Idaho Mountain Lion Hunt with Hounds

An Idaho mountain lion hunt behind a pack of hounds is unlike anything else in western hunting. There’s no glassing at first light, no long-range shot at 800 yards, and no stalking a bedded buck. It’s snow, hounds, boots, and the quiet moment when the dogs finally tree a cat and the mountain goes still.

We spent a few days in the Idaho backcountry chasing a big tom with the crew at Broken Top Outfitters — a seasoned houndsman and a pack of dogs that know their job better than most people know theirs. Here’s the story.

Why Hunt Lions with Hounds

Mountain lions are ghosts. They cover country nobody else covers, they move at night, and by the time the sun’s up they’re bedded somewhere you’d never look. Without dogs, you can hunt lions for a lifetime and never see one. With the right hounds and a houndsman who reads a track, you have a real shot at closing the loop on a cat you’d otherwise never lay eyes on.

The workflow is old-school and physical: drive the forest roads and canyons after fresh snow, watch for a track crossing the road, get the dogs on it, and follow. And follow. And follow.

Reading the Track

The first hour of any lion hunt happens before the dogs are ever out of the truck. A good houndsman can look at a track and tell you the size of the cat, how old the track is, which direction the cat was moving, and whether it’s worth turning the dogs loose. Cut a fresh track on a big male in country you can navigate on foot, and the hunt begins.

Cut a small track, or an old track, or a track that heads into country no man wants to be in — and you’re back in the truck looking for the next one.

Boots on the Ground

Once the dogs are cut loose, everything changes. You’re moving as fast as the country lets you, listening for the change in bay when the pack shifts from trailing to treed. Lion hunts happen in the country lions live in — canyons, dark timber, deadfall, ridges you’d rather look at than climb — and the run can take 30 minutes or 6 hours.

By the time we caught up to the pack, the tom was in a big pine and the dogs had him locked in. That’s the moment houndsmen live for.

The Shot

A treed cat gives you the rare gift of an unhurried shot. Take a knee, catch your breath, place it right, and the hunt is over clean. That’s the ethical part of hound hunting that people who’ve never done it miss — done right, it’s one of the most selective and controlled forms of hunting there is. You see the animal before you commit, and if it’s not the one, you call the dogs off.

The Outfitter: Broken Top Outfitters

None of this hunt happens without the right people and the right dogs. Broken Top Outfitters runs a first-class lion operation out of Idaho, with the hounds, the country access, and the houndsmanship that turn a lion tag into a real hunt.

• Web: brokentopoutfitters.com
• Location: Idaho
• Hunts: Mountain lion (hounds), plus other Idaho big-game opportunities — check the site for current openings

If you’ve been on the fence about booking a lion hunt, do yourself a favor and reach out to them. Tell them Extreme Outer Limits sent you.

Why It Matters

Mountain lion populations are healthy across most of the West, and regulated hound hunting is a core part of how state wildlife agencies keep lion numbers, deer numbers, and elk numbers in balance. Every houndsman we’ve met in this world takes conservation more seriously than most people give them credit for — because their dogs and the game they chase are their life.

What’s Next

If you’ve ever wanted to see what a real Idaho lion hunt looks like, the full film is above. Subscribe to Extreme Outer Limits on YouTube for more hunts like this from the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

And for the rifle, optics, and gear that ride with us on every hunt — including the lion hunts — visit Extremestore.us.

Snow, hounds, cold coffee, and a treed cat. That’s an Idaho mountain lion hunt.