched and less deer and sheep tags for humans! The excuse of saving your tag for a bigger cat when hunting in a multiple bag unit is not valid when tags are $14 and over the counter!

Bonecollector777 I see that you have taken the time to post on this thread twice and criticized this harvest twice … I heard ya the first time....I know nothing of your vast experience concerning the lion population in Arizona but posting twice to disch someones hunt makes me wonder who heck do you think U R...... Well I looked at your profile and see that you are at the wise old age of 22 .... ha ha ha ha ...... and that lion you took was 130lbs and 7 foot , not a record book lion or a toad by any standards, good job on harvesting it but then you already know that and obviously believe Its ok for you to kill a llion because it happened to be a tom ... (CANT TELL BY THE PICTURE)... Keep on hunting and mabey someday you will actually have something to say that is valid!

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Congrats on a great hunt and taking your first lion! I am curious to know what unit this was in. You referred to there being sheep in the unit so it could possibly hve been a "Multiple Bag" unit.

The “Multiple Bag” units allow night hunting of lions and allow more than one lion per hunter this to encourage hunters to take more lions... There is a problem with the big cats eating too many sheep and studies have proven this other wise the AZF&G would not have changed the rules! Not every lion has the potential of becoming a “record book” or produce a “record book” off spring but it's guaranteed that all lions eat lot's of deer and sheep!!!

It's a hunters right to pass on these smaller lions in the multiple bag units but when they do they are doing so at the cost of more sheep and deer being munched and less deer and sheep tags for humans! The excuse of saving your tag for a bigger cat when hunting in a multiple bag unit is not valid when tags are $14 and over the counter!

Bonecollector777 I see that you have taken the time to post on this thread twice and criticized this harvest twice … I heard ya the first time....I know nothing of your vast experience concerning the lion population in Arizona but posting twice to disch someones hunt makes me wonder who heck do you think U R...... Well I looked at your profile and see that you are at the wise old age of 22 .... ha ha ha ha ...... and that lion you took was 130lbs and 7 foot , not a record book lion or a toad by any standards, good job on harvesting it but then you already know that and obviously believe Its ok for you to kill a llion because it happened to be a tom ... (CANT TELL BY THE PICTURE)... Keep on hunting and mabey someday you will actually have something to say that is valid!

 

Well well rifleman don't start crying on us here. It's gonna be ok.. I promise. First off let's go back to my original post and see that I never once criticized the hunter nor said he did anything illegal. I said it's sad seeing OUTFITTERS killing females.heck, you can kill a kitten if you want but does that make it ok? As for the hunter I understand completely that he was excited to kill a lion just like any of us are or would be in that situation and I congratulate him on killing the lion. BUT he directly said "you guys don't kill females do you?" to which the outfitter then had the choice of letting him kill a female or not. If the outfitter gives the ok you can't blame the hunter if that's what he wants. So just to clear that up I never once put any blame on the hunter who is paying to kill a lion. Personally if I were paying $1000's to kill a lion I would make the choice to wait for a mature tom but obviously not everyone thinks that way.

Now let's get to the good stuff. I don't claim to be a lion expert or claim that I killed a huge lion. But tell me which one of those numbers I posted about deer population and lion population that isn't true. I took it straight off the AZGFD website added it up and gave you the facts of what they claim lions do. 156,000 deer sized animals a year. Seriously? I don't care how much you love deer or hate lions for eating them but give me a break. We would have nothing left in the forest if lions ate 156,000 deer sized animals a year. So while I am only 22 and not a lion expert I can do simple addition and tell you AZGFD's numbers are unrealistic :) if you disagree or think 156,000 deer die every year from lions I would love to hear about how that's possible. If not . . well then shut your mouth :) I have been out lion hunting 15 times this year and have seen 12 lions in the tree. 9 females and 3 males. Only two of those lions died. Two mature toms. One of mine and another friends. It didn't HAPPEN to be a tom because we had let 5 females go before treeing my tom. Nice try though. No female was killed nor ever will be killed even if a friend is begging on their knees to shoot one. We don't feel it's right and it will only hurt the lion population giving us less lions to chase and less fun for us. No one that comes with us get's paid or pays for anything on the hunt and we do it for the pure pleasure of seeing cats in the tree and occasionally killing one. I would love to see your lion that you killed though rifleman, you big bad old timer who knows way more than any 22 year old ;) wait. . you probably have never even seen one huh? Dang. Keep trying though maybe someday you can get yourself a nice little kitten and tell us all how proud you are of it and all the deer you saved.

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Congratulations Matthew!

Nice to see you guys getting out after them.

Say hello to your Dad for me.

