Once I hung up from a protracted telephone dialog I checked the path cam notifications I’d gotten, anticipating to peer turkeys. However the first thumbnail to pop up was once a cougar. The photographs have been captured simply two mins prior; it was once April 25, 2:20 p.m.
Inside 5 mins I used to be dressed and at the street. The mountain lion was once cruising an previous logging street within the foothills of the Cascade Vary, lower than 3 miles from my house in Western Oregon.
I have been looking mountain lions on this jungle-like habitat for 3 years. I’d but to kill one. This was once a chief alternative. As I drove to the spot, I couldn’t forestall desirous about the shut calls I’d had with cougars in those hills.
Shut Encounters
Picture by way of Scout Haugen
Seven months in the past my spouse and I had simply sat down for dinner at her people. Earlier than reducing into grilled elk steaks, a Moultrie Cellular notification popped up on my telephone. It was once a photograph of a cougar. A large one. “I’ve to move, I’ll come again and get you after darkish,” I mentioned as I kissed my spouse good-bye. I’d been after this lion for 3 weeks. Everybody understood. It’s how I’ve operated for a few years.
I had a metamorphosis of garments, my rifle, and predator calling equipment on the in a position, so inside 45 mins I used to be sitting exactly the place the cat had popped up on digital camera. It felt like a completed deal. I had 3 footage of the massive tom strolling a slim recreation path atop a timbered ridge. It was once too thick to get forward of him and I used to be operating out of sunlight so I arrange a Foxpro digital name 30 yards up the path from the place I’d closing noticed the cat, intent on calling it go into reverse the path.
I used to be looking right through past due summer season so I began with fawn misery calls, as cats have been hitting them onerous. I higher the quantity, sooner or later switching to rabbit and squirrel sounds, and nonetheless, not anything. Defeated, I hiked out of the hills at the hours of darkness, questioning what went incorrect.
Again on the truck I checked the app. That’s after I noticed two photos of the cat circling again. From the time I’d left the in-laws to the time I were given arrange, the cougar had come go into reverse the path, getting into the comb it had firstly emerged from. I’d arrange and referred to as for over half-hour the place the cat had simply walked by way of. He have been immediately at the back of me in a thick tangle of brush and inexperienced foliage the entire time. Who is aware of how shut it was once — simply sitting there, observing.
5 months later I gained every other path cam notification. I am getting them day-to-day — masses of them. This time, 4 Columbia blacktail deer have been strolling by way of a digital camera. Six mins later, the digital camera was once brought about once more. This time greater than a dozen deer crowded the body they usually have been frightened. Blacktails aren’t like mule deer, they don’t accumulate in iciness herds.
The deer sprinted into the comb and a couple of mins at the back of them got here the huge cougar I’d been after for almost two weeks. Mins later, the cougar emerged and it was once dragging a deer. Sleep didn’t come simple that evening.
At sunlight I went to the place the cougar had dragged the deer out of the woods, hoping to seek out it on or close to the kill. It have been headed for an previous logging street that was once so overgrown with brush it will most effective be navigated on foot. Suffering to find any signal, I backtracked and located the place the cat killed the deer. In spite of everything, I positioned a place the place the cat’s proper paw had slipped on wet, inexperienced moss. Two hours later I discovered a an identical mark over a half-mile from the primary. I’ve tracked numerous animals — each predators and massive recreation — around the world, and this was once one of the vital hardest trails I’d ever labored.
3 hours later the silver underside of a blackberry leaf stuck my eye. It was once 10 yards off the path. The vine have been pulled tight. When deer and elk hold up on vines they infrequently drag them; as a substitute, they step out of them. This one have been dragged greater than 5 ft, indicating one thing was once hung up on it.
I persevered burrowing in the course of the briars. Brush was once dense on either side, providing just a few ft of visibility. I adopted extra overturned leaves and strung-out berry vines. There was once no path, simply knee-deep blackberries. As I appeared forward, I may see the quilt forward hadn’t been disturbed.
Two extra steps and there it was once: a freshly buried deer carcass on the base of a tall Douglas fir. I exposed it and located the place the cat had ripped into the frame hollow space, drank the blood, wolfed the lungs, liver, middle, and the cartilaginous guidelines of a couple of ribs. It had eaten just about the entire head. Not one of the top meat was once touched. The cougar can be again.
