Indians For Guns

These photos of a massive mountain lion have circulated the web for months over email, forums, and social media. Rumors suggested it was killed in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho and who knows how many hunters have claimed by now that it was taken by a "buddy of a friend."

But the truth is that the cougar was taken by Rob Klein (right) in December on a hunt with Fraser Valley Outfitters in west-central Alberta. "I put the picture on my Facebook page and from there it just kind of went viral," Klein says. "The cat's been taken in 13 states by 25 different guys … I had a guy arguing with me on one of the sites saying 'No, you didn't shoot that cat, it was shot by a buddy of mine.'"

The viral nature of the photos is understandable, because the cat looks, well, enormous.
For reference, Klein stands 6 feet tall and weighs 260 pounds.
Klein says the lion weighed more than 200 pounds and has an official Boone & Crockett score of 15 4/16 inches (the world record cat scored 16 4/16 inches).

But for all the excitement surrounding the photos, Klein actually had pretty typical mountain lion hunt. They had located a big tom that the guides knew was in the area, boxed it in, and then tracked it in the snow. The guide was hesitant to cut his dogs loose at first because there were so many wolves in the area. When wolves hear hounds baying, they'll charge in and try to kill the dogs.

When they thought they had gained enough ground on the cat, they cut three hounds loose and the chase was on. After about 30 minutes, the dogs had the tom treed at the bottom of a huge creek gully. It took Klein and the guides about an hour to hike through the snow and over scattered deadfalls down to the cat.

"It was a nightmare of a place to get into, it wasn't pretty that's for sure," he says. From there, a single shot from Klein's .270 short mag. brought the mountain lion down.

"That was the first cat I've ever harvested," Klein says. "I've chased elk, mule deer, and bears, but this was by far the most exciting hunt I've ever been on. Prior to the hunt I thought that you just walk in on the cat and shoot him and it's all yippee kaya ... but these don't cats just sit in trees. There's the possibility that they'll jump trees, come down and fight the dogs, hunters have even been stalked on some occasions."

Maybe the most interesting fact from Klein's hunt is that they first cut the big cat's track just outside of a semi-suburban area.

"In the country where we first cut the track, kids could have been out there waiting for the school bus," Klein said.

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The size of it. Must have been feeding very well.


Best-
Vikram

What a majestic creature !!! Must have ruled it's territory.

Regards
Moin.

I'm sure that there will be someone who comes along and says: "How evil to kill such a magnificient animal"

So let me forestall that by saying: "Evil"? "Possibly, but a necessary evil".
The answer is proper conservation that assures that a balance is kept between man and his environment. Conservation is very expensive, there is no doubt about that. It also assures that species like the Cougar will thrive and not go the way of the Dodo.
So,who pays for conservation? In the US, a country with some of the world's most successful conservation programs, it is the hunter and shooter that pays for Conservation.
How? By purchasing licences to hunt, trap and fish. There is also a tax on guns and ammunition that is earmarked for Conservation. These funds help pay for the Scientists, Research Centers and most importantly for the Rangers who police the forests. The thousands of tree huggers, nature lovers, bird watchers, PETA, etc. don't pay one thin dime towards conservation. It's the Hunters and shooters that bear the burden. Stop the hunters, trappers and fishermen and it won't take long for things to start to look like the once mighty African game reserves that are mere shadows of their former selves.

The naive will say, just leave them alone and they will be fine. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.
It's actually very simple. Without money for conservation, there will be no conservation.

Okay, my question to you is how to hunt such a magnificent creature?
I understand that you need to buy tags for them in the USA?

How evil to kill such a magnificent creature !

That's one respectably sized beast! As Vikram says, he must have had plenty to eat. I have not done much traveling in the Canadian Rockies, but the pictures seem to indicate that it might be like the Bitterroot and Kootenai areas of Western Montana -- areas that get rain and have a lot of wildlife. That would give Mr Cat plenty of dining opportunities. A really magnificent trophy!

As for all those sorry excuses who "shot" it, a sad commentary on human nature: "success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan."

No for or against arguments. But something bleeds inside me.

What a fantastic trophy.
Reminds me of the lovely post shooter had written here on the mountain lion he had shot. The weather conditions were very much the same.

Oggie wrote:How evil to kill such a magnificent creature !

Hey Oggie. I thought you hunt. Have you joined the PETA recently.
People Eating Tasty Animals.

