Anyone know where there might be a COUGAR?

This might be a shot in the dark but here goes. I'm gonna try and get out and call for cougar at some point before the season ends on them and just trying to raise my odds a little.

I'd really like to call it in myself so i know the odds are not likely in my favor, just figured it can't hurt to ask? Size/sex doesn't matter, beggers can't be choosers, i'll shoot the first one i can get to come in.

If you have any info you'd rather not share with the world then send me a pm or email me badblakey(at)hotmail(dot)com...and i'll keep the info to myself....otherwise post away if anyone can give me leads on good areas or where some were actually seen or known to hang out?

B

What area are you looking in? Geographically here.

Oops, yeah that would be a good bit of info eh?

I'm in the Calgary area and would be a day thing so hoping for a couple hour drive or less.

B

I'll pm you in a bit here, i think i got an idea if the season hasn't shut down yet.

jrs

cool, i'm all ears...

B:smokin

Pretty much anywhere NW of Calgary has cats....head west of Sundre, Rocky, Cochrane, etc and you can run into good cat areas. As for specific areas, sorry....dont have any....

Wait for fresh snow and go looking for tracks....

PM sent

what would you dudes use to call in a big ol cat? I always thought of using a fawn cry call and rigging up something brownish with a long string to make it move. And I'd sit up in a tree stand.

I'll probably stick to the same ole rabbit distress, hoping they haven't heard it before but not sure that going to a bigger prey animal distress for bigger predators is necessary...i'm guessing the rabbit works good for anything with teeth.

Thanks for the info guys, will do my best to get a predator or two out of the hills before winter is done.

B

I was at a Wayne Carlton calling seminar a few years back and he showed a video and talked about calling bears and cats. He starts off by saying "the first and most important question you gotta ask yerself is DO I REALLY WANT TO CALL ONE OF THESE TOOTHY CRITTERS TO ME?
Then he shows some techniques and calling. I was impressed and bought one of his bear and cat calls.

I have called wolves into a fawn distress call and it should work for a cougar. I am wondering about the possibility of calling in a female with kittens and shooting her without knowing there are kittens nearby????? Which would not be legal and not be good. (I guess if you did not know there were kittens within 100 yards of her you would not be breaking the law as she would not be "accompanied by kittens")

Robin in Rocky: lookin out my window at cougar country to the west.

I often think about situations like that and figure a guy might also want to maybe have some bearspray ready to go just in case yelling etc. doesn't work on stuff you don't want to come in...and you can't get it to bugger off.

Everyone assumes the predator callers won't go out in the fall when the griz are out either....but i'll go calling any time i feel and i definitely keep in mind when the griz are out because that would probably be the least desireable thing you'd ever want to come in. One of the reasons i'm seriously contemplating a semi-auto bar in .308 too...as that would be an ideal foothills calling rig imo...most shots at coyote i take under 150 yrds around town so most likely any foothills big predator stuff will be even shorter so a guy could run 180 gr stuff out of the .308 and 5 shots with 180's as fast as you can pull the trigger might help a guy feel better when calling where there is a chance of running into a griz. Not to mention semi-auto would be a good choice for calling when dealing with anything that might come in multiples also...coyotes/wolves.

I think there are going to be some interesting things happen in this province if more and more people take up predator calling. Can't wait to hear of the first grizzly incident...i'm half expecting it will be me that gets to tell that story lol.

B

Well I hope you are able to "tell the story".

In Wayne Carltons video he is out elk hunting with his bow I believe (and peper spray) when he sees a really big black bear. He calls it in from a long ways away. (the camera man is back a bit and has W. C. and the bear in the frame with Wayne hiding behind a big cottonwood tree trunk). The bear finnaly comes in around the lrft side of the tree while Carlton is peeking around the right side. Calton has the peper spray in habd when he switches to look around the left side of the tree and is in kissing distance of the bear. He lets go with the pepper sprey and the bear turns inside out running the other way. Some exciting footage.

Robin in Rocky

Now that would take some nards!!! I'm gonna have to source that vid out, sounds like a good one. Can't imagine what a griz encounter might turn into though...most everything else 'should' booger off once you can identify yourself as human but mr. griz is way to unpredictable for that...once he's too close and then feeling threatened it might be as likely to come for you as run away?....and yes...when i said 'told the story'....i guess i meant dead or alive...eitherway i'm sure the story would get told.

One would feel pretty useless holding a .204 in his hands in that situation eh????:lol

But thats the kind of excitement that keeps me coming back for more....just need to carry bigger guns lol.

B

So there might be a market for a drillings. A .204 barrel sitting on top of side by side .45/70 barrels. A preditor gun for calling the small and the big.

Robin in Rocky

Lol, i like your moves Duffy!:lol

left a message on your other query.
use two people, face each other at maybe 20' apart so you can see anything coming in the partners bad angle, use your eyes to maintain contact with each other, (like a pointer dog would point birds).
dont turn your heads alot up and down the cutline. dont wiggle, fidget or phart. once you spot them, then you can move abit to adjust for the shot.
you will be close in dark heavy cover, and will probaly be at 50 yards or less, probly five yards. scents dont matter as much because they are not afraid of you.
id use a fast swinging 12 guage with some 6 or 9 pill load, the other guy use a slow-moving 30 something.
ive called a few lynx in now, lynx will sit back and asses, wait and move in and sit, and assess.
are those twirly rabbit/ feather things legal here?? those would be a great bait for the cat!!

Varmitr, i called in 3 lynx in one day last year, got some good pics at 19 yrds of a big male but didn't think to pull the camera out for pics of the pair called in earlier(as it was a bit of a surprise at the time:eek , we were ready for em the next go round ). They are so different than coyotes...come right in, calm cool and collected...could kill them 100 times over with a .22 if you wanted but gotta be a trapper. I suspect a cougar would be very similar, we sit back to back but i really like your idea of sitting facing each other....they came out of no where...cats are so quiet and stealthy....all of a sudden they are just there.

Would love to hear more about the cougars you called and if they behave very similar to the lynx. I'll go check the other query.

p.s. the twirly thing probably not legal but a little rod with a feather dangling on a bit of fishing line in the breeze would probably work well and be legal?

B

If I was looking for a gun for protection, a semi would be last on my list!

i know...if it fails then your really hooped...i would put mine through every possible cold weather situation etc. that i could to ensure its really reliable...a close friend has hunted with an old bar in .308 for as long as i can remember, he's restocked it twice because he fell on it once(obviously pretty hard) and then flipped a quad onto it another time and he's a hardcore november guy who's always out in the worst possible conditions....it has never failed him, ever, and still does moa with cheap pointed soft point ammo he can find...he's ex military (very tough on everything) and he'd never give up that rifle....most research i've done on the bar says they are quite reliable so i'd certainly shoot mine alot and make sure it was in the same boat but i do see your point and it certainly crosses my mind

eitherway, the situation of having to defend myself against a griz should be pretty rare but you never know in this province now....numbers/encounters are way up....sure would come in handy for the multiples too...maybe i should look at the blr....they are both ugly anyhow so maybe the lever is the way to go?

Here we go, they even have camo now that works with us 'western' hunters!

Bar with Brush Camo

BLR Brush Camo Stainless

Too bad we're gonna wait a long time before these versions are available up here.

B

lots in 328 one almost got me two years ago.
we saw 5 last nov. ask any gas guy but most of the ones i've seen are around the burn. just east of Nordeg, shunda fire base.

cohod