Calling Cougars?

[7t9cobra]

I got mine broadside at 16 yards with a .300 wsm. It was too much gun and it was a large tom. The hair is thin, making it hard to patch the holes. If I didnt have a perfect shot, it could have done some serious damage. I tossed the idea around of a .243 being a better cat round, but decided to build an ar15 chambered in 6.5 grendel. Haven't tried it out yet.

[hunter399]

I got mine broadside at 16 yards with a .300 wsm. It was too much gun and it was a large tom. The hair is thin, making it hard to patch the holes. If I didnt have a perfect shot, it could have done some serious damage. I tossed the idea around of a .243 being a better cat round, but decided to build an ar15 chambered in 6.5 grendel. Haven't tried it out yet.

[rainshadow1]

Just posted another Non-Calling Story...

Archery kill! Encounter with a group of 3!

Story # NC3

http://rain-shadow.com/cougar_callin_stories.htm

[Bango skank]

Still a lot of gmus open, no new closures since new years.

  https://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/big-game/cougar

[7t9cobra]

I and a buddy of mine were hunting the same general area separately. We both found tracks from the same cat on the same weekend probably 3 miles apart. The following weekend I hunted sunday and found old tracks but no fresh ones and did a couple of cold stands with no luck. That monday, my buddy went out and cut a real fresh set of tracks. He walked in a ways until he found the tracks coming back the other direction where they turned to his right. He followed them to a torn up spot in the snow and found blood and a gut pile buried in snow limbs and dirt. In hind site, he should have backed out a ways and set up to call. He decided to follow a drag mark up and over a hill where he found a complete elk buried. You could only see the hind legs and an eyeball poking through the dirt. I will share pics later. He then backed off and tried to call. nothing showed up. He got a hold of me and we set up 200-300 yards away in some big timber and called for 95 minutes with no luck. Then we checked the kill and found out the cat had not been back. We put 2 trail cameras on it and left it undisturbed. Two days later he returned alone and did the same thing with no luck. No return. We tried the same thing saturday and again, nothing. We started looking over his pictures and determined the cat way laying next to the kill and he more than likely bumped the cat. We haven't been back since saturday. He will be going back saturday to call and look at the cameras. Then put fresh batteries in just to catch the scavengers. At this point I believe it's a lost cause.

[rainshadow1]

It might drop by to check it, but it's not there tending it anymore. They're easy to push off. (They let wolves run them off, I've seen video.)

[Idabooner]

It might drop by to check it, but it's not there tending it anymore. They're easy to push off. (They let wolves run them off, I've seen video.)

I have watched wolves run a cat from it's kill 3 times, two times easy, and one time 4 wolves and one mother cat with two yearling   cubs, that one fought the wolves for a few minutes then give up and ran, the wolves took the kill (deer)100 feet then ate it all.

[7t9cobra]

I also found a dead doe with a couple tiny incisions amd a fawn next to it that was decapitated along sode a logging road. A truck driver saw a cougar running from that spot. It never came back and I watched the two deer bloat and rot over the next two weeks. I was working just up the road. It happened early Monday morning amd I can only assume the truck traffic that week kept the cat away

[rainshadow1]

Just posted another one from SD...

RS20, has some good details from a guy who's getting it dialed in!

Hope to post a photo as well, but not up yet...


http://www.rain-shadow.com/cougar_callin_stories.htm

[Bango skank]

Updated.  105 is now closed.  https://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/big-game/cougar

[KFhunter]

Updated.  105 is now closed.  https://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/big-game/cougar

bummer,  but I can't cry about it this year.

[Bango skank]

Email from NWWG regarding the surveys they made and the upcoming WDFW cougar proposal:

We have received many comments on our survey regarding the number of cougars, the public safety issue and incidents or encounters, and the devastating effect they are having on our whitetails, elk and moose.  The Options for Cougar Management the Department presented we believe will have almost no effect on cougar population and is available for public

comment from February 6 through the 26th.   We understand the 7 or 8 options in the released version has been pared down to 4.  Regardless, it likely will provide very little relief to what we are experiencing.


If you are sick and tired of what is happening you must make yourself heard.  To all of you that voiced your opinion on our survey would you please do the same during this public comment period.  To the rest of you, now is the chance for the Department and the Commission to see just what is happening here, not what they are being told by Department personnel.  Click on the link below to access the WDFW website and submit your comment.



This is an absolute necessity.  We cannot change the trajectory of the misguided policies of WDFW without making our voices heard.  It has to be more than just a few people, we need a whole bunch.  If you have not done anything but gripe about it then you are not doing anything to fix it.  Send a comment, it can be one line, two is better and more is great, just do it.


70+% of you are saying you have thought about or already are not, buying a big game license.  If we do not get any change, or very little as the Department is proposing, then the deer hunting in NE Washington is finished.  Again, it cannot be stressed enough, it is imperative that we bury them in comments.  Put on your armor and grab your sword, OK, your pen, and join the battle.


https://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/season-setting.

NWWG Board

[idaho guy]

Cougars are usually not hard to kill (exceptions noted, as with any animal) but without tracking snow, they can be very hard to find once shot.  Soft feet on moss or duff leave no sign for most of us to follow unless there is a good blood trail.  Use enough gun... and bullet.

