As quickly as I hung up from a protracted cellphone dialog I checked the path cam notifications I’d gotten, anticipating to see turkeys. However the first thumbnail to pop up was a cougar. The photographs had been captured simply two minutes prior; it was April 25, 2:20 p.m.
Inside 5 minutes I used to be dressed and on the highway. The mountain lion was cruising an outdated logging highway within the foothills of the Cascade Vary, lower than three miles from my residence in Western Oregon.
I had been searching mountain lions on this jungle-like habitat for 3 years. I’d but to kill one. This was a major alternative. As I drove to the spot, I couldn’t cease desirous about the shut calls I’d had with cougars in these hills.
Shut Encounters
Photograph by Scout Haugen
Seven months in the past my spouse and I had simply sat down for dinner at her people. Earlier than reducing into grilled elk steaks, a Moultrie Cell notification popped up on my cellphone. It was a photograph of a cougar. An enormous one. “I’ve to go, I’ll come again and get you after darkish,” I stated as I kissed my spouse goodbye. I’d been after this lion for 3 weeks. Everybody understood. It’s how I’ve operated for a few years.
I had a change of garments, my rifle, and predator calling gear on the prepared, so inside 45 minutes I used to be sitting exactly the place the cat had popped up on digital camera. It felt like a accomplished deal. I had three pictures of the massive tom strolling a slender sport path atop a timbered ridge. It was too thick to get forward of him and I used to be working out of daylight so I arrange a Foxpro digital name 30 yards up the path from the place I’d final seen the cat, intent on calling it again down the path.
I used to be searching throughout late summer time so I began with fawn misery calls, as cats had been hitting them laborious. I elevated the amount, ultimately switching to rabbit and squirrel sounds, and nonetheless, nothing. Defeated, I hiked out of the hills at nighttime, questioning what went flawed.
Again on the truck I checked the app. That’s once I noticed two footage of the cat circling again. From the time I’d left the in-laws to the time I bought arrange, the cougar had come again down the path, getting into the comb it had initially emerged from. I’d arrange and known as for over half-hour the place the cat had simply walked by. He had been immediately behind me in a thick tangle of brush and inexperienced foliage the entire time. Who is aware of how shut it was — simply sitting there, watching.
5 months later I obtained one other path cam notification. I get them every day — lots of of them. This time, 4 Columbia blacktail deer had been strolling by a digital camera. Six minutes later, the digital camera was triggered once more. This time greater than a dozen deer crowded the body and so they had been nervous. Blacktails aren’t like mule deer, they don’t collect in winter herds.
The deer sprinted into the comb and some minutes behind them got here the huge cougar I’d been after for practically two weeks. Minutes later, the cougar emerged and it was dragging a deer. Sleep didn’t come straightforward that evening.
At daylight I went to the place the cougar had dragged the deer out of the woods, hoping to seek out it on or close to the kill. It had been headed for an outdated logging highway that was so overgrown with brush it may solely be navigated on foot. Struggling to find any signal, I backtracked and located the place the cat killed the deer. Lastly, I positioned a spot the place the cat’s proper paw had slipped on moist, inexperienced moss. Two hours later I discovered an analogous mark over a half-mile from the primary. I’ve tracked lots of animals — each predators and massive sport — across the globe, and this was one of many hardest trails I’d ever labored.
Three hours later the silver underside of a blackberry leaf caught my eye. It was 10 yards off the path. The vine had been pulled tight. When deer and elk dangle up on vines they not often drag them; as a substitute, they step out of them. This one had been dragged greater than 5 toes, indicating one thing was hung up on it.
I continued burrowing via the briars. Brush was dense on either side, providing only some toes of visibility. I adopted extra overturned leaves and strung-out berry vines. There was no path, simply knee-deep blackberries. As I regarded forward, I may see the duvet forward hadn’t been disturbed.
Two extra steps and there it was: a freshly buried deer carcass on the base of a tall Douglas fir. I uncovered it and located the place the cat had ripped into the physique cavity, drank the blood, devoured the lungs, liver, coronary heart, and the cartilaginous ideas of some ribs. It had eaten practically all the head. Not one of the prime meat was touched. The cougar can be again.
