Cat down!

[Blsum]

As some of you may have noticed in a different thread a member here said they had seen a cougar cross the road and did shoot it because he didn't have a tag but he would tell someone who may be interested the location of the cougar. I knew he had a green diamond access pass. I also had the pass so I decided to contact him. He graciously told me the location he had seen the cat. The next day I drove out to check out the location since I was not familiar with the exact spot. I drove in and checked things out. I poked around a little while. But since I didn't have much time yesterday afternoon I decided I would go back out there this afternoon and see what I could do.

While at work this morning I had to make a run to the machine shop. Great group of guys that have taught me so much over the last few years.  Always enjoys bull $#!+ing with these guys. Well during the course of our usual conversation (hunting/fishing/how the current season is going) by buddy shows me his new game cart he bought. He then tells me that he's had it in the back of his rig since archery elk season opened and nobody has used it yet. He tells me that he should just take it out of his truck so someone will shoot an elk. Cause isnt that how it works. Well next he says that I need to go shoot something so we can put it to the test. Ok, I will see what I can do.

Well fast forward a couple hours and I'm getting off work at 3pm. I start the trek out to where I had been the last night. As I'm heading out to the chosen I'm follwing this truck. As we round a slight bend in the road I spot a flash of movement cross in front of him. I look to see what is was or to see if he hits it. Next I see a cougar jump into the reprod. I immediately pull over and jump out. Grab my rifle and head in behind it. The first cougar I harvested a few years ago didn't go to far from the road so I thought maybe I had a chance. But it was just to thick in there. At this time (3:28pm) I text my buddy to let him know I had seen one and where I was at. I get back to my rig and I pulled up Google maps. I see there are are couple of logging roads that are in this patch of reprod and infront of where the cougar was headed. So I drive down the road to the closest gate. As I'm grabbing my stuff I remembered I had a rabbit distress call buried in the back of the rig somewhere. So i grabbed it and I make the hike in. I find the spot I had picked on the map and get set up. I have a nice long shot down this old spur road. I look at my phone (3:51pm) and start my calling sequence. About 30-45 seconds of rabbit distress. Then sit still and watch for about 5 min then repeat. After my third set off calls and as I'm waiting those 5 min I hear some thing then see movement coming straight at me and close. I start to raise my rifle and she caught my movement. She stops and lifts her head to check me out. But by doing that it gave me a clear shot at her chest. I clicked the safety off and squeezed the trigger. As I recover from the recoil I watched her drop in her tracks. I get up and walk the whopping 27 yards that stood between us to make sure she was done. I immediately call my buddy to let him know what happened and to have him bring the cart. Of course he doesn't answer. So at 4:12 pm I send him a picture of the cat. A short while later he is in the woods with me and after hugs and high fives and some pictures we finally took the stink off the new cart. Thanks again man. 

She was a dry female. When I got home she weighed in dressed at 70lbs. I'm figuring she was about 85 or so lbs live weight. She had nothing in her stomach so must have been hungry for rabbit. Anyways sorry for such a long winded post. Here are some pictures for you guys

[redi]

Cool story congrats on a nice cat.

[bowhunterforever]

Nice work 

[Watimberghost]

That's awesome! Good work

[westsideoutdoorsman]

Pretty kitty !

Grats!

[TVHunts]

Wow, congrats on a successful mission!

[huntnfmly]

Congrats very cool thanks for sharing

[bobcat]

That's great, good job! When I read the post that a cougar had been spotted I never thought someone would have a chance of going back to the same spot and actually seeing it, let alone killing it! You just saved a lot of deer that's for sure.

[bearpaw]

great story, congrats 

[DeerThug]

Excellent work!

[SemperFidelis97]

Long winded hunting stories are the best kind.  Thank you for sharing your experience.

Sent from my E6782 using Tapatalk

[Boss .300 winmag]

Nice kitty.

[kball4]

Ah she's sleeping on that rolling chair you put her in. lol

[Hilltophustler]

Nice work cuz 

[Blsum]

That's great, good job! When I read the post that a cougar had been spotted I never thought someone would have a chance of going back to the same spot and actually seeing it, let alone killing it! You just saved a lot of deer that's for sure.

I wish it was the same spot but it actually was a ways away from where he had told me the cat was. 12 miles or so. I know there are a lot of cats out in that area. I just happened to see this one cross the road. I figured it must have been hungry if it was moving around at 3 in the afternoon on a warm day. So I got ahead of it and started ringing the dinner bell.