A little back story to make the cougar kill even more appreciated for me. I was hunting with a few other guys I normally hunt with. In the days leading up to being stalked by that cat, one of my buddies shot at and missed a really big 3 point muley. It was really close, standing broadside and he should have had it.
Another buddy shot a nice 4 point muley, but wounded it because his muzzy hang fired. While tracking it, he bumped it and this time his muzzy didn't fire. I've hunted with this guy for many years and he's a crack shot and both shots would be guaranteed kills for him normally. He spent the rest of the day tracking it and never found it.
Oh yea, I found out later that his supplies are many, many years old. Damp powder and caps may be ok at the range, but are not the best to use for hunting.
Then I jumped a coyote and nailed it with my muzzy and it dropped on the spot. As it lay there on it's back with it's feet in the air twitching a little, I was congratulating myself for saving a fawn when all of a sudden it jumped and ran off like it hadn't been hit. Crazy!
I walked over to the rock where it had dropped and found a small puddle of blood. I tracked the faint blood trail for a little, but then decided that I'm not planning on putting a tag on it or eating it so I better spend my time hunting for deer.
So the trend that week was for stuff to not die when shot. You can imagine that I was especially thankful that the cougar shot worked rather quickly and a little praise went out to the Lord for my changing fortune. Never did fill the deer tag but that's ok because I've got cat meat in the freezer.
