Hours of Anticipaition, Seconds of Exhiliration!

[Katmai Guy]

Sunday morning, two weeks ago, I woke up and decided to go predator calling.  Got my crap together and out the door I went.Drove to the property I wanted to hunt and hiked in behind the gate a few miles, seeing quite a bit of both bobcat and coyote sign, intending to hunt my way out at locations I picked going in.  Primarily hunting for a bobcat, I spent around an hour at each location. Only critters called were a redtailed hawk, that sat in a tree watching my decoy spin around, at one set and a sparrow hawk, that tried to take the topper off my decoy about 3 times before  leaving, at the next set.  Only had a couple of hours left so had a sandwich and tried to decide which 2 sets to call before heading home.  First was on a brushy road with a landing at the end, along the top of an old clearcut.  Sat for another hour, nothing.  Next and last was on a road at the bottom of that clearcut, paralleling a creek/swamp. Walked the road for about 400yds, set my caller and decoy up, backed off about 40yds and got up on a bank about 6' above the road and stood next to a big fir tree.  Started with  rant'n rodent for about 10 min and switched to wail'n woodpecker for another 10 min.  Every few min I would look behind me, not really expecting anything to come from where I walked in from but from the road in front of me, just past where I set the caller.  Switched to snowshoe in distress and prepared to wait for the remainder of the hour.  A few minutes go by, I look behind me, nothing.  A few more minutes go by, I look behind me, HOLY S###! here comes a cougar trotting down the road about 20 yds behind me, fully focused on my decoy.  I'm leaning on the tree with my rifle pointed down the road away from the cat, looking out the corner of my eyes, thinking "I'm screwed, something is going to go sideways and this cat is gone"  The cougar just kept coming down the road towards the decoy but when it got even with the tree I was leaning against, it stopped suddenly, like it smelled or heard something.  At this time, it's 15' from me, and I'm not going to lie, I was Excited! I'm thinking I'll let it keep going to the decoy and shoot it when it gets far enough by me where it can't see me move.  It starts walking again, gets by me about 10yds and I brought my rifle up, sighted on it thru my scope and tried to lip squeak, didn't work, lips were to dry. Licked my lips, squeaked again, this time it stopped at about 30yds and turned it's head to the left towards the creek and I just HAMMERED the trigger.  When I picked my head up off my rifle, that cat was in the air higher than my head. I figured It jumped straight up in the air at least 15', the only thing I can't swear to, is if it did a somersault or not.  When it hit the ground, it jumped off the road towards the creek/swamp and I lost sight of it. I figured it would be lying just off the road but didn't see it so I started looking for blood where it was standing when I shot, nothing.  Looked for sign for an hour till dark and then for about an hour after till my flashlight batteries went dead.  No blood, nothing.  I had to work on Monday, MLK day, but let my son skip school and we went back on Tuesday and spent all day looking in and under trees and working thru the vine maples, roses and dead devils club of the creek bottom and the lower end of the clearcut trying to find any sign at all. Nothing.  *censored*! 
  All I can think of, replaying it in my head, is that when I hammered the trigger, I pulled right and gutshot it.  Or I missed. The really crappy thing is I had a Tactacam that I was going to mount on my rifle when the mount arrived in the mail but it didn't come till Tuesday. I could have reviewed the shot and had more info on what happened. Wish I would have had my bow, that thing would be at the taxidermist right now.  Thanks, Ken

[Eric M]

That's too bad. Good story though. Interesting title.

[huntnfmly]

Cool story thanks for sharing. Sorry you couldn't find it

[Skyvalhunter]

Nice write up chances are it expired a ways away. They can take a beating

[pianoman9701]

Pretty cool story. Thanks for sharing.

[Katmai Guy]

Thanks guys.

[Gringo31]

Congrats on doing something very few of us have ever done 

[Katmai Guy]

Thanks Gringo, blind luck.  After 40+ yrs of hunting, the closest I've ever been before now was tracks in the snow minutes old that I tried to walk down and a tail going into the brush while walking down a gated road.

[fishngamereaper]

Cats are tough..I hammered a bobcat with a 7 mag a few years back...I found it a day later still alive. Had to belly crawl into where it was under huck brush to finish it...freaked me out for sure.

[CaNINE]

One heck of an experience Katmai! Sorry you didn't find the cat. 

[Kit Carson]

Sorry bout not finding it. Thanks for sharing the story

[Calvin Rayborn]