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Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6182820 02/14/16 03:06 PM
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In June, 2014 I took a shot at lion while hog hunting. It was about 35 yards out walking directly away from me when I shot. As fate would have it, the back nut on my picatinny had loosen. The shot spun the cat around like a copter and sent fur flying. Needless to say it hit the brush before I could get another shot off. I looked for sign but the grass was knee high and the thought of rattlesnakes and a pissed off lion left me less than motivated to go tracking it down.


They make ammo specifically for hunting for a reason! nidea
Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6182918 02/14/16 04:28 PM
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Yep. Seen 2 in CO and 1 in FL but down there they call them Florida Panthers but biologically they are just cougars.

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6182920 02/14/16 04:29 PM
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Didn't see any on a hunt at Laguna Atascosa NWR but there were several in the area. They were protected. They ranger said that if you shoot one, it better have been chewing on your leg. If not, you were going to jail.


Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: jshouse] #6183311 02/14/16 10:52 PM
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Originally Posted By: jshouse
Originally Posted By: sig226fan (Rguns.com)
Saw a yellow cat in early 80's NE of Whitewright, walking to a buddies house after we were stuck.

Saw a black cat in 94 at our homesite while it was being built, could not get a gun out, it was sitting on a stack of framing lumber when I drove in the gate. They had found a dead house cat in the rafters the morning before. We're at the north end of the area known as Black Cat Thicket for 100 years.

Slung an arrow at a lion North of Megargel, 2005, my first arrow ever at an animal... used the bottom pin at 15 yards...scared me and him both

Saw one cross US 82 west of Seymour, 2011, with wife and son's girlfriend in the truck with me.


I almost leased a hundred acres in the black cat thicket a few years ago, the guy told me you "hear them screaming at night and sounds like a dying lady," uh, something came up, sorry sir, I'll call you next year...


Dying woman, or screaming 3 year old girl....

A few years back a wildlife biologist saw one north of Greenville, said he believed it was a Jaguarandi, but still enough to scare the *&(* out of you.

My father in law, and my son (age 5) were walking a creek bottom north of here 20 years ago, with FIL's black chow mix dog, looking for arrowheads (great spot, they keep turning up). FIL said he saw the dog on the ledge above them above 30 feet in front of them, heard something behind him, and saw the dog playing in the puddle... looked up to see the black long tailed animal run across the creek, and into the woods... they went to the truck and left. This is a WWII vet that was honest as the days are long, and it's just one of many stories from the area.... they don't call it black cat thicket for the fun of it.,

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6183325 02/14/16 11:05 PM
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Yup,
Pipe Creek 1988. I was stalking deer and he walked out in front of me at about 30 yards. He never saw me. He was walking away from me and I never got a shot before he disappeared. I was stunned

Devine 2003. My daughter and I had one walk across our shooting lane. She said, "Dad, was that a...?" I replied, "yes it was!"


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Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6183351 02/14/16 11:34 PM
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I saw one about 8 years ago in Eastland still kick myself for not shooting it.

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6183548 02/15/16 01:52 AM
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Saw 3 in northeast Arkansas back in late 70's and early 80's, last one was a black one and my buddy was with me when we saw it.

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6184055 02/15/16 03:03 PM
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Has anybody ever killed a black mountain lion? I've never seen pictures of one alive or dead. Just curious if they even exist.

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: EddieWalker] #6184073 02/15/16 03:22 PM
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From TPWD website:

"The Mountain Lion is a large, slender cat with a smallish head and noticeably long tail. Its fur is a light, tawny brown color which can appear gray or almost black, depending on light conditions. Contrary to popular belief, there are no black panthers in North America; no one has ever captured or killed a black Mountain Lion. Mountain Lions are also called cougars, pumas, panthers, painters, and catamounts."


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I am a horrible deer hunter. Probably the worst. Ever.
Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6185334 02/16/16 04:05 AM
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My father was a wildlife biologist for TPWD from mid 70's to mid 2000's in West Texas. When I was in junior high and high school I would ride with him to do deer counts, check deer camps, run deer count surveys etc. In all those years he probably got no less then 100 calls of people claiming to have seen a mountain lion. Not a single one was ever substantiated.

