Big Cat Question???

[TraditionalGuy]

I've been (un)lucky enough to have seen half a dozen while hunting. Most have not seen me, but I have encountered them at very close range on two separate occasions. One was while hunting in Eastern Oregon. I decided to stalk up the side of a hill with tall grass and wind blowing right at me. It was a good idea, seeing how a cat had decided so as well. When it's head popped up above the grass and looked at me, I froze and stared right back for at least an hour (maybe 10 seconds in real time), before it bounded off in the other direction. When I resumed my stalk, I ran right into a cow elk that I managed to shoot a foot or so over her back. Maybe it was the nerves.

On another occasion here in California, I came across some fresh deer tracks with even fresher lion tracks on top of them. I followed the tracks for a bit and then heard a hiss from a bush about ten feet behind me. I turned in time to see the biggest cat I had ever encountered bounding away from me. Had he decided to pounce, I am certain I would have been done for.

We get a lot of reports in California recently regarding cat attacks on dogs and occasionally on children or sitting adults. We are no longer allowed to hunt them here and they are starting to become a bit more daring. I imagine there will be more attacks in the near future as climate change increases drought weather here and the complete lack of any predators increases their numbers.

[Ron LaClair]

A story to ponder      
   http://www.shrewbows.com/bowie_defender.html  

   

[The Vanilla Gorilla]

Originally posted by Ron LaClair:
A story to ponder      
    http://www.shrewbows.com/bowie_defender.html  

       

Send me one of them bowies, and I'll tape a rabbit to my back and go trolling!

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Illegal here in Missouri, if you kill a mt.lion/cougar you will do jail time. Other than that, if I encountered one..............I'd just let it pass and go about it's way. If it faced me or aggressed toward me it would eat a broadhead or a bullet. Then the 3-S rule would apply. aka shoot, shovel, shut the fk up. Sorry, I didn't really say that.

MO

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Great story Ron, you should write more.........but it kinda turned into an ad for a Ron Clair Bowie Knife, and that's where you lost me. With that said, I would love to read about some of your hunts. So if you have some books in print, or online, please send me the links. You are definitely one of the original masters of the bow and I give you my respect Sir, and thank you for your contribution to the Traditional Sport of Archery! I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

MO

[Firstlight]

Seems I hear of them every few weeks the past few months here on Vancouver Island.

Been here 4 yrs and not seen one.

When I hike with my two boys  5 & 6, in the bush I carry a knife and an 18.5 inch Mossburg 500.

I thought that was a bit over kill but after a couple of attacks since I've been here and the local RCMP and a military guy I know both suggesting I be armed, I am.  Not just for the big cat's thou...

Jock Whisky  - where 'bouts on the island do you live?

[Thumper Dunker]

Had two in camp last year. We use joggers for bait out here for them. The two that came in or camp was just walking on the dirt road and our camp was on their way. They did not care about us at all and was not afrade of us at all. Seen a couple others while hunting and those took off as soon as they seen me. I will never go calling in the sierras with out a partner and side arm. They are not to be trusted. No telling how many we never see.

[RedShaft]

Those of you living in lion country, do you try to be out of the woods at dark? I would think walking in woods at dark increases your chances at being attack drastically!?

[Machias]

Nope, walked many a mile in the dark in lion county with a headlamp and a sidearm.

[TraditionalGuy]

Originally posted by RedShaft:
Those of you living in lion country, do you try to be out of the woods at dark? I would think walking in woods at dark increases your chances at being attack drastically!?

Oddly enough, I have never seen or even heard a cougar at night. They should be out and about hunting, but still not one encounter, and I rarely ever use a light at night. Once it gets pretty dark, I do tend to make a little more noise than necessary, though, just in case. In California, we are not allowed to carry a side arm during archery deer season, so I figure noise is the best defense I can muster since I am not hitting squat with my longbow in the dark.

[Jerry Bellmyer]

I have seen them two different times in SE Iowa and someone got one on a trail camera in NW Illinois.

[Hoyt]

Another cougar caught on a deer cam near Carlinville, Illinois by Broom's Orchard over the weekend.

 

[Harleywriter]

I was the outdoor editor for a major daily newspaper in Montana for 15 years and have bowhunted Montana for 30 years -- some years hardcore intensity and other years pretty casually. I have never encountered a lion in the woods. However, I have written five or six stories and interviewed people who have and they are nothing to screw with. Yes, they are elusive and likely to leave before you see them but on several occassions stalked bowhunters and on another tried to take a small child from a group of hikers on a trail near Missoula. Here in Montana I think you are more likely to encounter a bear than a lion. I also went on a lion research trip with a noted wildlife biologist and we captured and tagged one. Mighty impressive beast up close.

[loneviking]

I've seen them several times. I'm in Nevada, just over the hill from California and there's plenty of cats around. I watched one stalking and taking down a sheep on a ranch in broad daylight one Saturday morning. They can be incredibly fast!

As a general rule, the fewer the lions around the more secretive they are. Trouble starts when there are too many, and the young ones get pushed into new territory. Young toms seem to be the worst. There was one where I used to live that was way to friendly. He would sit in the cottonwood behind my garage, scratch and pee on the tree.  He met his end a few miles away along the river when he went after a guys two dogs and the guy shot him with his sidearm.

We've had lions chase dirt bikes, joggers and bicyclists. Over in the Sierras in Shingletown (east of Redding) the lions are a huge problem. They just aren't afraid of people as they haven't been hunted since the early 70s.  I won't go into the woods around there without a big belt knife.

I think you're pretty safe in Illinois, at least for a while.

[awishanew]

I had the (pleasure) of seeing one up close,11 steps while sitting in a tree stand while elk hunting. It was just breaking day and I heard it panting and I thought of National Geographic.Lions at the water hole. It turned and looked right at me, put its ears back and wrinkled its brow. I had an arrow knocked and decided to shout an obcenity for it to leave. It slowly turned and left. One of the neatest things Iv'e seen in 50 some years in the bush.

[Mike Bolin]

While Elk hunting this past September in CO, my hunting partner and I asked our CO friends about mt. lion sightings. 3 of them were in their 60s and have hunted there all of their lives and hadn't had a half dozen sightings between them. Dick told me that someone once told him (conservation officer maybe?) that you could have 10,000 people walk a trail in mountains and one of them would see a lion, but the lion would 9,999 of the people.