ive seen maybe 9 cougars in my 22 years, 1 every year for the last 4 years.
last year while archery hunting deer i was on a hiking trail and just crossed a creek and all the sudden all the birds went silent. hmmm i thought then a deer ran past me up the trail about 40yds. so i walked quickly up to where it crossed the trail and nothing. as i turned around a cougar jumped into the trail about 30yds from me and stared me down then walked away. i about pissed myself,
the year before that less then 300yds from the above encounter while driving down the road my dad and i seen one down the road about 50yds from us. it just walked of into the brush.
BUT this year was the scariest and craziest encounter of all.
2nd week of modern firearm deer season. me and a buddie were up in colockum (colem creek canyon) driving down the raod and this HUGE tom jumps out into the road about 50ft in front of us. and just walks up the hill to our right. so jumped out loaded a round into my 7mm wsm and walked up the road and shocked to see this cat walking about 50yds from me quartering away. i took aim and squeezed off a shot at this huge cat. i was syked to see this cat jump and fall to the ground. so i walked back to the truck and reloaded my 7mm and grabbed my 44mag (cause hey 6 shots are better then the 3 my 7mm holds) lol
i was shocked to see the cat gone when i got back to the point where i shot. for about 45minutes i was up and down that hill within 80yds of where the cat stood when i shot him looking for blood. after that the tracking was not that bad. solid yet slim blood trail but never had a dout in my mind that the cat was still alive(oh man i blew the suprize lol) anyway tracking the blood trail straight up hill really sucks. i was checking every tree and bush as i made my way up the mountain lol finally i made it to the snowline and tracking was a breeze. cat tracks were as big as my hand literaly from palm to finger tips. the blood trail headed into a tight spot so i was on my hands and knees fallowing the blood with my buddie going around the trees to find blood. so after about 30 seconds of him standing there i just got up and walked over to him. and sure enough there was a nice big blood spot on a log. but what was wierd there was a cat track facing up melted completely through the snow facing right down in the direction we were at. hmm well my buddie stood there for about 20 more seconds and i finally got next to him. and we were looking at the tracks melted into the snow facing where we were at. NOT GOOD. then all the sudden this huge cat jumps up less then 5 feet from us literaly with in an arms/rifle length from us and takes off running. i got my rifle up and got a shot off by missed.
i got a great look at taht cat and could clearly see where he was hit, right in front of the right shoulder. i hit just foward of being a kill shot and i was really bumbed but really scared after that. knowing that cat was sitting there watching/stalking me and my buddie.
there was about an inch of snow on the ground and where that cat was all four tracks were melted completely through the snow, as were the tracks were he stood and watched us making our way up to him. every other track from where he walked or ran were just imprints in the snow. so that cat had to have been standing there for quite a bit watching us.
the every scarier part of this whole encounter was when i was looking for first blood i had walked within 20ft of the spot that cat had jumped up from. and there was no other tracks in the snow farther up the hill. so that cat was right there the whole time watching. licking his wound waiting for his chance to strike.
but idk why smething must not have felt right to make him not attack being that close
i feel so lucky. and my buddie who had been standing there for quite a bit longer then me. he is the luckier one in that situation.
crazy story but 100% true.
talked to a hunter later that day and he told me about a guy getting a huge cat the weekend before right over in the next canyon. said there was 2 cats togather and the guy shot the smaller one.
thats my couple cougar stories for the night. i got some more but my hands hurt from typing. and i will more then likely have a nightmare about that.