I remember one time we went out to a deer camp of some guys from Dallas that claimed to have seen a mountain lion. When we get to their camp late in the morning they are showing my dad where they saw the lion, which way it walked etc. No tracks no nothing. Anyway one of the hunters get all excited and yells out "there it is!" So we are looking out about 75 yard to a hay storage barn and all we see is a house cat walking by the barn. We both knew right then they thought this house cat was a lion. We walk towards it and it was kinda feral I guess and it runs into the broom weed. So one of the other hunters asks my dad how big he thought it was. He said 10-12 pounds. Those guys thought he was full of it and said they thought it was at least 100 pounds. My dad just said "well you guys might want to be careful walking to your stands." We had a good chuckle in the truck after we left.

The reality is the vast majority of people in the woods are very green. They don't have a clue what they are seeing especially in falling light conditions. I would be willing to bet all the people in this thread that have claimed to see a lion that maybe half dozen of those sightings were actually lions. With all the game cams that are out nowadays there are still very few sightings. The simple truth is people's imaginations are much more prevalent then mountain lions.

Last edited by Westtexan1; 02/16/16 04:06 AM.
Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6185817 02/16/16 04:10 PM
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My buddy's dad had something similar happen at their ranch in Junction. He was hunting alone, thought he saw a black panther walking down the road. Took a shot, DRT. Upon closer inspection... black cat, much closer than he realized. This was about 10 years ago.. still give him hell about it when I see him!

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6185889 02/16/16 05:03 PM
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Have seen a few one in Mississippi, 3 in Montana and one in Texas. The one in Texas was near Camp Wood. Have also heard one and saw the tracks of one in Eastland county. The Camp Wood cat was trapped a few weeks after I saw it.

Last edited by kmon1; 02/17/16 12:11 AM.

lf the saying "Liar, Liar your pants on fire" were true
Mainstream news might be fun to watch
Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: Westtexan1] #6185935 02/16/16 05:33 PM
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Never seen one or tracks of one and I tend to agree with whats below

Originally Posted By: Westtexan1
My father was a wildlife biologist for TPWD from mid 70's to mid 2000's in West Texas. When I was in junior high and high school I would ride with him to do deer counts, check deer camps, run deer count surveys etc. In all those years he probably got no less then 100 calls of people claiming to have seen a mountain lion. Not a single one was ever substantiated.

I remember one time we went out to a deer camp of some guys from Dallas that claimed to have seen a mountain lion. When we get to their camp late in the morning they are showing my dad where they saw the lion, which way it walked etc. No tracks no nothing. Anyway one of the hunters get all excited and yells out "there it is!" So we are looking out about 75 yard to a hay storage barn and all we see is a house cat walking by the barn. We both knew right then they thought this house cat was a lion. We walk towards it and it was kinda feral I guess and it runs into the broom weed. So one of the other hunters asks my dad how big he thought it was. He said 10-12 pounds. Those guys thought he was full of it and said they thought it was at least 100 pounds. My dad just said "well you guys might want to be careful walking to your stands." We had a good chuckle in the truck after we left.

The reality is the vast majority of people in the woods are very green. They don't have a clue what they are seeing especially in falling light conditions. I would be willing to bet all the people in this thread that have claimed to see a lion that maybe half dozen of those sightings were actually lions. With all the game cams that are out nowadays there are still very few sightings. The simple truth is people's imaginations are much more prevalent then mountain lions.


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Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: redchevy] #6185967 02/16/16 05:54 PM
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Originally Posted By: redchevy
Never seen one or tracks of one and I tend to agree with whats below

Originally Posted By: Westtexan1
My father was a wildlife biologist for TPWD from mid 70's to mid 2000's in West Texas. When I was in junior high and high school I would ride with him to do deer counts, check deer camps, run deer count surveys etc. In all those years he probably got no less then 100 calls of people claiming to have seen a mountain lion. Not a single one was ever substantiated.

I remember one time we went out to a deer camp of some guys from Dallas that claimed to have seen a mountain lion. When we get to their camp late in the morning they are showing my dad where they saw the lion, which way it walked etc. No tracks no nothing. Anyway one of the hunters get all excited and yells out "there it is!" So we are looking out about 75 yard to a hay storage barn and all we see is a house cat walking by the barn. We both knew right then they thought this house cat was a lion. We walk towards it and it was kinda feral I guess and it runs into the broom weed. So one of the other hunters asks my dad how big he thought it was. He said 10-12 pounds. Those guys thought he was full of it and said they thought it was at least 100 pounds. My dad just said "well you guys might want to be careful walking to your stands." We had a good chuckle in the truck after we left.

