the mountain lion is at it again

[johnson1942]

waksupi if this isnt the right place for this post move it to where you want. i dont remember where i posted about this critter before. well he moved or at leaste i hope he moved and it isnt another one east of my place to a ranch 15 miles east. two bachelor brothers who are house poor and land and cattle rich had a vistor. one sleeps in a bedromm and the other brother sleeps in the liveing room on a day bed. no airconditioning and their cow and land is important and the house isnt. sept. has been very warm here so they slept with the door open and just a old broken down screen door between them and the out side. the one sleeping on the day bed had a bad feeling in his sleep and woke up to see a mountain liion sitting on its haunches watching him sleep.he screamed bloody murder and the other brother came out fast from the bed room and the cat went out the broken sceen door. they got their 12 gauges and flash lights and went looking for him and soon realized where ever they went the cat was following them. that ended that. they dont sleep with the door open any more. i really really wish the state would do something about it beside just warn every body of the critter. my neighbor has spent a lot of nights up all night watching his young stock but maybe he can rest a little now as the cat moved east. he could move back in one night also. i got 3 shot guns by the door i really wish i could get a crack at him or her what ever it is. this thing is getting to the point that it isnt sightings, its incidents. the rancher north of me 1 and 1/2 mile is still looking for three of his steers that fled the corral when the lion was in it. behind his house is thousands of acres of pines and grass. hard to find lost cattle up their. thats a good chunk of lost money. wish they would turn the hunters loose with their hunting dogs. that would do it. you guys in the city worry about gangbangers, we worry about lions. send the gangbanger here with a stick mayber it solve part of the problem.

[Maven]

"...had a bad feeling in his sleep and woke up to see a mountain liion sitting on its haunches watching him sleep. He screamed bloody murder...."

That's absolutely terrifying, Roger. Talk about your worst nightmare....!!!

[johnson1942]

maven, i called my friend who lives 3 miles across the prairie last night at 10 pm. he said his neighbor about 2 miles away just saw a mountain lion cross the road by their place and called him to tell him. my friends dog wouldnt go out again before bed time again. he is either back or we are haveing problems with two of them. if i woke up and saw a mountain lion sitting by me looking at me i dont think i could have screamed, i probably would have passed out. my other neighbor is going to set up a trail camera in his yard. his wife always gets home after dark from work and parks in the machine shed and walks 75 yards to the house. i wouldnt do that any more either.

[curator]

Here in Florida, Texas Mountain Lions were brought in to improve the genetics of the inbred Florida Panther. They are protected by State and Federal law. One particular young male has killed more than 20 goats, some tame deer, and a couple of horses in the area where my daughter has her "hobby-farm." Shooting a Florida panther (even if it comes from Texas) is a federal offense carrying felony conviction and 10 years in the slammer. I made up some black powder 12 gauge shells with air-soft pellets for her to use when confronting this animal. So far she has yet to be there when it is on the prowl. 70 grains of FFFg, over powder card wad and 28, 6mm plastic pellets is amazing particularly at night! Almost no penetration of hard cardboard at 50 feet but would surely smart (nice 1/4 inch dents) and the "flash & bang" gets their attention. I have used this on black bears raiding bee hives for "avoidance therapy" with some success. I'm sure the federal panther people wouldn't approve, but they aren't doing anything to help except threaten those who want to protect their pets and livestock. If this "panther" will kill 10 goats in a fenced in pen in broad daylight, it would probably take a six-year old child as well.

[johnson1942]

curator, your right, as a lot of things in this country that arent addressed but left untill you have to deal with them, this one is going to have to be delt with also some day. all they are doing around here is warning the rural people to be careful. out of over 100 sightings in the black hills not far from here the lions have never ever showed any fear of man. they study you, then walk away or toward you. they never turn and run except for the one in the livingroom the other day. on a humors side i think i would have reacted like jackie gleason of the long ago honeymooners. when he got flustered he just stammered. thats probably all i would have managed. then also trying to go to sleep again the next time, it would take a while to learn to sleep again. i know a real nice elderly lady that lives next to those two bachlors ranch by her self. i bet she isnt sleeping so good lately.

[dilly]

Curator, laws like that are exactly why I think people should be careful how they treat "felons." They aren't all child molesters.

[quilbilly]

Mountain lions can be a double-edge sword. last summer we had a young female raise her first batch of kittens in the woods in back of our place. About the same time a bunch of eco bureaucrats wanted to look at our creek for (we own the access but not on the creek) "salmon restoration". Knowing that several endangered species live in our neighborhood from time to time and if a bureaucrat sees one, it can ruin your life, I told them we were enjoying seeing the kittens so didn't want momma disturbed. The bureaucrats could use our trails but even if they didn't see her, they could be sure momma lion was watching them. The bureaucrats went right down and back in the middle of the swampy creek and never came back. We now owe that momma lion a favor (maybe several). In the time she was there, she never bothered our house cats, cleaned the beavers out of the creek which has been great, ran off the coyotes, and never had to fence the veggie garden from deer that summer (not so this year). It is the huge tom that bred her that I want to skin.

[mold maker]

Shoot, shovel, Shut up.

[leeggen]

I beleive in this situation I would follow my freinds advice,-----Ain't never seen it and don't want to see it again. As mold maker said, if asked about if I have seen the cat nope but I do alot of target practice so it probably won't be around.
CD

[dlbarr]

Shoot, shovel, Shut up..

Amen.

