We called a cougar this week and watched it for 11 minutes inside of 30 yards.
On an evening patrol after a bear for a young hunting partner, he saw a cougar. We tried to call it soon after with a hand call. The call is a prototype closed reed prey distress designed and made by Rainshadow that he let me try out. It has a lower, raspy jackrabbit tone.
We set up on a brush choked old logging road, a lane between walls of alder saplings. We had the advantage of being pretty sure the cat was on the downhill side of the road so we could concentrate there. Within 1 ½ to two minutes, the cougar showed up on the edge of the road and started watching us from partial hiding behind a light screen of leaves.
The lion was hard to see with naked eye even though it was closer than 30 yards, but with binoculars we could easily see the front half of the cat. His face and eyes and white chin are engraved in my memory. Part of his face plus some of his neck and all of his shoulder were wide open and easy for a scoped rifle. When he changed position and edged closer, he showed the front of his chest free and clear for a shot.
After two or three minutes we started timing and the cat stayed another nine minutes. I would call softly every minute or two to hold his interest. Once I switched to a few seconds of frenetic fast sound and the cat crouched down and edged a foot closer, his chin just above the big paws with his eyes intent. After awhile he stood again, and he kept looking across the road, telegraphing that he was going to cross. Sure enough, he walked across in the open and into the brush on the uphill side.
My hunting partner and I both took pictures but it was too dim in the sundown canyon for the little digital cameras we had to pick up enough light when zoomed in. We first saw the lion about 8:55 PM. The lion is circled below but it is a virtually worth less picture.
I thought that all cougar seasons were closed and so had not bought a 2010 license nor tag when the new license year recently started. My companion had a scoped rifle in hand but had not bought a cougar tag since he didn’t think the season was open either. We’d read the regs wrong. A half hour later at our camp, a friend who lives in the area pointed out in the regs that cougar is still open in that area.
Call it a cosmic joke to have such an easy shot with no tag. I felt like grinning and crying.
It was a fun treat to see him and we picked up a bit more about lion traits.
On an evening patrol after a bear for a young hunting partner, he saw a cougar. We tried to call it soon after with a hand call. The call is a prototype closed reed prey distress designed and made by Rainshadow that he let me try out. It has a lower, raspy jackrabbit tone.
We set up on a brush choked old logging road, a lane between walls of alder saplings. We had the advantage of being pretty sure the cat was on the downhill side of the road so we could concentrate there. Within 1 ½ to two minutes, the cougar showed up on the edge of the road and started watching us from partial hiding behind a light screen of leaves.
The lion was hard to see with naked eye even though it was closer than 30 yards, but with binoculars we could easily see the front half of the cat. His face and eyes and white chin are engraved in my memory. Part of his face plus some of his neck and all of his shoulder were wide open and easy for a scoped rifle. When he changed position and edged closer, he showed the front of his chest free and clear for a shot.
After two or three minutes we started timing and the cat stayed another nine minutes. I would call softly every minute or two to hold his interest. Once I switched to a few seconds of frenetic fast sound and the cat crouched down and edged a foot closer, his chin just above the big paws with his eyes intent. After awhile he stood again, and he kept looking across the road, telegraphing that he was going to cross. Sure enough, he walked across in the open and into the brush on the uphill side.
My hunting partner and I both took pictures but it was too dim in the sundown canyon for the little digital cameras we had to pick up enough light when zoomed in. We first saw the lion about 8:55 PM. The lion is circled below but it is a virtually worth less picture.
I thought that all cougar seasons were closed and so had not bought a 2010 license nor tag when the new license year recently started. My companion had a scoped rifle in hand but had not bought a cougar tag since he didn’t think the season was open either. We’d read the regs wrong. A half hour later at our camp, a friend who lives in the area pointed out in the regs that cougar is still open in that area.
Call it a cosmic joke to have such an easy shot with no tag. I felt like grinning and crying.
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