I grew up hearing stories from my dad and grandad about lion sightings here in Bastrop county.
Back, I'm guessing in the 70s, they had the place leased to a deer hunter. He was sitting in a stand watching a good sized field when two of then walked out. He shot and wounded one and they both ran off. My dad had some cow dogs at the time and put them on the trail but they never were able to find the wounded cat.
A story my grandpaw told happened one night when him and several buddies were coon hunting. They were walking along in the dark with no flashlights when a big cat jumped out of the tree they had just walked under and ran away in the dark. He said it scared one of them so bad that he sat down and started crying.
In the winter of 2009 I had my own sighting. It was probably 10 o'clock at night and I was driving my four wheeler down a back ranch road spotlighting for varmints. I see what at first I think is a coyote moving through some tall weeds, but something is strange about it. It is not trotting like a coyote, it is slinking like a cat. I stop the atv and start lip squeaking trying to make it stop but it doesn't. It moves behind a tree so I drive a little closer to get a clear view around the tree. There about 80 yards away in an opening, sitting down looking at me, is a sure enough mountain lion. I can distinctly remember seeing it's dark face markings. I drew down on it, put the cross hairs right on its shoulder and fired. At the shot it jumped strait up in the air several feet, kicked its back legs out like a deer would and disappeared. Unbeknownst to me at the time my .223's scope was knocked off and was shooting several inches too high. I know I hit him but am sure it was a grazing shot. I never found a blood trail and about 15 minutes after the shot it started to rain vary hard. I came back the next day and searched but it was no use.
Last edited by justin10mm; 09/10/12.