IE.  Had a hard time finding a cougar hit on snow with a 30-06 180 gr. CorLokt, side to side through about the last rib.  It left the open snow and ran into forest with only moss and no snow on the ground.  Exit wound plugged by fat.  Ditto on another well hit lion using 7mm mag and Swift Sirocco, hit well and recovered but surprisingly hard to find.

I have gone to .243 with 95 grain Nosler Partitions for my cougar calling.  We can't control the angle of hit on a called cougar but take what shot it gives us.  I want an exit at virtually any body angle but hopefully not too big of an exit.  Others choose an entry hole only with fast expansion inside the body and hopefully a quick kill with no trailing.  YMMV but for me, a ton of overkill beats an ounce of underkill.

   
 
I used to shoot a lot of lions over my dogs with a 22-250 and we can and have killed them with 22 mags. That being said I started packing my 45-70 lever action because its open sights and I like lever guns. I bought the gun for hound hunting bears but once I took the 45-70 it has become the staple. I like the cat to come out DEAD and have had lots of experience with them coming out not quite dead and its usually a crap show. A 45-70 is a completely ridiculous amount of overkill to shoot a lion and I really like it that way  I took my taxidermist out this year and he got a really nice tom that I treed and he shot it with a 44mag lever gun. He will be doing a life size on it that's what good taxidermist do is patch holes. I think if I had a lever 30-30 that would be my go to lion gun. You can kill lions with the smallest of calibers but why?? I agree overkill is underrated.   

[Bango skank]

Cougars are usually not hard to kill (exceptions noted, as with any animal) but without tracking snow, they can be very hard to find once shot.  Soft feet on moss or duff leave no sign for most of us to follow unless there is a good blood trail.  Use enough gun... and bullet.

IE.  Had a hard time finding a cougar hit on snow with a 30-06 180 gr. CorLokt, side to side through about the last rib.  It left the open snow and ran into forest with only moss and no snow on the ground.  Exit wound plugged by fat.  Ditto on another well hit lion using 7mm mag and Swift Sirocco, hit well and recovered but surprisingly hard to find.

I have gone to .243 with 95 grain Nosler Partitions for my cougar calling.  We can't control the angle of hit on a called cougar but take what shot it gives us.  I want an exit at virtually any body angle but hopefully not too big of an exit.  Others choose an entry hole only with fast expansion inside the body and hopefully a quick kill with no trailing.  YMMV but for me, a ton of overkill beats an ounce of underkill.

   
 
I used to shoot a lot of lions over my dogs with a 22-250 and we can and have killed them with 22 mags. That being said I started packing my 45-70 lever action because its open sights and I like lever guns. I bought the gun for hound hunting bears but once I took the 45-70 it has become the staple. I like the cat to come out DEAD and have had lots of experience with them coming out not quite dead and its usually a crap show. A 45-70 is a completely ridiculous amount of overkill to shoot a lion and I really like it that way  I took my taxidermist out this year and he got a really nice tom that I treed and he shot it with a 44mag lever gun. He will be doing a life size on it that's what good taxidermist do is patch holes. I think if I had a lever 30-30 that would be my go to lion gun. You can kill lions with the smallest of calibers but why?? I agree overkill is underrated.

Roger, my taxi has performed some miracle work in that regard 

[idaho guy]

Cougars are usually not hard to kill (exceptions noted, as with any animal) but without tracking snow, they can be very hard to find once shot.  Soft feet on moss or duff leave no sign for most of us to follow unless there is a good blood trail.  Use enough gun... and bullet.

IE.  Had a hard time finding a cougar hit on snow with a 30-06 180 gr. CorLokt, side to side through about the last rib.  It left the open snow and ran into forest with only moss and no snow on the ground.  Exit wound plugged by fat.  Ditto on another well hit lion using 7mm mag and Swift Sirocco, hit well and recovered but surprisingly hard to find.

I have gone to .243 with 95 grain Nosler Partitions for my cougar calling.  We can't control the angle of hit on a called cougar but take what shot it gives us.  I want an exit at virtually any body angle but hopefully not too big of an exit.  Others choose an entry hole only with fast expansion inside the body and hopefully a quick kill with no trailing.  YMMV but for me, a ton of overkill beats an ounce of underkill.

   
 
I used to shoot a lot of lions over my dogs with a 22-250 and we can and have killed them with 22 mags. That being said I started packing my 45-70 lever action because its open sights and I like lever guns. I bought the gun for hound hunting bears but once I took the 45-70 it has become the staple. I like the cat to come out DEAD and have had lots of experience with them coming out not quite dead and its usually a crap show. A 45-70 is a completely ridiculous amount of overkill to shoot a lion and I really like it that way  I took my taxidermist out this year and he got a really nice tom that I treed and he shot it with a 44mag lever gun. He will be doing a life size on it that's what good taxidermist do is patch holes. I think if I had a lever 30-30 that would be my go to lion gun. You can kill lions with the smallest of calibers but why?? I agree overkill is underrated.

Roger, my taxi has performed some miracle work in that regard 

   

  Never had the taxidermist say we should have used a smaller gun  One big holes easier to fix than 8 small ones