Mountain Lions!

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

I was shed hunting one spring day, with my GSP Buck. I stopped back at the truck for lunch, then I was going back out in the afternoon to check out another spot. It was getting hot, so I wanted to lighten my load. I decided to leave my camera in the truck since there probably wouldn’t be any animals or anything to take pictures of in the heat of the day anyway. I was walking through a large marshy meadow that was covered with brightly colored purple and yellow flowers. All of a sudden, a big tom cougar appeared, tip towing across the meadow, trying desperately to keep his feet dry. He was so intent on not stepping in the water that he didn’t see me standing there in the open. I had Buck train to heal when I gave him a particular soft whistle, so I was able to keep him under control while we stalked closer and closer to the cat. I was kicking myself at that point, for leaving the camera in the truck. The cat was so amazingly beautiful walking through that flowery meadow. I got to within about 40 ft. or so of the cougar, when I stepped in a muddy spot which caused my foot to make that awful sucking sound as I took another step. That got his attention. He turned his head and just stared at me for a moment then took off running with Buck right on his tail. He got to the edge of the meadow, stopped and turned back ready for a fight. Buck was no dummy, he turned tail sped back to me as fast as he could. I still can’t believe I left my camera in the truck.

Isn’t that how it always works , When you have all your stuff, nothing happens most often

 

[BearclawKyle]

With time to kill before the New Mexico draw.... and still weeks or months for other states, can anybody help pass the time with cool mountain lion stories... aggressive encounters.... odd sightings... hunt stories...even recipes. Everything is always grizzly this or grizzly that.. time to up the ante with some lion tales, even if you have to lie about that time you fended one off with a spoon or something...

I've got.... nothing. Just tracks of ghosts. Except for that time with the spoon I mentioned..

I hunted in unit 34 last year for Barbary sheep, saw lots of lion tracks. One night, I was laying in my tent and heard a couple coyotes sound off maybe 50 yards from camp. They were carrying on, making a lot of noise and I figured it was probably a kill of some sort. breaking the chatter of the yotes was a very loud Lion vocalization.. the iconic roar/scream they do. The yotes went silent and I stayed awake for a while after that watching the shadows of my dying camp fire while holding my pistol tightly! That was the spookiest lion encounter I've had.

 

[Allenchrisx1]

I’ve never seen an actual lion during my 15 years of hunting, only tracks. Yet!