Hubby and I went on a guided turkey hunt out of Tonasket. We got a double , a Tom and a Jake the very first morning.
So we had brought our predator hunting gear and decided to hit some public land to call in some predators. We haven't ever hunted Eastern Washington, so we thought it would be fun to see if we could drum something up.
Using our Onx ( love it!) we found a couple spots close by. The first afternoon we called a pretty coulee area and had a big grey coyote come hauling in, but I missed it at around 200 yards, and that was all she wrote.
The next morning we went higher up in the hills and poked around another parcel. Did a couple sets and called in a big tan coyote that ended up practically running me over, and I got busted. So we were 2 coyotes called in in 4 sets, but no success on our end. Somebody we were talking to said Good stories, but pics or it didn;t happen.
We hit another spot and made a couple sets, hiking up and down those hills. We ended up just walking the road down into a lower area that was pretty thick with brush on both sides of the road- thick enough that we figured it would be difficult for anything to run through it, so maybe we could call something in off the road.
I climbed a hill (cliff!) and posted up, Hubby put himself deep in a hole. He let out a couple howls, waited did a quick distress with a call he got from Bearmanric. The next thing i know there is a cougar running up the road at a dead run. I saw yellow, a long tail, got my sights on it. I saw another one coming behind it, but I was focusing in on the first cat, as it was stopping. I aimed right behind the shoulder and squeezed off the trigger. The cat leapt into the thick sagebrush, then did an upward leap into the air. I kept an eye on the perimeter watching the brush making sure it didn't escape.
After the set I climbed off the hill and Hubby said Did you get it?? I said yep, I'm pretty sure therer is a dead cougar right down there. He was like "WHAT?!" What?!"
Walked down there and after a couple minutes found her. She was about 100 lbs, so pretty.
We sent pics to the guy who said PIcs or didn't happen and he thought we were making it up.
It was crazy! OUt of 8 sets we ended up calling in 2 coyotes and 2 cougars.
It was frickin crazy, I still can't believe that it came together.
