Cougar Call-in Stories...

[rasbo]

dear annie,quit writing on here and get that damn book out

[Blsum]

I could of swore I told all of you my story of the cougar I called in. But I looked threw all my old posts to see if I could find it, that way I wouldn't have to rewrite it. Since I couldn't find it I'll give it to you. Steve your more then welcome to use my story on your site.

It was august of 200? I'm not sure I could tell you the exact year. The family was having our anual camping trip. We have been camping at this spot for more than 30 years. We use to be able to just drive in to camp. But when they locked the gate we moved. Finally they locked that gate. The only access we had was via boat. No matter which way you came in, either by boat or by road it was a 6-7 mile journey. 7 miles from the gate/paved road. or 6 miles from the launch.

We ussually camp there for a week. Sometimes shorter sometimes longer. This particular year we had some people in camp since monday. As the week progressed more and more people showed up.

Friday morning one of the guy's (Terry) had decided he was going to walk up the old road, take his dog for a walk, and see what was up there. A while later he returnes and tells all of his discoveries. Everyone was enjoying the sun and water as it was about 90-95 degrees out. Later in the afternoon some of the other guy's in camp decided they wanted to check out what Terry had told them about. After asking around we had quite a large group. There was Terry, Ron, Mark, Mark, Mark, Justin, Kenny, Tommy, Andy, and myself. Plus we had three dogs with us Buck, Spud, and Lucky. My cousin Kenny had decided to bring his mountain bike along just for the fun of it. We are walking up the old grade towards the clear cut that Terry had told us they just put in. The dogs are out in front of the group (as alway's) Kenny is just behind them, followed up by the rest of the group, all kinda spread out. The next thing we know the dogs just loose it. They all start going ape $h!+ crazy. Kenny takes a couple quick peddles on his bike and see's the back half of a cougar jumping into the bushes. Well we get the dogs settled down and head back to camp. Now because of a mis comunication with one of the other guy's I brought all my bear hunting equiptment. Full camo, descenting soap, Rem. 700 .30-06, and my side arm. S/W .40.

I've been wanting a cougar for some time so Justin and I decided we where going to go after it.  We jumped in the lake. Took a quick bath with the descenting soap. Dressed up in full camo. Some of the parents where a little un nerved about us going. So I told them I would let Justin carry the side arm, since I would have the rifle.

We walked past where we had our first encounter, just out side the clear cut in the bigger timber. I figured that with the temp. and time of day there wouldn't be any deer in the cut but in the cool shade out side of it. Justin and I found a spot where log had fallen perfect for us to hide behind and look two different directions. We had no idea which way the cat would come in from. Justin was about 12-15 feet away from me looking up hill to the north and I was set up looking down hill to the south west. I had with me a Carlton Calls, Critter Gitter. It's an open reed call, very basic but I could do higher pitch rabit/fawn distress calls or I could do lower pitch doe distress calls. I decided I was going to use a doe distress for this set up. After about 25-30 min's of calling I hear Justin whisper. "Ben,          Ben,          It's right there." I'm looking all over. Down on the road. all over. I whisper "Where"  he say's "Right there" and points in the timber. I asked him how far. He say's "20 yards. It's looking right at me". I'm looking all over for this cat, and I still can't see it. Finally Justing say's "Scoot over here". So I slowly crawled over next to him. He say's "Look right between those two tree's right there" and points. I'm still not seeing this cat. He tells me to scoot over even closer. Now I'm sitting in his lap. He tell's me to look in the same place. Now all I could see was the face of this cougar looking at me form 20 yards. I pulled the 06 up and looked at it threw the scope. I put the cross hairs right on the cat's face. I whispered for Justin to plug his ears. As soon as I seen him plug his ears out the corner of my eye I shot. That cat litterally went 6 feet in the air. Did a complete 180 and took off on a dead run. We spent the next few minutes trying to compose ourselves. We looked all over for blood. Nothing. We went back to camp to recruit a pose for recovery. 6 of us spent the next 2 hours looking all over. We never found a single piece of hair, blood, nothing. The best we can figure is i shot right over the cat's head. At this time I was shooting some handloads a guy had given me. Plus the gun was sighted in for 150 yards. Also when I was at the range with these hand loads I would get a flyer that would shoot about 8-10 inches high at 150 yards. Sorry if this was a little to long for you Steve. You can shorten it up if you would like. Thanks for reading. Also Justin is a member here as well (Hilltophustler). He would vouch for anything that I said.

