heres my tale , I need to get pics up, shes 7ft 2" and made a gorgeous rug and good eating
Well here's my story from a couple years ago,I have been calling predators for a couple of years with good success on coyote's, and had a bobcat come in last year and couldn't get a good shot off, he was locked on me and soon as I moved gone.
Anyway, Went out last to where my bud's had seen a cougar during bow
season,,,,, It was my 4th trip over there to the same spot with zero
results,,, saw some poop and some tracks but nothing else, used some
info from the web and some info from old Fishing and Hunting News articles on calling cougars so I figured I'd work around ridges and where I'd spotted deer before, I wanted to go out on Friday the 16th of Feb for blackmouth but the snow screwed that up.
So Saturday the 17th I got up,,, hooked up my boat trailer and was heading out for a day of fishing,,, but the snow and melt off had refrozen so I thought better of towing a $40,000 jet boat that morning.
I backed the boat into my garage and figured I'd go over to Tarboo
Lake near Quilcene and call coyotes, went there a lot over the years,, parked in my same old spot and went in to the same old stump that I've killed a few coyote's from and also missed the shot on the bobcat, it's a sweet set up,I hunt in the bigger timber and call where the timber corner meets the clear-cut and the doghair.I figure how the prevailing wind works and use it to my advantage, it blows down
Lots of tree's in this particular spot and when you call it makes the critters that come in stay on established game paths ,,,, usually at least the coyote's do.
The bobcat came in so quiet he was locked on me at less than 5 yards away on the wrong side to swing effectively,,, I missed but I went and bought a 22mag 20 gauge over and under and used it this year except for the last couple trips for my predator hunting,
That is, until my one buds said,,, " you over there messing with that cat" I said yep,,, he said better use a bigger gun ,,, he's big, ,that got me thinking so I switched to my favorite varmint gun the Ruger mini 14in .223. 12 shots.
It makes me feel better than having 2 shots.
So I get down to my stump and start checking things out for the
setup,,,,the setup is everything. I moved twice before I ever called that morning and also saw some tracks that I thought were bobcat ,, due to their size,,
I thought to myself cool.. that bobcat I missed is still here,,,I got all comfy and put my headnet on and started my calls, I call for 1 hour at a spot and about
5 minutes apart and try and stay real still except for moving my head, so I give a few squeals and notice a woodpecker fly over in front of me
working on a blown down tree,,, I think cool this is good it's making the squeaking noises woodpeckers make, and I'm thinking this is good it will draw anything that comes in towards it,, so I wait a few minutes and call again ,,,,stop sweep my head back and forth and back again,,,, all of sudden I see it,,,recognize it as a cat looking at me from behind a horizontal blown downtree,,,, just the head peeking over it,, then it hits me,,,, it's a cougar,,, I think,, I don't want it getting no closer ,,, it was at about 50 yards,,, so I pick up the mini 14 and put the peep on it ,,,,,bang,,,,gotit,,, head shot,,, I run over stop and check it out ,,, I'm tight and ready at the same time ,,,, all business,,, so just to make sure I pop it again in the chest,,, dead kitty.
I now check it out it's a female ,,, so I make darn sure no 1st year cubs are with it and make a bunch noise as to scare anything if there is The cougar turned out to be 110 lbs. and seven foot long female.
Beats a 7 pound blackmouth any day.
