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Thread: Cougar Thread!

  1. #1
    Deadeye Dick Clusterfrack's Avatar
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    Jun 2013
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    Wokelandia

    Cougar Thread!

    Let’s talk about cougars, mountain lions, catamounts, and pumas.

    Until very recently, I had seen 5 cougars in my life: 1) distant sighting in Marin county CA, 2) hit and killed a young cougar while driving on Hwy 1 near Santa Cruz, 3) 15 yds away while mountain biking at night on Mt. Tam, also in Marin. 4) 10 yds away, brief glimpse while hiking White Rabbit trail, Ashland OR. 5) distant sighting near a trap range in Livermore CA.

    A few days ago, that number increased by 3 in a single encounter.

    My wife and I were at staying at a ranch on the Utah/Nevada border. We took a hike just adjacent to Great Basin National Park, at around 7pm. Near a stream, in some willows, we encountered 3 cougars 10-15 feet from us.

    They were crouched in grass and bushes, and both of us initially thought they were deer lying down. There was one full size lion and two Great Dane sized juveniles. My wife was slightly ahead of me, and the cougars were on our right. I’ll describe the scene using the road as 9:00 ahead and 3:00 behind us.

    Cub1 was farthest away, maybe 15-20’. Lioness and Cub2 were facing us, around 10’ away (!). As they jumped up I drew my P07 from AIWB (~0.9-1.0sec draw). Cub1 ran at 11:00 into heavy brush. Lioness did a 180 and ran to 12:00. I followed Cub2 (who was closest to us) with my sights as he did a 3 point bounding turn and ran to 1:00. I’m guessing it was all over in 2 seconds—and thankfully with no shots fired. We hiked out and watched out backs all the way to the vehicle.

    A few observations:
    It was a perfect sub-second draw—like a Jedi moment with no conscious thought. I’m very glad to have put in the practice time to make a handgun appear quickly when something looked like it needed shooting.

    The shoot/no shoot decision happened naturally, and I feel good about not shooting the cougars while they were retreating. I recall preparing to fire but aborting when they didn’t do anything except run away.

    I had a good sight picture on the closest one, and even though they were really fast, I was pretty confident of getting hits on Cub2 and the Lioness.

    The situation seemed easier than a USPSA activator/target/swinger combo. There seemed like there was plenty of time, which after the fact was very surprising to me.

    I didn’t experience tunnel vision. I was able to keep track of two of the cougars but lost sight of the third as it ran into brush toward 11:00.

    If they had attacked we could have been in deep trouble. It seems likely that mom cougar was teaching her (huge) cubs to hunt, and for whatever reason decided we weren’t the prey they were looking for. These were impressive predators up close. Who knows if a few 9mm hits would have been enough. I feel like it was a close call, and Mrs CF is still jumpy.

    This is the second time in a year that I’ve pointed my gun at multiple large predators. The take home for us is be prepared.

    https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....678#post742678
    Last edited by Clusterfrack; 03-24-2022 at 11:37 AM.
    "You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
    Shabbat shalom, motherf***ers! --Mordechai Jefferson Carver

  2. #2
    Deadeye Dick Clusterfrack's Avatar
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    Jun 2013
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    Wokelandia
    Here’s the place where we saw the 3 cougars:

    "You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
    Shabbat shalom, motherf***ers! --Mordechai Jefferson Carver

  3. #3
    Sometimes we are not as high on the food chain as we think we are, and that keeps things interesting. My bet is they were not interested in you and you just stumbled into their activities.
    Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.

  4. #4
    Member Hieronymous's Avatar
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    Feb 2019
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    St.Louis, MO
    Glad you both were unscathed. I would not want to get flanked by a cougar. How well did you find that they blended in with the environment?

    Thanks for sharing!

  5. #5
    Deadeye Dick Clusterfrack's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hieronymous View Post
    Glad you both were unscathed. I would not want to get flanked by a cougar. How well did you find that they blended in with the environment?

    Thanks for sharing!
    Thanks. They were very well camouflaged, but both of us are good at spotting wildlife. We saw them right away. My wife only saw two though, and somehow missed Cub1 altogether. Probably because there was a huge lioness right in front of her!
    "You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
    Shabbat shalom, motherf***ers! --Mordechai Jefferson Carver

  6. #6
    Member JHC's Avatar
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    Feb 2011
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    North Georgia
    Quote Originally Posted by Clusterfrack View Post
    If they had attacked we could have been in deep trouble. It seems likely that mom cougar was teaching her (huge) cubs to hunt, and for whatever reason decided we weren’t the prey they were looking for. These were impressive predators up close. Who knows if a few 9mm hits would have been enough. I feel like it was a close call, and Mrs CF is still jumpy.

    This is the second time in a year that I’ve pointed my gun at multiple large predators. The take home for us is be prepared.
    https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?sha...8&share_type=t


    Vibes man, vibes.


    Just spit ballin' but maybe a 500-600 pound brown bear can play the honey badger in his world. A stealth hunter of modest size needs to be more discriminating.
    “Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais

  7. #7
    Site Supporter
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    Fort Worth, TX
    There was a Bobcat in my suburban backyard last week. Does that count?

    The squirrel population has dropped precipitously in the last month. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
    "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776

  8. #8
    Member
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    Oct 2013
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    East Greenwich, RI
    Glad that worked out! Being prepared certainly gives options others don’t have!

  9. #9
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    Oct 2015
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    Rochester Hills, MI
    Wow, glad you made it out of that situation unscathed. Definitely a reality check for sure.


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  10. #10
    Member
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    Aug 2011
    Location
    Western Ohio
    No cougars around here (other than at Austin Landing) but some years ago we took a tour of the wildlife exhibits/"zoo" at Nemacolin resort in PA. This was a "behind the scenes" type deal. When we got to the cougar habitat we spotted the cat probably 50 - 60 feet away through a large viewing window. For whatever reason I took my eyes off it for a few seconds and when I turned back to look the fucker was maybe 3 feet away from the glass. Looking right at us.

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