Missouri Cougar

OldTurtle

OldTurtle

Moderator - Deceased
For years the Dept of Conservation had been in denial about reported sightings of Cougars in MO... despite the fact that several have been hit by vehicles ("they were probably escaped pets")and few serious documentations were available. I know one has been prowling around an area about 10 miles south of where I live due to knowing the people that have seen it.

This is a news report from the 14th.

"Cat Caught on Camera Confirmed as Cougar
CHILLICOTHE - Mountain lions seem to be returning to the state. The Missouri Mountain Lion Response Team confirms the ninth and 10th sightings of the big cats in the state since 1994. Joe Neis of Chillicothe set a motion sensor on a digital camera that photographed a cougar in Livingston County on Dec. 7. Most native Missouri mountain lions were wiped out by hunting and habitat loss by the late 1800s, with the last one killed in 1927 until a hunter in southeast Missouri wounded a deer Nov. 18, 1999. The next day he found the deer partly eaten and covered with leaves and brush. Wildlife experts concluded a mountain lion killed the wounded deer." /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
old turtle joe toke that pic. right where i do some calling do not think i will call there for awile thats all i need is big kitty thinking i am rabbit. ha ha would like to see one though.
 
It certainly makes me wonder what caliber I should be carrying when out for yotes... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif I would hate to be confronted with one and be 'undergunned'..
 
I run trains in northern missouri and we have have had several crews say that they have seen cats. One cat was sighted several times just north of Trenton.
 
Actually, there have been plenty of confirmed sightings of mountain lions in Missouri. Several hit by vehicles, one video'd by some coon hunters when their dogs treed it, another treed by beagles with some rabbit hunters, a dead one found along a roadside that had been shot, and one actually recorded on a deer kill by a Conservation Agent. That video'd cat on the deer kill by the CA was about a mile from where I routinely deer hunt and call predators. Probably a few more confirmed sightings I don't know about or have forgotten.

So it hasn't been in contention that we have the occasional odd cat here and there. What is in contention is that we have an established population of breeding mountain lions. The cats that are found here seem to be youngish males, and, the thought is that they are moving into Missouri from South Dakota and Colorado as they've been pushed out to seek new territories from those established and growing populations. However, with all that said we aren't seeing females and young baby lions. That may indicate we don't have a breeding population here restablishing the big cat population. It would seem likely that will happen. Missouri has plenty of game for cats to live on and the entire southern half of the state is thickly forested, with plenty of rough and rugged country, and quite remote to boot. There are plenty of places for a big animal to roam from middle Missouri all the way through northern Arkansas and part of eastern Oklahoma with little to zero contact with humans. I promise there are deer down in the Ozarks that never know there is a deer season. They live old and die back in some brushy spring creek hollow without ever having much (if any) contact with man. That explains the growing population of black bears and feral hogs in Missouri. The state estimates we may have as many as 1,000 bear now and over 3,000 hogs scattered around in the Ozarks. How long before a stray female lion hooks up with one of these wandering young males and wham, bam, thank you very much there is a breeding population. Who really is to say that already hasn't happened on the rare occasion way back in the woods. Because of a cat's secretive nature they're hard to get a handle on. Especially in that rough Ozark country.

Personally, I'd be more concerned about having a fired up bear charge into the stand than a mountain lion. The areas I hunt are home zero for all those toothy critters. I jumped an absolutely huge boar hog last year from a clear cut on a cold windy day. In certain places where I know there are hogs I sometimes change from my more normal coyote/bobcat firearms to some heavier hardware. When hunting some of these places I've called coyotes and bobcats with a .30-06 180 gr. or a hotloaded .45-70 with 405 gr. handloads. BTW, both absolutely hammer a coyote. I've also given serious thought to dropping my usual 75 gr. .243 V-Max load for a 100 gr. loading to hedge my luck if I get an opportunity at another hog. And, maybe that'd help convince any other large critter to leave me along if I absolutely had to shoot a determined and hungry critter that wouldn't believe I really wasn't the biggest rabbit they've ever ran across. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
 
If attacked, especially at night, I'll give him some "maze." He'll have to run a maze through my .45 ACP 230 gr. +P hollow points! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Quote:
It certainly makes me wonder what caliber I should be carrying when out for yotes... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif I would hate to be confronted with one and be 'undergunned'..



Makes the hair stand up one's neck does it not???

However, cats and bears opperate differently when hit by the "maze" ...... LOL!!

Cats typically get pretty obsessed with their wounds and then run off .......

Here in Washington State our minimum caliber for big game is .243 while for cougar it's .22 centerfire.

My walking "cougar" gun is a .223 rem in a CZ 527 American .... I will report if I ever get to tag one!

Regards

Three 44s
 
Quote:
I'll give him some "maze." He'll have to run a maze through my .45 ACP 230 gr. +P hollow points!


/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
PC
 
Turtle

2 or 3 years ago, I looked at a cougar that was hit by a car south of Fulton. As GC said it was an adolescent male. Adolescent or not, he pretty much filled up the entire width of the full size MDC Dodge truck in which he was laying. About a year before that, a cougar was hit by a car in the KC area. MDC has admitted that both were wild cougars.

I too have been hearing reports of a cougar(or cougars)in our immediate area. Some of those spottings have come from people I know to be reliable,including my wife...okay maybe mostly reliable /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif. The sightings are a little north and east of where I primarily hunt, but some of my stands are probably within the normal range of a cougar. PM me if you'd like specific details

They're here...don't know if it's a breeding population, but they've been here for three or four years now. Haven't heard of a single sighting of a bear or hog in our area though. There certainly are bears and hogs down in the Ozarks, but not around here.

Might be paranoia, but I've been watching my back when calling /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif.
 
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