Shot a nice cougar with my 35 Whelen cast

[kootne]

That is a nice cat and my hat is off to you. Not many are killed without assistance from hounds. They are very good to eat, much better than deer. It's a tossup for me, mtn sheep or big cat, which one is the best game meat. Anyway, if you did not get a trichinosis test on the meat, make sure you THOROUGHLY cook it before you eat it. Bear and cat both can carry trich. Some folks a few years ago in Idaho got it from mountain lion jerky.

[oneofsix]

They say we don't have big cats here in NC- but I've seen 2 different one from a distance. That outline with that thick tail is a dead giveaway.
I've been blessed to see a few strange things of the animal type when I drove a service van for a living.

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk

[Les Staley]

Thanks for the tip on Trichinosis, kootne. I cook thoroughly, not pink at all. Browned both sides of these thin fried steak/ medallions, and they stay tender.

The rifle is a Danzig WW2 98 Mauser with a Green Mountain 35 Whelen barrel, a walnut sporter stock from Brownells, glass bedded, built by a buddy of mine, Mel Doyle here in St Maries/Plummer, Idaho. I put together another one on an Oberndorf 98 same vintage, same GM barrel, same caliber, in a Archangel stock.

My load is a RCBS 35-200 sized .359, powder coated water dropped COWW, gas checked, lit off with 45 gr of 3031 right at 2300fps. Sighted 2-1/2" high at 100. Pretty close to poa @ 200yds. Cat was about 80 yds , feeling safe, all I could clearly see was his head. Me, lucky...the lion, not so much.

[JM7.7x58]

I saw one while I was driving to work about five years ago. We were working 12’s and starting early. It must have been about 4:30 in the morning. Off in the distance I saw what I assumed was a golden retriever crossing the highway. Then I noticed that it had a really funny looking tail. Then it was gone up the embankment and into the underbrush. It was at that point that it dawned on me that I had just had my first and quite possibly my last wild cougar sighting, of my lifetime.

[Harleysboss]

Wow..the deer and elk in your neck of the woods thank you. They are awesome critters to see up close in the wild. I had a 60ish yard encounter a few years back while muzzleloading for elk...I missed! Nice rifle as well. I have an 03 Springfield in line at the gunsmiths awaiting its new 35 Whelen barrel.

[Dale53]

A number of years ago, before I retired, I hung a comic calendar up in my office (I was an insurance claim rep for thirty years). I was out on the floor with a number of employees. Everyone could see the calendar. It was a "I hate cats" with different comic illustrations on each page. It was designed for laughter, not serious, and it was clear as to the intent. However, simply hanging that up on the glass partition behind me where everyone could see, seriously offended a couple of women in the department I hardly knew. I did NOT take it down...

I have to chuckle when I think of what they would say, if they saw this thread!

That is one huge cat! I really never gave it a thought that a large cat would taste that good!

I just learned something new!

Dale53

[Tripplebeards]

I would assume bobcats probably taste good as well? I’ve always taken everyone in to get a rug, mount, or something made out of them and never tried to meat. I figured since they were a predator and did nothing but meat they wouldn’t taste good.


The 35 Musta hammered that cat!

[smoked turkey]

Les that is an honest to goodness trophy. Glad you are preserving it with a mount. I have heard of sightings of them in our neck of the woods. But I've never seen one. Don't honestly know if I want to or not. Puts me down a notch on the food chain. I like the 35 Whelen too. I can only claim a couple of whitetail and a black bear for mine. I used the old 3589 boolit. I will have to give the RCBS 35-200 a workout for longer range. Congratulations on your cat.

[sharpsguy]

Congratulations on a very nice cat. Likely the trophy of a lifetime. He appears to have been eating extremely well, for sure.

[Les Staley]

The boolet entered the skull just below the near ear, (must have been at a 45 degree angle) and exited low on the neck. I took a CSI type picture with a rod thru the hole showing bullet path I'll text to anyone interested, prolly not appropriate for open forum display. My grandson is boiling and whitening the skull for me. A jacketed bullet would have done lots more damage.

[429421Cowboy]

That is a very nice lion! Very few taken that size without hounds for sure, most of the incidental take is young lions. I have yet to take one myself and only want one, but I hunt them with my hunting partners and they are some of my favorites to chase. Anymore lions and elk are the only big game that really get me jazzed up. And they are dang tasty as many have said, chicken fried lion cube steaks is a favorite in our house!

[If1Hitu]

[Dinny]

I got attacked by a cougar once...best night of my life!

Thanks, Dinny

[nagantguy]

Great cat and great shot! Had a Yugoslav Mauser and a 35 cal barrel once for a project gun, never got it finished; fresh out of the service remodeling a house and found out baby number one was on the way- sold it to finish the plumbing and wiring along with some other treasures. Any really good shot on that cat, the mountain lions in my old hunting grounds completely decimated the deer population in just a few years and our DNR said they didn’t exist in that part of the state, until some showed up on game cameras and got hit in the road and tangled with someone’s dog, we had seen a few years before and once I was bow distance from a young one , close enough to see it had porcupine quills in its face.

[kavemankel]

Nice Cat. I had the un-easy experience of one stalking me on a mule deer hunt one year in NM.
Didn't even know he was there until I met up with my hunting partner and we started talking, and that is when we saw it bolt and run.
If your unprepared they are a force to be reckoned with.

[Les Staley]

Dinny, your reply takes the cake!!! Best post of the week!!

429421 Cowboy, wife and I tried chicken fried kitty cat cubed steaks last night. Delicious!!!

[Nathanj]

That's awesome, even better you got it with your own cast bullets. Cougar is on my to do list

[Idaho45guy]

Nice cat! I've only seen a cougar in the wild a couple of times while living in Idaho. Once was while turkey hunting down my Dworshak reservoir. My dad and brother and I were sitting in a blind and watched a giant cougar chase down a whitetail through the timber across the little valley were were in. Maybe 300 yards away. It was amazing to watch.

The other time was when I pulled into the rest stop between Potlatch and Plummer on hwy 95 and my headlights caught two young cubs playing on one of the big boulders.

I thought I've seen flashes of them a couple of times while in the woods, but they are nearly impossible to see if they don't want to be seen.

I also have a .35 Whelen, but it is my elk gun.

[trapper9260]

I am wait for one show up where I hunt and trap I like to get one .I had talk with my game warden about them and if we able to shoot them, he said yes and bear there is no season on them here,shoot when ever you like. But the wolf you can not.

[Ramjet-SS]

We have some pretty darn big Bobcats in NE Wisconsin poor deer and grouse have little chances up here anymore overpopulated with Wolves, coyotes, bobcats and occasional mountain lion moving through. The Anti hunters are winning protecting the wolves while the wolves continue to increase out of control decimating the deer herds......It’s not good