I found a magical canyon this year that I had all to myself or so I thought. I hunted it hard the last three weekends. The kind of spot where turkeys come running in so thick and fast you can never get a shot off on the one gobbler you want. I have never had a spot with so much turkey action that increased this late into the season. I had morning and evening ecounters and figured out their nightly routine for the most part.
I got to ridge Friday night and figured I would observe the last couple hours of daylight. There was a bear right in my spot so I kindly made my presence known and it walked out slowly. I settled in and noticed it was unusually quiet after a while. No gobbles on the way to roost so I talked myself into just giving a four note yelp and that was it. After about 20 minutes I turned my head to peak behind me and bam clear as day here comes a cougar. It was staring right past me presumably stalking the one turkey it thought was there. It slinked through and around the brush and kept coming right at me. It walked right to me I couldn't believe it. Because it was walking straight into my shotgun barrel I wasn't too afraid of anything. Once it got about 7 feet from me I clicked the safety off and it stopped in its tracks. I then put the barrel right in its face and in what seemed like two jumps it was hundreds of yards away. As it was running a turkey jumped from the top of the ridge and soared right over the cat making alarm sounds and then crashing into some trees lower in the canyon. What a way to finally see my first cougar in the wild. It probably would have been more entertaining if I had a decoy out.
The rest of the trip was really quiet. I observed a lot of turkeys walking quietly. No more gobbles from the roost and very few gobbles from the ground. I could see hens roosting in the canyon so I assume they are still doing their mating activities but just real quiet about it. Never really know if it's the reason they went quiet especially this late in the season but can't imagine it helps having a cougar chasing turkey sounds on your ridge. I have had bears, coyotes, and bobcats come in while turkey hunting but the cougar was something else.
