I know jack [bleep] about Mtn Lions.
Are they like coyote or hogs in that you can hunt the crap out of them and kill a pile of them and they just bounce their population right back up if you dont keep hammering them?
Would killing a bunch one year make a big dent?
Wasn't that many years ago, I was out hunting by myself at altitude, down on the Oregon California line. It was snowing pretty hard.. Had my 4 Runner with me.
Walked down a logging trail, that got narrower and narrower with heavy brush on each side. It finally ended at a cliff, that had been mined some. Evidently a long time ago...When I turned around to go back to my truck, I didn't get too many yards back up that trail, when I see fresh lion paw prints in the snow! A cougar had followed me down that road. Never saw or heard it. Especially wouldn't have in the snow that was falling. One the way back, I saw there the tracks had came out of the brush.
Needless to say, the hair on the back or my neck was standing up and I was on HIGH ALERT with my rifle ready to go and I kept turning around to see if it was following me, down the trail and back to my truck. Made it back to my truck, and decided to just take a nap. It was about noon and I'd been up since like 4 AM to get out there. Think I slept for an hour.
upon waking up, get my rifle out and get out of the truck. Cougar prints up to my truck and actually circled my truck 3 times. Put the rifle back in the truck, started the engine and left.
Why I never got jumped? I believe it was having a rifle with me. Those cats know what one is, especially if they have been shot at. That is probably what saved me from becoming cougar crap that time.
When I first moved here to Oregon, I was out and was hiking, looking for deer sign, on a logging road, up at altitude. Had my head down as it was snowing pretty hard. I was just carrying a 22 Mag rifle with me. The hair went up on the back of my neck, and I looked up and there was a curve in the road ahead of me by 100 yds. There was a cougar on a rock, in a position readying to pounce down upon the road. I pulled up the rifle and aimed it at the cat's face and started walking toward it. It got out of that crowched position and snarled at me a couple of times. I put a shot into the rock ledge just below its feet. It jumped at the shot and the rock flying when the bullet hit. I kept on walking toward it and just talking out loud. It took off after one more last snarl.
My underwear wasn't full of poop, but I bet my Blood Pressure was 300 over 300, and I was wired like I just ate an entire bottle of speed. I definitely was sweating....
Had been in that situation with a black bear or two in my lifetime. Glad it worked on Cougars also. These young guys in CA that just had the experience of meeting a cougar evidently weren't armed. I never go in the back country unarmed around this place.
