I saw my first one at the ripe ole age of 10 in the Sandhills near Red Rock.
Called one up one night about 15 years ago - had my oldest son and his friend with me and they both saw it.
Had one cycle thru here again two years ago and myself, my daughter-in-law and her father saw it.

Saw a Jaguarundi (<yeah, I kan't spel chit) hit by a car on highway 812 about a mile from highway 21 on the Austin side.

All of these sightings were in Bastrop County.

There are two kinds of cougar sightings, those who have actually seen them and those that simply chose to not believe those who have.

You left out the third kind of sighting, those who catch a glimpse of a really big bobcat and believe they saw a mountain lion.

there is also a fourth kind of sighting by those who refuse to get their eyes checked more than once every 20 years - out past 50 yards they couldn't tell the difference between a jack rabbit and a Brahmen bull - those types seem to always spot the black ones also

I've seen several, but all were treed by hounds, finally treed one I liked after two trips - 185 lbs and 8'2" nose to tail in Northern New Mexico with H&A Outfitters out of Sante Fe

I seen one back in 2005 south of Bracketville, close to Spofford. It was across the sendero and out of sight before I could even raise my rifle. Supposedly have a friend of my father n law, that has a ranch east of Tuscola with a female and a cub that is seen pretty regularly. Had several calves dissappear and one full grown cow was killed and eaten on. We are supposed to hunt them when it gets cold this year.....if it ever does.

I have seen one in my life. It was in old mexico when I was on a mule deer hunt. We went spotlighting at night a spotted a big one up on a rock ledge about 300 yards off. Another guy took the shot and missed, and that cat jumped straight up about 10-15' to the top and disappeared! It was amazing how high he jumped flat footed!

Yeah, I forgot those....
Here is another one for you.

There is a gentleman in Western Bastrop County that raises chickens on the edge of the Piney Woods.
He noticed his chickens disappearing and saw large cat tracks he thought was a bobcat so he set a coyote sized box trap.
The next morning, to his surprise, he found a female couger in his trap.
As he looked around, he noticed smaller tracks around the trap and then noticed the small faces around the edge of the opening looking at him and their Mama....

He was going to dispatch the female until he saw the kittens so he did the humane thing and called TPW.
They came out, drugged the cat, took vitals, gave her an antidote and turned her lose....

He hasn't seen them since then but said he won't bother TPW next time as the cat had already cost him a few hundred in roosters.

A few years back hunting the Laguna Atascosa refuge I saw some big cat tracks that were freshly made. I stopped and started carefully looking to make sure I wasn't the one being hunted. Tracks were a cat very sharp claw marks cut into ground about 4-5 inches across from pad to pad. Ground was firm so no it wasn't a bob cat mashed into the mud appearing larger. Never saw what made them and I didn't want to follow them having only a bow and arrow

Thought lions claws retracted.... you saw dog tracks.

Im 27. I have been an avid hunter fisher outdoors person my whole life. I have never seen tracks or seen one in person... nor do I really want to. They trapped one a mile or so prom a place I used to hunt, it made the local paper and was a big cat.

We had one go through around my home town, Cibolo, a few years back, there were several sightings and some good family friends that owned a larger tract of land in town more or less that had sheep would loose a sheep every week or two and even saw it one night, they were old and had no business jacking with it.

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/01/21/mountain-lion-tracks-sighted-on-claremont-canyon-trail/

Just because the tracks are shown as black does not mean they came from a black mountain lion, FYI.

Read M Lion tracks vs dog

The claw marks I saw looked like slits made with a filet knife, a little dust blowing or some dew and you would not see them. That's how I knew they were just made. Not dog nail marks which are much thicker.

Plenty in Terrell county. Trapper here on ranch has caught 11 or so in last 14 months On about 75000 acres or so had one last week but got out of a small trap not his lion steals. Buddy killed one up around langtry couple yrs ago calling.

Guys, I have never killed a lion.....BUT, I have been with 10 yards of lions four times in my life..One was particularly funny...the last close encounter...I was predator hunting with some friends in the canyons of the Edwards Plateau area around McCamey...we were in the back of the truck and had been calling for several hours at various locations...we weren't having much luck that night, so we decided to call it a night...popped open a few drinks and were sitting in the bed of truck the spreading the BS...suddenly I felt uneasy and turned on my flashlight and to our surprise, there was a lion with his front paws on the back bumper and his head peering over the tailgate looking right at us...when I shined him with the light he growled and we all froze...with no pistols handy and the guns sitting in the truck....sigh....I hollered at him (loudly) swung my flashlight at him and he dropped down and trotted off and was gone before we could get a gun out of the truck...we hunted for him for the rest of the weekend with no luck. Oh well, one of these days....

For what it is worth, it seems every time I am close to one, I seem to get frozen with fear...probably has something to do with the surprise element (kind of like when you step on a snake) and possibly due to the fact my first close encounter was at the young age of 13 while squirrel hunting....I was leaning up against a tree calling squirrels and he came up behind me....needless, to say I was at his mercy...BTW they always seem to force me to check my pants...

I can never seem to see one walking/trotting across a field while I have rifle in my hand....

^^ ain't no bs... Not much you can do when you're not expecting it. I looked a cub. In the eyes at 10yds climbing a bluff in Colorado city, and I was just caught in a trance. Cats will do that to you.

I've seen big cat tracks, as big as my hand, in Fannin county just north of Ladonia.

LOL, nobody has a clue as to how big your hand is or if you are referring to just the palm, palm and thumb, palm and all fingers, or if they are closed or splayed.

My favorite is the admittedly drinking and one trying to crawl in the truck with them...BS

I had a picture of one running around the outside of my feeder to grab a big ole fat coon sitting down eating. When I talked to guy over the lease located on Neches river in Spurger, he said 4 others on the north end that had seen a big lioness with 2 cubs. Never saw em while in the stand though.

Sorry I did not explain better. My open hand with the fingers stretched out. My hand is 6" wide and 8" long. It was a big cat track.

We have one that takes a deer out of our deer pens about once a month. I would love for someone to come out and put this thing to rest. It killed a fawn this morning right outside the deer pens and last month killed our 300" breeder buck. Seriously need help here. If anyone knows a good lion hunter call me 210-288-4777. We are down by pearsal and in much need of help

I just WISH you had been there Red Chevy...you might have had a different opinion of my story....Just saying, don't be so quick call BS till you know who are calling it on...

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Otherwise, they come across as just a lot more internet Bravo Sierra.

My uncle had this close encounter with a Florida panther while turkey hunting in Central Florida. The best part of this is that his buddy was setup at the other end of the field, and asked "did you see those TWO panthers?" Later they went back to look at the tracks and one panther walked in front of my uncle and the other walked BEHIND HIM (he was on the ground, leaning against a tree)!!

Here's another shot of it passing by, you can see one of his decoys in the corner.