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Post by bushog on Jan 4, 2017 14:27:31 GMT -5
Yeah, My dad has a couple on some property he hunts in FL.
They've driven all the pigs off.
Don't dare say much because because they're protected who knows what the Feds would do....
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Post by sixshot on Jan 4, 2017 14:34:13 GMT -5
This is my handgunned lion I shot many years ago after 11 hours on snow shoes. I've shown this before but they are beautiful animals & I'll never take another one. Used an 8 3/8" S&W 357 & a Keith cast slug at about 5-6 feet to make the shot. We had taken photo's for over an hour before I went back up the tree & made the kill. Notice one of the hounds behind me. All day long I was breaking through the snow. This was back in the late 70's, he's mounted life size about my desk. Notice all the toe's are missing on the left front paw from a coyote trapper. He had killed a large 4 point buck the morning we jumped him off the kill. Dick
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Post by Robster on Jan 4, 2017 20:02:44 GMT -5
I've hunted Arizona twice for lion. both times have wondered whether i would actually punch the tag or just punch the button on my camera. All can say is....bring them to NY and let us hunt or run them with hounds and you guys will get your fill of pics as that is what i would spend my days doing!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by squawberryman on Jan 4, 2017 20:10:48 GMT -5
As you turn off of I-95 and go East into Palm Bay Florida, there is a long and grand entrance prior to the bridge that gets you there. Palm Bay is very high dollar. Prior to the bridge there is a life size bronze statue of a panther, a native species of Florida. It is (was) a beautiful Seminole Indian habitat in days gone by. Thick groves of cabbage palms and scrub oaks. Around here they put bear tunnels under high traffic roads in areas where black bears are hit by cars. Down in the Everglades they did the same thing for the big cats along Alligator alley. Problem is/was, the males would spray a tunnel and no other cats would go through it. I've never seen one but in a controlled environment.
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Post by jimtx on Jan 4, 2017 20:57:36 GMT -5
Growing up in Florida we had a resident Florida panther who's territory included our farm. In 18 years of serious woods bumming there I saw it twice, both times at the edge of a woodline watching game trails or maybe just watching me. My older brother had a black phase panther grab one of his goats and creased it with a shot. He reported the depridation to fish and wildlife who promptly told him there are no panthers that far north in Florida. Story changed when he provided hair and blood from the shot and they promptly wrote him a ticket for shooting at a panther..... It's that typical!, My uncle lived in Inverness, FL. I went there a few times while growing up, each time less woods and more houses, by the last 2nd to last time I was around 10, he had told me my aunt put out the garbage can(old metal one, this was in the early 80's) with chicken bones in it as he told her not to many times before bc of panthers! She didn't listen and the next morning they had a nicely fileted garbage can with nice and clear panther claws right down it. Needless to say no more garbage cans left out with bones in them.
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Post by tek4260 on Jan 4, 2017 22:53:56 GMT -5
A couple years ago I was sitting by the pool at my inlaws house in Ft Myers, FL. Saw one creeping through the game preserve that joined their backyard. Was able to slip out of the lanai and all the way to the fence at the back of the yard before it bolted. Was within maybe 50 yards before it decided I was close enough. Probably the only one I'll get to see unless I go to a zoo.
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Post by magnumwheelman on Jan 5, 2017 7:18:00 GMT -5
saw one in MN one morning a couple years ago... sprinting down a power line... at 1st I thought it a deer, but when it crossed the road about a half mile in front of me, I could tell it was a big cat...
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Post by callmaker on Jan 5, 2017 7:31:03 GMT -5
I'm in southeastern Texas and they are certainly here. Seen a couple, saw tracks many other times. About 4 or 5 years ago, a friend and I went to the hunting lease to hunt birds and we walked into the timber about 1/2 mile from the dirt trail. When we came out, we found a large set of cat tracks walking right over our own tracks from earlier. Turned off into the timber at the same place we did. Weird feeling wondering if, how close, how long we were watched or tracked. My 45 Colt stays with me now. Ha!
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Post by bushog on Jan 5, 2017 8:37:58 GMT -5
Growing up in Florida we had a resident Florida panther who's territory included our farm. In 18 years of serious woods bumming there I saw it twice, both times at the edge of a woodline watching game trails or maybe just watching me. My older brother had a black phase panther grab one of his goats and creased it with a shot. He reported the depridation to fish and wildlife who promptly told him there are no panthers that far north in Florida. Story changed when he provided hair and blood from the shot and they promptly wrote him a ticket for shooting at a panther..... It's that typical!, My uncle lived in Inverness, FL. I went there a few times while growing up, each time less woods and more houses, by the last 2nd to last time I was around 10, he had told me my aunt put out the garbage can(old metal one, this was in the early 80's) with chicken bones in it as he told her not to many times before bc of panthers! She didn't listen and the next morning they had a nicely fileted garbage can with nice and clear panther claws right down it. Needless to say no more garbage cans left out with bones in them. I hunted in Inverness for many years. My Dad and some others leased the Boy Scout Base there in the off season. Was a sweet deal. Could stay in the cabins for the counselors for a small fee and the guys had a camp down by the river where the Scouts weren't allowed to go. Yeah days gone by.....