The reality is the vast majority of people in the woods are very green. They don't have a clue what they are seeing especially in falling light conditions. I would be willing to bet all the people in this thread that have claimed to see a lion that maybe half dozen of those sightings were actually lions. With all the game cams that are out nowadays there are still very few sightings. The simple truth is people's imaginations are much more prevalent then mountain lions.


You may be right, but it's hard to believe that many people would mistake something else for a lion. I've seen three in Colorado, all in broad daylight, all out in the open. Unless it's just people seeing glimpses in the dark, I can't imagine anyone mistaking a house cat or a bobcat for a lion.

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6185979 02/16/16 06:01 PM
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Never seen one in person, but have seen half a dozen or so from game cameras. Mostly Terrell County and one from Val Verde this past year.



Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6186165 02/16/16 08:26 PM
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Originally Posted by Russ79
I learned long ago you can't reason someone out of something they don't reason themselves into.


Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6186166 02/16/16 08:27 PM
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I saw one 5-6 years ago in NW Wyoming while elk hunting. It stopped on a ridge and looked at my dad and me for about 45 seconds or so before slowly continuing on its path.

Last fall, we tent-camped on private property in southern Wyoming for an antelope hunt. We heard the screams that Vernon described above on multiple nights. After the first night hearing this, we moved our antelope meat-filled ice chests a couple hundred yards away from our camp. We spoke with the landowner about this when leaving (he also lives on the property) and he said he had been hearing it too. I will admit it was a little unsettling to hear that thing screaming outside the tent.

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6186279 02/16/16 09:46 PM
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One in East Jones County in 1959, dark grey. It ran out in front of us while we driving down an oil lease road through some very thick heavily brush. No chance of a shot.
Another one about 4 years ago between Post and Gail in Garza County on our deer lease. This one was light tan about 150 yards away and happened so quick no chance of a shot. Talked to GW and he told us there was one that ranged from Lake Alan Henry to west of where our lease was.


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Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6186306 02/16/16 09:56 PM
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Seen 2, one in Illinois and my first in tx this season. It was a juvie. Its still had some faded spots. Long tail, silver and rusty neck and ears. tail had a black tip. Called tx wildlife and she said it was a juvenile.NE TX


Recently got a gym membership, strange folks! I like to show up the roid zombies with my full motion curls with the 55lb. bells. Not their cheater short stroked light weights. It's holarious.
Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6186430 02/16/16 11:20 PM
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I haven't seen any, but my brother and I were bow hunting near Karnack in Oct. 1996 and had one scream at us about 6:00am one morning as I was sitting on about a 10' ladder stand. Scared the bageebies out of me.


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Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: slow944] #6186462 02/16/16 11:52 PM
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I think a lot of the false sightings are very similar to ground shrinkage of a buck after it's shot. It's always a running joke of how big it was before it was shot!!!

On that note, when I was caribou hunting in Alaska, I also had a moose tag and a black bear tag. After shooting my caribou and packing it out, I went back to the gut pile every day, or near it to glass and look for bears or wolves. On the third day, I was downwind of the gut pile and out in the open was a wolf. I figured it was probably 100 yards away, just standing there broadside. I laid down, got a good rest and shot it. When I walked up to it, I realized two things. First, it was only 30 to 40 yards away, and second, it wasn't anywhere near big enough to be a wolf. I had just shot a coyote!!!

It happens.

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: Buffs 1] #6186532 02/17/16 12:34 AM
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Originally Posted By: Buffs 1
Originally Posted By: redchevy
Never seen one or tracks of one and I tend to agree with whats below

Originally Posted By: Westtexan1
My father was a wildlife biologist for TPWD from mid 70's to mid 2000's in West Texas. When I was in junior high and high school I would ride with him to do deer counts, check deer camps, run deer count surveys etc. In all those years he probably got no less then 100 calls of people claiming to have seen a mountain lion. Not a single one was ever substantiated.

