Big predators in strange places

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"I think you misunderstood the good advice you were given on the other thread. There are virtually no credible threats in Arizona from 4 legged predators. The 2 legged type are by far the greater concern and I'd choose a weapon for that as my first priority.

All of the animals you seem concerned about are hardly "large" predators. Most bobcats are 15-20 lbs and you may see the rare 50 lb cat. Mt. lions can certainly kill a human, but once again are quite small and any gun capable of human defense is more than adequate for even the largest cats on this continent."

I must seriously beg to differ with you. Tell that to the young lady who while camping out with her church group on Mt. Lemmon here just North of Tucson was dragged from her tent by a Black bear. The bear finally let go after on of the groups chaperones emptied his .44 magnum revolver into the bear. The bear ran off and was later tracked down and killed by Game & Fish officials. Several Mountain lions had to be tracked and killed after threatening hikers on the Sabino Canyon hiking trail.
Where I do agree with you is on the two legged predators. The map that Game & Fish put in the hut regs actually show a line crossing the state with the warning that due to illegal activity hunting to the south of the line could be hazardous to your health.
Paul B.
 
While partridge hunting walking down old logging roads back in the woods. I came upon abandoned 53 Plymouth station wagon. Stuck my head into the car thur its rear dirty window for a look see. Bob cat was sleeping in it. And He immediately exited his bed and past the side of my head. So close. I felt his fur sliding across my ear. To this day I'm not sure if the cat was screaming or it was me who was. It was indeed an exciting moment.____
Click to expand...

If that had happened to me I would say exciting would be putting it mildly; most likely I would have had to change my drawers.:o

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com
 
About 10 years ago my father spotted a cougar in the city of McMinnville, OR. I dropped off a .22 rifle so he could gut shoot it if it was spotted again. There were a lot of small children in that neighborhood and a big cat around it a bad idea. I don't know if the city did anything about it but as far as I know there were no further sightings.

I know if I saw a big cat in my yard, I'd gut shoot it with a .22 short and let it wander off and dies somewhere else...

Since Oregon passes the crazy California style hunting laws black bear and cougars numbers have skyrocketed but they as hard to hunt as ever...

Tony
 
Trouble is, Geezer, you've created more hazard than if you'd not shot at all. You now have a wounded animal with a really hostile attitude. Far more prone to attack than before being shot.

While I fully understand how city ordinances against shooting can be a problem in this situation, don't make the cat problem worse.
 
The only other option would be to shoot it with a bean bag round or in the butt with a pellet gun. I'd prefer to make the cat die. The state is now hiring professional hunters and trappers to fix the problem that they caused by messing with the game laws but that's still n not keeping big cats out of the cities...

I knew an old gunsmith (now off to the happy hunting grounds) that told me the way to bring down a big cat was to let you dogs tree it and then shoot it through the lungs with a .22 short. The idea was to make the animal bleed out but not be hurt so much that it would bolt and run. He said that a cat shot with a big rifle could run a couple miles before it would expire. Anyway old Ferdinand said that after about a half hour the cat would pass out and fall out of the tree...

So I did miss speak when I said gut shoot but rather a low powered wound that would let the cat expire elsewhere relatively soon.

Tony
 
I hear some guys in my area talking about shooting hogs with .22's so they go off to die somewhere in the woods. I just don't think I would like to do that to anything. I shoot a lot of hogs, coons, etc.... but I want to do it humanely.
 
Mtn Lions are not small and while I'm not mortally afraid of them I will not dismiss them as a threat. .357 and up is sufficient I'd think.
 
Mountain lions really keep away from people, but sick or injured ones love to eat household pets and livestock. Rare but it happens. My small kids play outside about a million hours per year.
The bears in AZ really seem to be getting acclimated to the population. Lot's of examples including one in downtown Kingman last year.
The bigger problem in my opinion (and in my part of rural AZ) is idiots who drive out of town and dump their unwanted dogs. Not the dogs fault of course. Most are just hungry/thirsty and friendly. Some aren't. Groups of wild or semi wild dogs can be a problem for livestock and sometimes people, specially little kids. That kind of brings ammo capacity into play.
Sick coyotes are out there, I've had (the old 36 shot series) rabies shots to verify that.

All of those things are pretty rare. Use of a firearm in self defense is rare too but we walk in a prepared manner.

My rescued shepard mix doesn't let anything within 100 yards of the house without letting us know what's up. And she'd die before she'd let something hurt the little ones. You can't buy that kind of 24 hour security for a million bucks.


J
 
I saw your other thread, recoil is very subjective.

You had grown men respond that in the thread that shotgun recoil is harsh. Of course he also said shotguns are for people who can't shoot : ) and recomended an AR. Go figure.

My Dear Old Mom is half past 76 yrs with arthritus, 4'-10". She has no beef with her 12 ga. 1100, 00 buck, with the short barrel. May have to go to something different when she hit's 80, don't know. Pretty decent choice for anything in her yard.

I also agree with the recomendations for a pistol caliber carbine. Lever action .357 or .44 will deal with any defensive threats I'm aware of in AZ. And I don't live in Georgia : )

As long as she's familiar with it and runs it regularly, good to go.


J
 
I didn't see it in the flesh, but I have seen big cat prints around Akron Ohio. Last fall I saw the prints while rabbit hunting. The print was as big as the palm of my hand. My sis in law works for the parks and when she said that to the rangers, they said there are mountain lions in the parks eating deer. There are so many deer here, they could eat a 1000 and never notice it. What will be interesting is what will occur when the park districts start really thinning the deer out this fall. They intend to reduce the numbers by at least 50 %

20 years ago there was a BIG cat wandering the neighborhood. The footprints were around the house, around the pasture by our horses and the horses kept looking into the woods. A few years later my son found lots of bone piles in the woods behind our house (deer). The PD caught a picture of "something" big running across the road one night.

We are also having beer wander in from Pa. Ohio is pretty heavily populated and it is different for them to come here. Not odd, just different.

I was also told by a retired LEO that there was a pack of hybrid wolf dogs running the area.
 
My buddy sent me a picture of a small black bear sitting on his porch roof. He lives next door to the Vineland, NJ public library. Vineland is fairly rural for NJ but still we have 100k people living in 60 sq miles. Library is in center city, the most densely populated area. Oh, yeh. Bears are not in S. NJ. No one told the bear.
 
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