Hi everyone, Have we got a story to share with you. It all started out on last Wednesday, Dan (Nugget) calls me up on my lunch break from work, asking if I wanna get hired to take my camera and go along on another one of his crazy Cougar chasing expeditions. I have an instant flashback to last Febuary, romping around on a sled in the nasty back country in minus twenty something weather freezing off my behind. (I was never built for cold weather). Long story short, I near froze to death and was honestly suprised to get out of that place under my own steam.
I come back to present day and blurt out "sure, when do we leave?" I ended up taking Thursday off. We met up with Jason Martin (who has several tick hounds) and one of Dan's coworker/buddies at 7:30 am. We pack up and head out. Jason had been following this cat track for over 10 miles the day before and Nugget was next on the list to go.
We got on the track within a very short time frame and try to "Box it in" by trying to find which section of bush it is in by driving the cutlines, in a box formation until we make a box that the kitty tracks don't come out of. This started at about 8 am and after following it around awhile, we were ready to "give er" at 11:45am.
Once we were a ways into the bush with the video rolling, the dogs were let loose and blew down through the timber towards the river. Following the sound of baying hounds can really keep you excited. We found the cat's bed from the evening nap within ten or fifteen minutes and then even found his scratching post, an old deadfall that he made short work of leaving shredded chunks of wood on the ground in a neat pile.
Soon we were down to the river, the cat must have been jumped by this time as he made a huge leap from the bank to the ice of the frozen river below, all of a ten foot elevation drop to solid ice, ouch.
We got across the river at a better point and then headed up the other side of the valley. The temp was very mild, plus 4 or 5 by this time so the sweat was flowing quite well. The dog's had been out of hearing range since we got to the river. Jason and Dan were on a mission so they were soon out of sight, we used radios to keep contact. Gary and I brought up the rear, wondering if it was going to end up like last February, froze stiff and never even seeing a bloody cat. We crossed a road at the top of the valley and it took another quarter section of lease land bush to tree the cat.
The dogs had the big tom treed in a poplar tree before we were there, the cat jumped out from a high enough position that Jason said all the powder snow was gone for a six foot circle where it landed, then it took off without the dogs noticing. Jason has the pup on a leash by this time as it had lost the track. They were going all over searching for tracks when the pup near knocked Jason over when it took off to the right, before he knew it the dog sprinted to this big old forked spruce tree and started baying.
Jason was shocked to look up and see the cat sitting six feet up the tree, right in front of him. This was the pup's first run, apparentley it knows what to do.
Before long, I heard Jason calling his other hounds so I made a beeline for his voice, thinking we were giving up on the trail. I come around the corner and see Jason, he gives me the thumbs up, for what reason I did no yet know. But when I happened to look up in the tree I near fell over when I saw this huge freakin cat staring back at me with an intent to do some serious harm. I bailed out my camera and snapped a pile of picks while Jason radioed Dan to get over to where we were. He was still trying to get ahold of the other hounds.
Once we were all there, we took a good look at the cat, He was beautiful, with a nice dark coat and large intimidating face. He had not made a kill in awhile so he was quite lean in the body. This was my very first time laying my vulcan squinties on a cat. It also brought many mixed feelings to be on this type of hunt. It is very exciting to chase after the hounds. I could not help but wonder what that cat was thinking being chased all that way and having to hide out in a tree while all these weird things show up to oogle at it. We had actively chased him 3 miles.Quite the opposite from it's regular routine.
It was a bit sad for me to think in a few minutes this cat was going to have a 270 poke it and it would be game over. I have never had the opportunity to look over an animal for any length of time and choose whether it was "good enough" or not for me to shoot, especially with something like this that most of us will never even see in the wild.. Don't get me wrong, I have seen what they can do to cattle, sheep, horses and my neighbors pets to for that matter. But if you don't have those mixed feeling everytime you harvest a beautiful animal I guess you'd better re-evaluate why your out there. They are after all a living thing the good Lord put on this earth, although I don't always understand why.
Anyway, back to the story already, once the cat had gotten into a position in the tree where Dan could get a clear shot, we all got into position for watching the shot. Dan had brought along the 270 Belgium Browning BAR he inherited from his Grandfather three years prior. It is topped with an old steel K4 Weaver. I have learned not to underestimate this combination even though I am not a fan of the semi's, this rifle has knocked down everything it was pointed at in short order. Dan even found some of his Grandfather's old loads in a box. They are gas checked lead slugs, perfect for the application or so we thought for this job and not to mention a little bit of nostalgia to boot.
