Encounters with Cougars while bowhunting

[Rmac4859]

several years ago I was on a week long solo hunt.  I had dropped down into a valley behind my camp because I had heard some cow calls the night before.  I crossed a small creek  and then climbed up the other side a little ways and found a place to sit with a nice view. I thought I had seen movement on the hill across from me, but it was only a big stump (I spot lots of elk stumps).  The second time I looked a cougar was sitting on the stump. After it left I was thinking it was cool to see one and I wish I had brought my camera.  A few minutes later a cougar walked out of the trees right where I had crossed the creek.  A minute later two more walked out and joined the first.  Now I am all alone 45 yards away from three cougars with no gun, cougar tag or camera (I was more upset about the camera).  The cougars relaxed down by the creek.  They were laying down and yawning (lots of teeth).  While I was watching the cats a grouse had snuck up behind me.  It launched  out of the brush behind me and flew over my head.  I about went with it. One of the cats stood up. I was trying to make my plan on defending myself (shoot one then try to stab the other two with my other arrows), but they relaxed again.  When they started to leave I did a really stupid thing. I decided to see what they would do if I blew a cow call. Things got a little tense for a while.  When they did leave I realized they went in a direction that put them between me and my camp.  Other than that I have only seen a few on the roads.  The last one I saw was really only the end of its tail moving back and forth. I never could get into a position to see the rest of it

[stuckalot]

Two years ago my wife and I were hunting the Colockum, wet rainy morning we had been out and back to camp and were heading out again. We decided to hike in down the reserve fence, then drop down the ridge we were going to hunt. So we were moving along pretty quickly, hoods up heads down, when my wife says "what's that over there it looks like fur". I couldn't make it out so I pullout my rangefinder since it was the easiest thing to get to, and sure enough it looks like fur. We were both thinking it might have been an elk that some guys were looking for the previous evening so I fumbled around and pulled out my binoculars to get a better look. Much to my surprise it was a very large cat sleeping on the ground about 40 yards away! At which point I wanted the camera and my wife wanted my 44! It was about this time that a squirrel dropped what sounded like a three foot long 2x4 out of the top of a tree next to us! With all the racket the cat woke up and stared directly at us! After a few tense moments the cat laid his head back down.  Apparently having a sense of humor or nothing else to do the squirrel dropped the other 2x4 out of the tree! Again waking up the big cat to stare at us some more! The cat must have been very tired because shortly he laid his head down again and appeared to cover his eyes with a giant paw! We did manage to get a couple crappy pictures, that I will try to share, before we moved on. I'm pretty certain that was a once in a lifetime experience!

[bowhunterforever]

Why didn't you shoot the cat stuckalot?

[northcoast]

Saw one this year at 50 yds chowing down on the cow my cousin shot the night before.  I would have taken the shot but this is the first year I didn't buy the full combo.  Just my luck too because I had a run in with a bear at 15 yds less than an hour after seeing the kitty.

[stuckalot]

Bowhunter,  it was the year that cougar season was weapon specific, so I would have had to have taken it with my bow, and along with my hesitance to shoot large predators with a sharp stick and then trail them through the brush, I didn't have an open shot. There was also the little issue of it being in the wrong side of the reserve fence! Just a little different circumstance I would have taken a shot at it.

[bowhunterforever]

Bowhunter,  it was the year that cougar season was weapon specific, so I would have had to have taken it with my bow, and along with my hesitance to shoot large predators with a sharp stick and then trail them through the brush, I didn't have an open shot. There was also the little issue of it being in the wrong side of the reserve fence! Just a little different circumstance I would have taken a shot at it.

well that sucks, still an awesome experince

[buck man]

I was hunting in one of my tree stands on nov. 30 th 2009. There was a 180" whitetail I was after. I was really surprised when no deer showed. Not even a doe. Then I saw brown fur coming through the brush and quickly realized it was a cougar. One arrow later and a short 30 yard tracking job and I had a 126# female cat on the ground. Biggest hunting rush of my life.

[vandeman17]

Not while bow hunting but my buddy and I were hiking out from our stands right before dark in the NE corner. We had just hit a little skid road when I stopped him and asked if he smelled that. It smelled funky, almost like something dead but not quite rotten. I had barely said something when we heard that creepy cat growl/moan off to the other side of the skid road. We both spun quickly and raised our guns. I said immediately that it was a cat. We sat there for a few seconds and then it made the sound again and we looked at each other with that  look on our faces. I ended up slowly walking up the road and tossing some sticks over the edge. We never saw the cat but I am confident it had a kill down in the brush right below us. Talk about a tense hike out in our headlamps that night!

