Mt. Lion Encounter in Oregon (Pics)
Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:39 am
A friend stopped by yesterday to tell me of his ordeal with a large Mt. Lion (cougar) he and his girlfriend had the other day. They were on their horses not far from here, collecting mule deer and elk sheds. They stopped at the base of a large escarpment to tether the horses.
My buddy, John, always goes into the outback armed. This day he had his S&W Model 60 .38 Spl on his belt with 158gr cast semi-wadcutters. In his saddle scabbard was his Ruger Mini-14, loaded with factory 50gr varmint loads (mistake).
Anyway, they notice a cave enterance nearby. John goes up the rocks to the top of the rimrock to look around, about then his girlfriend, Heather yells "John.....COME HERE!" He quickly got to the edge of the rimrock, looked at Heather's eyes as big as saucers, pointing to the cave enterance. John looked down, heard a low growling, and saw the head and shoulders of a LARGE lion not 12' away from Heather in the "pounce" postion that cats assume when ready to strike. Knowing he'd never get to his rifle in time, and Heather being frozen in terror, he drew his .38, leaned down as quietly as he could, and shot the cat in the top of the head from about 8' away, straight down.
This is the enterance to the cave (you can see the rope & noose mentioned later):
The cat immediately whirled about, and shot back into the cave seemingly unhurt. John climbed down, got out his flashlight, and shone it into the cave to see if the cat was dead. Here's what he saw staring back at him:
The cat was NOT dead by a long shot, now giving a low growling sound, threatening them, and in pain. John knew he hat hit the cat, as the shot was only about 8' away when he pulled the trigger, but the cat was very much in a bad mood by this time. John then had Heather hold the flashlight, then put some Federal 125gr Hydra-Shock's into the Model 60, then proceeded to shoot the cat two more times from about 15' away at the cave enterance.
The cat STILL would not die, and really not wanting to torch off a .223 in close quarters, reluctantly went to his horse and pulled out his Mini-14, had Heather again hold the light, and aimed for the cats left eye shining in the light to put it out of its misery (he had a cougar tag in his possession).
He hit the cat, killed it dead, but could not fit his large frame into the cave, so Heather was elected to take a rope with a noose tied to the cat, secure it over his head while John dragged the cat from the cave. Here's some shots taken of the big old boy:
The Fish & Fur biologist here said the cat was one of the biggest he'd seen in many years, he weighed 176 lbs, and was having a good diet of deer and elk in his area. John found the expanded 125gr HP's never penetrated into the cats vitals due to the heavy chest and shoulder muscles. (John also never sets the digital date on his camera...NOT the actual date, as this was only a couple of days ago.)
John is going to have the cat mounted in his den, along with some other neat mounts that includes another cat, and a huge full body mount of a very large black bear killed here also. Here's the cats skull, note the large "bite" muscles that power those teeth: (about 4-times the bite power of a pit bull)....
This compares the cat to an average lion skull. You can see this was a big boy:
Here's the damage the .223 did in the left eye. The first .38 bullet hit off center of the skull, and was found lodged in the lower jaw.
Here's the cats paw pad, claws retracted. My hound, Rose is sniffing the kitty, but was NOT involved in the ordeal in any way, home with me, sleeping on the couch while all this was happening:
I thanked John for getting this cat, estimated to be 7 years old. He had been feeding on "MY" deer and elk in the area I usually hunt. John said the next day he saw numerous deer tracks at the base of the rimrock near the cave enterance, where prior to that, no deer or elk tracks could be found anywhere. Seems the "food item" critters had already noticed the absence of the cat.
This is yet another example of why when we're out in the outback, we should always pack a suitable sidearm in a major caliber (not a .38, but better than nothing), as these cats will stalk you, pounce before you know they're even there. My S&W Model 29 Classic .44 Magnum with 3" barrel & unfluted cylinder is one of those companions, loaded with 250gr SWC hard cast "Kieth" bullets, goes with me on a regular basis. This load gives complete penetration on every critter I've ever shot with it.
