Mount Lion Took Out My Foxpro

[Sliverslinger]

A Mountain Lion Took Out My Game Call

I’ve been a lifelong hunter and almost every success I have these days I can point directly to a lesson learned from  painful failures. Today was a massive success and a gut-wrenching failure to add to the pile.

4-5 years ago I decided that I wanted a real hunting challenge. The wallet and the wife said no African hunts or brown bears in Alaska (yet), but the one animal that I’m able to hunt that I’ve never harvested is a lion. I don’t just want to get one, I want to do it my way. Not with hounds. Not with spot and stalk. Not a chance encounter. I want to go hunt a lion, I want to call it in close, and I want to outsmart and outhunt the ultimate hunter. Plus, they’re delicious.

If you’ve read my stories, you’ve seen that each year when the snow falls in the low foothills of western Washington, I’m out there tracking lions. I’ve learned a TON about them from stacking personal experiences and the effort put into this endeavor. I have watched every lion hunt video, devoured every biologist report this state has posted, and read every forum I can find. I’ve made some comedic errors, I’ve called them in only to never see them at 20 yards away, and I’ve heard them several times now. They are so incredibly sneaky and hard to spot that it’ll about drive a guy mad. Each time out I’ve gotten closer and closer to getting one. Today I learned a little more and got a little closer, maybe too close.

It’d been an incredibly overloaded few weeks at work and I badly needed a full day off. Snow was in the forecast. Nothing takes your mind off of everything else like the adrenaline and focus required hunting cats. Time to go call lions.

About 4-5” of snow covered the hills and was still drifting down as I drove slowly down the old grade. I was actually going to drive right past this particular turn, but some weird feeling made me put my pickup in reverse and drive along a rough old road that paralleled a small ridge. After 1/4” mile I came around the corner and saw tracks in the snow up ahead. I’ve seen enough cougar tracks now that I knew before I even got up there that it was two cats. At first I assumed one would be a cub, but when I got closer I saw that they were both adult tracks, one bigger than the other. I filed that away as possibly a tom with a female. Even though the snow was falling, it was also melting. I guessed the tracks at an hour old at most.

The tracks had come out of the bottom, angled across the road, and headed up through the transition between thick bigger timber and 25’ tall reprod towards the top of a small ridge maybe 100 feet in elevation above me. My guess was those cats were sitting right up there on the ridge, but they would have heard my truck.

I backed the truck up a few hundred yards and grabbed my gear. The plan was to follow the road down 1/3 mile from the tracks to where it wrapped around the ridge and set up on the other side where they wouldn’t know I was there and could come right down the ridge on top of me. When I first started, I used to try and set up with the high ground so I could see and have the advantage. I’ve since learned I never call in cats that way. One lesson I’ve figured out is you have to act like prey and they have to feel like they have the advantage. When they can come down onto you from above  and in cover they are more likely to come in. It also puts me at a real disadvantage if my setup isn’t perfect.

I found the best spot I could. There was a tree off to the side of the old grade with an overhanging branch. The road had about a 100 yard straight stretch with an old overgrown cat road that went off to the right intersecting 50-60 yards in front of me. It went straight up the little ridge. That’s exactly where those cats were going to come down to me. I just knew it.

My only dilemma was where to put the call. I need it close enough that they wouldn’t be able to see it without me seeing them, but far enough away where it would keep their attention off of me. I settled for the side of the road about 15 yard in front of me at what was basically my 11 o’clock position. On the left side of the road was super thick timber, on the right all along the ridge was nasty reprod.

I absolutely knew those two cats were right above me within 300 yards at most. I hunt solo and in every set up you leave about 270 degrees of view mostly unobserved. They could also drop off the ridge behind me on the road I walked up in which case I wouldn’t see them until they were right on me. I chambered the Glock 10mm I keep on my chest holster when calling just in case things got hairy.

After I had the set up absolutely perfect I pulled my hood up, did my best to melt into the brush and peered out under the branch above me. My rifle sits in a tripod and I position myself so nothing moves. I’ve learned you can’t turn your head, you can’t scratch an itch, you do not move anything but your eyes. Play with your house cat to test this - if it moves while they are stalking something,  they absolutely will see it.
I reminded myself of other situations where I’d blown it. Most notable when the snow clump fell out of the tree next to me and I jumped and rolled over like a walrus when I had a cat at 20 yds. I determined that no matter what, I wouldn’t flinch.

