What Caliber For Cougar?...Surprise!

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News people have to sometimes spice things up...when I was 14 I shot a 8 pt. buck, Dad or mom sent a picture to the paper an it said it weighed 250 lbs......my Dad had told me that it probably wieghed close to 200 lbs before we field dressed it, so I don't know how the paper came up with 250 lbs......You don't expect them to say he shot a 73 lb cougar......na.....200 lbs sounds just about right! An 100 yds sounds better than a 30 yd shot doesn't it? Regardless, nice shot with a .22
 
BABABOOEY 32 - "Quote:
Males typically weigh 53 to 90 kilograms (115 to 198 pounds), averaging 62 kg (137 lb). In rare cases, some may reach over 120 kg (264 lb).
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Bababooey,, I could not care less what Wikipedia says, although you'll note that "...typically weighs," and "... in rare cases..." do not in any way, support some belief that Mountain lions generally reach "200 pounds." Nor does it at all square with "two or three years old and 200 pounds" that the man allegedly killed.

I've seen two Mountain lions, very up close and personal, in very healthy condition, both large, and neither would have weighed much more than 165 to 175 pounds. I saw another across an old burn up in the Sierra of Calif., again, healthy and fit looking, that might have gone 150 pounds.

Lion guides with whom I've hunted and taxidermists who mount them have told me that it is very rare to see a 200 pound Mountain lion.

As for one feeding constantly on livestock so as to weigh that much, I'd bet a lot of money that before a rancher(s) started losing that much livestock to a lion, he'd have the F&G boys bring in the professional lion hunters with their dogs to track it down and kill it.

When I lived in Los Angeles, my wife and I had a vacation home in the Sierra of Tulare County. Over the years, I came to know several ranchers up there, both in Kern and Tulare Counties, and they'd comment how when even one sheep, foal, calf, etc., was killed by a Mountain lion, they'd have the F&G pros come in, track the cat and kill it.

I say again, two or three years old and 200 pounds..... huh uh.

BTW, just about any center fire handgun from .32-20 WCF on up, can easily kill a Mountain lion so long as the shooter shoots accurately.

L.W.
 
Bacon lovers everywhere are thrilled with the outcome.

And what's wrong with jumping in a compact car to trail the cougar? What, you suddenly need a 4-wheel drive mall-queen with Swampers to track a dying animal?
 
I saw one a few years ago in the draw behind our house. It was probably 110-120lbs.

I hike and backpack a lot in here in Colorado with a Glock 21 loaded with Winchester Silvertips. Not my first choice against a mountain lion, but it's hard to hike 20 miles with a .270.
 
You DID just use Wikipedia as a reference... I can go edit that to say that cougars are the size of field mice.
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Wikipedia has a review board that is notified when articles are edited. Articles without citations or bogus claims are almost always quickly reverted back to their correct version and the vandal is IP banned.

Please don't buy into the "Wikipedia is garbage nonsense. It's propaganda distributed by the big database and library companies who are losing multi million dollar contracts to a free, open source website (with 10x more information than they have).
 
Most of the cougars that I take to the shooting range shoot .38 Specials the best.
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LOL! nice.

It was a lucky shot no doubt, but shows how lethal the .22lr can be out of a rifle.
 
If the 22 is worthy enough for Mafia executions, it certainly could do the trick on a cougar. It's all about placement...
 
If the 22 is worthy enough for Mafia executions, it certainly could do the trick on a cougar. It's all about placement..

It is about placement, but you're not going to be shooting a cougar behind the ear while it's sitting in a parked car in Jersey. :cool:
 
Lonestar49 - I had a pair working along the river just a little larger than that.
Since then I've taught my parakeet to say "here kitty, kitty" and leaving her hanging outside in the evenings to draw them in. :D X
 
The last defensive shooting that took place in my smallish town (there aren't many) was done with a Ruger Mark II. The attacker died at the scene.
 
