A Big Mountain Lion

BuzzBee

BuzzBee

New member
Two neighbors, within 1/2 mile of my friend's place, have had livestock killed in the last 2 months. Last Sunday a black powder hunter shot a lion that was stalking him. He said he shot it at 14 yards with a muzzeloader and claimed it was still coming in. My buddy talked to the hunter this week and sent me a pictures of the cat. The cat was killed 7 miles from his place. It will be interesting to see is the livestock attacks stop now.

GladeParkMtLion6.jpg
 
Buzzbee ,

Was the game warden called about the cat being shot?
I see a truck in the background.

Good story and picture -thanks Mike

Edited to ask -does the warden take possession of an animal under these circumstances?
 
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Wounder how many full sized men have been attacked and killed by Mt lions? I'd bet not many.
Usually a woman or kid and that's on the rare side. probably got a better chance of dying from a rattlesnake bite then a lion attack.
Thanks BuzzBee, cool picture. We need to see more lions looking like that one. Kill a lion and save 50+ deer a year....Good hunting
 
You are right, any time a lion is removed out of season, you have to notify the DOW, it was in an area no motorized vehicle is allowed, the warden extract the cat with his ATV, too bad you don't get to keep the cat...: (

speaking of miced meat, I had Mt. lion once, it was served in a berrito with green chili over it, it taste like real dry pork but had a good flavor.
 
Yeah, and it seems like each and every time a lion is taken out of season, the lion is invariably claimed to have been stalking, ready to devour the hapless shooter in the next pounce. 42 feet was the range on this one? Did it shadow and stalk him like a wraith for 3 miles, or did he in reality call it in with an elk call or perhaps walk it down in the snow?

Sorry, but to my mind, 26 reported fatalities in all of NA in all of recorded history, does not even begin to make mountain lions pre-meditating man-eaters, at least not
 
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And now we know why Lion hunting is banned in California....



What does that have anything to do with this? Lionho makes some very good points. 99% of all stalking claims turn out to be not that. In this case it might be just that. There are more cases where "it was stalking me has been used" and found to be false. Infact there has only been one such story I know to to be true and it was published not long ago in a bow hunting mag. Other than that, the majority of theese cases are false and often involve criminal activity. Before shooting this cat did the hunter, yell at it? Did he try walking the other way/backing up? Was he calling and maybe called well enough to get the cat in? every year we see a hand full of theese cases involving bears or cats and every year they turn out not to be what they say. I must agree with Lionho, it is extremely rare that this was a true, stalking situation. If it was then good for the hunter, if it wasn't than shame on him. I have bumped into lions before when hunting, and even once I got into a mother with a cub. Each time I yelled at the lions and off they went. One night while on horse back, we were followed 3 miles by a lion when packing out an elk. It was as close as 60 yards most of the trip. Once we got to truck it simply went away. Could we have shot that lion and been justified, probably, but we never did and never felt we had too.
 
A very nice looking cat. At least you got the picture.
A guy who was elk hunting in Colorado last year shot a cougar at about ten feet. Ya just never know, when you are out in the wild, it can get wild.
 
It is common for lions to follow humans, like the one that followed you, Elks, as I'm sure you know. Most of the time the human never knows a lion is near, unless he backtracks and notices lion tracks in the snow or mud on top of his own. Once in awhile someone hears or sees the cat. I've had them follow me several times that I know about, have never yet seen one that way. Heard one of them make a few slight rustles in dry grass, and had another kind of wail at me. Considering how often lions follow humans, the number of attacks is surprisingly rare. That makes me guess that most lions follow people out of some kind of curiosity more than starting out with intent to kill what they are following.

I had one stalk me, no question about it from tracks in the snow. I found its kill while deer hunting. It saw me and stalked to intercept me as I moved on. It was 21 feet from me, above and slightly behind me, crouched behind a bush looking at me when my partner shot at it. He was a good ways off and only grazed hair from its back. I never saw the cat and have no idea whether it would have jumped me, followed me some more, or just watched me walk away. Statistical odds are high that it would not attack, but I'd rather not be in that position.

If I'd seen it that close to me in a closed season, if it hadn't launched toward me yet I'd probably speak or yell as I mounted my rifle. If it didn't leave, I'd shoot it without further delay, though that might depend on its body language. Facing me tense, its a dead cat. Broadside relaxed, I'd give it another beat or two. I hope I'd not take my hands from the rifle to wave. I spoke over my rifle like that to a grizzly bear that threatened me, and it left.
 
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DANG!! I would love to put one of those down. Unfortanetly i live where there are non around, only a couple bob cats here and there.

