Lion Encounters While Bow Hunting

[LeeBishop]

Originally posted by RLA:
In Missouri are conservation department says we dont have any mountain lions in the state. I wish we had black bears too hunt, like you guys  in Arkansas do.

Our bears aren't like the black bears in Yosemite.

They are baby bears.

[onewhohasfun]

Similiar to Brian Krebs encounter. Idaho, 1997, glassing for elk,a very large tom came within 8 ft. of my buddy. Long story short no blood was drawn. Same yr. in ID 3 freinds had a cat approach them at dusk and they had one heck of a time getting the cat to leave. Yelling and throwing rocks, still took several minutes for the cat to leave.

[Russ Clagett]

I've seen a couple lions here in Texas over the last few years, one up on the Red River and the other down here in the hill country. I shot at him but missed.

I was stalking into a ground blind stand when I looked over to my right and holy crap, there was a large lion, long tail and everything. Took me a minute to realize what I was looking at, then I also realized he was stalking something, looking straight ahead, and had not noticed me. That's very rare, they almost always know about you before you see them at all.

I would love to say I just misjudged the distance and shot right under his chest, but the truth is I had to drop my bow arm, cause I wanted to see if I had hit him. He jumped and ran off behind me.

A few minutes later I was sitting in my ground blind about 25 yards from this spot, and I had a sudden realization he might still be in the area and pissed off. So I got up into a tripod, and left the ground blind for another day.

[jhg]

I think its funny every time a cat/lynx/whatever is seen in a state that is supposed to have none the next thing its the state has a secret re-intro plan and all the wardens, state personel and wildlifers are in on the conspiracy. Like THAT would work!

 I have a friend who works for Fish & Game and trust me, they have plenty of other things to worry about without hatching secret plans concerning game which they then have to continue to hide from the public.

Joshua, just sayin'

[Don Stokes]

Brian, your story about hitting the lion in the mouth reminded me of a story told to me by Dan Quillian. When Dan and his son D.D. went to Africa in the '80's, D.D. had a cheetah license. He took a broadside shot at one (they were plentiful where they were hunting) and the cheetah caught the arrow in his mouth, apparently thinking it was a bird flying at him. I wonder if that's what happened with yours?

In Bangladesh the woodcutters were getting eaten by tigers regularly until they started wearing masks of human faces on the backs of their heads. Seems the tigers wouldn't attack from the "front". I wonder what effect that would have on cougars, or other hunters encountered in the field?      Might get you some space in a crowded hunting area!

[Sheepshooter]

Although I do most of my hunting in cat country I have yet to see one.  :(  All my hunting buddies have had multiple sightings and encounters. I would actually love to see one. Two seasons ago one of my buddies had walked down a cutline into an elk area and just before dark was on his way back to his truck. He had his 9 year old son with him and was cow calling occasionally on his way out. There was a berm and some high grass beside the oilfeild road he was parked on. A couger was waiting there for the 'elk' that was coming right to him. My friend was about 5 ft from the cat before it realized that he was not an elk and ran away. My friend has seen cats many times and I've been with him when an angry Rotteweiller charged us and my buddy charged him back while I stood there and peed a little. My buddy has more balls than I do but that encounter with the cat spooked him.

[Keith Zimmerman]

Had a couple friends stalked by a Mt Lion a couple years ago in CO.  They were sitting near a wallow.  They had the feeling something was watching them.  They turned around and the cat was laying at 20 yards watching them.

They got up and went to another wallow 200 yards away.  Same exact thing happened.  They never went back to that side of the mountain the rest of the hunt.

[LimbLover]

I haven't heard of any spotted in my area, but I recently heard several reports of a Cougar in Lake Odessa, MI which is roughly 45 minutes away.

My folks live up in Cheboygan, MI and my Mom swears she has seen one on several occasions.

Unfortunately, you just don't see this kind of thing in Michigan anymore. At least not as often. Growing up I always heard stories about Bobcats, Cougars, Wolves, Bear.

Its been at least 10 years since I've heard of anything like that.

Coyote on the other hand...we have that in abundance.

[Conner Parry]

I came across one in Arizona on the San Carlos reservation hunting Javelinas, it saw us and got out of there fast. I grew up having hound dogs and so I have been used to seeing them around. I actually skinned one last night for my dad and made $40. It helped me pay my phone bill, so I was grateful for cougars yesterday!

[Ragnarok Forge]

JHG,

Lots of government agencies do lots of things and are told not to tell anyone about it.  I don't know if Arkansas planted the cats or they moved in.  There are enough sitings that they cats are there.  Their game department knows about it, yet their wardens will tell you they don't exist. It seems to me that if we are paying them to work for us, they should at least be honest with us.  It also seems to me it is legal to kill a state defined non-existant animal on site. If they don't exist in the state, then they are not regulated by the state!  The State doesn't get it both ways.  

Explain this one.  Sasquatch is a myth, yet in Skamania Count in Washington State there is a $5,000 fine for harming one.  Odd, but interesting that the County government felt a need to create a law against is and place a large fine on it. If I see one there, I will pay the fine.  It would be worth millions to have a verified example for science!  What weight arrow and bow should I use for Sasquatch?

