Face to face with a mountain lion.

[justletmein]

Crazy I bet that creeps you out for a while. What's more creepy is to think there's a lot of us who probably have had a cat near them pacing them and just didn't turn around and never even knew.

[Rakkasan2187]

I didn’t ever expect this. Nor did I have any idea how I’d react in this situation. I had a huge group of pigs come in right at dark. I was trying to get a shot one of the bigger ones but just too dark. I turned my headlight on and figured if they stayed I’d shoot, if they spooked no problem. I’d just climb down and make my half mile walk to the four wheeler. They spooked. I quietly climb down and start walking. I always turn around shining my head light to see if a deer or hog is coming in as I’m leaving. I turned and thought I saw a deer at first glance. Then realizing the eyes are closer together, I fully turn. I had to go through every other animal in my head before I’d let it be what it was. There at thirty yards from me stood a mountain lion in the dark. I stood still. It stood still. It took a small step and I could see the front paw was huge. I pulled my .40 out of the holster at my side and racked the slide. The cat crouched down just like a house cat. I stood there not wanting to move. I was in a field. Nowhere to go. The thoughts in my head were all about staying calm. Don’t run. I started walking backwards watching it’s eyes glow. Also briefly looking ahead because we have a lot of rattlesnakes. The cat got up and turned away. Walking and looking back at me every so often. I made it to the four wheeler and left. I was surprised at how well I handled it. That was about three hours ago. I wish I had pics. I know, pics or it didn’t happen. I wish it didn’t happen. I still gotta finish the season walking in the dark to that stand. It’s a good one. I will but not without this memory in my head the whole way. I was, for the first time, legitimately rattled. Still in disbelief.

Why in the world would not have a round chambered in you’re handgun? Glad you are okay. Be safe going back to your stand.

[Rubi513]

It’s hard to say what you would do in a certain situation till you’re in that situation.
I think I would have shot, but I have also wounded a black bear in Canada where I was to chicken **** to go look for it in the dark .

[Ronnie]

I had one hanging around the area I hunted over in Schliecher Co. for the two seasons that I hunted there. I finally had to move my blind because deer stopped coming around and I know it was because of that cat. Having goosebumps and the hair on my neck standing up every time I went to or left my blind in the dark might have had a little something to do with my moving it too




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[RShockley]

I have had the luxury, at least that is how I look at it, of having more encounters with mountain lions then probably most other. Spent a while helping a friend run dogs to tree and dart mountain lions for a biologists study in New Mexico. You reacted exactly as you should have including the decision not to shoot unless absolutely necessary. A wounded lion is about one of the worst things you could encounter. Typically when you keep facing them and very slowly backing away they will typically get the picture that your not what they are after. Most of the time lions will track someone without them ever knowing it and can even get rather close. It is mainly done out of curiosity and once they figure out it is not the food they are after they normally go away without you ever knowing they were there. I have had several occasions were I have found their tracks following mine out of the woods when headed back in with the dogs in the morning. Even with how many times I have encounter them I still have an awkward slightly uneasy feeling when walking around in the dark in known lion areas. I have gotten used to that feeling but it is always there. They are some truly amazing animals.

[Johnny Dangerr]

The first encounter with a M/L confuses the brain and have had numerous hunters come in with all kind of tales. I saw a monkey - I saw a house cat - I saw a Kangaroo
Then I realized it was a M/L.............
The second one they see they instantly know what they are looking at. I missed having a huge cat by 1.5 seconds. I needed 1.5 more seconds. Darn it.......

[nursejenn]

WHY did I open this thread?

[BrandonA]

I've grown up in Burnet/Llano county and family ranch in Mills Cnty. Yes there are cats especially along the Colorado River. They are more common than you think. Just yell at them and they more than likely will go away.

[DRT]

Take a shorter barreled shotgun to stand with you Ken.

Gary

[kruppa24]

Man I think I would have had to let some lead fly

[RifleBowPistol]

We used to hunt on a ranch, took a lot of people hunting down there. It was owned by a guy who owned a large company. He had us take his customers out hunting every year. We did that for quite a few years. That place was outside of Encinal, about 17 miles. We counted seven cougars one morning. Two pairs then three individual cats. Normally we would see one or two a day, but that one morning we got a surprise, don't know what was going on that day.

One day, when I was about 11, I had been out shooting quail, with my 22. I had both hands full of quail, I could not carry any more and it was a long ways back to camp, so I headed back to camp. There was a fence line that divided the property in half, that fence line had roads on both sides. I was walking down that fence line, heading back towards camp. We regularly saw a cougar near camp, usually along that fence line or somewhere from that area, back towards camp. We had seen that cougar within 100 yards of camp. We had no interest in shooting those things, everybody loved seeing them. That day it was late afternoon, I was coming up on the road that was half way between front and rear of the property, that road wound through the brush for about a mile, back to camp. As I was getting close to that road, I saw the cougar, we called the camp cougar, step out in the road. It stuck it's nose high in the air. As soon as it did that, I looked around and realized the cat was down wind of me and would smell the quail I had. The cat would look at me, then stick it's nose in the air. I knew what it was smelling. The cat was about 200 yards from me. I got to the road that went back to camp, started walking that last mile or mile and half, whatever it was. It got dark shortly after I got on the road back to camp. I got about 200 to 300 yards down that road, then realized something was following me. I knew it was the cougar. I stayed about 25 to 30 yards up in the brush to my right. When I walked it walked, when I stopped, it stopped. Eventually I came to a area, where there was a clearing that went about 50 yards back away from the road. I knew if the cat was following me, it would have to walk across the clearing, then I would know for sure if I was right. Sure enough the cat came out into the open, then stopped, when I stopped. I decided to let the cat have the quail. I tossed all of them towards the cat, it slowly started moving towards the quail, so I calmly kept walking. I noticed that I was not getting followed anymore. I got back to camp and told everybody about the cougar. Everybody wanted to see, so we got in the truck and went back to the stop, where I tossed the quail. There was nothing but feathers and cat tracks.

Seeing cougar up close at night, does definitely get your attention.

[ttechdallas]

I would love to see a mountain lion but not in that scenario. Sounds like you handled it well. You are alive, you weren't attacked and there isn't a wounded mountain lion potentially holed up in your immediate hunting area.

[Stan R]

In the day I used to hunt at the Post Oak Ranch.

Saw many Cougars but no Mountain Lions.

[Mayhem]

I would have emptied the magazine on that rascal.


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[SabreKiller]

Why wouldn’t I?

Because if you had had to defend yourself you'd have never had time to get the slide back.

No reason to carry one without one in the chamber.