Cougar Tips

[jasnt]

If you could do it silently it could help.  I've thought about using a tree stand but you would prob need to pre hang it to not get busted. 

[rainshadow1]

Exactly, I've found that a tree stand you carry in with you is just too much commotion.

Same problem for circling around on a vocalizing cat. I've seen it work on coyotes, and I've had a Cougar vocalizing enough to make me want to try an end run, but there's just no way you're getting around it without being seen!

(Still looking for call-in stories to add to the website! Let me know if any of you guys have one!)

[jasnt]

I think you already have few of mine up Steve except maybe this one
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,183485.0.html

[MountainTracker]

If you could do it silently it could help.  I've thought about using a tree stand but you would prob need to pre hang it to not get busted.

Thanks for the response.  I wasn't thinking a tree stand, more just get up 3 to 4 feet higher, so im not looking just into the brush in front of me but looking through it (if that makes sense).

[jasnt]

If you could do it silently it could help.  I've thought about using a tree stand but you would prob need to pre hang it to not get busted.

Thanks for the response.  I wasn't thinking a tree stand, more just get up 3 to 4 feet higher, so im not looking just into the brush in front of me but looking through it (if that makes sense).

i get what your saying. Personally I prefer to call facing up hill.  So my area is all above me. I think if you where sitting on a branch you movement would be multiplied cause every tiny move you make will move the branch too. Me I'm a big guy, not built for climbing trees lol so go me it could be dangerous with out a tree stand.  I like to keep it simple. But if your the kind of guy that can shimy up a tree lickedy split by all means try it. Could even make the cougar believe it is another cat in that tree but remember that cat won't come in if he feels you have the upper hand

[MountainTracker]

Thanks again for the information/advise.  Im planning on doing this, focusing on cougars, once I get back from Idaho at the end of the month.  I'll let you know how it goes.

[Special T]

Im gona give it a try as well. I think i will be content whacking coyotes bobcats and a cougar... It looks like snow may be our friend this year.

Has anyone tried a Tree saddle or Guidos web?  With the tree stands was it the noise or the movement that fouled the hunt?
http://guidosoutdoors.com/index.php/ordering

[emac]

Whatta about taking a ground blind with you and setting it up and sitting in in when calling or would that be to obvious for a cat

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[rainshadow1]

A ground blind can work. I've seen handheld photos/video to prove it.  Better if it's set up for a long period of time, but I would use one before a treestand just because of noise and etc. getting it installed.

[motg9_6]

Here for the info thanks guys

[KFhunter]

I've got a top of the line summit climber I thought I'd use for cats, but it sits at home.  Haven't figured out how to get it up the tree in total silence, which is what's required for calling cats.  It'll take me a long time to sneak into a call spot.   I can knock out 3-4 times as many coyote stands in a day as I can cat stands, with cat stands you need to assume that the cat your hunting is up there in the rocks above watching/listening the floor below for it's next prey, and it's hunting deer - pretty easy to spot a guy packing in a tree stand and calling equipment 

Also cats do most of their moving at night so during the day it might be up there sleeping off a belly full of venison, hopefully it's between kills and wouldn't mind something close and easy...

[jasnt]

I just prefer to go light. Easier to be quiet and slip in UN seen or heard with just what you need. Plus you may have to improvise instead of sit in your spot and go threw the motions. What happens if your headed to your spot and you see fresh tracks going out of the drainage?  To many variables. Just keep it simple. 

[KFhunter]

Yup,  I just carry the Foxpro + remote plus a few survival things in a single backpack.   I also got me a nice thick turkey hunting seat and gun bi-pod sticks.

I don't even use binos once the calling starts, because then your moving!  Instead just take a mental note of every bump, stump, dark spot and object out there, glass them ahead of time so you know what they are.

once the calling starts scan with your eyeballs for a new bump, stump, dark spot or object out there then glass it with your scope, because it's probably a cat! 


I had a new dark spot show up and was hemming and hawing about putting the scope on it because I wasn't sure if it was there before or not, in the back of my mind it was just a spot I had seen and forgot about, didn't look like much.  I was second guessing it... Finally that small dark spot unfolded itself and turned into a monster cat and was gone before I could put glass on it. 

[jasnt]

"I had a new dark spot show up and was hemming and hawing about putting the scope on it because I wasn't sure if it was there before or not, in the back of my mind it was just a spot I had seen and forgot about, didn't look like much.  I was second guessing it... Finally that small dark spot unfolded itself and turned into a monster cat and was gone before I could put glass on it." 

And that is how you get addicted to calling lions!

I don't glass after the caller starts either.  Most times I'm packing my shotgun. After my first cougar harvest I want then in close! I like to call in the super thick stuff! I keep the call around 20-40 yards away as long as it will put the cat to where I can see it.  Team calling can be very exciting. Often I sit close to the call and my friend sets up high above watching with the rifle. I use a camo fleece blanket to hide under with my shotgun shouldered underneath. I quit doing this method by my self though when I had a cat sit on the rock i was seated against. I could hear it plop on to the rock and could hear it breathing/panting, after a moment I decided I should spin around fast as I could to try to take the shot but as I spun to shoot it jumped about 6' up and back and I never got the shot.  Was a young cat that I prob would not have taken if I had seen it in the sights.  Could have gone bad real quick so I avoid that unless I got my back up shooter up above. Also why I recommend the pistol in the lap

[KFhunter]

I'd have to have a lot of trust for someone to shoot a cat sitting just over my shoulder 

"hold still while I shoot this apple off your head"