Arrey Prashant,
Somebody has to play "Naradmuni" and stir up the passionate souls online !
On a more serious note - I hunt YES and love it too but personally would only hunt prey animals as my philosophy is if you can eat it, its fair game. Somehow hunting predators for sport does not appeal to me. However I can understand the sport behind it so am not being judgemental....just winding up the boys a bit I suppose
You should seriously consider NZ for a hunt buddy - promise we'll look after you well

Xl Thats a big Tom amazing

on a separate note few days back I was admiring a Grizzly bear shot by a hunter and its picture. The bear appeared to be huge until the shopkeeper told me that the fish lens makes the picture eschewed.
best

Oggie wrote: and stir up the passionate souls online !

You did that very well. (The gentleman who posted before me). I am sure we will see some more soon.

What are the predators found in NZ?
The rationale dangerous game hunters give for hunting predators is that if they don't hunt them and continue to hunt deer,there will be too many predators and not enough deer for them to feed on.
Secondly, as xl correctly mentioned. The financial aspect. A mountain lion hunt would probably be the most expensive. Thereby bringing in the maximum funds for conservation.

Hey Prashant,
Yup I'm sure there will be some interesting moments from here on...
NZ has just one type of predator - Man.
Mate, Dangerous game hunters will say anything to justify the taking of a beautiful cat ! The point is they enjoy the thrill of the chase and the sense of dominance over a powerful predator, but feel they need to justify their action to those that would not understand the thrill with an explanation that makes it easier. I'd take it with a grain of salt. And by the way I don't have any issue with sport hunting - to each his own. I would not do it but I understand the sport behind it.
The financial aspect - YES. Its true. However the reason hunters are willing to pay to get the lion is not for conservation but for the thrill of the hunt. The fact that their money goes towards conservation makes it easier for them. So for those who enjoy taking cats as fair game its time to be honest and admit that they do it for sport. And you know what - that's perfectly OK. However to do it and then claim its for conservation is not correct. If their sole purpose was conservation get a camera, forget the hunt and just donate the money !
See now this pot is boiling....Prashant you are very mischievous indeed

this animal looks majestic,almost like a african lion.though its measurements are less than the record,still it is huge for a coughar.
hunting or culling in an organised pattern is a form of conservation prooved beyond doubts.so we dont have to loose our breath on that.
i would have told '' my friend shot this '' if xl didn't warn.
regards
dr.jk

Mate, Dangerous game hunters will say anything to justify the taking of a beautiful cat ! The point is they enjoy the thrill of the chase and the sense of dominance over a powerful predator, but feel they need to justify their action to those that would not understand the thrill with an explanation that makes it easier. I'd take it with a grain of salt. And by the way I don't have any issue with sport hunting - to each his own. I would not do it but I understand the sport behind it.
The financial aspect - YES. Its true. However the reason hunters are willing to pay to get the lion is not for conservation but for the thrill of the hunt. The fact that their money goes towards conservation makes it easier for them. So for those who enjoy taking cats as fair game its time to be honest and admit that they do it for sport. And you know what - that's perfectly OK. However to do it and then claim its for conservation is not correct. If their sole purpose was conservation get a camera, forget the hunt and just donate the money !

Hmm! No one said anything about justification. Man likes to hunt, whether it's for food or a trophy, it fulfills some primal instinct in him. Every legal hunter buys his game. Very few people in developed countries have to hunt for subsistence any more. Today's hunter buys his game, whether it is the money expended in licence fees, the cost of the equipment used or the effort made towards fair chase and to follow the rules. Personally, I've never hunted anything that I couldn't eat but it's precisely because I want to keep hunting (what I like to hunt) that I support other types of hunting. If I just did it to eat meat, I could go down to the corner grocery store and pick up a pound of hamburger. It would be a lot cheaper in time, money and energy to do that, rather than hunt.

"just donate the money"? Seriously?
In reality that doesn't happen much. There are millions of animal and bird lovers in North America. They are out there with their cameras all the time and, by God, they believe in conservation. What is donated by them towards conservation is a drop in the bucket compared to what hunters and fishermen put out. Without getting something in return, no one is going to plunk down thousands of dollars. If you were to ban hunting in North America today, the conservation dollars WILL dry up. With no money coming in for research and to pay Rangers, you can eventually kiss a lot of species goodbye. That's just simple reality. Hey, it's happened all over the world.

To impute that hunting one species is sporting and hunting another is not is a rather specious argument. Similar to the argument; "why do you need an AR15 when you can just shoot with a bolt action rifle"? Or "why do you need a semi auto rifle when you can just use a single shot for everything"? People like that are often referred to as "Fudd's" after Elmer Fudd from the Bugs Bunny cartoon. Fudd's reason is that it is OK to ban one type of gun because they don't use it. More rational thinkers might compare behavior like that to an Ostrich sticking it's head in the sand.