I had the lucky job to draw the cats attention while Dan lined up on it and Jason was going with the video footage right behind him. KABOOM!!! And the tree explodes with the cat trying to first go straight up the tree and all the snow sifting down. In an instant the cat comes out on the end of the branch and it snaps. The Tom comes down 16 feet to the ground and is facing me. It must be looking for the nearest cover as it lunges sideways at Dan and Jason who are by this time screaming naughty words while stumbling over eachother trying to get the heck out of the way.
I kid you not, I was maybe twenty feet away from their position, and watching that cat rear up,it looked as big as a Grizzly. It reared up on it's back legs an proceeded to try to rip Dan to shreds who was within two feet of those ten razor blades slicing the air in front of his face with frightening speed. All the time I'm wondering how the heck I can save them by clubing the cat with my Nikon SLR, the only weapon I have in my hands.
Dan fell over backwards, tripping on a log while Jason went from a 5' 10" 180 lb guy to the size of a little fox blazing though an impossible grove of tiny spruce. The whole thing was over in maybe five seconds but it seemed like minutes when you think of trying to tell your sister how a cat thrashed her husband to bits and you're not sure if he's gonna make it.
Now that it was all over we could laugh, Jason had so much adrenaline going through his sytem he had dry heaves for awhile on bended knee by the trees.
I will post a bunch of photos when I get to another computer on Monday.
The Tom was 6' 9", 136lbs. Green score on the skull wiht calipers was 14 5/8"
He looked real hungry, Jason said if we had jumped him off a kill he could have weighed up to 30lbs more! It was a good lift for sure to hold him for the pics. The shot was perfect, going up through the brisket, through the vitals and what little was left stopped under the hide on it's back. The slug was maybe 130gr starting out, I doubt if 10 grains of lead and gas check were under the hide. Perfect for the Taxidermist !
We tied him to a long stick just like the Peter and the wolf story and hauled him back to the road. Jason and Dan then went the next 3 miles on foot back to retrieve the trucks and we trundled on home. I hope you enjoyed our little adventure as much as we did. If anyone is interested in going on a hunt with Jason, send me a pm and I will get you some more info. He is a great guy, I am booked for a muley hunt with him maybe next fall. He works very very hard to get you in front of your quarry and is a great entertainer the duration of the hunt. It looks like Nugget will be going for a full body mount, and rightly so!
Here is the Kitties bed for the night.
The Kitties scratching post.
Cat finally treed.
Meow!!!!
The brother in laws, Nugget(Dan) on left and yours truly doing the heavy work.
And a perfect end to a great day afield.
Cheers fellow gunnutz!
Noel
I come back to present day and blurt out "sure, when do we leave?" I ended up taking Thursday off. We met up with Jason Martin (who has several tick hounds) and one of Dan's coworker/buddies at 7:30 am. We pack up and head out. Jason had been following this cat track for over 10 miles the day before and Nugget was next on the list to go.
We got on the track within a very short time frame and try to "Box it in" by trying to find which section of bush it is in by driving the cutlines, in a box formation until we make a box that the kitty tracks don't come out of. This started at about 8 am and after following it around awhile, we were ready to "give er" at 11:45am.
Once we were a ways into the bush with the video rolling, the dogs were let loose and blew down through the timber towards the river. Following the sound of baying hounds can really keep you excited. We found the cat's bed from the evening nap within ten or fifteen minutes and then even found his scratching post, an old deadfall that he made short work of leaving shredded chunks of wood on the ground in a neat pile.
Soon we were down to the river, the cat must have been jumped by this time as he made a huge leap from the bank to the ice of the frozen river below, all of a ten foot elevation drop to solid ice, ouch.
We got across the river at a better point and then headed up the other side of the valley. The temp was very mild, plus 4 or 5 by this time so the sweat was flowing quite well. The dog's had been out of hearing range since we got to the river. Jason and Dan were on a mission so they were soon out of sight, we used radios to keep contact. Gary and I brought up the rear, wondering if it was going to end up like last February, froze stiff and never even seeing a bloody cat. We crossed a road at the top of the valley and it took another quarter section of lease land bush to tree the cat.
The dogs had the big tom treed in a poplar tree before we were there, the cat jumped out from a high enough position that Jason said all the powder snow was gone for a six foot circle where it landed, then it took off without the dogs noticing. Jason has the pup on a leash by this time as it had lost the track. They were going all over searching for tracks when the pup near knocked Jason over when it took off to the right, before he knew it the dog sprinted to this big old forked spruce tree and started baying.
Jason was shocked to look up and see the cat sitting six feet up the tree, right in front of him. This was the pup's first run, apparentley it knows what to do.