Good luck with your project Steve.

[Aneoakleaf]

dear annie,quit writing on here and get that damn book out

Thanks coach 

[Aneoakleaf]

Thanks Rick, just like everyone else, I'd wanted a cougar for about 26 years!!

[Aneoakleaf]

Pretty exciting   BLSUM...sorry you didn't get that cat...He's probably still running!!!

[CastleRocker]

THAT'S IT!  I'm going out in the morning.  My son came home this afternoon, he has a S. Cascade boot tag, and I need to tell a success story! 

[Blsum]

Just a couple of other things I thought of last night as I was drifting off to sleep. The reason Justin didn't shoot the cougar was he didn't have a tag. Ever since then he has bought a tag. He just didn't have one this time. Also since this happened I've bought and carry a T/C Contender in .357 Maximum, and a Ruger M77 mkII in .22-250. If I have another close up shot like this I will have the conteder. If I have another shot that might be a little farther out I will have the Ruger. Let me tell you. This will be an expirence I will never forget. Talk about an adreniline rush.

[rainshadow1]

Thanks guys!


I'm still hoping for more! There's more out there, I know!

[robodad]

Thanks guys!


I'm still hoping for more! There's more out there, I know!

You take me huntin with you and I'll tell you any kind of story you want !!! 

[rainshadow1]

Robo, get you a tag, and another hot sighting, and you're absolutely ON! I got the itch bad! Grab the phone next time!

[robodad]

I'm ahead of ya already !! Got a tag AND another hottish lead !! My buddy had the CHIT scared outta him by another female with at least one cub up Dan Kelly road near where they just put in the new hiking trail, I have never been there and don't know exactly where he is talking about but he said it's easy to find, He also stepped on a fresh (blood still dripping) deer kill with the ass and hams ate and the neck chewed to rat chit. I guess he heard a blood curdling scream that scared the crap outta him just a few hours before he stumbled onto the deer kill I'm thinking it may have been the deer screaming !!! He told me about this 2 days ago and it had been 2 days since he had been there so maybe not such a hot lead now but I don't know how these things work !!!

I was only joking about taking me hunting, I couldn't afford to do a guided type hunt anyhow, I only buy a tag in case I run across a cat while hunting other things !! If you want more information I can call him for more specific info !!

[rainshadow1]

No charge, I just wanna get out and call / film over sombody else's gun!

4 days is a little late, but better than nothin' ! Keep me posted!

[robodad]

No charge, I just wanna get out and call / film over sombody else's gun!

4 days is a little late, but better than nothin' ! Keep me posted!

I'll call him and have him call me ASAP when he encounters another one of these cougars, he is a brush picker and has many encounters in all kinds of locations so I'll let you know what I find out !!!

[bearmanric]

i'll take some one on saturday and sunday. i have a good area between olympia and the coast open to every one. might even stay at motel on coast or packwood packwood is close calling but lot's of elk = cougar track's.  going to hunt my boot permit here were i live the next few day's. lot's of bobcat's were i hunt also. oop's packwood is on my permit. Rick

[rainshadow1]

11 Stories Posted...

Ricky, send me a PM or something with real short versions of your call-ins too, Bro!


I still have a several others to post, I should be building a sheath, a grip, polishing 4 blades, restocking my Detailing trailer, and building a 3 call set.... but this is too much fun!




If a stand TURNED INTO a Cougar stand, I'll take it too. If you were trying for the big cat, even only for the last few minutes before it came in, I'll take it! Information can still be gleaned.




If you know of any others, please let me know, I'll chase them down!
If you HAVE any others, PLEASE, let me know!