Son's Cougar Today

SKS Bitten said:
Maybe someone who had actually ate cougar meat can give us some insight as to the flavour and texture.
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I have eaten it several times at game dinners. It is not at all unpleasant. Tastes somewhat like chicken, a bit coarser texture, but not too hard to chew.


bearkilr said:
Like tough, overcooked pork chops. The lynx I've tried was similar. Flavour was rather bland, it didn't really taste like anything other than the few spices I threw on.

Mbogo3- That's a huge cat, congrats to your son!!!!
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Quite different from Bearkiller's experience. No doubt the way it is prepared and cooked makes a difference

Ted
 
Slamfire said:
Confident with the choice of round to take down this animal? Maybe something heavier for positive stopping power?
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Cats have light bones, and light hides. Doesn't take much to kill them as long as you can find a path for the bullet. A couple old cat hunters I used to spend time hunting with swore by using a folding .410 and 7/8th ounce slugs. Caliber sized hole in, caliber sized hole out (sometimes).

Cats are usually fairly docile when they are in the tree as well, not much "stopping power" required.
 
Slamfire said:
Confident with the choice of round to take down this animal? Maybe something heavier for positive stopping power?
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Well the OP said it died instantly and they had to do some tree cutting to get it down. Something tells me he had plenty of stopping power. I suppose he could have kicked it up to a 458 or something along those lines so they could just shoot and kill the cat and fall the tree in one swoop to save the work of getting it down after?
 
A coyote has more fight in it than a cougar. The old timers used anything, but often a light 22LR, this was before the cougar became a big game animal by law.
 
Slamfire said:
Right, either wouldn't be legal under current regulations.
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Nobody said anything about legalities, the question was whether or not a 6.5x55 was a large enough or powerful enough round to "stop" a cat.

Cougars, for whatever reason, have very little will to live after having a little bit of daylight let into them. One guy I know who is a dedicated cat hunter carries a 22 hornet in an HR Handi Rifle, because it's the lightest rifle he can find that will pack down small and doesn't require ear plugs when lightly loaded with 35 gr vmax at 1000fps.

Cougars aren't hard to kill from 15 or 20 metres when they are up in a tree. And they tend to hang on as long as they can when shot. Lots of hound hunters are relatively lightly armed compared to the average weekend warrior out after his yearling whitetail fawn. If cats showed much inclination to come down and fight expensive dogs after being shot, I'm fairly certain that you would see heavier caliber rifles being used on a regular basis.
 
Slamfire said:
Confident with the choice of round to take down this animal? Maybe something heavier for positive stopping power?
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KodiakHntr said:
Nobody said anything about legalities, the question was whether or not a 6.5x55 was a large enough or powerful enough round...
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Nope. The question is for the OP on whether he is confident with the round used.
 
To the OP, sorry for the derail, that is a fantastic cat your son took. A tom over 150 lbs is a hard found trophy anywhere that cats are hunted.
 
Slamfire said:
Nope. The question is for the OP on whether he is confident with the round used.
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In addition to the book I mentioned earlier"Treed Beyond the River", there is an additional book "Longwalkers" by another author on cougars and hounds.
This man hunted cougars for many years with multi generations of cougar hounds. His firearm of choice was a Ruger Single Six revolver with the 22 mag cylinder in place.
 
Seeing we are in Canada we can't carry handguns or I think a 7.62x25 with 90gr HP's would be fine .........Harold
 
mbogo3 said:
Seeing we are in Canada we can't carry handguns or I think a 7.62x25 with 90gr HP's would be fine .........Harold
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I remember reading a hunting book and the author said to never strap on a handgun bigger than a 22 unless you are an expert in it's use, you'll just embarrass yourself.

I'll be the first to admit that I can't hit jack with either of the two (Chinese and Hungarian) Toks that I've had. A cougar in a tree would be quite safe from someone carrying on IMO.
 
MiG25 said:
I remember reading a hunting book and the author said to never strap on a handgun bigger than a 22 unless you are an expert in it's use, you'll just embarrass yourself.

I'll be the first to admit that I can't hit jack with either of the two (Chinese and Hungarian) Toks that I've had. A cougar in a tree would be quite safe from someone carrying on IMO.
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Don't feel bad, nobody can hit anything with a Tokarev.
 
My Polish Tok is quite accurate with 13gr of Win 296 and either a 86gr/90gr HP Hornady . Cats are considered big game in AB so .23 caliber and up must be used .If it weren't for the law any .22 centerfire varmint gun would be fine.I think I'd take my CZ527 carbine in 7.62x39 with SP or x bullets if I ever get to go myself .Don't want a wounded cat hitting the ground with the dogs tethered to nearby trees.Compact accurate and easy on hides..........Harold
 
mbogo3 said:
...CZ527 carbine in 7.62x39 with SP or x bullets...Compact accurate and easy on hides..........Harold
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tu.gif
:cool:
 
Apparently SOME of the old boys preferred to use a 22lr on them , with knowledge of the cats vitals they would shoot it in the liver and let it bleed out in the tree to avoid it falling down wounded into the dogs and ripping them up .
 
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