What caliber for Cougar?

[SundownRider]

In Chicago, they recently shot and killed a large cougar that had been ranging in the neighborhoods. Officials say the cougars are coming in from the Dakotas and are following the railroad tracks and power lines. Seeing as there are power lines right behind my house, what caliber would you all recommend for cougars? (And before you get started on older women looking for younger men, I've heard that one already.)

I have guns in 45colt, 38WCF, 30 carbine, 40 S&W, 303 British, .22, and 12 guage.

 

[rcmodel]

All, or most of the above.
Cougers are not particularly hard to kill.

Lots of hound hunters carry a .22 Mag to knock them out of trees.

The hard part is seeing one before it is on your back, clamped on your neck, if it decides it wants you bad enough to attack you.

But the chance of that happening is far less then getting electrocuted by the power lines in your back yard.

rcmodel

 

[Ready2Defend]

Most of those calibers should do well. Teddy Roosevelt wrote about killing them with a knife (but that was when the hunting dogs were holding it down). YMMV

 

[p89cajun]

(And before you get started on older women looking for younger men, I've heard that one already.)

My main purpose of clicking on the thread was to make a comment about older women/younger guys but since you took that away I have nothing constructive to add to this post.Sorry.

 

[Art Eatman]

Thinnish skin, fairly light bones.

A .22 Mag for a treed cougar is pretty much a "gimme" shot; close range, stationary animal. Assuming the skill and adrenalin control, the .45 Colt or the .40S&W would do fine.

 

[koja48]

'Pears you have it covered . . .

 

[627PCFan]

Wouldn't you want something with a little more knock down power than a pistol, or a 22mag for an animal that can pretty much disembowel you in less than 5 seconds????

Im 12 gauge with 000 Buck when I'm not on top of the food chain

 

[T.R.]

My Grandad shot cougars during his many decades as a Cattleman in northern Wyoming. He shot them on sight. Grandad did okay with his 30-30 Winchester.

Don't get me wrong, Grandad didn't go looking for them. He shot them while checking fences and dropping off grain pellets for a big gravity feed unit in the Bighorn Mts. Cougars killed a few steers every year and he was simply protecting his investment.

Cougar meat tastes a little bit like pork. (NOT chicken)

TR

 

[coloradokevin]

Sundownrider,

Like the others have said, mountain lions aren't the hardest animals to kill. I've heard lots of reports of them being shot and killed with the lesser calibers of the world. Honestly, you probably have little to worry about back there, even if one or two of them have moved into the area... The lions have huge ranges, and are very elusive. The fact that one or two have popped up isn't a big surprise, but you may not have anything close to a viable breeding population in your area.

Honestly, you'd be lucky if you did see one! I live in CO, which is serious mountain lion country, and I've hiked here many years (I hike three days a week, on average)... In my thousands of miles of hiking in this state, I've only ever caught a fleeting glimpse of a mountain lion running across a dirt road that I was driving on near The Great Sand Dunes (and, I couldn't even swear to the fact that it was a mountain lion). My wife saw one on a paved trail near our home, but I was at work that day and didn't get to see it. She said it was crouched and watching her from the side of the trail, and she thinks it was having eyes for our dog (who at the time was a twenty five pound puppy).

I can understand where you are coming from, because my wife's encounter was a bit disturbing (suburban environment, and mannerisms of the animal... my wife is educated as a wildlife biologist, so I take her at her word on this one).

I've even hiked a lot of the trails near Boulder where mountain lion sightings are frequent, in hopes of seeing one... No luck for me.

In the rare instance where they do attack, it often involves people's children or dogs. They are opportunistic, like any predator.

But, anyway, I just carry a .40S&W Glock as my general purpose trail gun in this state, and I can't see any reason why that wouldn't handle your average mountain lion.