Before long, I heard Jason calling his other hounds so I made a beeline for his voice, thinking we were giving up on the trail. I come around the corner and see Jason, he gives me the thumbs up, for what reason I did no yet know. But when I happened to look up in the tree I near fell over when I saw this huge freakin cat staring back at me with an intent to do some serious harm. I bailed out my camera and snapped a pile of picks while Jason radioed Dan to get over to where we were. He was still trying to get ahold of the other hounds.
Once we were all there, we took a good look at the cat, He was beautiful, with a nice dark coat and large intimidating face. He had not made a kill in awhile so he was quite lean in the body. This was my very first time laying my vulcan squinties on a cat. It also brought many mixed feelings to be on this type of hunt. It is very exciting to chase after the hounds. I could not help but wonder what that cat was thinking being chased all that way and having to hide out in a tree while all these weird things show up to oogle at it. We had actively chased him 3 miles.Quite the opposite from it's regular routine.
It was a bit sad for me to think in a few minutes this cat was going to have a 270 poke it and it would be game over. I have never had the opportunity to look over an animal for any length of time and choose whether it was "good enough" or not for me to shoot, especially with something like this that most of us will never even see in the wild.. Don't get me wrong, I have seen what they can do to cattle, sheep, horses and my neighbors pets to for that matter. But if you don't have those mixed feeling everytime you harvest a beautiful animal I guess you'd better re-evaluate why your out there. They are after all a living thing the good Lord put on this earth, although I don't always understand why.
Anyway, back to the story already, once the cat had gotten into a position in the tree where Dan could get a clear shot, we all got into position for watching the shot. Dan had brought along the 270 Belgium Browning BAR he inherited from his Grandfather three years prior. It is topped with an old steel K4 Weaver. I have learned not to underestimate this combination even though I am not a fan of the semi's, this rifle has knocked down everything it was pointed at in short order. Dan even found some of his Grandfather's old loads in a box. They are gas checked lead slugs, perfect for the application or so we thought for this job and not to mention a little bit of nostalgia to boot.
I had the lucky job to draw the cats attention while Dan lined up on it and Jason was going with the video footage right behind him. KABOOM!!! And the tree explodes with the cat trying to first go straight up the tree and all the snow sifting down. In an instant the cat comes out on the end of the branch and it snaps. The Tom comes down 16 feet to the ground and is facing me. It must be looking for the nearest cover as it lunges sideways at Dan and Jason who are by this time screaming naughty words while stumbling over eachother trying to get the heck out of the way.
I kid you not, I was maybe twenty feet away from their position, and watching that cat rear up,it looked as big as a Grizzly. It reared up on it's back legs an proceeded to try to rip Dan to shreds who was within two feet of those ten razor blades slicing the air in front of his face with frightening speed. All the time I'm wondering how the heck I can save them by clubing the cat with my Nikon SLR, the only weapon I have in my hands.
Dan fell over backwards, tripping on a log while Jason went from a 5' 10" 180 lb guy to the size of a little fox blazing though an impossible grove of tiny spruce. The whole thing was over in maybe five seconds but it seemed like minutes when you think of trying to tell your sister how a cat thrashed her husband to bits and you're not sure if he's gonna make it.
Now that it was all over we could laugh, Jason had so much adrenaline going through his sytem he had dry heaves for awhile on bended knee by the trees.
I will post a bunch of photos when I get to another computer on Monday.
The Tom was 6' 9", 136lbs. Green score on the skull wiht calipers was 14 5/8"
He looked real hungry, Jason said if we had jumped him off a kill he could have weighed up to 30lbs more! It was a good lift for sure to hold him for the pics. The shot was perfect, going up through the brisket, through the vitals and what little was left stopped under the hide on it's back. The slug was maybe 130gr starting out, I doubt if 10 grains of lead and gas check were under the hide. Perfect for the Taxidermist !
We tied him to a long stick just like the Peter and the wolf story and hauled him back to the road. Jason and Dan then went the next 3 miles on foot back to retrieve the trucks and we trundled on home. I hope you enjoyed our little adventure as much as we did. If anyone is interested in going on a hunt with Jason, send me a pm and I will get you some more info. He is a great guy, I am booked for a muley hunt with him maybe next fall. He works very very hard to get you in front of your quarry and is a great entertainer the duration of the hunt. It looks like Nugget will be going for a full body mount, and rightly so!
Here is the Kitties bed for the night.
The Kitties scratching post.
Cat finally treed.
Meow!!!!
The brother in laws, Nugget(Dan) on left and yours truly doing the heavy work.
And a perfect end to a great day afield.
Cheers fellow gunnutz!
Noel
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