DocD5150
FNG
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2019
- Messages
- 37
This was my first Mountain Lion hunt. First off, I caught a lot of heat by the local Hound Hunters in my area. They are all about only taking trophy Toms. I know the Fish and Game officers in my area very well. I talked to them and they told me to go to this area, because they were about to go in and eradicate the cats them selves. They were totally destroying the deer. Long story short, from sun until sun down, we treed several different cats in one day. Some of them only treed on nimble tree limbs and kept bailing. There was one MONSTROUS Tom that the dogs caught on too, but let me tell you, that Tom is HOUDINI. He disappears into nowhere. Anyway, we finally treed this pretty mature female. The dogs had her held up pretty good. I took some pictures of her in the tree. She DID NOT have kittens and my buddy who's been running his dogs on these for some time now, told me it was a respectable cat. BTW, during that day, we came across 13 deer kills and they were all only 1/4 eaten. So long story short, I took the harvest. Everything was utilized on the her. Mt Lion meat is like the most amazing pork I have ever eaten. I actually gave some to my cat lover friends, told them it was pork, and after the fact, I let out the truth. I havent talked to most of them since, lol. Moving forward, I will definitely take Toms from here on out. In one month, among a group of us, we took 5 cats that were all legal and ethical takes. It was an absolute thrill. I took her with my 460 S&W Mag, one of my primary hunting handguns. I use a 10mm otherwise. I used a 360gr Buffalo Bore Hardcast @ 1900fps. Ive used this on badgers, deer, elk and coyotes. Everything has always been dead instantly, EXCEPT for badgers. Those tough sum b's have actually ran almost 100 yards before they gassed out. Anyways, that's that.
