Late BT Harvested, Cougar alert!!

[Armadillo]

Hey everyone, just got done hanging up the deer. It's quite the story so I'll try to make things short.


Yesterday I started working into one of my better haunts with fresh snow on the ground I was feeling confident in seeing deer out in the open. I was excited because having snow in this area is a treat that doesn't happen every year.




At the top of the clearcut I started cutting fresh tracks all over the place so I took it easy and ran into a group of about 10 does milling around a small open knoll. Their behavior was off because they were so close together and not eating. I waited and scanned the perimeter, I was about 150 yards from the deer and they never looked my way. After about 20 minutes of glassing around I see a buck making his way towards them out of the timber on one side of the knoll. Ever so slowly I make my way into a little dip that was out of view of the deer and started creeping towards them. I pop up about 75 yards from the buck and he's looking right at me....BOOM!



I see the buck drop and then disappear over the other side of the knoll. I waited for about 15 minutes then headed to where I last saw him. I didn't find any obvious sprays of blood or hair but after about 20 yards on his trail I see the first blood.






I'm trailing him now at a slow pace and I start finding decent blood in the snow about every 50 yards. This continues for a half mile



I tracked him across a creek and into some really steep nasty timber. By now we're about a mile away from the shot site but I'm still getting drops of blood so I figured it was a done deal, I wanted to give him time to expire. I went back to town, grabbed some food and then got back there around 3pm. I picked the trail up and followed it until dark and he was still walking so I left and went back this morning. I wasn't the only one on his trail!!




Some cougs picked up his trail and I had a sickly feeling! I followed the deer and cougar sign about 400 more yards from where I stopped the previous night and found where he bedded down



From there I couldn't find any other tracks leading from the bed so I was confused and started scouring the immediate area. About 20 feet away I see a pile of fresh dirt with twigs and ferns covering it and underneath this pile I see two hooves sticking out! They buried him! I scraped away much of the dirt before taking this pic.



He was completely buried save for two of his hooves. The cats ate one section of his ribs but that's it, the backstraps and quarters were all good and the guts were untouched! I couldn't believe it! After the drag back to the truck, I'm a little exhausted



 

 

[Fowlweather25]

Wow, crazy story! Glad you found him, and mostly intact too!

[sebek556]

if you could tomorrow I would be back out there with cougar tag in hand..

[rainshadow1]

 

They cashed it to come back, but it's likely they weren't far away when you stole it back! Likely they know it's gone by now, but you never know. It's as good a bet as any, I'd go call on it!

Thanks for the story!

[HntnFsh]

Wow, thats crazy! Congrats on the buck!

[jackmaster]

i know hind sight is 20/20, i think if it was early enough i would have gutted him as quietly as possible and then covered him back up with brush and posted up as far away as possible, cats are pretty curious, i bet it wouldnt have taken more than a couple hours before that kitty came back. either way cool story, atleast you know there is a cat working that area and with that many doe,s around you might be able to find him and teach him not to mess around with a fellas deer   

[Runamuck]

Good story and pics! Thanks for posting.

[whackmaster 93]

I shot a doe last weekend and after I shot her I let her be for an hour just to be safe. When I found her she was half buried and the cougar ate a hole in her side . It was pretty scary knowing there was a cougar in the area and all I had was my bow!

[Fl0und3rz]

Awesome story! Thanks and congrats!

[pianoman9701]

Cool story and a nice buck. Well done.

[wildmanoutdoors]

Wow, great story to go along with a nice buck!

[JohnVH]

dang, thats quite the story!  Time to go cat hunting!

[blackveltbowhunter]

Nice work!! Great buck and crazy story.... Cats are outta control

[C-Money]

Very cool story! Congrats on your buck. Lions are way out of control!

[Armadillo]

Hey all, thanks for all the input! I spent the day looking for kittys but no sign, not even fresh tracks where the deer was found. Any ideas? Scent contamination? There were at least two cougs maybe three judging by the track sizes.