another cat down

[cohoho]

Very nice for sure....  What a wonderful animal..

[Deep Forks]

  Awesome cat, will provide memories for years to come  

[huntnphool]

I was under the impression that shooting the females was frowned upon?

In many cases you are correct, everyone would prefer to take toms, but considering the current cat hunting situation in Washington and the fact that a boot hunter had the opportunity to get the cat, I don't think it is frowned upon any more than a hunter in Idaho taking a female wolf.

Thanks guys. I'm hoping to draw one of those tags one of these days, needed the low down.

[gramps]

Nice Cat...congrats  Gobble Gobble  !!

[Pathfinder101]

Nice Cat

I would think that the male/female thing would be a bigger issue in a state where the cat hunting was not so limited (like ID or MT).  I don't know for sure about the rest of the state, but here in the Blues I think we have enough of the things eating our deer and elk that shooting a female shouldn't be an issue, as long as she didn't have kittens.

[Gobble Gobble]

Here are a couple more pics of the cat.

Again, she was taken on the Yakima Training Center (not by me) but a fellow co worker. The deer and elk have had it hard between the cougar and coyotes so a dead female is no lost sleep to those like me who work down range and the biologists who work at the base. Weighing 133 lbs she has been eating more than just rabbits and sage grouse.

[Blsum]

Sure would like to get my hands on one of those.  So what's the story with the cat. I understand a guy you work with got the cat. Did he have a special permit for it, hound or boot tag? Did he call it in?   Just curious. Give em a pat on the back for me. 

[rainshadow1]

Would love to hear the story, but yeah... Calling, tracking, sitting on a kill, or even just strolling, a Cougar is a Cougar...even with my sounds echoing through the hills! Bang! (I might take it a little slower next season, though, this sitting on my hands is no fun!)

That is a HUGE female!

[Gobble Gobble]

He and another co worker were down range doing a road condition check (it snowed here Sunday night) and came across the tracks in the road in an area where it was believed she was living (found deer kill in area a couple months back). One had a tag so they both came back turned in slips to take the rest of the day off and went home to get armed. They followed the tracks to a pond where she darted out of the cat tails no more than 5 feet from the shooter. He got one shot off as she ran hitting the back left hip shattering the pelvis and traveled up through the lungs and out the front right shoulder breaking it as well. She ran over the dike and then started walking where she hid in a 2 foot wide culvert under the road, with a light shined on her (about 20 feet into it) he put a second shot into her head crushing the skull killer her. The weapon used was a 30-06.

The hard part was crawling into the culvert after her that was half full of rock and mud (not a place to go if claustrophobic) to tie a rope onto her. The person going in had a rope around his ankles so that he could get pulled out himself.

No, a special permit is not need to hunt on the base (except deer/elk state raffle only) just a Recreation card that cost $25. We get a lot of upland game hunters here (just wish the sage grouse were legal).

The other cat taken back in Nov/Dec we had for lunch in chili and as steak. She tasted good, light meat similar to pork. Not sure what this guy planes to do with the meat. He is going to have a full mount done though.

[blindpig]

OOh yeah!!!

[Pathfinder101]

Cool story.  Too bad the skull got busted up with the finishing shot.  They make cool euros.  thanks for posting the story too.

[C-Money]

Wow! Very good story, A good Lion in this state is a dead one anymore. They sure kill a lot of game. Glad the hunters had a good experience and good recovery of a big cat!

[zackmioli]

cool story!