Post by: highcountry_hunter on October 09, 2020, 04:40:25 PM
Post by: rainshadow1 on October 09, 2020, 04:41:58 PM
Beautiful cat!
Post by: Bango skank on October 09, 2020, 04:58:55 PM
Post by: highcountry_hunter on October 09, 2020, 05:08:08 PM
It was Friday January 17, 2020, an average winter day in northeastern Washington. Roughly 25 degrees, overcast and downright dreary with well over a foot of snow on the ground.
I got off work at 1:30, raced home to grab my gear, then picked my buddy up on my way to the woods. Our first set I started out with a few locator howls and got multiple responses in all directions but we couldn’t get anything to come in. Tried multiple different sounds and the wind was right but the dogs just didn’t wanna show their faces.
Our next set would be our last as darkness was slowly setting in. We set up in the bottom of an old abandoned gravel pit at the base of an extra bushy lodgepole pine. We could see roughly 150 yards out in front of us in the abandoned pit. I started out with a few locator howls from my open reed call like I normally do. 3 or 4 minutes later I fired up the foxpro fusion with the lightning jack sound. I let it play for a few minutes then gave it a minute or so break before starting back up.
Out of the corner of my eye I caught just the slightest bit of movement right on the brush line to our left. I keep my rifle in a Bog Deathgrip tripod so my hands are free and my gun is ready while calling. Ever so slowly I spun my rifle towards where I’d seen the movement.
Looking through the 4x16 scope on full magnification I could clearly make out a cougars face staring directly at us. I almost didn’t even have time to get excited, I wanted to make the shot before the cat spooked. Without even telling my hunting partner what was in the brush I placed the crosshairs between his eyes and touched off a round.
He was quite surprised by the shot and even more so when I told him it was a cougar! We didn’t hear any brush crashing after the shot but it would have been easy for him to run off silently through the snow. Cautiously we hiked over to the area where he was laying dead as a doornail. The 90 grain Hornady Superformance from my Remington 700 in .243 had went in just inside of his right eye and exited out the back of the skull. He fell dead in his tracks.
Weighed in at 175 lbs, big ol tom. Taxidermist measured the skull and said it would have easily made the books but couldn’t be officially scored since 1/4 of the skull was missing from the shot.
Pretty awesome experience! I’d seen plenty of cat tracks in the area before but thought the odds of actually calling one in were way too slim to put much effort into. Boy was I wrong!
Post by: rainshadow1 on October 09, 2020, 05:36:25 PM
Post by: Bango skank on October 09, 2020, 05:55:30 PM
Post by: SWHUNTER on October 09, 2020, 05:59:27 PM
Post by: TVHunts on October 09, 2020, 06:01:56 PM
Post by: elkrack on October 09, 2020, 06:18:51 PM
Post by: highcountry_hunter on October 09, 2020, 06:52:07 PM
Huge cat...Here it is flipped
Thanks man!
Post by: highcountry_hunter on October 09, 2020, 07:25:06 PM
What are you going with it as far as taxidermy?
Dark Timber Taxidermy is going to do a full body mount for me. I believe it’s back from the tannery, I’ll post pics when it’s all finished.
Post by: Bango skank on October 09, 2020, 07:28:44 PM
Post by: highcountry_hunter on October 09, 2020, 07:30:27 PM
Awesome. Really a full mount takes up less wall space than a rug. More money, but hey, a guy is only likely to kill so many lions in a lifetime. And yours is a real big *censored* to boot. I bet more than 95% of cats that size are taken with hounds. Im quite jealous.
That was kind of my thoughts. Even tho there is a major abundance of them around, the odds of killing one and a big one at that are pretty slim. Might as well spend the money once.
Post by: hunting4sanity on October 09, 2020, 10:07:01 PM
Post by: Muleyslyr on October 11, 2020, 07:26:44 PM