Ok guys let me start by saying sorry for the delay in posting, cell service is sketchy at best.
As many of you have seen, I had a 260 semi custom built. It's been a killer this year for sure. The thread in the firearms section has some harvest details from this season. Fast forward to yesterday evening, about 4:40pm. I'm in a stand northwest of Junction, Tx. I have two feeders on the stand, one on the left and one to my right. A deep creek bed splits the two feeders near the stand.
At about 4:40 I see a good doe step out to the feeder on my left. She's at 108 yards. I go through my shooting ritual of breathing, good shouldering of the rifle, sight picture in scope and slowly squeeze. I do that but doe takes off into creek. I knew it was a hit so I climbed down and walked the creek to the feeder. I find her in the creek, and I let her lay until hunt is over. As I am climbing up the ladder to my box blind, I see a group of hogs to my right. I slowly get in and drop one. Then they come back and I drop a second one. Now I chamber another round and put gun in corner.
It's now almost 5pm and I have a group of deer feeding about 100 yards in front of me on ground corn. I catch movement in front of me about 40 yards and I turn to see a very long and thick tail, and I instantly know what I see. He came from the same creek and creek crossing I just came out of! He gets behind a thick Algerita bush and is stalking the group of deer, low to the ground and and very deliberate. A deer busts him and deer scatter like quail. He then sets up on his rear end and front paws on the ground. He is now facing away from me and I have a small hole between two bushes to see through. I clearly see his shoulder blades he is looking around. With my trusty 260 I decide it's now or never and I put the crosshairs between his shoulder blades. This time there is no preshooting ritual, adrenaline and cat scratch fever has set in. I took the shot and hit him exactly where I aimed. The cat flipped, flopped ft about two minutes then all went silent were he fell. I was having a fit with "cat fever" and set back and gathered myself.
So I wait about 45 minutes right at dusk, and slowly make my way to him. As I round the corner of the Algerita bush, I step on a stick and it cracks. To my surprise I am now about 10-15 yards from it and it gets up from his right side and slowly raises its head directly at me. So I freeze and begin my retreat. I circle him to the right and get about 40 yards from him. I can now see he is setting with his head up and licking his right paw. So I give him a second shot, and man he comes alive. He jumps like no other critter I've ever seen, and I lose him in a cactus/Algerita thicket. So I chamber another round and to my surprise I am empty. So now I beeline back to the stand, reload and call my buddies.
We finally find him on the other side of the thicket dead. With our nerves rattled we stared in disbelief, it was a big mature tomcat.
He weighed 120lbs and was 6'8" from nose to tail. He was so awesome and I am greatful for being able to take such a majestic and elusive predator. I ended up with 2 hogs, a doe and a mt lion. What I am greatful for is that we didn't meet down in that creek and he didn't charge when I walked up on him. Cause after checking him out, he is an animal of pure muscle and power. Thanks for listening to my story and I apologize for the long read, but I made it as short as possible.
As many of you have seen, I had a 260 semi custom built. It's been a killer this year for sure. The thread in the firearms section has some harvest details from this season. Fast forward to yesterday evening, about 4:40pm. I'm in a stand northwest of Junction, Tx. I have two feeders on the stand, one on the left and one to my right. A deep creek bed splits the two feeders near the stand.
At about 4:40 I see a good doe step out to the feeder on my left. She's at 108 yards. I go through my shooting ritual of breathing, good shouldering of the rifle, sight picture in scope and slowly squeeze. I do that but doe takes off into creek. I knew it was a hit so I climbed down and walked the creek to the feeder. I find her in the creek, and I let her lay until hunt is over. As I am climbing up the ladder to my box blind, I see a group of hogs to my right. I slowly get in and drop one. Then they come back and I drop a second one. Now I chamber another round and put gun in corner.
It's now almost 5pm and I have a group of deer feeding about 100 yards in front of me on ground corn. I catch movement in front of me about 40 yards and I turn to see a very long and thick tail, and I instantly know what I see. He came from the same creek and creek crossing I just came out of! He gets behind a thick Algerita bush and is stalking the group of deer, low to the ground and and very deliberate. A deer busts him and deer scatter like quail. He then sets up on his rear end and front paws on the ground. He is now facing away from me and I have a small hole between two bushes to see through. I clearly see his shoulder blades he is looking around. With my trusty 260 I decide it's now or never and I put the crosshairs between his shoulder blades. This time there is no preshooting ritual, adrenaline and cat scratch fever has set in. I took the shot and hit him exactly where I aimed. The cat flipped, flopped ft about two minutes then all went silent were he fell. I was having a fit with "cat fever" and set back and gathered myself.
So I wait about 45 minutes right at dusk, and slowly make my way to him. As I round the corner of the Algerita bush, I step on a stick and it cracks. To my surprise I am now about 10-15 yards from it and it gets up from his right side and slowly raises its head directly at me. So I freeze and begin my retreat. I circle him to the right and get about 40 yards from him. I can now see he is setting with his head up and licking his right paw. So I give him a second shot, and man he comes alive. He jumps like no other critter I've ever seen, and I lose him in a cactus/Algerita thicket. So I chamber another round and to my surprise I am empty. So now I beeline back to the stand, reload and call my buddies.
We finally find him on the other side of the thicket dead. With our nerves rattled we stared in disbelief, it was a big mature tomcat.
He weighed 120lbs and was 6'8" from nose to tail. He was so awesome and I am greatful for being able to take such a majestic and elusive predator. I ended up with 2 hogs, a doe and a mt lion. What I am greatful for is that we didn't meet down in that creek and he didn't charge when I walked up on him. Cause after checking him out, he is an animal of pure muscle and power. Thanks for listening to my story and I apologize for the long read, but I made it as short as possible.
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