[HighCountryHunter88]

I was hunting in one of my tree stands on nov. 30 th 2009. There was a 180" whitetail I was after. I was really surprised when no deer showed. Not even a doe. Then I saw brown fur coming through the brush and quickly realized it was a cougar. One arrow later and a short 30 yard tracking job and I had a 126# female cat on the ground. Biggest hunting rush of my life.

thats a NICE sized female!

[BABackcountryBwhntr]

had my first this elk season and man was it a scary one... girl and I were back in about 25 miles from gate....  the only day we split up to hunt, she gets on a herd and shoots a cow.... about 15 min before dark.. the cow walks off into the timber and she walks out of the cut and onto the logging road.... as she steps down, the light of her headlamp catches eyes just off the road on the other side... at first she thought it was more elk, but then she noticed the eyes were much to close to the ground, and yellow and shaped wrong... about that time I had made it back to camp and radioed to see where she was... of course the 45 was in her pack... AT CAMP.. so she says.. hey I got a big cat following me... grab the gun and get down here.... I grab the gun and make my way down... the cat had followed her a few feet as she moved.... all we could see where the eyes in the light of the headlamp... I aimed and fired the first shot.... the cat did not move, blink, or flinch... it was beyond scary at that point..... then she takes the gun and gives it a go.. same thing.... the cat does not move .... then we take a few more steps... the cat follows..... it was very obvious it was hunting.... US..... we kept the light on it the best we could and back out slowly... camp was only a few hundred feet up.. so we quickly gathered supplies and hiked out into the cut for the night.. we split watch and never got a wink of sleep.. we then found her cow just across the road from where we last saw the cat.... between the cat and yotes.. there was nothing left to salvage..... quite the night......

[Broken Arrow]

Have seen quite a few during scouting and one durring turkey season. Saw one during archery, 30 yards facing me, drew my bow and with in milliseconds it spun and ran...never had a shot.

[Jonathan_S]

Saw one during archery, 30 yards facing me, drew my bow and with in milliseconds it spun and ran...never had a shot.

Might have seen one in a "similar" area this September 

Too far for a bow shot.  I went back up to that spot for the next three days and the elk were nowhere to be found after that cat cruised through.

[ouchfoss]

Its happened to me three different times. First time was when I was cow calling in a random spot and had one sneak up within 10 yards and then vanished into brush. 
Second time was when I was sneaking down a logging road and when I peaked around a sharp corner one was looking back my direction and jumped into the thick reprod. I snuck up there to see if I could get a shot and after a few minutes, I realized it was a momma and at least kitten was on one side of the road and momma was on the other. The adult would make weird audible sounds and the kitten would make different pitched sounds right back at it. This went on for like 15 minutes within about 20 yards on both sides of me. Then the momma cat made a different sound and I heard some brush rustle on the kittens side and then silence and never heard anything again. I am just guessing it was a mom with kittens just because of the different sounds of the cats but it could have very well been two adults. 
Third time was for sure two adult cats doing their "mating" calls.
I was walking into the timber in the back of a older clearcut when I started hearing what I thought was a really bad cow call. Kinda high pitched but sounded different and I thought it might have been my cousin out there hunting just doing a bad job with his mouth reed(he was hunting in kinda the same area that morning). I snuck up to investigate and when I got within 40 yards I heard it and it sounded noticeably different than a cow call so I knocked an arrow and when I walked around a tree, a huge cat jumped out of the bushes like twenty feet in front of me and made one bounce about 10 feet in the air and then bounced right into the brush. I walked back 20 yards to where the cat came from and bumped another adult cat that vaporized into the brush too.     
Pretty sure I had one stalk me on my way back to the truck one day but I never saw (just heard it) it so its anyones guess. Some day, one will hold still long enough. 

[PolarBear]

I have only seen one cougar while bowhunting and I got her.  She was trailing a doe that had passed about 5 minutes before.  I waited until her head was past me and I stuck her behind the shoulder.  She spun around in circles biting at the wound then all of a sudden stopped and looked straight up the tree and straight into my eyes.  I was sure that she was headed up to join me in my treestand.  Instead she did a couple more spins then collapsed.  It took me over an hour before I was ready to come out of my stand and check my shorts.  I wound up getting a really nice buck the next day only 100 yards farther down the ridge.

[fly4fish]

I had a very scary encounter once, and as luck would have it, I did not have my bow, or any weapon for that matter. I was charged to within 10 feet. I wrote a story with pictures here. Wish I'd have had a Solvid CamStrap on.

Here is the link to the story: http://www.bestforhunting.com/2011/09/mountain-lion-encounter/