You’re chasing a 180-pound mountain lion, but instead of sticking in the tree, growling at the baying hounds beneath him, the tom leaps from the pine and bounds over the hill.
No big deal. That happens when you’re hunting mountain lions, but this particular tom holes up in the adit of an abandoned mine.
What do you do? Pack a lunch and wait him out? Not if you’re veteran Colorado lion hunter and hound man Dean Hendrickson. In his case, you go right in to the shaft to find the big cat. Watch this video to see the results– like trying to tackle a fullback with claws and 2-inch ivory teeth–but also note that Hendrickson strategically places himself just at the edge of harms way.
Lion hunters are a little like bush pilots. There are veteran pilots, and there are brash pilots, but there are no veteran brash pilots.
Hendrickson appears to me to be a veteran lion hunter.