And coyote, and feral dogs, and big coon ect. ect
One of the craziest 15-20 sec I've ever had in the woods was just a large porcupine. First standing on his hind legs against a tree then coming through the brush and briar in the dark straight at me. My mind made that thing Bigfoot, a gorilla, an alien pig, and several others before my eyes caught up to my racing mind.

True dat. I was fortunate a couple of years back to watch a bobcat from 20 - 7 yards, as it leisurely moved toward me, for several minutes in very short grass. Once he/she caught sight of me it quickly turned and bounded away. I was surprised that as it leapt away it appeared to almost double in length/size...I realized that if my sight of this cat was limited to only it running away, I very easily would have ID'd it as a cougar as it seemed so much larger and longer than the bobcat, that it was, I spent watching for several minutes, bobtail and all. So I can see why some bobcats get mis-identified as cougars if all they see is it running away at full-bore.

I have heard reports of sightings in Coke County.....

Kinda funny......I have a pic of one on my trail cam on valentine's day last year, at around 2 am. But hey, if you think they don't exist, believe what you want.

its been a few weeks since we heard the sounds and we have listened to a few recordings.
this one is exactly what we heard that night only the calls were spaced out a few more seconds apart and it went on for almost 10 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM2Sw8dsMDQ

I'm just gonna leave this right here
https://www.tpwmagazine.com/nature/media/Mountain-lion-guide.pdf

I believe I remember that, that was in the early to mid 90's right?

The true reason is that deer pattern us just as much as we pattern them.

All year there are no ATVs, pickups, campfires, people talking in camp, the traffic, etc. Suddenly deer season starts and everyone drives to their stands, has bonfires, drinks a lot of beer, etc.

All that stuff puts pressure onto the deer and they start to go nocturnal when we are asleep.

Want a better shot at the deer? Eliminate campfires (all animals can smell a fire for miles and their natural i stinct is to leave the area) walk to your stands an hour before sunrise (yes an hour, not 15 mins before the feeder goes off). Eliminate odors (stop drinking beer - you'll sweat the alcohol and the deer can smell it). No driving on the property, etc.

I live on my property. Kids running around, music, driving around, dogs, cats you name it. Two months before deer season I shut gates to back part of property and then in only walk to it. But I still walk through there almost everyday. We pulled 7 deer this year a 10 point, 3 8 points 2 spike and a doe. I'm sitting on 54 acres.

We're around the lease all year. Working on the place fixing stands and feeders plus hog hunting. We taper it off when season is near so the deer aren't seeing a pattern with us.

I used to have a female cat that would visit me in the blind. She and her cubs would curl up in front of the heater and nap while I hunted until the damn panthers ran her off. I do have to admit that those black cubs are cute though.

I'm joking, of course. I saw one on the side of 377 north of Brady years ago. It was rolling around on its back about 40 yards from the HWY. I watched it for probably 30-40 seconds before it spotted me and ran across a wheat field. Somervell county Sheriff sent me the pic of the one killed @ Chalk mountain a few weeks ago. Then told me ANOTHER one was caught on camera about a mile from the first one. I know the Sheriff. If you can believe anyone you can believe him.

When I was a kid my family was headed to Comanche. When we got to the top of Chalk mountain my Dad yells "Mountain lion" as one darted across US67 in front of our station wagon. This was 40 years ago. They've been around since the last ice age.