I remember one time we went out to a deer camp of some guys from Dallas that claimed to have seen a mountain lion. When we get to their camp late in the morning they are showing my dad where they saw the lion, which way it walked etc. No tracks no nothing. Anyway one of the hunters get all excited and yells out "there it is!" So we are looking out about 75 yard to a hay storage barn and all we see is a house cat walking by the barn. We both knew right then they thought this house cat was a lion. We walk towards it and it was kinda feral I guess and it runs into the broom weed. So one of the other hunters asks my dad how big he thought it was. He said 10-12 pounds. Those guys thought he was full of it and said they thought it was at least 100 pounds. My dad just said "well you guys might want to be careful walking to your stands." We had a good chuckle in the truck after we left.

The reality is the vast majority of people in the woods are very green. They don't have a clue what they are seeing especially in falling light conditions. I would be willing to bet all the people in this thread that have claimed to see a lion that maybe half dozen of those sightings were actually lions. With all the game cams that are out nowadays there are still very few sightings. The simple truth is people's imaginations are much more prevalent then mountain lions.


You may be right, but it's hard to believe that many people would mistake something else for a lion. I've seen three in Colorado, all in broad daylight, all out in the open. Unless it's just people seeing glimpses in the dark, I can't imagine anyone mistaking a house cat or a bobcat for a lion.


Using the same process of "falling light conditions" and the majority of people in the woods being "green." I wonder how many mountain lions have been discounted as just feral cats?
And I would think that I could trust many on here as knowing what they are looking at.


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Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: EddieWalker] #6186548 02/17/16 12:43 AM
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Originally Posted By: EddieWalker
Originally Posted By: jshouse
I expected way more east texas stories by now, panthers count too...


I'm in East Texas and I've heard tons of stories from people who have claimed to have seen them. Unfortunately, once they start talking about it, and then telling how often they see them, and then how they see wolves all the time too, I quickly put them into the bigfoot catagory. I think most sightings are fabrications of what they want to see and not an actually sighting.

I talked to a Game Warden who was checking game cameras at Hidaway Lake because of pets disappearing, but he said that after several years of looking, they never had a single picture of a mountain lion. He also said that once the people in the neighborhood got together, they all started seeing mountain lions all the time. The only thing they got on camera was coyotes, which is what he said is killing the pets that are disappearing.

I know a guy who finds tracks all over his place of mountain lions, but ever time I've gone with him to see the tracks, they are obviously dog tracks with claw marks. He refuses to believe that a dog can make a track that big, and when I explain to him how a Labrador sized dogs track will almost look twice as big in mud, he replied that he knows that, but those tracks are from mountain lions. He is seeing what he wants to see.



Mountain lion tracks and dog tracks really dont look very similar

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: Westtexan1] #6186571 02/17/16 01:02 AM
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Originally Posted By: Westtexan1
My father was a wildlife biologist for TPWD from mid 70's to mid 2000's in West Texas. When I was in junior high and high school I would ride with him to do deer counts, check deer camps, run deer count surveys etc. In all those years he probably got no less then 100 calls of people claiming to have seen a mountain lion. Not a single one was ever substantiated.

I remember one time we went out to a deer camp of some guys from Dallas that claimed to have seen a mountain lion. When we get to their camp late in the morning they are showing my dad where they saw the lion, which way it walked etc. No tracks no nothing. Anyway one of the hunters get all excited and yells out "there it is!" So we are looking out about 75 yard to a hay storage barn and all we see is a house cat walking by the barn. We both knew right then they thought this house cat was a lion. We walk towards it and it was kinda feral I guess and it runs into the broom weed. So one of the other hunters asks my dad how big he thought it was. He said 10-12 pounds. Those guys thought he was full of it and said they thought it was at least 100 pounds. My dad just said "well you guys might want to be careful walking to your stands." We had a good chuckle in the truck after we left.

The reality is the vast majority of people in the woods are very green. They don't have a clue what they are seeing especially in falling light conditions. I would be willing to bet all the people in this thread that have claimed to see a lion that maybe half dozen of those sightings were actually lions. With all the game cams that are out nowadays there are still very few sightings. The simple truth is people's imaginations are much more prevalent then mountain lions.


Theirs more mountain lions around than ever before, alot of states are expanding there seasons, we have pics of them on our game cams in Montell near Campwood and theirs alot around their out towards Sanderson. A firend of mine that guides in NM says he never sees them but eveyrtime it snows they take the dogs out and their usually on one within an hour.

Re: Ever Seen a Mountain Lion in the WIld? [Re: BenBob] #6186619 02/17/16 01:27 AM
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