[johnson1942]

i have become friends with a shooter that posts here now and again who lives in northern italy. he is a big gardner and so am i. we exchange garden seeds and talk now and then with email. he is a game warden in the mountains in italy. he said the govenment of italy let loose some european black bears in his area and they have drove every body nuts ever since. they have killed a large number of the various livestock that they have their and the payback is very very poor by the government. they are spreading fast like the lions here and people are at witts end with it all. they dont have huge herds of cattle their and when they loose one it may be their only source of milk for cheese. donkeys and goats are also high on their bears list for food also. the whole world has gone nuts with this turning meat eaters loose. about once or twice a year wolves are showing up here now also but a good 22/250 takes care of that pretty fast. they dont usually leave the county but disappear pretty quick.

[swathdiver]

How many of you fellas could've shot that Mountain Lion without getting out of bed? As for S, S and S, that's perfect advice for the problem at hand.

Here in Florida, Panthers are anything but endangered, they're all over the place and as many as the eco-libs say there are in total, are run over by cars each year. The eco-libs put you and I at the bottom of the animal kingdom. God gave us dominion over the earth and all the creatures in it. S, S and S!

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Liberals, governments and man's laws aside, there is a higher law one must ascribe to: The law of the jungle. You have a problem with some critter or another killing your food? Shoot the stinking thing and put an end to it permanetly. If you can't shoot it, trap it or poison it. Do whatever it takes to protect you and yours. After all, the only law it suscribes to is the law of the jungle. So should you, if you wish to survive and thrive. Civilization is a very thin veneer that can break quickly indeed.

[rodwha]

"The eco-libs put you and I at the bottom of the animal kingdom."

Those types have always baffled me. My mother was one who went the PITA type way telling me it wasn't fair to use a rifle for deer hunting, and that she wouldn't support it until they had guns too, that they didn't have a chance.

I asked her how much more of a chance did the package of beef, pork, or chicken have?

I've seen videos they've made in which they've broken a few laws stealing animals and talking about the good deed they did by breaking said laws… Nut cases!

[Theditchman]

I think the worst thing would be to wake up and see my mother in law naked and sitting on her haunches watching me...I would definitely start screaming

[johnson1942]

theditchman, i almost fell off of my chair when i read what you said. i will probably be laughing for several days. thanks.

[rodwha]

Aaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!

:veryconfu

[Coffeecup]

theditchman, i almost fell off of my chair when i read what you said. i will probably be laughing for several days. thanks.
And I'll be having nightmares for a month. Divorced for 16 years and the ex-mother-in-law still gives me the creeps. . . .

[swathdiver]

I'm blessed with a great mother-in-law! So how many could've sixgunned that cat without getting out of bed? hehehe

[DougGuy]

I sleep with a .45 auto 2' from my head. I think I would have chanced grabbing for it.

[fishhawk]

You know that's one thing I wish is that I would have at least able to meet my mother in law but she died when my wife was 13. If she was any thing like my wife she would have been a wonderful person and I really would have liked to have met her.

[Coffeecup]

I'm blessed with a great mother-in-law! So how many could've sixgunned that cat without getting out of bed? hehehe
I suspect I'd have tried, though I might have hesitated if I thought of the noise first. Years ago I sorted out a bear that decided to invade my tent. The worst part of that was the muzzleblast before I'd had my morning coffee.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

I suspect I'd have tried, though I might have hesitated if I thought of the noise first. Years ago I sorted out a bear that decided to invade my tent. The worst part of that was the muzzleblast before I'd had my morning coffee.

Nothing like a big boom and bear meat for breakfast in the wild.:)

[mold maker]

2 or 4 legged, if its guilty of B&E, it's DRT. Muzzle blast is just noise, but being a meal to a creature, isn't gonna happen, if I can help it. At the least I wont be a free meal.

[Forgetful]

Just a thought, but has anyone tried playing with a lion using a laser pointer? I thought of that last night, makes me want to go to the zoo and play with the lions and bears.

I used to have a fairly big breed of house cat, he died back in Dec :'( but a number of years ago I was living with this ho (I didn't know it at the time she was such a ho) but she was laying on the floor and I was playing with my cat, and I put the laser on her crotch and he tried to kill the red spot (declawed..) with a huge swat of his paw. It was hilarious. She tried to do that to me but he was all, "nope it's his dot now I aint touching it."

[Geppetto]

How many of you fellas could've shot that Mountain Lion without getting out of bed?

Lion woulda had 3 rounds of #4 buck in it without me getting out from under the covers. Even through she is a sound sleeper, that would probably wake up the wife. (shotgun blast > me snoring)

[Theditchman]

Not with my mother in law...the old couger would have her teeth and claws in you before you could blink

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

you need some traps , everyone needs traps just say they are coyote setts and stake them deep well within your right to have coyote sets around the ranch

[dualsport]

I favor the SSS approach. I've had a late night close encounter with a big cougar in the mountains here. It's shocking, kinda rattles a guy, spoils his aim. Lights and firepower are the answer.

[johnson1942]

too many cats, something has to give. my neighbors goats are sleeping all day and up scared all night. they know what is out their. they reversed their habits and eat at night now. his dog wont go out of the house after dark and during the day he just stands and looks out at the tall grass. ive got three shot guns by the door just incase it show up in my yard and i see it.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Sound like it's time for a trap if the dogs are that nervous.

[Forgetful]

Maybe its time to climb up on the roof with a thermal imaging scope and a precision rifle, and use that as your blinds. You've got the bait..

[johnson1942]

a thermal imaging scope and a good rifle, now thats what the ranchers need who are out at night watching their cattle. at 1000 bucks a cow maybe they should buy a outfit like that.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

I had a late night encounter with a old cougar wunst, so I settled up my bill, tipped the barmaid well, ran to my truck as fast as one and a haf leg could hop, and hauled fer home!

I make it a point to always slam the truck door right after I jump in and got it cranked up.

BvT