Cougar experinces

levi_deerhunter · 12-15-2007, 08:47 AM

This is my story a buddy and i where elk hunting and found where some elk ran off the bank so we took off after them and came across a 1 or 2 day old cougar kill. After we seen this we started to head back cause we had been folowing the elk for a long time and never caught up with them. We went to the top of the clear cut just above where we saw the tracks and droped in the woods where the elk came out of just to make sure there wasn't any more when we were half way through i asked my buddy if it seemed really quit he agreed and we walked 20 yds and we stoped to look around when i turned to my left and there was a cougar 20yds from us As i riped my gun off my shoulder, it turned and ran over a hill so i took off runing and screaming trying get it to tree but i couldnt tell which way he went after he went over the hill.

Please add your encounters

buckhunter · 12-15-2007, 10:35 AM

I chased one into thick timber off a skidder road one day armed with my .45ACP 1911. After I had made it about 100yds into the timber I realized he could be anywhere,,, like above me, behind me, ect. I got my tail back to the truck (carefully!). BH

levi_deerhunter · 12-15-2007, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckhunter

I chased one into thick timber off a skidder road one day armed with my .45ACP 1911. After I had made it about 100yds into the timber I realized he could be anywhere,,, like above me, behind me, ect. I got my tail back to the truck (carefully!). BH

Thats what happened to us when we ran over the hill and down it a little ways.

sliverpicker · 12-15-2007, 04:57 PM

About 15 years ago I was bowhunting elk near Seneca one evening. I was working my way across a flat ridge top while cow calling now and then. I came upon an area with a bunch of obsidian chips on the ground so I stopped and starting looking for signs of native knapping. After several minutes I got a feeling I was being watched and picked my head up to look around. About 60 yds away sat a medium sized lion on its haunches watching me. I instinctively took an arrow out of my quiver and held it in my right hand, more for stabbing purposes then shooting it from my bow. I began talking to the cat telling it neither of us wanted to have a confrontation and finally the cat got up and walked 180* around me before departing.

I'm pretty sure the cat had heard me making elk sounds and came in looking for a calf to kill.

BrianMaguire · 12-15-2007, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sliverpicker

About 15 years ago I was bowhunting elk near Seneca one evening. I was working my way across a flat ridge top while cow calling now and then. I came upon an area with a bunch of obsidian chips on the ground so I stopped and starting looking for signs of native knapping. After several minutes I got a feeling I was being watched and picked my head up to look around. About 60 yds away sat a medium sized lion on its haunches watching me. I instinctively took an arrow out of my quiver and held it in my right hand, more for stabbing purposes then shooting it from my bow. I began talking to the cat telling it neither of us wanted to have a confrontation and finally the cat got up and walked 180* around me before departing.

I'm pretty sure the cat had heard me making elk sounds and came in looking for a calf to kill.

Same thing happend to me but this is how it ended.

Cougar_B8 · 12-15-2007, 06:23 PM

Have had two incounters with cats while bowhunting. The 1st was about 10 years ago and was a huge animal that treated me like a house cat treats a bird. We had a lengthy conversation before he turned and left.

The 2nd was last year when I left a main trail and was about too go into the brush and head back to camp. I looked to my backtrail saw movement. At first I thought it was a deer, but when I saw the tail I knew it was a cougar. It got to where I left the trail saw me and just laid down on the trail and watched me. Again we had a long conversation. I couldn't get it to leave so I tried to walk up a bit to get something to shoot at but as I could start to see it's side the cat adjusted itself so it was head on to me again. That was the only movement I saw from the it.
I finally got to a spot that I had a couple of trees around me. The whole time the cat was within 20 yards of me. I finally decided to shoot I knew it was not a good shot (head on) but, it had been about 10 min and I was getting a little unnerved. At the time I felt the need to do something and to this day I have second guessed this choise. The shot hit just left of my aiming spot under the chin. The cat exploded into the air and seemed to turn inside out, it ran up the hill and I saw it lay down. Not wanting to go after a wounded cat with just my bow I got on the radio and called a buddy from camp and had him get my shot gun and come to me. I waited until he got there to look for the cougar. Found my arrow where the cat had been laying, The arrow had broken just behind the broadhead and there was a little blood and hair on the shaft. We found no blood, tracks or any sign of the cat. Figure must have hit a big bone in the shoulder.

That is also the reasons my friends started calling me cougar bait.

sliverpicker · 12-16-2007, 04:58 AM

About 6-7 years ago I was rattling and photographing bucks in the White River unit. Around midday I was walking back toward the road on a deer trail with my camera and tripod slung over my shoulder. I got in a thick patch of younger trees with low limbs and heard something bust out in front of me. Presuming the noise was a deer I bent over to look under the limbs and not 20 feet away was a BIG lion stretched out and running from right to left. I went up the trail a few yards and there lay a freshly killed doe. The lion had fed on the hind quarter, covered it up, and was probably having a siesta when I stumbled along and woke it up.