Jeremy
 
Marlin,
That's not me in the picture, he is hunter that shot the lion. As to being stalked, I have had it happen to me. This happened in 94, I was elk hunt near Steamboat Springs, it was the 2nd season, my first time in this area; so a friend put me on the advantage point to oversee a meadow where elk frequents. I sat with my back to a log for over 2hours before the friends pick me up just before dark, when they approached me they noticed fresh tracks in the snow up to 20 feet behind me, other than the tracks I didn’t know that it was even there. I was young and dumb then but I often think about that incident, still can't believe how close I was becoming cat bait.
 
Without snow to show the tracks you'd have never known... It would probably freak us out to know how close we've been to lions and how often.

Stories like yours, plus my experience, is why I lean with Lionho and Elks that most of the cats that people see, even up close, are not attacking, though they may technically be stalking us. However, if they are too close, its not worth taking a chance on their intention. In a similar situation an acquaintance of mine killed a grizzly he blundered close to before he or the bear was aware. The bear stood to look over a bush at him within about 12 feet and he shot it before the bear made up its mind what to do. Once such a quick, powerful animal decides on a course of action, things happen awfully fast. He felt like the prudent thing to do was to kill the bear before it decided to act, without waiting to see if it fled or attacked. He was an experienced bush man, and said that the bear was not threatening him, just curious at that point, but way too close to risk an attack.

None of this is to second guess the guy who shot that big cat. I have no idea what the details are and assume innocence until proven guilty.
 
I would venture to guess, that any person who lives in lion country and spends much time in the outdoors has been close to lions numerous times and just never knew they were there. Most predator callers in lion country have likely called in a lion or two and never seen it.

Like some of the others, I've had lions follow me and I never knew they were there. I've cut tracks of hunting partners and noticed where lions followed them. Nothing to worry about from what I've seen, might be just cat curiosity more than anything.

I've come to the conclusion if a lion seriously wants to eat you, you will never know it is there until its too late. If lions ever decided to eat slow dumb humans on a regular basis, we would be in deep trouble.
 
Lions stalking humans? Yes, it's probably fairly common as related here.

Stalking with the intent to attack? That's another question altogether. Most times people probably don't even realize there was a lion watching them, as others have said too.

I would be a whole lot less worried about being stalked by a lion, than I would be about being stalked by a wolf or grizzly. Still, I can see where someone might be pretty much freaked out by the experience and "shoot first, ask questions later". I'm not going to second guess the guy that shoots one that gets "too close" to him for his comfort.
 
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I've come to the conclusion if a lion seriously wants to eat you, you will never know it is there until its too late. If lions ever decided to eat slow dumb humans on a regular basis, we would be in deep trouble.



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Personally, I'm not against sport hunting of lions, in season and within the bounds of sportsmanship, SuperMag. You might be surprised to hear that I also happen to think that the ban on hunting them in CA was politically hysterical, disingenous, completely unscientific, and wholly unfounded.

Similarly, there are too many accounts of out-of-season killings of cats claimed to be attacking but which prove to be unfounded--perhaps the majority of them. There's a whole bunch of hysteria, but very little substance or science, to the claim that ML are wanton man-eaters.

Look, it's unlikely that anyone else knows the whole truth of this but the guy who was there. I wasn't, don't know anyone who was, and can't offer an judgement about the veracity of this particular instance. Statistically speaking, it does seems improbable, though.

And yet I do think it makes for a good hunter ethics discussion to wonder hypothetically whether the hunter called the thing in with an elk call. (He was presumably out hunting something else, right?) If he did, and sat there motionless and hunkered down in full camo while the thing snuck in, and then killed it at 42 feet without first attempting to drive it off, with lions out of season, not possessing a lion tag, etc.-- well, l feel qualified to offer the opinion that a hypothetical like this constitutes either unsportsmanlike behavior, a bit of paranoia, not knowing much about lions, or a combination of all three.

LionHo
 
Okay, so where's all the stories that prove that these lion shootings were unjustified? I read plenty of stories saying that a lion got killed while stalking someone but have yet to read one where the guy was proven to be a liar and just shot it for the heck of it..

So, for those of you who claim that most of these shooting have been proven to be other than they claim, can you produce some literature for me?? I would love to do some reading..
 
I would not have thrown that pass Sunday.
I would have thrown that pass Sunday.
He should not have passed the lead car so early in the race.
He should have passed that car as soon as the race started.
He should have given that guy cpr.
If he hadn't have given that guy cpr, he wouldn't have gotten sick himself.
That was a good deal on that gun.
I can't believe he payed that much for that gun.
He should not have shot that bear.
He wouldn't have gotten mauled if he had shot that bear.
He should not have shot that lion.
He wouldn't have gotten mauled if he had shot that lion.
I wasn't there, so I don't know what happened.
 
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