...and lots of firepower to give to you...
Okay, big ole apology to Tom Jones, but I'm lying in bed about 11:30PM last night with the windows open when the lion coughed. Gotta say, there are some noises that are hard-wired into our central nervous systems, noises that just cry out, "Climb a frickin' tree, you idiot!" A lion's cough — close by, apparentlly in my front yard — is one of those noises. I came out of bed with my hackles standing up and the SIG 226 in my hand, thinking, "Targets...targets...targets."
She was staking territory...the whole front yard now smells like lion piss, a refreshing change from last year's bear piss...and wasn't concerned with being subtle. After a few coughs every dog in the neighborhood went ballistic.
Since I'm doing my Wisconsin turnaround tomorrow, I left my Sweetie a little something precious for the big puss...the Alpha Precision S&W .44 Magnum, now fitted with a set of CT LaserGrips and stoked with 240-grain JHPs. I suggested she place red dot on puss, keep pulling the trigger until the gun is empty, then switch to Winchester Trapper, also in .44 Mag (which is now loaded with Winchester 300 grain hunting loads). Or vice versa. Either will work.
Here kitty kitty kitty here kitty... don't piss on my freakin' porch again!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
Um, when did you get to Africa?
9mm vs mountain lion!? Shoot, your a brave man.
I'm 6' tall, two hundred and (mumble mumble) pounds and I have trouble controlling a .44 magnum.
SWMBO at 5'7" and (mumble mumble) pounds has an even harder time controlling a .44 magnum.
I recommend, for thin-skinned game (lions are presumably mountain lions / catamounts / pumas / cougars weighing in the 100# +/- range) something a little more controllable. As long as your advice is to aim/shoot/repeat.
Think .41 magnum, with 170 grain hollow-point bullets. It will do the job on man or beast, and the roar of the hollow-point is sufficient to dissuade man or beast even if a near-miss of the first shot is the consequence of heightened adrenaline rush.
Here in Oregon, we have a professional hunter who is hired by the State Fish & Game Dept. to cull excess or otherwise problematic black-bears. He uses dogs to track, corner and distract said bruin while he dispatches them with a .41 Magnum, similar load, in a Ruger Blackhawk.
The man makes his living this way.
You got to go with the pro.
So, why is it necessary to shoot pussycat anyway? Just doing what cats do, and in his/her territory obviously. Not like repelling a home invader.
"So, why is it necessary to shoot pussycat anyway? Just doing what cats do, and in his/her territory obviously. Not like repelling a home invader."
Great book on this topic is "The Beast in the Garden" - cougars get habituated to dogs/people and eventually begin to view them as food. On top of that, they've been known to engage in "killing for the sake of killing", for example w/r/t bighorn sheep (and in one case, it seemed to be headed that way in CA with people, ie. the mountain bikers attacked in Orange County - first one eaten, second attacked shortly thereafter:
"The lion, a 110-pound (50-kilogram), 2-year-old male, was found later to have several pounds of human tissue in his stomach, including bits of Reynolds's lung and liver. Bob Turner, a recently retired lieutenant in the California Department of Fish and Game, who arrived at the scene soon after, says the animal was so full "he had a Buddha belly."")
More here:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/survival/mountain-lion-attack.html
Sounds like some serious aversive conditioning is in order... note that in very few cases, if any, is relocation feasible.
Move to the city or learn to co-exist in the country.
kr
I was going to ignore this and move on to other subjects to read.
But I just couldnt.
KR opined that perhaps a certain person should go live in a city or learn to co-exist in the boonies.
Perhaps I misunderstood but that idea strikes me as totally stupid.
Obviously the Banes are doing quite well living where they do. Taking steps to preserve their turf as it may be considered, is just plain common sense.
Note that the Banes are not mounting a hunting safari to rid the land of the big cat.
Just manning the walls to defend what is theirs.
Think about it.
KILLthe kitty& if kr get.s in the way get him to.
eczvooThe cats are around all the time...largely because of the "hunters" who chain saw the heads off elk and leave the rest of the carcus to chum for predators.
For the most part, you adjust your travels and schedules to the lion...there are place you shouldn't hike or mountain bike when the lions are probably hunting, etc.
However, as BEAST IN THE GARDEN — which is specifically about my area — has noted, lions with no fear of people are enormously dangerous beasts. A couple of months ago, a lion strolled into the parking lot for a popular urban Boulder hiking/climbing area and snatched a kid in line with his parents walking toward their car. They were able to tug-a-war the kid away from B'rer Lion, but it points up the fact that people-habituated lions aren't kidding. That's part of living in the country, too. I get along fine with the bear whose range crosses my property...except, of course, for the Infamous Porch Pissing Incidence, which almost led me to track him to his lair and pee in it.
The coyotes, even the newcomer wolf I saw in the back yard last winter, are cool. But an A-level predator like a lion who isn't spooked by dogs or people and is actively hunting around rural houses is a time bomb. That's part of living in the country, too, understanding that not all animals spring fully formed from Disney films.
Probably, the cat will move on and aside from waking me up at night, I'll have nothing to do with it...but it does NOT get the benefit of the doubt. Cats are invisible...if it chooses to be visible, lets itself be seen on my property — which is big cat talk for, "You are prey; I am not" — I will dispatch it.
Given my druthers, I don't kill anything...I've walked aroung buzzing rattlesnakes and altered hikes through wild places to NOT put myself in a confrontational position with dangerous animals. But I draw the line at urbanized A-level predators hunting in my back yard.
Geek...owwwwwwwww....41 Magnums? Almost as good as a .44 Special! The 240-gr Magnum JHPs, especially the Black Hills stuff I use, aren't hard to control, especially compared to the heavy bullet blasters. The .44 Special is one of my favorite trail cartridges, and my Sweetie has put hot .44 Specials through lightweight guns...the 629 is much easier to handle.
Michael "BWANA" B
I wonder if some BIG cat waste products would induce your middl'en size cat to move on? Not sure where to look for a supply, check with a zoo or circus, perhaps. I know it's marketed somewhere.
My sister saw a mountain lion in her driveway last year.
It has been seen in her neighborhood at other times as well.
Add to that the portion of bobcat tail her lab bit off (identified by her vet) and suburban Mesa, AZ is pretty wild.
Of course she is afraid of having a firearm in the house lest someone get hurt.
"Move to the city or learn to co-exist in the country."
You do realize that every city used to be "country" once, right? Until humans moved in, killed the predators, and paved the way for coffee shops for lit students to debate Foucault.
BTW, what predatory animals "co-exist"? "Co-exist" means "you kill me or I kill you."
Post a Comment