Bagged a Cougar last Night!

[flysar]

Yesterday morning I found 1 of our 4 goats dead; 99% sure it was a cougar kill.

I called state dispatch and they put me in touch with the on call officer for Klickitat County and he gave me permission to kill this cougar on my property before I ever took the first shot.  If I was unsuccessful he planned to get a tracker on it.

Set up my blind 20yds away from the kill and set up my game camera. Planned to sit the kill from 7pm until I couldn't keep my eyes open. I prepositioned all of my gear including my 12ga loaded with 00 Buck and my 12" 375JDJ Contender loaded with 220gr FN.

At 6:58 I looked out the bedroom window and sitting over the kill was the cat about 70 yds from my back door. I scrambled to the safe loaded my .270, got a little buck fever and missed.

I sat in the blind until 11pm and couldn't keep my eyes open any longer so came in. At 12:10 I woke up and thought I saw a flash from the game camera, not sure, I waited until I got a couple more flashes so I knew he was back on the kill.

I reloaded my 270, walked my fence line trying to get within range of a spotlight shot. I could see eyes when using my red lens headlamp but when I tried to use my spotlight for the shot he disappeared. Because I was close to my blind I slipped in and about 20 minutes later I heard him dragging our goat, now 40+ yds away from the blind. When I spotlighted the area I settled the croshairs behind the front shoulder and dropped the Tom in his tracks.

The Tom was probably a juvenile , hardly a scratch on him and teeth were not dulled. He was 6'4" long and I'm guessing 120-140lbs.

Game Officer came this morning, we chatted, he took some pictures and left with the cat. Hopefully the cat was working alone.

[bucklucky]

Nice, he is about 100 pounds if you weighed him. Glad you were able to kill him before it did more damage

[grundy53]

Nice work! Saved a few deer with that kill.

[bobcat]

Very nice! Must've been an exciting night! What are you gonna do with the cat?

[flysar]

Very nice! Must've been an exciting night! What are you gonna do with the cat?

Game officer picked it up this morning. No personal gain for depredation kills.

[flysar]

Nice, he is about 100 pounds if you weighed him. Glad you were able to kill him before it did more damage

Thanks
 
I didn't put him on a scale, I was using my goats live weight from last month as a comparison, they felt about the same.

[ORCA_SIX]

Cool. To bad you lost a goat in the process.

[Craig]

That cat has some big paws. Looks good to. Sorry about the goat. Do you get the cat back?

[Ranger91298]

Great looking lion but hopefully you can find a way to get it back... sorry to hear about your goat...

[littlemac]

Glad you were able to get him quickly.  Good set up obviously and the cat wasn't concerned with the lights and getting shot at the first time.

Good job!

[danderson]

nice cat, to bad you had to loose one of your goats,will the game dept. pay for the loss of the goat, just curious.

[Bean Counter]

Good work, flysar! At least you got some good pictures out of it. Sorry about your goat.

[woodman]

I love the picture of you holding that cat up, it really shows off the paws. I have killed a large one also (it made a 102" rug). You don't get to do that very many times in a lifetime. Congratulations.

[cmiller85]

Almost looks like another cat in the top right corner of the first photo. Just sitting up on hill watching.

Too bad they won't let you keep it. 

[Houndhunter]

Great story! Congrats on the cat