[jhg]

Originally posted by Ragnarok Forge:
JHG,

...Their game department knows about it, yet their wardens will tell you they don't exist....
.  It also seems to me it is legal to kill a state defined non-existant animal on site.  

Look at it from his perspective- what game warden wants a bunch of folks with dogs chasing a small number cougars (and why? to sell their parts on the black market? because they hate preditors? they want to kill one and show it off?) that have yet to reach numbers that can be withstand hunting.

That second part of the quote is classic. Not saying you mean you would kill one, but I know they definately don't want that going on. A lot of people don't have much self control without someone helping them with it.
Game management may not be perfect in any state, but its a lot better than most of us could do. Everyone doing just what they want when they want to is anarachy. Rules suck, but they help us live together.
Anyway, I can't defend whether or not all states do not ever have game management plans in place that are secret. I just don't think they do.
Soapbox back to center...
Joshua

[Don Stokes]

Sasquatch arrows should weigh at least 600 grains. Anything less would be unethical.

[Gehrke145]

I've ran into several cats by me.  Had one stalk me through a valley.  Got pics of it on a post somewhere floating around this sight.

[Gehrke145]

Still have them on photobucket here ya go,
 
 
 
 
 

[Ragnarok Forge]

To be clear, if I see Saqauatch he or she is a gonner. The fine would be totally worth having  the proof! Just dont see it happening since they are mythical creatures, just like cougars in Arkansas.

Here in Washington we can buy cougar tags over the counter so no worries by me killing one.   We know they exist here and so does our game department no need for lying there.  

And yes, if I was hunting in Arkansas I would drag a dead cat up to the warden the next time and ask him if it was the non-existant mythical Arkansas Cougar.  Lying to make life easier on yourself is still lying!  We don't pay our taxes to be lied to.  I didn't spend 8 years of my life in the Army often at great risk to that life, to come home and be lied to by a  government official!  Excuses by game wardens are well you all know the refernce.  It is wrong and unethical for anyone who works in the government to lie to their constituents.  Totally unethical.  I work for a government agency in my day job.  No, I don't lie to the citizens.  Never have, never will.  

I'll get off my soap box now.

[LeeBishop]

this is what it says on the Arkansas Game & Fish web site

While it is possible that occasional sightings of free-ranging mountain lions may occur in Arkansas there is no evidence that there has been a reproducing population of this species in the state since the early 1900s.

I guess I was just imagining a deer being killed directly behind me while out hunting    

Those distress calls of a dying animal must have just been something else.

[Elksong]

Hoping to have an encounter here soon.  I am going to start hunting this weekend.  No dogs. I plan on calling one in.

[crazyhorse86]

This last season I decided to do a day hunt in bad weather during gun season.  I took off a closed road and sure enough got stuck on my way out without my chains.  I ended up hiking 8 miles in the dark deep snow trying to find another hunter's truck with chains I had passed earlier.  I knew my wife was going to be freaking out, no cell phone coverage, and i knew it was a long hike, so i would jog until i couldn't then walk until i caught my breath back and start over.  On one bend in the road i heard a sound behind me and off the road.  I stopped jogging, turned on my flashlight and spun and nothing, i just thought i ran up on an elk or deer.  When i finally realized i had passed the spot where the truck had been I turned around and went back, when i passed the bend again i walked over to where i heard the sound and sure enough there was a set of running cat tracks.  I still had about an hour and a half hike back to my truck and without a pistol, my bow, or even a knife, it was a little nerve racking. I DID NO MORE JOGGING!  When i got back to my truck there were 3 hunters from idaho who pulled me out, I could tell they didn't believe my mountain lion story!

[Burnsie]

Went hunting elk in Idaho about 4-5 years ago. The tag I had let you take an elk or bear or lion. I bought a predator call and figured if the elk hunting was slow I would blow on it and see if I could get a lion to come in.  One afternoon I decided to give it a try.  I did the wounded rabbit squeal for several minutes and then started to think about a big lion stealthily stalking up behind me looking for an easy meal. It started to give me the heebie jeebies, so I quit and moved on.
However, later on I walked into a sow grizzley and her two cubs at about 25 yards.  She stood up looking at me and gave a low growl.  Thought I was going to be a statistic.  Fortunatley she dropped down and bolted up the ridge with the cubs in tow.

[woodbender]

You dont have to go west to find moutian lion there in indiana, missouri,illinios.we have a farm in indiana just down the road from there our niebors found 1o of there sheep dead one morning the next morning they found 12 more. so they called D&R they came out said they didnt know what did it the farmer told them I know what did it,I just want to know if i can kill it.the D&R asked him what he thought it was he said mountian lion. They laughed said there was no mountian lion in indiana he said really and walked them back in the woods behind the barn and ask them how the sheep got forked 22 feet up that tree.when the wardens came out there was 2 of them old guy and young guy they got seperated when the old one went to look in the woods the young guy admitted that there was a program where they released cats to help controll deer population.I live in missouri not a half mile from my house they found lion tracks some others have them on there trail cams. there is also all black ones in indian.