Mountain Lion

I had my 2nd encounter with a lion and this time she was very close. I was scouting for elk, I think she was looking for a young calve I saw following behind the herd. I think we startled each other.

They are so quite too, I was in coorado a few years ago and we had one following us for about a mile.  It acted like it wanted some and then it would back off. Get back up close to us and back off.  I don't think that it could figure out what we were.

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Holy Smokes!
 
I'll bet that is cool and spooky all at the same time.  Be careful out there, guys!
 
Take care and Good Hunting!
 
Best Afield,
 
Steve

I watched one chase a bunch of elk out in Wyoming at long distance a few years ago.  Last year I had a mature one within 75 yards on a snow covered hillside and it was as beautiful an animal as I have ever seen.  I am guessing he weighed over 150# and his tail was huge!!!  We backtracked him a short distance and found where he had been laying down after trailing a small bunch of elk.

Did he get one, or did you loose sight of him.

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Nope.  However, a rancher and his wife near where we hunt watched one take down a cow elk a few years ago.  They said what was really amazing was that after the kill the lion just straddled the cow and dragged it into the brush by its neck like a cat would drag a rabbit off.  A guy just shot one recently to the east of where we hunt that had an ear tag from a study in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  The male had been tagged as a kitten almost three years ago and had moved west over 225 miles to establish his territory on the south slope of the BigHorn Mountains.  That is basically what the wolves are doing out there now because there are so many in the core area near Yellowstone.  Several tagged ones have been killed hundreds of miles from there, including one last year on the Interstate near Sturgis, South Dakota where they have the big biker rally every August. 

When I was a kid I found a doe about 20 feet up in a tree.  The throat had a huge chunk missing and how it got up in the tree when there are supposedly no Mountain lions in Kansas.  I called KWLP and they said no way could it be a mountain lion in North East Ks.

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I was talking to my Dad on the telephone this morning and told me about a Mountain Lion that was supposedly hit and killed by a car somewhere in northern Wisconsin.  He is going to E mail me some pictures.  I'll be sure to post 'em when I get 'em.
 
Take care and Good Hunting!
 
Best Afield,
 
Steve

i ran across a mountain lion trail last year when we were hunting close to the SD-WY border.  from the size it was a younger one and i was just thrilled.  thewolfieone had been joking with my mother(before we moved out here to SD).  he said to her "the only thing i worry avbout taking marie out west is that eventually she'll bring a mountain lion cub into the house".  he expected her to laugh but she looked at him with a straight face and agreed with him.  that just floored him.  he had been being a smart alec and she was serious.  i raised a bobcat kitten to maturity when i was a child.  i taught him to hunt with a hunting dog lure and when he could hunt for himself, i let him go in the northern woods of WI.  my uncles up there tell me that that  they still see bobcats, so i did my part to perpetuate the species.  i don't believe in wild animals as pets but i do know that they can be rehabilitated(if they are injured or orphaned) and then released.  i've done it with raccoons, skunks, and birds like starlings, sparrows, wrens and ravens.  doing this has given me greater insight into the natural world and has given me great training in tracking and spotting and stalking, and scouting.  to this day i have yet to see a mountain lion and i want to very much.  last week a man ice fishing on sheridan lake here in SD was supposedly attacked by a mountain lion.  they had the trained tracking dogs out within 3 hours and the dogfs failed to find a scent.  the trackers supposedly have up to 24 hours to get the dogs to a scene to track an animal to find the scent.  the GFP states that even with no evidence(except for scratches on the guy) that it was a mountain lion attack, because as they say "he wouldn't lie about a thing like that would he?"  no tracks or scent for tracking dogs to follow sounds like someone seeking attention to me.

M. J. H

There is nothing better than being outdoors whether or not you're hunting(but you can always say you're scouting).

They just found one in Kansas, supposedly the first confirmed one killed in the state.

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I agree with you on that one Marie.  If they got good lion dogs there in that short a time they should not have had any trouble picking up that cat.  A track that is that fresh would be absolutely no problem for a dog.  Heck, like you said, they can pick up day old  scent, so 3 hours would be smokin hot. 

Mike Stephenson
aka Topgun----30-06

We have had confirmed sightings of mountain lions here in Pa also, though the Pa game commission says that there are no mountain lions here. I saw a picture of one on a guys cabin porch and my wife and I saw one a few years back. They are either being transplated by DNRs or migrating east, but either way they are making their way back eastward from the western states.

Yeah I don't know why they are so tight lipped about them but it seems that they are.  Even after the confirmed one in KS they are still saying that it is was not a resident lion. 

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I was lucky enough to call one in & shoot it with my custom 44 mag in AZ. in 2006. That was the most exciting moment in the woods. Used a fawn in distress call. BTW, the meat is delicious, the wife agrees. Good woman.

Old Cowboys never die, they just keep riding the Range.

Don't know that I've heard of anyone eating mountain lion meat.  Did it taste like chicken, heehee?

Mike Stephenson
aka Topgun----30-06

Lmbo, wish I had a dollar for every time I've been asked that question.....BTW, no not like chicken, texture is very similar to pork, but, the taste is very mild not at all strong flavored. Delicious.........

Old Cowboys never die, they just keep riding the Range.

That is weird, I guess most would have the mind that it would be tough.  Glad to hear that you ate it.

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ttt

Keep hit count going

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Sorry I am so computer illiterate, but what does ttt mean, lol.....

Old Cowboys never die, they just keep riding the Range.