NMPaul
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Six days later I found my Cougar that I shot during Muzzle loader season.
Monday night we were way up high on a mountain. About 9000 feet.
It was almost dark and there was a bugle way up the mountain, but, there was no way I was gonna make it up there with 10 minutes of shooting light.
I sat down in a dead fall of aspens and figured it would hurt nothing to throw out some cow calls. All of a sudden I see something slinking through the dead fall quakie logs. IT'S A CAT!!.
Bobcat?????? Nope. Big long tail just slipped over the last log. I slipped the ML up to my shoulder held right on him at about 30 yards BOOOMM!! Big cloud of smoke. It clears and the stupid cat is just staring at me. I knew a cat hit with a 250 grain slug would not just be staring at me with curiosity.
I was as low as whale feces. I grabbed my bag of ML junk from my pocket, shoved a swab in my mouth, and scramble to get it loaded. Like a monkey on a football if you know what I mean and have ever had to reload a ML in a hurry.
I got it loaded and looked back to where I last saw the cat. Of course it was gone. I almost turned that ML on myself knowing that it was dialed in 4" high at 100 yards, I had shot right over his back. The last place I saw him he was pointed up the hill. I went over to where he was and started climbing the steep log strewn hill. Had not gone 50 yards and saw a glimpse of him. Got the ML up, aimed low, center mass so no mistake and BOOM!
Big cloud of smoke.... it clears and no cat. I am praying that curiousity killed the cat and I get up there and see a dead cat.
Got up there, and next best thing. Stomach contents strewn around a 20 yard square area. It is not almost dark. I turn my head lamp on and find bits, chunks of stomach contents in a crazy large area. I assume that cat flipped throwing pieces of its last meal all over the place. I found several chunks of recently eaten meat (deer????) up to 10+ ounces. Big chunks. I could not determine a direction of the cat.
I looked till black dark, Zach was on the radio trying to figure out what had happened. After the 2nd shot I got on the radio and told him I just shot at a mountain lion. He was a half mile down the canyon.
I went out that night really bummed. I made the decision not to give up a day of my 5 day elk hunt.
The following night after Zach got out of school, we grabbed our elite mountain lion dog Winston (see picture) and hiked the mile up the mountain. We only had 40 minutes of daylight and Winston sorted out about 200 yards of the trail before he got distracted with bear and elk poop.
All week I have stressed over it. My wife had a rifle elk hunt the coming weekend and I did not want to sacrifice any of the time we had for that. Luckily Kim killed a nice 6x6 the first morning. Spent most of the rest of the day packing it out.
By now 6 days had elapsed, we finally could go back tonight.
Took Winston our elite mountain lion dog
Zach, Winston and I hiked up the mountain. We had radios and GPS s to grid the area. About 40 minutes into Zach yelled on the Radio he had found her.
They both smelled something in the woods, and Winston ran ahead, next thing Zach knew Winston was running for his life past him. Z said it was the funniest thing he ever saw. Winston got his courage up and found the cat. I found a couple more sheds while gridding.
I was stoked to find this cat. The pelt was ruined, when you flipped the cat, the underside was a horror.
It was also a gagger cutting the head, paws, tail and sex off.
Called the game warden and he is gonna come by and get me a pelt tag/validate my tag in a few days.
Probably saved me a couple grand having that skin ruined underneath. gonna boil the head and maybe do something with the paws and tail. They all seemed to be in pretty good shape, hair not slipping.
Awesome weekend. Found out we had a top of the line mountain lion dog. Wished we never cut his nuts off, because those hound guys would be paying some big bucks for some of his seed. May start renting him out by the hour.
This was how she landed. Good size cat. The 2nd night we hiked in I bet we walked past her by 10-20 yards. Dying cats picks the thickest, darkest area to die.
Winston is still a little scared.
Monday night we were way up high on a mountain. About 9000 feet.
It was almost dark and there was a bugle way up the mountain, but, there was no way I was gonna make it up there with 10 minutes of shooting light.
I sat down in a dead fall of aspens and figured it would hurt nothing to throw out some cow calls. All of a sudden I see something slinking through the dead fall quakie logs. IT'S A CAT!!.
Bobcat?????? Nope. Big long tail just slipped over the last log. I slipped the ML up to my shoulder held right on him at about 30 yards BOOOMM!! Big cloud of smoke. It clears and the stupid cat is just staring at me. I knew a cat hit with a 250 grain slug would not just be staring at me with curiosity.
I was as low as whale feces. I grabbed my bag of ML junk from my pocket, shoved a swab in my mouth, and scramble to get it loaded. Like a monkey on a football if you know what I mean and have ever had to reload a ML in a hurry.
I got it loaded and looked back to where I last saw the cat. Of course it was gone. I almost turned that ML on myself knowing that it was dialed in 4" high at 100 yards, I had shot right over his back. The last place I saw him he was pointed up the hill. I went over to where he was and started climbing the steep log strewn hill. Had not gone 50 yards and saw a glimpse of him. Got the ML up, aimed low, center mass so no mistake and BOOM!
Big cloud of smoke.... it clears and no cat. I am praying that curiousity killed the cat and I get up there and see a dead cat.
Got up there, and next best thing. Stomach contents strewn around a 20 yard square area. It is not almost dark. I turn my head lamp on and find bits, chunks of stomach contents in a crazy large area. I assume that cat flipped throwing pieces of its last meal all over the place. I found several chunks of recently eaten meat (deer????) up to 10+ ounces. Big chunks. I could not determine a direction of the cat.
I looked till black dark, Zach was on the radio trying to figure out what had happened. After the 2nd shot I got on the radio and told him I just shot at a mountain lion. He was a half mile down the canyon.
I went out that night really bummed. I made the decision not to give up a day of my 5 day elk hunt.
The following night after Zach got out of school, we grabbed our elite mountain lion dog Winston (see picture) and hiked the mile up the mountain. We only had 40 minutes of daylight and Winston sorted out about 200 yards of the trail before he got distracted with bear and elk poop.
All week I have stressed over it. My wife had a rifle elk hunt the coming weekend and I did not want to sacrifice any of the time we had for that. Luckily Kim killed a nice 6x6 the first morning. Spent most of the rest of the day packing it out.
By now 6 days had elapsed, we finally could go back tonight.
Took Winston our elite mountain lion dog
Zach, Winston and I hiked up the mountain. We had radios and GPS s to grid the area. About 40 minutes into Zach yelled on the Radio he had found her.
They both smelled something in the woods, and Winston ran ahead, next thing Zach knew Winston was running for his life past him. Z said it was the funniest thing he ever saw. Winston got his courage up and found the cat. I found a couple more sheds while gridding.
I was stoked to find this cat. The pelt was ruined, when you flipped the cat, the underside was a horror.
It was also a gagger cutting the head, paws, tail and sex off.
Called the game warden and he is gonna come by and get me a pelt tag/validate my tag in a few days.
Probably saved me a couple grand having that skin ruined underneath. gonna boil the head and maybe do something with the paws and tail. They all seemed to be in pretty good shape, hair not slipping.
Awesome weekend. Found out we had a top of the line mountain lion dog. Wished we never cut his nuts off, because those hound guys would be paying some big bucks for some of his seed. May start renting him out by the hour.
This was how she landed. Good size cat. The 2nd night we hiked in I bet we walked past her by 10-20 yards. Dying cats picks the thickest, darkest area to die.
Winston is still a little scared.
)