Shortly I bought to chopping with a machete to create a taking pictures lane. Then I crafted a crude floor blind 70 yards away, throughout a bit of swale. All I may see via the tunnel was the deer carcass. It was excellent.
I left for a pair hours to let issues quiet down. At 3:00 p.m. I tiptoed into the blind understanding that the later it bought, the higher the possibility of the cat’s return.
Securing the rifle in a vise grip tripod, I settled the reticle on the deer carcass and waited. I stared via the scope so when the cat confirmed up all I’d should do was pull the set off. An hour into it I lifted my head barely to offer my neck some reduction. That’s when the cat appeared.
Its blocky head materialized from nowhere and it was staring proper at me. How that cat had seen me via tight brush I’ll by no means know. Slowly I lowered my head, assured this was it. However once I regarded via the scope the cat was gone. I didn’t transfer for an additional 20 minutes, till darkness introduced a near my hunt. I’d simply blown the very best alternative I’d had at this cat.
Chasing the Huge Cats of Oregon
Photograph by Scott Haugen
In Oregon, cougars are labeled as a giant sport animal. If you happen to discover a cougar kill you may uncover it to examine it, however the carcass can’t be moved. Neither can it’s chained to a tree or tampered with. Cougars can’t be hunted at evening in Oregon and, in fact, searching them with hounds right here is forbidden. The chances are ridiculously stacked in favor of the cat. Utilizing cellular trail cameras is authorized, at the least, providing the very best likelihood of success on this difficult habitat.
Given the rising variety of pets being snatched off again porches, livestock being killed, and human encounters with mountain lions, you’d assume the principles would change. A conservative estimate places the variety of cougars now roaming Oregon at 7,000 — twice the variety of simply 40 years in the past. The one profit we’ve got is that cougar season is open all 12 months, or till unit quotas are stuffed.
The mountain lions I hunt stay round individuals. These cats are robust to kill. They’re good. They usually sample us. They know whenever you go to work, when the children go to highschool, whenever you let the canines, out and whenever you’re searching them.
I’d tried calling that large tom a number of occasions, in addition to different cats in recent times. I’ve known as year-round, with decoys and with out, with digital calls, mouth calls and a mixture of the 2. I’ve known as in tight quarters the place a 10-yard shot was the one possibility I had. There’s no open terrain the place I hunt: only some slender taking pictures lanes alongside brushy sport trails, closed-down logging roads, and slender ATV tracks. More often than not, 30 yards can be thought-about a protracted shot.
Following my close-encounter over the blacktail cache, I caught 4 completely different cats on path cameras on this space. I’ve 38 cameras set for cougars, greater than half of that are mobile. Plenty of profitable cat hunters close to my residence — people who know far more about calling cougars than I do — suggested me to run mobile cameras wherever I may, and the second a cat appeared, to get after it. All reasoned that the habitat is so thick, for those who’re not on them straight away, you’ll not pull them out of the comb.
Dozens of occasions I caught cats transferring at evening. I’d get arrange in that very spot and be calling at daylight, however no lions had come to my calls — at the least that I do know of. I had over a half-dozen daytime sightings on path cameras, however they had been usually once I was touring. I used to be in Alaska when the massive tom confirmed up on three cameras three days in a row, all throughout daylight.
My habit to outsmarting these cats started to control my life. I began touring much less, sticking nearer to residence, setting extra path cameras, jotting detailed notes to sample cat actions all year long, and path cam notifications as quickly as they popped up on my cellphone.
Lastly, on April 25, the timing was good.
Level Clean
Photograph by Scott Haugen
A path cam confirmed a cougar had arrived on the fork of two ATV trails.
I used to be in place lower than 20 minutes from when the cat appeared on digital camera. It had been on the fork of two ATV trails, and I guessed it had caught to the higher path the place it was brushier, with extra inexperienced grass on it than the decrease monitor. I confirmed it had traveled this monitor, which joined one other monitor simply over 1 / 4 mile away. This junction is the place I arrange. I knew I’d have a 50- to 60-yard taking pictures lane down one path, so I’d introduced a 28 Nosler.