The fluttering flitter flutter decoy on top of the call started flittering and the rabbit started wailing and I locked in. The adrenaline was pumping hard at first because I was 100% sure two lion could hear it and one of them might sneak up behind me. Melting snow clumps  fell continuously, shaking the huck brush all around me, each one sounding like something moving. I forced myself to resist the urge to move my head to look to the side and behind me -  I was not going to move a muscle.

After 10 minutes of nothing showing up my heart rate had finally subsided and I was rock solid and locked in. My eye only left the scope when I added a lion whistle to the mix. 4 minutes later an unmistakeable whistle wafted down the hill. I’m half deaf so when I hear something I know it’s close. It was from the cat road maybe 100 yards up the hill at most. More dying rabbit, more whistles mixed in. A couple minutes later a response whistle, closer this time. They were coming.

Now I knew for sure they were coming down the old cat road, I settled my crosshairs right where the intersection was and waited. I noticed I was shockingly calm, much calmer than when I started calling. This was going to happen. After a couple more minutes with nothing I killed the rabbit call and turn on a cackling/ whistle mix, no response. I know they are right there - right in front of me. The few cats I’ve ever called and all the videos I’ve seen they have snuck in silent and very slow. I peered through every gap in the branches with my scope looking for an ear, an eyeball, any movement. I scanned the ground looking for a paw. At this point I believed they were within 50-60 yards and I was nearly sure where they would come out.

I switched to a male lion sound but left it on mute so I could look and listen for a moment.

The safety was off. My eye never left the reticle. I was waiting for that one step out onto the road. THERE! That one Oregon grape  bush just moved. All the brush was moving occasionally from the snow falling off the jack firs, but that spot just moved a little differently. My crosshairs settled right on it. He’s right there - has to be!

I unmuted the call and the low growling sounds filled the air. A frenzied explosion of activity erupted almost immediately in my scope. That lion burst right out of the brush into my crosshairs and ran right at my call (which was also almost directly towards me), moving faster than anything I’ve ever seen.

I mean that, I have never seen anything move that quickly, it was an awesome mix of aggression, athleticism,  and grace.

I felt as steady as before I saw him burst out of the brush. I was mesmerized and exhilarated. I watched him run right toward me through my scope. It’ll be hard to articulate this, but it was maybe two seconds from when he leaped out covered the 30-35 yards, and got to the call. That 2 seconds was eternity as time slowed way down. My finger moved to the trigger right when I saw the brush move and was ready to squeeze and it stayed there while I stayed right on the cat as he ran towards my call which was at the 11-11:30 o’clock compared to him at the 12. I absolutely could have shot him hard quartered to me as he ran at Mach 5 straight towards my call, but just as I started squeezing the trigger somehow the instinct shouted that just like a coyote he will get to that call and stop and give me a 14 yards standing perfect shot. My mind yelled “Be Patient!” As plain as day, my crosshair was between his left eye and his left shoulder as he ran right down my reticle, but I didn’t want to shoot him running and I have no idea why. From where I was sitting, he disappeared where my call was and I assumed he was standing over it or something. There was a small patch of brush blocking my view of the call. I was shockingly and inexplicably calm mostly because of the surreality of it all I think. I settled back into the reticle, the next one should be right behind him, or he’s going to turn around and run back up. It was only 30 seconds or so and the thought hit me - he didn’t go back up across the road, and if he’s not standing over my call and he continued on the trajectory he was on he is RIGHT behind me. Look and risk missing the second one or don’t look?

I decided to slowly turn my head to my 9 o’clock. No sooner did I than I caught his movement from the corner of my eyes through the intertwined dead limbs of the timber at my 8 o’clock moving up onto and behind an old growth stump. He was very close. As in, maybe 10-15 yards. He didn’t know I was there. I had to somehow standup, take my gun off the tripod turn around, find a lane, and shoot. I decide to try and get up very slowly as the other cat hadn’t appeared yet. I slowly stood to my feet and grabbed the rifle. I got turned around just in time to see him slinking off low to the ground and off out of view - one brief glimpse of hair moving through a spiderweb of limbs was all I was able to see through the scope and then he was gone. I was busted. Then I made my second possible mistake, which was I went briefly into the timber after him, before remembering that there was still the other cat. I sat back down to try and call the other one in case it had been further up the hill, but after a minute of calling I couldn’t shake the idea that I knew there was a big cat somewhere right behind me.

