Cougar!!!!

[markts]

It sucks to lose an animal. Sounds like you gave it a good look. I hit a nice buck low one time and spent 4 and half days looking, finally found him. Keep your chin up and maybe go back and look for ravens in the area??? Mark

[fly4fish]

Muleysniper,

I took nothing you said as harsh.  I am frusturated with people who shoot and then not give their full effort in finding their game.  The ones that really tick me off are the rifle hunters that are against archery saying we wound and loose too many animals when I would bet overall rifles wound more unrecovered game then arrows, granted there are a lot more rifle hunters out there.  I believe too that the average archery hunter puts forth more effort than the average rifle hunter in recovering wounded game, ofcouse there are exceptions on both sides of the issue.  Anyway, I just saw the oppritunity to vent on our cat problem in southeast WA.  I will admit, the several times I have seen cougars in the wild, they have been some of the most amazing moments I have had in the outdoors.  They are awsome creatures.  The problem is that I have talked to oldtimers who use to roam the Blue Mts. and maybe saw 1 cougar in their lifetime.  I average seeing a few a year!  My father atleast one sighting a month!  We do spend a lot of time out and about.  I do dream of getting a shot at a big cat with my bow, I agree that would be one hell of a trophy and I would hate to loose it.  Cats seem not to bleed much if the shot is not perfect.  I do like the idea of taking a dog for a walk, but unless there is blood, I think it has been too long and dry for a dog to pick up the sent.  I have heard that trained dogs have a hard time following a cat scent that is only a few hours old when conditions are dry.  I have seen on tv people shooting cats out of trees using dogs with a bow which is cool I guess , but to get a shot at one on the ground not knowing you're there would be awsome.  I do hope you find him, but I would not eat your tag if you don't find him.  I believe they should be treated like coyotes, or atleast let people use dogs again.  Why not, they do more damage to the herds eating one deer or elk a week.

Again good job at getting the oppritunity, keep us posted!

[wastickslinger]

MuleySniper takes his Seahawks to heart. We need to get the mods to ban him from this site during the rest of the games. Just from half time until about two hours after the game. 

[GreenHunter]

Muleysniper,

I took nothing you said as harsh.  I am frusturated with people who shoot and then not give their full effort in finding their game.  The ones that really tick me off are the rifle hunters that are against archery saying we wound and loose too many animals when I would bet overall rifles wound more unrecovered game then arrows, granted there are a lot more rifle hunters out there.  I believe too that the average archery hunter puts forth more effort than the average rifle hunter in recovering wounded game, ofcouse there are exceptions on both sides of the issue.  Anyway, I just saw the oppritunity to vent on our cat problem in southeast WA.  I will admit, the several times I have seen cougars in the wild, they have been some of the most amazing moments I have had in the outdoors.  They are awsome creatures.  The problem is that I have talked to oldtimers who use to roam the Blue Mts. and maybe saw 1 cougar in their lifetime.  I average seeing a few a year!  My father atleast one sighting a month!  We do spend a lot of time out and about.  I do dream of getting a shot at a big cat with my bow, I agree that would be one hell of a trophy and I would hate to loose it.  Cats seem not to bleed much if the shot is not perfect.  I do like the idea of taking a dog for a walk, but unless there is blood, I think it has been too long and dry for a dog to pick up the sent.  I have heard that trained dogs have a hard time following a cat scent that is only a few hours old when conditions are dry.  I have seen on tv people shooting cats out of trees using dogs with a bow which is cool I guess , but to get a shot at one on the ground not knowing you're there would be awsome.  I do hope you find him, but I would not eat your tag if you don't find him.  I believe they should be treated like coyotes, or atleast let people use dogs again.  Why not, they do more damage to the herds eating one deer or elk a week.

Again good job at getting the oppritunity, keep us posted!

Any chance your dad want to invite a few of us over to hunt his porch? 

But seriously, what area are you talking about? I had never really planned on hunting a cougar since most of my hunting is for meat but I am all for keeping them in check so that my meat can make it to my freezer. Maybe next year I will come to your area for a cougar.

[fly4fish]

Hey Greenhunter, 
   As of Tuesday my father has 30 days to be out of his house, as he has sold it, but anywhere in Southeast WA there are too many cats.  I got an email from Dad this Morning.  He woke up to Elk barking instead of bugling so he got up and headed for a light.  The elk went over the rim and then he saw the biggest cat he has ever seen, and he has seen lots.  He found a yearling calf that he had been eatting on for the past week this morning in the brush 400 yards from his house.  The cat is after fresh meat now.  That is the 3rd different cat he saw in Sept.  Terrorists, I swear it is Alcata.  Anyway, you can meat hunt through deer and elk season, Cougar season is from oct 17 - dec 31, which is 3 months shorter than last season, but you can still make it out after the meat hunts.  By the way, have you ever eaten Cougar?  I have on several occasions, and will eat it again.  It is not bad, kind of like pork.  I would like to jerky some.

So, please help us out, come on over and take your dog for a walk.

[cascademountainhunter]

dang that sucks bro. better luck to ya on the next one...

[Hornseeker]

Be careful with the jerky Fly... A buddy got trichonosis from cat jerky...

Cat to me, is like a combo of deer and pork... I like eating it...

[Machias]

Be careful with the jerky Fly... A buddy got trichonosis from cat jerky...

Cat to me, is like a combo of deer and pork... I like eating it...

X2 

You really have to be careful when you do jerky for bears and cats.

[GreenHunter]

Thanks for heads-up and I may come your way.