Briefly I were given to cutting with a machete to create a taking pictures lane. Then I crafted a crude floor blind 70 yards away, throughout just a little swale. All I may see in the course of the tunnel was once the deer carcass. It was once best.
I left for a pair hours to let issues relax. At 3:00 p.m. I tiptoed into the blind figuring out that the later it were given, the better the risk of the cat’s go back.
Securing the rifle in a vise grip tripod, I settled the reticle at the deer carcass and waited. I stared in the course of the scope so when the cat confirmed up all I’d must do was once pull the cause. An hour into it I lifted my head fairly to offer my neck some reduction. That’s when the cat seemed.
Its blocky head materialized from nowhere and it was once staring proper at me. How that cat had noticed me via tight brush I’ll by no means know. Slowly I diminished my head, assured this was once it. But if I appeared in the course of the scope the cat was once long gone. I didn’t transfer for every other 20 mins, till darkness introduced a as regards to my hunt. I’d simply blown the most efficient alternative I’d had at this cat.
Chasing the Giant Cats of Oregon
Picture by way of Scott Haugen
In Oregon, cougars are categorised as a large recreation animal. In the event you discover a cougar kill you’ll be able to discover it to check up on it, however the carcass can’t be moved. Neither can it’s chained to a tree or tampered with. Cougars can’t be hunted at evening in Oregon and, after all, looking them with hounds here’s forbidden. The chances are ridiculously stacked in want of the cat. The usage of mobile path cameras is criminal, no less than, providing the most efficient likelihood of luck on this difficult habitat.
Given the expanding selection of pets being snatched off again porches, cattle being killed, and human encounters with mountain lions, you’d suppose the foundations would alternate. A conservative estimate places the selection of cougars now roaming Oregon at 7,000 — two times the selection of simply 40 years in the past. The only receive advantages we now have is that cougar season is open all 12 months, or till unit quotas are stuffed.
The mountain lions I hunt are living round folks. Those cats are tricky to kill. They’re sensible. They usually development us. They know while you pass to paintings, when the youngsters pass to university, while you let the canine, out and while you’re looking them.
I’d attempted calling that gigantic tom more than one occasions, in addition to different cats in recent times. I’ve referred to as year-round, with decoys and with out, with digital calls, mouth calls and a mix of the 2. I’ve referred to as in tight quarters the place a 10-yard shot was once the best choice I had. There’s no open terrain the place I hunt: just a few slim taking pictures lanes alongside brushy recreation trails, closed-down logging roads, and slim ATV tracks. More often than not, 30 yards can be thought to be a protracted shot.
Following my close-encounter over the blacktail cache, I stuck 4 other cats on path cameras on this house. I’ve 38 cameras set for cougars, greater than 1/2 of which can be mobile. Numerous a hit cat hunters close to my house — people who know far more about calling cougars than I do — recommended me to run mobile cameras anyplace I may, and the instant a cat seemed, to get after it. All reasoned that the habitat is so thick, for those who’re no longer on them immediately, you’ll no longer pull them out of the comb.
Dozens of occasions I stuck cats shifting at evening. I might get arrange in that very spot and be calling at sunlight, however no lions had come to my calls — no less than that I do know of. I had over a half-dozen sunlight hours sightings on path cameras, however they have been regularly when I used to be touring. I used to be in Alaska when the massive tom confirmed up on 3 cameras 3 days in a row, all right through sunlight.
My dependancy to outsmarting those cats started to manipulate my lifestyles. I began touring much less, sticking nearer to house, environment extra path cameras, jotting detailed notes to development cat actions all over the 12 months, and having a look at path cam notifications once they popped up on my telephone.
In spite of everything, on April 25, the timing was once good.
Level Clean
Picture by way of Scott Haugen
A path cam confirmed a cougar had arrived on the fork of 2 ATV trails.
I used to be in place lower than 20 mins from when the cat seemed on digital camera. It have been on the fork of 2 ATV trails, and I guessed it had caught to the higher trail the place it was once brushier, with extra inexperienced grass on it than the decrease monitor. I showed it had traveled this monitor, which joined every other monitor simply over 1 / 4 mile away. This junction is the place I arrange. I knew I’d have a 50- to 60-yard taking pictures lane down one path, so I’d introduced a 28 Nosler.