Come on, everyone nows that the only thing you can kill with a .22 is paper and they're totally worthless in a defense situation
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most people would be suprised what a .22 lr will kill. the problem is, that if it doesn't drt, to most people, it isn't a kill.
 
The "caliber" is whatever dark liquor that seasoned hottie is drinking while smoking a cigarette at the end of the bar with "that look". ;)
 
If the 22 is worthy enough for Mafia executions, it certainly could do the trick on a cougar
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You'll have to remember that that was in the days when gangsters weighed between 120 - 160 lbs. - long before the modern day 200 lb cougars were common. :D
 
And yet another cougar story even closer to home. In the middle of the city, no less.


Cougar sightings force closure of Discovery Park
Officials will try to capture big cat

By CASEY MCNERTHNEY
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Even under ideal circumstances, capturing a cougar is difficult.

And the situation that closed Discovery Park in Magnolia Thursday afternoon "is not an ideal circumstance," Department of Fish and Wildlife Capt. Bill Hebner said.

The park closure is scheduled through Monday -- altering plans for at least one wedding --and is only the third time since the park's 1972 dedication that it's been closed.

There have been three suspected cougar sightings in Seattle recently: One Monday night in Magnolia, another Tuesday in Greenwood and a third in a Discovery Park field about 4 p.m. Wednesday.

"It was huge," Magnolia resident Lori Jacobs told KOMO/4 after seeing a suspected cougar near her home Monday. "If I wouldn't have been so worried about my cat that was out in the alley at the same time, I would have really been impressed by it."

Because cougar reports are so rare, Department of Fish and Wildlife officials initially thought the sightings could be bogus, Hebner said. Then he spoke to a woman who reported seeing one.

She described its coloration accurately. The tail length was "spot-on."

"She even described how it ran, and her description of it loping and running is exactly how a cougar would move," Hebner said.

Officials aren't positive a cougar is in Discovery Park, and said they haven't found a dead animal the suspected cougar had been feeding on.

For that reason, Hebner said Magnolia homeowners should keep cats and dogs inside.

"That's exactly what this cougar is likely preying on," he said. "And some house cats are missing from Magnolia."

Even dogs the size of golden retrievers could be prey, he said.

But humans rarely are. Hebner said in the last century, Washington has had only 15 reported cougar attacks. The lone fatality happened more than 80 years ago in Okanogan County.

However, a 5-year-old boy hiking with his family in Stevens County was attacked Wednesday by a cougar.

The child was taken to a hospital in his native Canada, where Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials said he received numerous stitches. The injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

"We had over 450 confirmed dog attacks on an annual basis in King County and no cougar attacks," Hebner said. "So that should help put it into perspective."

Officials set a live trap Thursday inside Discovery Park, and chose the location because of the infrequent number of people traveling there. Officer Bruce Richards, who asked that reporters not disclose the exact location, baited it with a salmon and an elk liver.

The elk liver came from roadkill, he said.

Richards has used that 10-foot-by-4-foot-by-4-foot trap to capture four mountain lions, accomplished when the animal hits a footplate that drops the door.

There is a chance it could be set off by a raccoon or possum, he said. If a cougar is captured inside, Fish and Wildlife officials plan to release it in a rural area.

A live trap wasn't an option in 1981, the last time a cougar was seen in Discovery Park.

Mike Krenz, the Fish and Wildlife official who tranquilized that animal, said they used hounds to capture him about 1:30 a.m. after days of searching.

"I was sitting in my vehicle on top of the bluff listening to the dogs work down below and I heard some rustling in the brush," he recalled Thursday. "I turned on my headlights and it was sitting in the tree right in front of my car.

"That's how lucky it was."

Fish and Wildlife could still call on hound owners to help capture the cougar.

"But if this one does truly exist," he said near the Discovery Park trap, "it's in a small enough location that it will eventually get caught."

© 1998-2009 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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To keep it about guns...;)

I guess they won't be shooting this one with anything stronger than a tranquilizer.

With any luck, we'll get to see just how "huge" this one is.
 
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