I guesstimated some ranges and texted some buddies and eventually got up and went to see exactly what had happened which I always do after I blow it. That cat had come down the old cat road as predicted, but the last few yards he had veered into the brush where it looked to have crouched in the cover based on the snow. It exploded out and barreled to and through my call which was no longer there! I found it knocked about 6-8 feet away in the brush. I now think the other cat was standing back by the cat road just out of view and saw me either stand up or sit back down as it had gone back up. After obliterating my call, the tracks showed the lion had walked way closer behind me than I thought. It was exactly 5.5 yards behind me without me knowing (he probably didn’t know either) before turning to climb up onto the stump 12 yards away where he likely saw me trying to slowly stand up and decided enough was enough. By the way, I never heard a single sound when he was that close - not a twig break, not a paw hit the ground, nothing. I tried to track the cat through the timber and checked around for an hour but the intermittent snow in the trees made it difficult and it was so thick it was never going to happen.

It was all over.

I slowly gathered my things and trudged through the snow back to my truck, doing my best impression of a person with severe Tourette’s. It wasn’t until I got all the way back and got my gear off that the massive adrenaline rush really hit. I had to sit there for several minutes to calm down. Did that really just happen?! What was I thinking! Why didn’t I shoot‽!

 This was a massive success in that everything from predicting where they went, to how they would approach, to calling him almost into my actual lap are successes. Today I’m just absolutely kicking myself for not shooting when I had the chance. It wouldn’t have been the perfect, still broadside shot I prefer, but I was so solid and the cat was so close and I was so positive that it would have been a fatal hit that it’s a bit inexplicable why I waited for a better shot. I’ll learn that lesson for the next one, but it’s going to replay in my head a few thousand times over the next month.

A few lessons, cats don’t always come slow, but I’ve never heard of one mauling the call either. Two, uhhh… lions are drastically and incomprehensibly quicker than I imagined. We all know they’re quick and quiet, but that was otherworldly.

And no, no brown pantitis today - just going to need a mouthful of soap and some pieces of humble pie tonight once again. Maybe a few of each actually.

[actionshooter]

 That is actually really cool.... sucks you didn't get it, but KNOWING that you called one in is still a win!

[WoolyRunner]

Excellent story. That’s a one in a million observation. You’ll connect!

[MADMAX]

I’ve called one in and killed her and that’s a well done set up and story you posted
I like to back myself into briars or blackberry bushes for safety as I go alone also

Keep at it and watch your 6

[Katmai Guy]

Congrats!  They are very cool to call in and see up close and personal.  I screwed up my shot also.😁

[CedarPants]

What an amazing experience and story! About halfway through I paused, called my boys into the room, and started over from the beginning reading it to them. They were as captivated as I was. Thank you for sharing.

[Scruffy]

awesome story!!!  the time you needed eyes in the back of your head...

[fowl smacker]

Very cool story!

[baldopepper]

Impressed with your story and equally impressed with your writing. Very well composed and written.Hope to see more of your tales on the forum. Reminded me of reading Jim Corbetts "Man Eaters of Kumoan".

[Rainier10]

Great story.

Some comments detailing the thread have been removed. Rather than derailing a success thread start a new topic.

[Caseyd]

Just read it at lunch, realized I stopped eating and was on the edge of my seat.

Great story

[GWP]

What an excellent story!
Sometimes NOT getting the critter can be a more memorable and interesting story. With your proven accumulated skills there will be more opportunities. Bask in this one and do NOT regret any part of the experience.
Cats can be fun and just a tad scary how close they can get without us humans having any idea how close they are.
Thanks for sharing! Well done!

[redi]

Very exciting experience I hope you get him next time

[Skyvalhunter]

Best cougar person JPhelps

[Bullkllr]

I think this may be my favorite story from this hunting season. Thanks for sharing.