Ahh, I can't wait to get "back out there".......Here kitty kitty.......
My buddy, John, always goes into the outback armed. This day he had his S&W Model 60 .38 Spl on his belt with 158gr cast semi-wadcutters. In his saddle scabbard was his Ruger Mini-14, loaded with factory 50gr varmint loads (mistake).
Anyway, they notice a cave enterance nearby. John goes up the rocks to the top of the rimrock to look around, about then his girlfriend, Heather yells "John.....COME HERE!" He quickly got to the edge of the rimrock, looked at Heather's eyes as big as saucers, pointing to the cave enterance. John looked down, heard a low growling, and saw the head and shoulders of a LARGE lion not 12' away from Heather in the "pounce" postion that cats assume when ready to strike. Knowing he'd never get to his rifle in time, and Heather being frozen in terror, he drew his .38, leaned down as quietly as he could, and shot the cat in the top of the head from about 8' away, straight down.
This is the enterance to the cave (you can see the rope & noose mentioned later):
The cat immediately whirled about, and shot back into the cave seemingly unhurt. John climbed down, got out his flashlight, and shone it into the cave to see if the cat was dead. Here's what he saw staring back at him:
The cat was NOT dead by a long shot, now giving a low growling sound, threatening them, and in pain. John knew he hat hit the cat, as the shot was only about 8' away when he pulled the trigger, but the cat was very much in a bad mood by this time. John then had Heather hold the flashlight, then put some Federal 125gr Hydra-Shock's into the Model 60, then proceeded to shoot the cat two more times from about 15' away at the cave enterance.
The cat STILL would not die, and really not wanting to torch off a .223 in close quarters, reluctantly went to his horse and pulled out his Mini-14, had Heather again hold the light, and aimed for the cats left eye shining in the light to put it out of its misery (he had a cougar tag in his possession).
He hit the cat, killed it dead, but could not fit his large frame into the cave, so Heather was elected to take a rope with a noose tied to the cat, secure it over his head while John dragged the cat from the cave. Here's some shots taken of the big old boy:
The Fish & Fur biologist here said the cat was one of the biggest he'd seen in many years, he weighed 176 lbs, and was having a good diet of deer and elk in his area. John found the expanded 125gr HP's never penetrated into the cats vitals due to the heavy chest and shoulder muscles. (John also never sets the digital date on his camera...NOT the actual date, as this was only a couple of days ago.)
John is going to have the cat mounted in his den, along with some other neat mounts that includes another cat, and a huge full body mount of a very large black bear killed here also. Here's the cats skull, note the large "bite" muscles that power those teeth: (about 4-times the bite power of a pit bull)....
This compares the cat to an average lion skull. You can see this was a big boy:
Here's the damage the .223 did in the left eye. The first .38 bullet hit off center of the skull, and was found lodged in the lower jaw.
Here's the cats paw pad, claws retracted. My hound, Rose is sniffing the kitty, but was NOT involved in the ordeal in any way, home with me, sleeping on the couch while all this was happening:
I thanked John for getting this cat, estimated to be 7 years old. He had been feeding on "MY" deer and elk in the area I usually hunt. John said the next day he saw numerous deer tracks at the base of the rimrock near the cave enterance, where prior to that, no deer or elk tracks could be found anywhere. Seems the "food item" critters had already noticed the absence of the cat.
This is yet another example of why when we're out in the outback, we should always pack a suitable sidearm in a major caliber (not a .38, but better than nothing), as these cats will stalk you, pounce before you know they're even there. My S&W Model 29 Classic .44 Magnum with 3" barrel & unfluted cylinder is one of those companions, loaded with 250gr SWC hard cast "Kieth" bullets, goes with me on a regular basis. This load gives complete penetration on every critter I've ever shot with it.
Ahh, I can't wait to get "back out there".......Here kitty kitty.......
With any luck his DNA got pssed down at least a few times. By the way, I thought the cats don't attack people. 
Glad he got there in time, that could have bad. 
I would carry my Kimber but it is way to pretty.