I set a Foxpro X24 lower than 30 yards from me, on the opposite aspect of the path I assumed the cat would journey. Ought to the cougar come out the place I hoped, I figured it might flip uphill, away from me and go to the decision. If the cat had already handed by and was headed up the mountain, I figured I may name it again.
A number of cottontails and grey squirrels had been popping up on path cameras, together with grey fox, opossum, feral cats, and deer; cougars eat all of them. So for 3 minutes I performed jack rabbit misery sounds. I began quietly, figuring the cat was close to. By the top of the sequence it was on full blast, penetrating the thick stand of 15-year-old Douglas firs masking the ridge.
After a break, I slipped an open-reed cow elk name into my mouth and hammered away with fowl misery sounds. This has been my go-to sound for calling in bears and coyotes in thick cowl. Twenty seconds into the sequence, it occurred.
A grey fox got here barreling down the path I’d anticipated the cat to journey, turned laborious to the correct, and sprinted proper at me. I’ve known as in lots of grey fox and instantly knew one thing wasn’t proper.
I used to be already on the gun, which was regular on its tripod, and I put my eye to the scope to trace the scurrying fox. That’s when the blocky head of a cougar appeared. I had each eyes open and will see the cat because it sprinted off the hill, out of a curtain of lush inexperienced. Its thick tail turned in an ideal circle then easily centered-up for steadiness. The top and tail had been regular because the cat lunged, turned 90 levels to get on the fox, then dug in.
The cougar was 23 yards from me when it first emerged. In a fraction of a second the cat was stretched out proper behind the fox. Now each had been working full pace immediately at me.
I used to be sitting on the bottom on the left aspect of the path. The fox got here down the identical aspect. So did the cat. There was no time to assume.
When the inexperienced dot of my sight dropped under the nostril of the cougar, I squeezed the set off. At 16 yards, a 175-grain AccuBond pounded the cat within the chest. Its head dropped and the downhill momentum despatched its hind finish excessive. The lengthy, thick, darkish tail prolonged into the sky and fell towards me. It regarded like I may attain out and seize it.
Immediately, I cycled one other spherical however the cat was on its toes and into thick cowl earlier than I may shoot once more. He vanished solely seven steps from the place I sat. I stripped off my hood and facemask to pay attention. I heard nothing.
There had been no time to get nervous. No shaking.
I stared into the comb however two toes of visibility was all I had, too dense for a rifle. I backed out and walked to the truck seize my shotgun: a short-barreled 12 gauge, loaded with 00 buckshot, and topped with a Trijicon RMR.
On the way in which to the truck I texted my buddy Tyler Tiller, who has killed quite a lot of cougars in our space. He was residence and 10 minutes later met me on the truck to assist monitor the cat.
For the primary 15 yards there was no blood, hair, or a visual path within the dense brush. It was palms and knees monitoring and the going was gradual because of huge tangles of thorny blackberries. Tiller would research the bottom for blood whereas I watched for the cat, then we’d change. We had been ultra-focused. It was tedious work.
Ten extra yards and the primary blood appeared — plenty of it. Fifteen minutes later and 20 yards additional into the comb, I noticed the cat piled-up within the backside of the draw. It was simply two steps from us, lined in briars.
Photograph by Scott Haugen
Learn Subsequent: Hunting Cougars with Ben Lilly, the Last of the Mountain Men
After three years of chasing cougars in these hills, my efforts had been rewarded. Over the many years I’ve had the chance to hunt quite a lot of harmful sport animals, together with man-eating lions and crocodiles in Africa and a man-eating tiger in Sumatra. In 1990 I tracked down and killed a man-eating polar bear in Alaska’s excessive Arctic. Searching large predators is a ardour. Searching them near house is a deal with.
“Now you may lastly chill out,” my spouse stated. However two weeks in the past, one other cat confirmed up in the identical spot. And I’ve a second cougar tag in my pocket.
Scott Haugen is a full-time author of 24 years. Comply with his adventures on Instagram and Fb and be taught extra at scotthaugen.com