I set a Foxpro X24 lower than 30 yards from me, at the different aspect of the path I believed the cat would trip. Will have to the cougar come out the place I was hoping, I figured it could flip uphill, clear of me and pass to the decision. If the cat had already handed by way of and was once headed up the mountain, I figured I may name it again.
Numerous cottontails and grey squirrels have been stoning up on path cameras, at the side of grey fox, opossum, feral cats, and deer; cougars devour all of them. So for 3 mins I performed jack rabbit misery sounds. I began quietly, figuring the cat was once close to. Through the top of the series it was once on complete blast, penetrating the thick stand of 15-year-old Douglas firs masking the ridge.
After a wreck, I slipped an open-reed cow elk name into my mouth and hammered away with chook misery sounds. This has been my go-to sound for calling in bears and coyotes in thick quilt. Twenty seconds into the series, it came about.
A grey fox got here barreling down the path I’d anticipated the cat to trip, became onerous to the proper, and sprinted proper at me. I’ve referred to as in numerous grey fox and right away knew one thing wasn’t proper.
I used to be already at the gun, which was once stable on its tripod, and I put my eye to the scope to trace the scurrying fox. That’s when the blocky head of a cougar seemed. I had each eyes open and may see the cat because it sprinted off the hill, out of a curtain of lush inexperienced. Its thick tail became in an ideal circle then easily centered-up for steadiness. The top and tail have been stable because the cat lunged, became 90 levels to get at the fox, then dug in.
The cougar was once 23 yards from me when it first emerged. In a fragment of a 2d the cat was once stretched out proper at the back of the fox. Now each have been operating complete velocity immediately at me.
I used to be sitting at the floor at the left aspect of the path. The fox got here down the similar aspect. So did the cat. There was once no time to suppose.
When the golf green dot of my sight dropped beneath the nostril of the cougar, I squeezed the cause. At 16 yards, a 175-grain AccuBond pounded the cat within the chest. Its head dropped and the downhill momentum despatched its hind finish excessive. The lengthy, thick, darkish tail prolonged into the sky and fell towards me. It appeared like I may succeed in out and seize it.
In an instant, I cycled every other around however the cat was once on its ft and into thick quilt prior to I may shoot once more. He vanished most effective seven steps from the place I sat. I stripped off my hood and facemask to pay attention. I heard not anything.
There have been no time to get frightened. No shaking.
I stared into the comb however two ft of visibility was once all I had, too dense for a rifle. I sponsored out and walked to the truck seize my shotgun: a short-barreled 12 gauge, loaded with 00 buckshot, and crowned with a Trijicon RMR.
On how one can the truck I texted my friend Tyler Tiller, who has killed plenty of cougars in our house. He was once house and 10 mins later met me on the truck to assist monitor the cat.
For the primary 15 yards there was once no blood, hair, or a visual path within the dense brush. It was once palms and knees monitoring and the going was once sluggish because of large tangles of thorny blackberries. Tiller would find out about the bottom for blood whilst I watched for the cat, then we’d transfer. We have been ultra-focused. It was once tedious paintings.
Ten extra yards and the primary blood seemed — a lot of it. Fifteen mins later and 20 yards additional into the comb, I noticed the cat piled-up within the backside of the draw. It was once simply two steps from us, lined in briars.
Picture by way of Scott Haugen
Learn Subsequent: Looking Cougars with Ben Lilly, the Final of the Mountain Males
After 3 years of chasing cougars in those hills, my efforts have been rewarded. Over the a long time I’ve had the chance to seek plenty of bad recreation animals, together with man-eating lions and crocodiles in Africa and a man-eating tiger in Sumatra. In 1990 I tracked down and killed a man-eating polar undergo in Alaska’s top Arctic. Looking large predators is a keenness. Looking them as regards to house is a deal with.
“Now you’ll be able to after all chill out,” my spouse mentioned. However two weeks in the past, every other cat confirmed up in the similar spot. And I’ve a 2d cougar tag in my pocket.
Scott Haugen is a full-time author of 24 years. Apply his adventures on Instagram and Fb and be informed extra at scotthaugen.com