Saturday, January 16, 2010

Has anyone ever had an encounter with a puma while hunting?

I would like to hear if any one else has a hunting story or just a story in general about close encounters with a cougar/puma/mountain lion. Did you ever hear one scream?





You can read of our encounters in my answer to evo's question ';Black panther in Arkansas?';Has anyone ever had an encounter with a puma while hunting?
Over the past 40 plus years I've harvested 27 mountain lions or cougars. The most eventful hunt was in southwest Texas, three of us were mule deer hunting and had broken up to walk out a canyon. I was on the west side up high. The guy in the canyon bottom (Jim) fired off five rounds one after the other and let out a yell, up from the bottom comes a female with two grown offspring. They had gotten behind Jim and were stalking him. He heard the rocks clatter as one was charging him and started shooting in a panic. The cats came up on the west side below me and I was able to get two before they cut back into the bottom. We set up in the area for another 5 hours before harvesting the third cat.


As for the sound, I was sleeping in a pickup bed on Horseshoe Lake in the Pearl River area of Louisiana one night. A 'woman' in the next camp site over screamed and it woke me up. Only thing there wasn't anyone in the next campsite. I got out the 44 and a flashlight, heard 'her' scream again about 25 feet from the truck, in the flashlight all I saw was two golden eyes. Two days later a couple of local boys killed a black cougar (puma) about 400 yards from that campsite.That sound will stand the hair up on your neck and give you a ice cold knot in your stomach.


The closest sound to a cougar I have ever heard is a leopard, and that's one sound that only a demon can like.Has anyone ever had an encounter with a puma while hunting?
I grew up in southern NM and have ran into several of them camping and hunting both. We had one young male come into camp and try to take one of the bucks taken a day or so earlier. It was quite frightening until we figured out he was not interested in the humans in the tent but the deer hanging in the tree out of bear reach. This meant out of cougar reach as well. We watched him jump up and just miss the deer a dozen times then he tried to climb the tree and walk out the rope. That did not work and after he fell off he left in quite the disgusted manner. After he left camp I asked why no one had shot him. That is when I learned about something called spotlighting and that it was illegal to shoot after dark! I was 13 on my second deer hunt.
There is NOTHING on this earth that sends fear through your whole body like an up close cougar scream. We had one come just to the edge of our camp one night, and I've never been so scared in my life. Since the liberal do gooders here in CA voted to protect them, the deer herds have seen a steady decline, year after year. I would kill every one of them on sight, if it weren't illegal.
in a lot of years spent in the outdoors, I've seen only encountered cougars 3 times. One time I hiked a log ways up into the mountians witha friend for elk. We set up out small tent in dirt area so we could have a fire. That night, I kept waking up, but didn't know why. Next morning, we left the tent to find the clear imprint of a large cat rightin front of our tent flap where it had sat looking into the tent.


Another time I was sitting on a stump overlooking an old burn area when I heard magpies making all kinds of racket. I watched them dive bombing into a ravine and screeching. they seemed to be getting closer to me, when up out of the ravine jumped a cougar! he milled around for a while and then walked off. The last time was about 6 years ago. I was driving up a dirt road to get to my bear stand with my father in law. We came around a corner just in time to see a cougar take down a doe right in the middle of the road. We stopped and watched him drag her off to the roadside.


shoot safe
It isn't exactly close, but my cousin and I saw one on the road as I was driving to my hunting camp. It was about 50 meters in front of us when it finally bolted.





To answer the second question, yes cougars can have a black coat in some instances. They are commonly called a black panther, but they are still the same species as a cougar/puma/mountain lion.
I have a friend who encountered a female cougar north of Mt.St Helen's a few years back. He was hiking along a deer trail and saw a flash out of the corner of his eye. He wheeled around and fired just in time to hit the cat in mid flight as it had jumped off the bank above him. He ducked and the cat landed dead on the other side of him.He thought it was strange that she had attacked for no apparent reason. Farther up the trail not 50yrds from where he had shot her he found a mess of kits in the trail. He did not touch them but left to notify the game dept.When they returned the kittens were gone and they could not find them. The game dept. took the cat for study he reckoned.....
Yes. In Colorado. He had killed a raccoon and was laying on it to keep two coyotes from stealing it. I heard them complaining about it and went to see what was keeping them so worked up. After finding its tracks in the snow, I stalked to within 8 steps from it and shot it in the back of the neck with a .22 magnum in a Savage .22 mag./20 gage over and under. Ever since then, when I hear the coyotes complaining, I listen to what they have to say. You never know what knowledge and experience they are offering to share with you.
Was hunting for deer one day it was snowing good and heavy and I was just on the edge of the woods when I heard it scream it was a mountain lion and if you were there you would have seen the safety of a 30-06 be turned of pretty fast.
I have never seen one while hunting ,But i have come eye to eye with one in a tree at night,and have heard them scream,at night,I have heard of them attacking people.And I know they are around.But I think any danger is slight
Well it's not a Puma, but I saw a bobcat in the field behind my house last week. Several months ago a man that lives a few miles away shot and killed a bobcat on his property, he''s already got the mount!
Yeah. I hunted them one time because my uncle out in CO had two on his horse farm and they killed one of his horses. I was there a week later and shot only one of them with a .270 from about 230 yds.
I had a horse (it was a mini) killed by one. Also some of my neighbors saw one about five feet away. I have heard a mountain lions dream being described as hair raising.
your in delaware right? we have seen a bobcat and a panther on the pocomoke river in pocomoke city, maryland
I saw the video that is a large hose cat!! Feline domesticus
  • makeup art
  • No comments:

    Post a Comment