Late night visitor PT 3

I'm sure you remember the Part one, and part two letters with pictures of Mountain lion tracks I found in my back yard. Well, Debbie(my wife), and I decided to walk back in the woods behind our house to see if we could find anymore signs. We came upon what was left of a deer. See the attached picture. It was less than a month old. The part of one leg that was left still had a working knee. Which told me it was relatively fresh. I was telling my neighbor about it and they had found another one off in another field that was fresher than the one I saw. We also found a den that had been made in the roots of a blown down tree. I had a big stick with me along with my 45 cal. Kimber 1911 with a 10 round clip locked and loaded.

Sounds like the DNR (or whatever Tenn calls it's wild life dept) needs to do a relocation.

Tom throw the stick away and keep that 45 in ya pocket :)

No kidding. With those cats you need a bit more than a .45.

Good luck

Chris, I started to take my 30/30, but I thought about how fast I could get of more than one round. I have some hot loads for my 45 with 185 grain hollow points. I can empty the 11 rounds the gun holds in a matter of 10 seconds, and at close range a 45 is a very effective weapon.

I hear ya, but I wouldnt want to be in pistol range with that thing. Nothing wrong with a .45, but as a wise man once said, "We should have shotguns for this deal"

One loud bang and the cat would disappear just about as fast as you could squeeze off the next one. Wouldn't matter if you shot it up in the air - that cat'd be outta there.

R.

What Rick said.

If you can see the cat and it can see you, they scare real easy. Just don't run or hit the ground.

You're only in real danger if you can see the animal is guarding a fresh kill.

Lions attack and take down their prey by latching on to the back of the neck. Sometimes that's all it takes to kill what they are hunting. You wouldn't even see it coming before it hit you. They attack from behind and above. They are that quiet. If that doesn't do the job, they are quick to bring their hind legs in to action and disembowel the unfortunate prey. That usually does the trick.

If a lion wanted to go for a human, you'd never know it till it was too late. They rarely attack if you make eye contact with them.

See my last post in part 2 about wrestling cougars.

I have read that if you are in their territory they will stalk you. By that they will judge where you are going then move up ahead and wait for you. Everything I have read about them said that they were nothing to play with. Believe me when I say I was making a lot on noise when I was walking through the woods, and was looking ahead of my path. After learning that there were to kills in this area with in a month I have decided not to go back there. They eat every 10 days and I don't think we have that many Deer around here. I read their territory is 25 sq. miles, and they have been known to travel as much as 600 miles.

Tom,

A friend of mine was stalked by a cat in the Washington backcountry.

Said it followed him for miles and half the night. Amazing story. Gripping.

He was rattled. Said it took everything he had to not let fear take hold and just start running.

The cat was above and below him. Said it didn't follow him on the trail, but stayed off the path the whole time. He could hear it in the brush as it moved.