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Congrats on a great hunt and taking your first lion! I am curious to know what unit this was in. You referred to there being sheep in the unit so it could possibly hve been a "Multiple Bag" unit.

The “Multiple Bag” units allow night hunting of lions and allow more than one lion per hunter this to encourage hunters to take more lions... There is a problem with the big cats eating too many sheep and studies have proven this other wise the AZF&G would not have changed the rules! Not every lion has the potential of becoming a “record book” or produce a “record book” off spring but it's guaranteed that all lions eat lot's of deer and sheep!!!

It's a hunters right to pass on these smaller lions in the multiple bag units but when they do they are doing so at the cost of more sheep and deer being munched and less deer and sheep tags for humans! The excuse of saving your tag for a bigger cat when hunting in a multiple bag unit is not valid when tags are $14 and over the counter!

Bonecollector777 I see that you have taken the time to post on this thread twice and criticized this harvest twice … I heard ya the first time....I know nothing of your vast experience concerning the lion population in Arizona but posting twice to disch someones hunt makes me wonder who heck do you think U R...... Well I looked at your profile and see that you are at the wise old age of 22 .... ha ha ha ha ...... and that lion you took was 130lbs and 7 foot , not a record book lion or a toad by any standards, good job on harvesting it but then you already know that and obviously believe Its ok for you to kill a llion because it happened to be a tom ... (CANT TELL BY THE PICTURE)... Keep on hunting and mabey someday you will actually have something to say that is valid!

 

Well well rifleman don't start crying on us here. It's gonna be ok.. I promise. First off let's go back to my original post and see that I never once criticized the hunter nor said he did anything illegal. I said it's sad seeing OUTFITTERS killing females.heck, you can kill a kitten if you want but does that make it ok? As for the hunter I understand completely that he was excited to kill a lion just like any of us are or would be in that situation and I congratulate him on killing the lion. BUT he directly said "you guys don't kill females do you?" to which the outfitter then had the choice of letting him kill a female or not. If the outfitter gives the ok you can't blame the hunter if that's what he wants. So just to clear that up I never once put any blame on the hunter who is paying to kill a lion. Personally if I were paying $1000's to kill a lion I would make the choice to wait for a mature tom but obviously not everyone thinks that way.

Now let's get to the good stuff. I don't claim to be a lion expert or claim that I killed a huge lion. But tell me which one of those numbers I posted about deer population and lion population that isn't true. I took it straight off the AZGFD website added it up and gave you the facts of what they claim lions do. 156,000 deer sized animals a year. Seriously? I don't care how much you love deer or hate lions for eating them but give me a break. We would have nothing left in the forest if lions ate 156,000 deer sized animals a year. So while I am only 22 and not a lion expert I can do simple addition and tell you AZGFD's numbers are unrealistic :) if you disagree or think 156,000 deer die every year from lions I would love to hear about how that's possible. If not . . well then shut your mouth :) I have been out lion hunting 15 times this year and have seen 12 lions in the tree. 9 females and 3 males. Only two of those lions died. Two mature toms. One of mine and another friends. It didn't HAPPEN to be a tom because we had let 5 females go before treeing my tom. Nice try though. No female was killed nor ever will be killed even if a friend is begging on their knees to shoot one. We don't feel it's right and it will only hurt the lion population giving us less lions to chase and less fun for us. No one that comes with us get's paid or pays for anything on the hunt and we do it for the pure pleasure of seeing cats in the tree and occasionally killing one. I would love to see your lion that you killed though rifleman, you big bad old timer who knows way more than any 22 year old ;) wait. . you probably have never even seen one huh? Dang. Keep trying though maybe someday you can get yourself a nice little kitten and tell us all how proud you are of it and all the deer you saved.

You are dischin the hunt for the third time ....Why??? WOW Now your telling me to shut my mouth!! Seriously doubt you could even keep your very own trap from spewing your self rightous opinions !!!! Why .... You sound like a yearling coyote that just found a dead rotten horse and cant keep from yappin about it! Try just sayin good job , great hunt , congrat's..... Anything but what you been saying..... PM me if you want to dicuss this further.....

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Haha I'm not sure what dischin the hunt means but if you mean that I am saying I don't agree with outfitters shooting females then yeah I guess I'm "dischin" it again. Apparently you can't read or chose not to read anything I wrote. I congratulated him on the hunt and stated my opinion that I feel an outfitter letting someone shoot a female is wrong. I guess you boys don't like opinions that aren't the same as yours? So YES I am telling you to shut your mouth :) not sure where you were going with the coyote/dead horse thing? Horrible analogy. . .did you come up with that one all by yourself? Not gonna waste my time PM'ing you old timer. You obviously don't read well or have a hard time understanding that people have opinions different than yours. I'll stop "dischin" now haha

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