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Wasp
.30 Stingray
Posts: 312
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Post by Wasp on Jan 5, 2017 10:05:51 GMT -5
People in Arkansas have been saying that my whole life and I believe it. The game and fish swore for years that there weren't, even when people swore they saw them, got them on game cameras, and after a child was taken around Clinton. Now however they claim they say yes there are a few but say most visit from Missouri, But Clinton is half the state away from there.
Game and Fish are crazy, they will tell you stuff like theres no big cats in the state even when people have evidence, but swear there's an extinct ivory billed woodpecker that someone got a blurry picture of and they've got tens of millions in grant money to find and still have no proof it exists!
Like I said, I believe there are big cats, not common but I believe they are there.
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Post by jimtx on Jan 5, 2017 10:25:26 GMT -5
That's the thing about cats, they could be 15 feet and ya wouldn't know it unless they wanted ya to. So elusive, they are top predators!
Callmaker's story reminds me of a show I saw years ago that stated something I believe about black bears, people think they are not as dangerous like a grizzly but in area's where they don't see people alot, your looked at like food! A guy in British Columbia was on horseback just outside a wood line checking cattle, just inside the wood line was black bear tracks shadowing him for over 100yards, till it decided to break cover and take him off the horse, they only found parts left of him! Bottom line is most of us here hunt as well as shoot, so always be alert when in the wild, don't take anything for granted where wild animals are.
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Post by cherokeetracker on Jan 6, 2017 10:18:08 GMT -5
Well, i called this one in yesterday. Plan went perfect. Friend set up on a steep ridge above me where he would have a birds eye view of anything coming into my calling. I dropped down into the draw and tucked myself in under a big fir and started calling. Called pretty steadily with my closed reed distress from rr game calls, and right about at 30 minutes i heard my friend shoot. I couldnt see the cat yet from where i was, but from his position he saw it, and shot it as it was sneaking in on me.
This was the caption on a pic and hunt in Washington. Not trying to highjack the thread,(definitely not the south) but to show how the cat is the hunter
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Post by 2 Dogs on Jan 6, 2017 10:52:56 GMT -5
I'm in southeastern Texas and they are certainly here. Seen a couple, saw tracks many other times. About 4 or 5 years ago, a friend and I went to the hunting lease to hunt birds and we walked into the timber about 1/2 mile from the dirt trail. When we came out, we found a large set of cat tracks walking right over our own tracks from earlier. Turned off into the timber at the same place we did. Weird feeling wondering if, how close, how long we were watched or tracked. My 45 Colt stays with me now. Ha! I live and hunt in Southeast Texas too. And I have seen a couple of enormous Bobcats, but no such big cat. Be neat to get a crack at one though. You would think more game cameras would catch them out and about....
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Post by jimtx on Jan 6, 2017 11:29:27 GMT -5
I'm in southeastern Texas and they are certainly here. Seen a couple, saw tracks many other times. About 4 or 5 years ago, a friend and I went to the hunting lease to hunt birds and we walked into the timber about 1/2 mile from the dirt trail. When we came out, we found a large set of cat tracks walking right over our own tracks from earlier. Turned off into the timber at the same place we did. Weird feeling wondering if, how close, how long we were watched or tracked. My 45 Colt stays with me now. Ha! I live and hunt in Southeast Texas too. And I have seen a couple of enormous Bobcats, but no such big cat. Be neat to get a crack at one though. You would think more game cameras would catch them out and about.... Mr. Dogs where are you located in TX?
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joej
.30 Stingray
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Posts: 352
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Post by joej on Jan 6, 2017 15:16:17 GMT -5
I've seen a couple mountain lions, Lynx and bobcats in the wild, briefly, but when they're in season, none have ever shown themselves to my call. One Lynx I observed in Ontario, Canada had paws that looked like 16 ounce boxing gloves.
Now, I have seen a black panther in South Dakota. I was walking down main street in a small town, of which I can't recall the name, and I'm normally fairly alert and look at everything, basically. This old parked beat up pick up looked normal to me and as I approached it from the sidewalk, my eye caught movement in the box - there was a long lean black panther chained to the bed of that pickup. He was in full view but I guess my brain just didn't process what my eyes were seeing - but when I recognized what it was, I squared away right quick, as I didn't see the chains and it did startle me for a New York second. Cat never made a sound but it was a beautiful cat that someone had as a pet. Not sure if it was legally owned but someone kept great care of that cat.
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