Mountain Lions, I have a new respect.

Pilot1 said:
Wolf vs Moutain Lion? I'd bet Mountain Lion any day of the week.

Also, your .357 mag may conmfort you, but you'll never see or hear the cat that stalks you from behind which is what they do. They will grap the back of your neck and seperate your verterbrae before you can even hope to reach your gun. Its wise to make 360's every few minutes at randon times when hiking in the mountains.

Near where I live we had a starved, sick, 80 lb mountain lion jump a six foot fence with a full grown Lab in its mouth.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10108069
Click to expand...
sigh, you act like I don't know what I'm doing or what I'm talking about... the fact of the matter is I do. They don't stalk from behind-they encircle. If you see one cat track they call it coincidence-if you see two, it is stalking you. I have been stalked by cats a number of times just in the last few months. It's all about situational awareness-you can carry an RPG if you want but it's not going to do you any good if you don't see it coming. I hunt lions for photography purposes-I know how quiet they are, I know how they stalk and hunt.
 
Almost every story of a cougar on human attack i've ever read; the victim had NO idea they were being stalked and the attack (if they survived to tell it) took them by complete surprise. You'd have to walk around, gun in hand, to be truly prepared for an attack. And even at that, you'd better be cool as a cucumber to hit a target moving as fast as that.
 
Big Mountain Lion you say?

These are not photo shopped.

attachment.php


attachment.php
 
PayetteRucker said:
you have a wannabe Japanese duelling sword but no firearms? maybe you should re-evaluate your budget and needs, one can get a quality Taurus .357 revolver for less than half of what you paid for that Waki.
Click to expand...

I'm in the UK, i'd be doing time for having that gun (or any), i've not gone through the nightmare it is to get a firearms license in this country. It's just not worth as I can kick a fox or angry badger to death without the needs for ballistic backup. If I was in the US I'd be up for a Browning .45 or something beefy like that.

As for the above pics of that cat. Well I might just switch straight to a pick axe if i'm up against that. My Bullmastiff weighs 140lbs and I know he wouldn't stand a chance against that kitty.
 
that is a big ass cat. his paws are the size of your head. imagine what one swipe from that would do to any dog or person. wow
 
I spent about 20 minutes talking to a lion hunter down on the south slopes of Pikes Peak one time maybe two or three years ago. He's lived in the area his entire life, ranching. He said that one time he was checking on a spring and flushed a herd of deer. An old, scrawny, starving, female lion that had been stalking the deer decided to have him for dinner, instead of venison. She didn't charge right away, so he had time to plug her with a sidearm. Must have been exciting. That's the only time I've heard about an attack that someone saw coming.

He called the Beaver Creek drainage "the lion highway". Population pressure and territoriality push lions down from Colorado Springs regularly. He said that he gets his quota, eight lions, every year, like clockwork.

Thank goodness we've got folks like him around to keep the population in check, or we'd have mountain bikers dying like flies around here. Politicians would make cycling illegal, etc.

Kids, cyclists, and runners are the high-risk groups. Small size and/or high speed = prey in a cat's brain. It's hardwired. Unless you're in one of these groups, I wouldn't worry about lions in Colorado, especially in the back country.

Gordon

crom said:
Almost every story of a cougar on human attack i've ever read; the victim had NO idea they were being stalked and the attack (if they survived to tell it) took them by complete surprise. You'd have to walk around, gun in hand, to be truly prepared for an attack. And even at that, you'd better be cool as a cucumber to hit a target moving as fast as that.
Click to expand...
 
pumas are a different species than jags. a 165 lb. jag was live trapped in arizona or n.m. last yr. the puma lb. for lb. is strongest animal in north amer. one wolf would not be a match for puma. not hard to kill, most dog pack men use 22 pistol but in a surprise situation i would like at least a 20 gauge. these are on increase in texas since we have had a feral hog explosion.estimates of hogs approach 3 million. in last yr 4 reports of pumas within 40 miles of austin. in tex. pumas are not protected & can be shot anytime. in fact our game biologists say if one is near & gun available, do'nt hesitate to kill.
 
Here is the story about a Cougar shot by Chicago police a year or so ago. This was deep in the heart of the extensive north side of Chicago.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-chicago-cougar-shot-webapr15,0,98147.story

And on a side note, yesterday in Libertyville as I passed Independence Grove, I saw a pack of coyotes in a open field......first time I've ever seen a pack of them. All coyotes and not ferral dogs.
http://www.lcfpd.org/preserves/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.view&object_id=194&type=P
 
Last edited:
bearcut said:
...Maybe the ancient Molossus dogs, which weigh upwards of 400lbs, could take a cougar, but that breed is extinct....
Click to expand...

400+ pounds?! Where do you get that? All the information I could find suggests these dogs were similar
to mastiffs or rottweilers, though there is a lot of uncertainty and some say they were more like greyhounds.

Big dogs, maybe, but more like 100+ pounds.

400+ pounds is the size of a male African lion at his peak!

Maybe they looked like this:

lionmastiff4222.jpg
 
Pilot1 said:
...Also, your .357 mag may conmfort you, but you'll never see or hear the cat that stalks you from behind which is what they do. They will grap the back of your neck and seperate your verterbrae before you can even hope to reach your gun. Its wise to make 360's every few minutes at randon times when hiking in the mountains...
Click to expand...

I agree about the need for maintaining awareness of what's going on all around you (no matter where you are), but there have been many lion attacks where the person saw it coming, or had ample time to fight.

Using a stick, pen, rock, chain saw, boot, swiss army knife or even a fixed blade to fight a lion has been done, with success. I choose to carry much more effective tools, though. I have no desire to be stalked and charged at all the way down a trail, as has happened numerous times.

Be aware, and be ready to fight. Just don't stop going out and enjoying the woods!
 
The only person I have ever met who had a bad encounter with a mountain lion was a young woman here in Visalia. She was hiking down a slope above Dorst campground in Sequoia NP as it got dark, and heard something coming quickly from behind. She turned around with her flashlight to find herself looking at a lion at full charge. Her scream and/or the flashlight directed at the lion's face caused the lion to veer off at the last second. It then circled her as she continued to make her way down the slope to the group she was meeting. She kept screaming and yelling until she got to her friends and the lion left. She said she was shaking pretty hard.
 
Considering guns, with most wild animals, you usually don't have to hit it in order for it to be effective, the loud noise is usually enough to scare them off. Most animals instinctively associate a loud bang coming from a human, with danger and that serves as a good deterrent almost any animal.
 
Ben Lilly, bear and lion hunter - trapper at the turn of the century was out of ammo, shook a cat out of a tree and clubbed it to death with a tree limb.
 
You can read all about people who, with varying degrees of success, defended themselves from mtn lion attacks at sites like http://www.cougarinfo.org/attacks2.htm. About 90% of the way down the page you will find what I think is likely the 3rd fatality in the USA, which was the 3 yr old who was hiking with the church group that vanished in 1999 in Larimer Co. They found remains in 2003.

The Buck 110 defense was in Vancouver Island, by a 50 something yr old tough as nails guy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top