 

[Cougfan2]

I don't do any hiking per se, but I do fish in some of the mountain lakes here in Oregon. I carry a 1911 in .45ACP and feel it would be adequate if I had to dispatch a cougar. Actually I would love to just see one in the wild without having to kill it. I think they are fascinating.

 

[barnetmill]

"In Chicago, they recently shot and killed a large cougar that had been ranging in the neighborhoods. Officials say the cougars are coming in from the Dakotas and are following the railroad tracks and power lines. "

That is a lot of territory with some barriers like the mississippi river. I would look at Minnesota or Wisconsin first for them following the river down and then maybe they go east to chicago.

I would be still be much more worried about predators of the 2-legged kind around chicago. In any case 12 ga at close range loaded with #4 to 000 will do the trick.

 

[BlackJackal]

45colt would do it no problem.

 

[Scratchy]

10mm or .600 nitro

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Cougars, eh? This is my rifle, this is my GUN. This is for fighting; this is for FUN!

Seriously, if one were attacking me, I'd want a high power rifle or buckshot; minimum of a .45 colt revolver. If hunting, whole different question. I'd still want a .223 or larger; preferably a .243.

 

[rogerxd45]

12 guage! no contest.

odds are though you wont even have the chance most people dont see them until its too late. But i guess thats more true in the wild but in a city they wont be able to hide as well. but when you cant carry the 12 guage or a BIG pistol i would at least have some pepper spray. it sounds weak but it works well on animals

 

[Zoogster]

Cougars are very easy animals to kill. The main thing that makes them dangerous is they are stealthy and very capable ambush predators. So if one wants you then you will probably not see it coming.
The saving grace for some victims is that the cougar is used to killing deer and similar animals with a different neck structure. So you can get lucky and have it bite high on your head instead (assuming your head is not crushed) and merely have a cat hanging onto your head rather than instantly chopping your vertebrate like it was planning.
That will allow you or the person with you to react and fight it off.

However there is a large number of cougars in some areas, and relatively few attacks. They generaly do not bother humans. In fact they have radio collared them and watched them sneak around in suburbs and cities that reported no cougar citings or problems, living side by side for weeks at a time without the people knowing it.


Of course they are going to flip out in Chicago. Remember that is a place with forced disarmament of law abiding citizens. So the police and local officials have to play up the angle they are protecting all those poor disarmed sheep from the evil dangerous cougar.
However a person is far more likely to be killed by an unexpected human being attacking them in Chicago than any person in any state or region in the world (even those they are common in) is to be attacked by a cougar.

 

[Dksimon]

If your not hunting them then I would go with your largest caliber available. They are very quick and very sneaky so i want as much knock down power as possible.

I live in South Dakota and have yet to see one here so i doubt if they are coming from the dakotas.

If they were coming from the dakotas they would be comming from the black hills and would have to travel right across my neck of the woods.

 

[ScratchnDent]

I had to kill one several years ago, unfortunately.
.45 Colt did the trick.
I was caretaking a large ranch in Colorado. I lost 3 goats over a week from a pen built to hold bulls.
I checked the goats one morning and find a dead billy stuck 3/4 of the way up the fence with his horns hung up in the bars. Apparently the lion had been trying to drag it out of the pen when it got caught.
As I'm wrestling with the dead goat, the lion shows up out of the blue, upset at me for trying to steal her breakfast. She crouched to leap over the fence at me as I was backpedaling. I drew and fired, missed because I was in such a hurry, but she paused just long enough for me to make the second one count.
Then I went and changed my shorts and called it in to the D.O.W.

 

[Yellowfin]

What's the skinny on legality of having to shoot one in self defense? Being out in CA I get a lot of info about mountain lions being a not-as-remote-as-I'd-like presence and no way in hell would I stand there stupid and let one eat me, but do the tree huggers and potentially communist loving judges have anything to say about it other than they'd simply rather me not?

