Mountain Lions are thick!

[cdbeaver]

Friend of mine and his son were bow-and-arrow deer hunting in southeast Nebraska recently and both saw a mountain lion. That's probably not such a rare instance because one was recently detected and captured in the middle of Omaha.

This morning my friend reported that his son went out yesterday afternoon to again attempt to bag a deer with his rifle. He walked along the edge of a disked field to reach his hunting stand. Because it was cold he decided to sit against the tree rather than climb to reach his stand.As he stood there to catch his breath he heard a crunching sound (it had snowed slightly the day before).

He turned and saw TWO mountain lions eyeballing him at very close range.
"I was never so scared in my life," he told his father. "They had to be stalking me as I walked down the edge of the field."

He immediately evacuated the area and returned to his vehicle by walking in the middle of the harvested field. All thoughts of deer hunting were forgotten.

I didn't hear whether he changed his shorts or not.

 

[Bigjake]

so then what happened. they stared at eachother for a couple of mins before exchanging good mornings and going thier separate ways?? just curious.

 

[cdbeaver]

Read Paragraph Four.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Yep, that what sucks about bow hunting and you can't have a gun on you. If legal (that is to say there's two concurrent seasons and one of them isn't bow) best to have a buddy with a gun as back-up.

 

[cdbeaver]

Read Paragraph TWO.

 

[Bigjake]

so he just walked away...?

 

[cdbeaver]

I heard it whispered that the guy took a shot of one of the cats; but cougars, mountain lions, pumas, et al, are protected in this state, so I don't think he wanted that to be public information.

 

[Bigjake]

makes more sense now

 

[4v50 Gary]

I was bowhunting when I came across cougar tracks. Bigger than my oustretched hand and a scary thought as to who was the hunter and who was the fool. Time to legalize hunting again and cull the cat.

 

[redneck]

HEEERE KITTY KITTY KITTY





Thats pretty scarey. I think I wold have involuntarily "marked my territory" right then an there.
So far as I know we still don't have anything but coyotes in the way of large predators around here and they don't amount to much most of the time. Of course, there was just a news story where some dumb woman was crying about how she went to an exotic pet auction (illegal) and bought a lion cub cause it was so "cuddly wuddly" and now (wipes a tear away) "what am I gonna do with him....he's so big"
THAT better not be the next stray dumped off in my neck of the woods!

 

[GhostCat]

mmmmmm......Here's an idea.....Don't kill Mountain Lions unless your life is threatened.....And I don't mean the cat is 50 yards away looking at you funny, I mean the cat is attacking.
These cats need to be protected, not gunned down by a bunch of RedNecks just because the cat looked at you wrong.
Everyone needs to be packing heat when they are bow hunting just in case....

Same thing goes for Bear.......Find something better to shoot.....Something that has a large population and needs population control and is edible.

And we wonder why the Eastern Cougar/Timber Wolves were almost driven to extinction???????.........Frikkin Trigger happy RedNecks.....

GhostCat

 

[mtnbkr]

Bear isn't particularly rare in my neck of the woods and is quite tasty (mmm, grilled bear steaks). Therefore, I'll shoot all I can legally shoot during bear season, thank you very much.

Chris

 

[Art Eatman]

GhostCat, I think maybe you need to learn more about the interactions between cougars and folks who'd like to make a profit off their sheep and goats. Calves, too, for that matter.

Sure, some folks are trigger happy. But large predators haven't been targeted merely for the thrill of pulling a trigger on one.

Example: A friend of mine put 1,000 goats on his ranch. First year, a 60% kid crop. He went on an extensive predator control program. Next year, an 85% kid crop. That's an increase of some 250 goats, at some $50 each. Aside from the issue of return on investment and all that economics-of-life stuff such as income for food and clothing and car payments, I note that his school taxes are roughly $7,500 a year.

As usual, "there's more to it"...

, Art

 

[Sunray]

"...A friend of mine put 1,000 goats on his ranch..." I'm guessing he didn't do any research into it before hand. Like the estimated number of coyotes, fox, eagles, hawks, feral dogs, etc.? You drop that many herd animals into a wild area and you must expect to be feeding the predators. Losing livestock to predators is just part of doing business with nature. Does your buddy whine about a lack of deer on his property too?
Big cats don't normally see humans as food. If you see one, stand still and yell. Running away is just easing the kitty and you will instantly trigger the, "Hey. Food does that." instinct in the cat. That's why joggers get attacked. They act like food.

 

[redneck]

By that logic there wouldn't be ranches anywhere and we'd all be vegetarians. Livestock has to eat, it eats alot of the stuff game eats, where there's game there's predators. A good place for a ranch is a good place for predators.

 

[Gordon]

Alot of ranchers (and the State) are erradicating pigs from their property around here. I guess they didn't know cats eat a dozen pigs for every deer. This year they were complaining about lousy local deer hunting, and how the HUGE number of those "endangered" cats are showing up looking hungry!:banghead:

 

[Art Eatman]

Sunray, the country around Uvalde, Texas, has long been sheep and goat country. It's in no way "wild" country. The episode was merely a change in use from some cattle and goats to all goats on the part of the new rancher.

For a number of years, there had been minimal predator control. During the effort, from one pasture of some 2,000 acres, over 70 bobcats were trapped during the year. I don't recall hearing the total of bobcats and coyotes for the whole 7,000 acres.

I knew that ranch pretty good. We'd hunted it for the preceding half-dozen years. Lotta fond memories.

, Art

 

[JSR]

Well,they(cougar) definitly aren't endangered in Oregon.
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2003/10/27/b2.cr.elkhunt.1027.html
Due to concerns expressed by bow and muzzleloader hunters the State Legislature stepped in and told the ODFW,that they would decide who can carry firearms/handguns while hunting and otherwise. Ie its now legal to carry firearms while bow and muzzleloader hunting. BTW Since this article came out there has been a cougar sighting outside an elementary school in Portland OR.

 

[elkhunter]

I lived in Wallowa County until about a year ago and still hunt there. I moved there after the ban on hunting dogs, and all the locals hated the idea then, and still do. Even a few years ago when I first moved there, people were complaining about the reduced deer and elk populations.

Due to concerns expressed by bow and muzzleloader hunters the State Legislature stepped in and told the ODFW,that they would decide who can carry firearms/handguns while hunting and otherwise. Ie its now legal to carry centerfire while bow and muzzleloader hunting.

Is this true I haven't heard anything to this effect, although it would probably be the only smart thing Oregon lawmakers have done in the last few years. My dad works with a guy that had to kill a cougar with his bow while predator calling for bear. And he had already filled his tag earlier in the year.

 

[JSR]

Heres a link to the ODFW news release. You may want to check out the permanent rules that were to be settled on in October. I think the Oregon Hunters and Oregon Bowhunters associations backed by Oregon Gunowners and the NRA were the groups involved. It was kind of rediculous especially for CHL possessors that can carry on mainstreet but not in the woods? It was argued that it would lead to more poaching,along the lines that, mere proximity to firearms causes crime? :banghead:
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/public/NewsArc/2003News/August/082803newse.html