Physch

Nice buck. I have to ask what is the quiver? Do you hang it from your belt?

I'm looking for a hunting partner to hunt with down in NM Unit 27 for Coues during the January archery hunt. I know the area pretty well. If you’re interested please feel free to contact me. Craig.

Looking for a lightly used Wall Tent and frame.

I’ve called in quite a few. My issue has been finding them after the shot. They have a tendency of running and hiding after being shot since they’re not treed. Their color blends in with everything and can make for a hard recovery. I have another thread on this forum where I asked opinions on shot placement that I had on a cat. You should be able to find it pretty easily. I shot two within a few months. One took me 4 days to find after the shot. Tracking dogs within a couple of hours couldn’t find it. Worse feeling of my life was losing them. So now I chase them with dogs. Cats are my passion. I think it’s easier to call cats in than it is to use dogs. Here’s the cat skull I recovered: (don’t mind the bear. That was spot and stalk.)

I’m curious...this is a 2018 topic but did either of you have success at calling one in? I think lions are fairly easy to call in. There is a huge learning curve at the beginning but after a couple of lions it gets very cookie cutter. I would never mouth call. They come in fast and there is always the chance of calling in a bear which I’m not fond of. Personally I think you have to understand travel routes, bedding and sunning areas to be okay at glassing them up. Most people I know that have found them using glass were looking for deer, elk, etc. Not saying impossible but not easy.

Agree with Bojangles. We just had a lion bury the carcass of the deer we took. Look around the base of trees close by for mounds.

I agree with the socks. I use merina wool socks and they seem to be dense enough threaded that its not too bad. This year I wore a pair of zero soled shoes. Many manufacturers make them; just look for soles with a lot of flexibility. The pair I tried are Merrell vapor glove 2. Not perfect but pretty darn comfortable.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I ran into an interesting situation this past weekend and wanted to get feedback on what you guys would do. I have been strictly an archery hunter for quite sometime and am stretching my learning into rifles. I was calling for mountain lions and had a big Tom come in. Initially, I passed on a shot that was straight on and only had to wait a moment before I got a quartering towards shot opportunity as I think the cat realized that something wasn't quite right. The cat was 50 yards away with an unobstructed view (maybe a little grass in the way) but still see very well. I was hunting with a .270 150 grain bullet. My questions for you are: 1. Should I have taken the straight on shot? 2. Should I have taken the quartering towards? 3. Wait for a better shot? 4. If you picked one of the first two, where would you aim? Thank you for your time.

Rugerman. I am in an area where you can take multiple lions.

Sounds like we are all pretty passionate about hunting. I'm pretty thick skinned and appreciate the opinions and support. I felt very confident with the shot. I was sitting on my butt and had three points of contact stabilizing the gun. In the weeks prior I had shot a bear and a coyote with my .270 standing at 90 and 185 yards, respectfully. Both were broadside to me. I know I didn't react well after the shot with the cat. I felt overconfident with the placement and was blown away/shocked that the cat didn't just drop on the spot. Before mountain lions I've never had an animal run more than 20 yards with a bow or a gun. My first mountain lion this year I shot quartering away with a bow and found the cat ~160 yards from the point of impact. I don't do well with failure and am trying to figureout what I can learn from this situation to prevent it from happening in the future. Currently, I've decided to pass on the shot if it's presented again. I'll wait for a broadside or a straight on shot. Naturebob I've had a few people recommend that I should have gone for the neck and I wondered that myself if I should have taken that shot. I wrote this on the website obviously to get your opinions and hopefully help others if they find themselves with the same shot.

Thank you, MattMan. Closer to the pink dot?

I have promised myself that if I shoot something I'm going to eat it and I've heard that they are incredibly tasty.

As the cat was on the ground I pulled the trigger 2-3 more times on the last pull I realized nothing was coming out. It dawned on me that I had my bolt action gun and had been practicing with a semi auto 223 that week. I pulled the bolt back and that cat immediately stopped and jumped to its feet broadside staring at me (that was truly the creepiest part of the whole ordeal). I pushed the bolt forward and the cat started to run off on three legs. I got one more shot off but think I tried to lead him too far infront for how close he was. I agree with Browns that we should look at incidents like this and try and learn from them, but for the life of me I cannot figureout what I did wrong. That's why I'm posting this. Is this a shot I should have passed on? I was using federal premium Sierra 150 grain gamekings. I searched for this cat for a day and a half with no luck. There was bright red blood at the sight where he was flailing.

I did take the quartering towards shot. Here is an image from the web that I put a mark on where I had aimed. The only difference between the image and reality is the right leg was out farther than the left. The aim point was about an inch inside where I thought the shoulder joint would be. I thought this would go clean through the tops of both lungs. I was calm and softly squeezed the trigger. The cat ran up so fast to the call that I didn't have the opportunity to get really excited until the moment after I pulled the trigger and I saw it flopping around.

Pm sent

I carry a 40 in a military style shoulder holster.

Pm sent

I'm looking for someone to hunt with down in NM Unit 27 for Coues during the January hunt. I've hunted it 3 out of the last 4 years and know the area very well. If your interested please feel free to contact me. Craig.

This is a draw only hunt, unless you were able to pick up a leftover tag in June. The dates of the hunt are January 1-15, 2017. I like to start January 1st as there are a lot less hunters at this time.

I usually hunt down on the border and typically only hike out into the forest during the day. I have driven one of the roads at night and run into traffickers walking right up the road, so out hiking and running into that doesn't sound interesting to me. Funny story though. This year I hunted a different area further north and the weather turned really bad on the fifth day (snow, sleet, rain, repeat). I handled well for the first night of bad weather, but decided to pack out the second night. Mind you I had about 70lbs of equipment with me as I was bivy camping (meaning not walking that quietly). I typically carry 2 small hand held flashlights and 2 headlamps just to be safe. This night I had my headlamp on and started walking. Made it about 1/4 of a mile and was breaking through brush, trees while walking down an arroyo. It was a new moon, so it was pitch black. I walked into a group of over hanging trees and looked ahead and had two eyes staring at me. No joke; the hair on my body stood up. The eyes took a few seconds and then decided to crouch down. I was expecting it to run away, but it stayed there staring at me. The eyes were no more than 15 ft away. Finally after 5-10 seconds it turned up into the darkness and disappeared. At that point I could positively identify it. My sidearm was under my sweatshirt and was inaccessible with how the backpack strap sits over it on my hip. I have always wanted to see a mountain lion, this turned out to be a little closer than I was hoping for though. It turned out to be a really cool interaction. I was and am very surprised that it did not run off with the noise I was making or when it initially saw me. For the rest of the hike out I yelled 'hey bear' every few minutes. Looking back I don't think that it was sizing me up, but instead trying to figure out what I was.

I am an avid still hunter. I traditionally carry binoculars and a tripod, but I only use the binoculars when I have found a deer and want to get more detail. I have decided that I would like to get better at glassing and have a couple of basic questions to getting started. When glassing a new area how long do you search before moving on to the next spot? For example, do you use time or the number of passes over a mountain? Do you walk the new area to find game trails, sheds, rubs, scraps, etc. to locate hot spots and glass at a later time?

Thank you, both. Appreciate the responses.

I was wondering what kind of water purification you guys use and would recommend?

Hi everyone. I am scouting a new area this year to hunt. The landscape is much different than I am used to and was hoping to gather some info on Coues doe behavior as I saw a few single does. I have a January hunt and am hoping that if I can figure out the does that the bucks will be with them during January. If you see a coues doe does that mean that there are more in the area(are they in groups typically or can you find them isolated by themselves for long durations)?