 

[coloradokevin]

Yellowfin,

If you are attacked by a mountain lion, I don't know of anywhere that you aren't justified in shooting it. But, I thought I remembered hearing a case here in CO where someone shot a lion who was attacking their dog (1-2 years ago) and the DOW was looking at charges (apparently to defend domesticated pets it isn't allowed?). So, the moral of the story is articulation, if you are attached to the leash and the lion is attacking your dog, I'd argue that the lion was an immediate threat to you.

These animals do come in close in a lot of areas. I live in a suburb, and my wife was out hiking on a paved trail with our dog one evening when she saw a lion crouching near the trail watching her (last spring)!

 

[buck460XVR]

Seeing as there are power lines right behind my house, what caliber would you all recommend for cougars?

seeing as the majority of folks in America live in close proximity to power lines, I believe we're all doomed to become cat food.

 

[Zoogster]

What's the skinny on legality of having to shoot one in self defense? Being out in CA I get a lot of info about mountain lions being a not-as-remote-as-I'd-like presence and no way in hell would I stand there stupid and let one eat me, but do the tree huggers and potentially communist loving judges have anything to say about it other than they'd simply rather me not?

In CA they are a protected species. You can defend yourself or another human being. You will however have a lot to answer for. Protecting pets or killing one for another reason is not legal.

There was a lady awhile back who had her little dog attacked by a large protected bird. She tried to shoo the bird off and ended up shutting it in the door during the ordeal. She was charged for that.

There was a guy who had a mountain lion teaching its young to hunt his livestock. He lost numerous animals. He tried to get permission to dispatch the animal and numerous animal rights activists threatened to sue him for all he was worth and tie him up in court if he harmed the animal. The man was a farmer just getting by and it very likely would have been the end of his farm if he ended up in court.
The state took no effective action and the drama unfolded over a period of time.
Suddenly no more news of the story, the animal magicly stopped being a problem and was never seen again.

"Shoot, shovel, and shut up" is a popular slogan in some areas.

Killing a protected species for anything except immediate self defense of a human being is a serious criminal offense. Cougars are a protected species in CA, so if you kill one expect a thorough investigation after you report the incident to the authorities. If you are found to have killed one and not reported it at a later date, did report it and are judged to have killed one outside self defense, or the remains of one are located and tied to you, you could face serious felony charges.

 

[nollsp]

I am taking a stab that none of the posters here (well most) have not been in close proximity to a wild cougar...trust me, you need way more than a 22.

We used to live in CA and me and neighbor were out walking our dogs one night...I heard some brush moving from behind us on a wind gust and say the full silhouette of a cougar staring us down.

I have been in many hairy situations before over the years...and NOTHING sent the hair on my back standing like a 50 yard stare with a full grown cougar.

We had no choice as we were not armed...so we sent both dogs (a chow and a bulldog) after the cat fully expecting them to get slaughtered...and we bolted. The cat chose to run...I was quite surprised.

All the 22 gang cannot imagine the size and a capability of the big cat. I am a HUGE advocate of 22 hunting and there is NO WAY I would take a big cat on without something with serious punch...probably a shottie with 00

 

[kmrcstintn]

we gots some that come over the mountaintop from the next county over; on average, no one wanders the woods here at camp without at least a .357 mag with .40 S&W being more common & .44 mag on occasion; we also take into consideration potential black bear inhabitants, that's why I have at least the .357 mag & friends have their .44 mags; .40 S&W is for working in the lower part of the camp where it is thinned out & 2 legged critters are more common along the property lines

 

[moooose102]

i certainly would not go out and buy a new gun just for that, UNLESS you are looking for an excuse! lol! personally, i would want an auto-loader, so in case you miss, you would have a fast follow up shot. chances are if you run across one, it will be at fairly close range, another reason for an autoloader. imo, shoot hollow points! you want the hydraulic shock, not to blow clean through it. i am assuming your .30 carbine is an auto loader. that and or your 40 s&w should do fine. a good hit with either of them shold do the trick, and if not, plug him again.