seems easy. who needs hounds? OR
Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 12:47 pm
probably beginner's luck!
"Stearns didn't see the cougar but he kept expecting the cat to climb a tree, as the animals often do when pursued."
http://www.bakercityherald.com/news/sto ... ry_no=5952
Baker City Herald
Except for shooting the cougar, it was an entirely ordinary morning jog for Flint Stearns.
Stearns lives along Old Auburn Road, about nine miles southwest of Baker City.
He runs most mornings.
His usual route is west on the road for a mile and half to the state's elk-feeding site, then back.
Stearns, 38, has seen quite a few cougar tracks during the three years he has lived on his 10-acre rural property, about 2 1/2 miles west of Highway 7.
About a year ago his wife, Mary, persuaded him to buy a .38-caliber revolver.
Stearns bought the lightest, shortest model he could find — a "police special" with a 1-inch barrel.
"It's kind of ridiculous for target practice, but it's easy to carry," said Stearns, who works as an occupational therapist. "When you're running you don't want something heavy and cumbersome."
Besides the gun, he bought a cougar hunting tag.
He didn't much care if he ever killed one of the big cats.
He hoped that one day he would see one, though.
"Even just to catch a glimpse of one crossing a hill 200 yards away would be a treat," Stearns said.
On Jan. 21 he finally caught that glimpse.
And the cougar was quite a lot closer than 200 yards.
That morning about 7:30, before he started his run, Stearns got a phone call from a neighbor who had just seen cougar tracks near Old Auburn Road, a little ways east of Stearns' home.
Stearns, figuring his morning exercise might lead him away from the plowed road, grabbed his snowshoes.
And his pistol.
He found the tracks right off, strapped on his snowshoes and started following the pawprints up the juniper-strewn hillside north of Old Auburn Road.
"They were quite fresh, and easy to follow," Stearns said.
He followed the tracks for the next two hours.
The cougar traveled generally northwest, staying near the top of the ridge that separates Blue Canyon, the stream that parallels Old Auburn Road, and Elk Creek.
Stearns didn't see the cougar but he kept expecting the cat to climb a tree, as the animals often do when pursued.
Then, just after the tracks crossed a steep draw, the prints veered sharply off their previous course.
Stearns stopped to look around.
He noticed that the tracks ended.
He moved just a bit and the situation became clear.
The cougar had crept into a den.
"It was so small I didn't see it at first, maybe a three-foot by three-foot hole," Stearns said.
He could neither see nor hear the cougar.
"But I suddenly realized, she's right here," Stearns said.
He wasn't afraid, though, because he was standing uphill from the den, and the den's opening faced away from him.
"I knew she couldn't suddenly spring on me," he said.
Stearns held his pistol in his right hand and used his left to unbuckle his snowshoes.
He didn't want to stumble on the oversized footwear if the cougar leaped.
Stearns stood in place for about three minutes.
Then he moved a few feet so that he could look into the den.
He still couldn't see the cougar.
But the cougar apparently saw him.
"She just sprang out of there," Stearns said. "She must have covered 10 yards in a single jump.
"She wasn't lunging at me, though."
Stearns fired one shot from a distance of about five yards.
The bullet missed.
He fired a second shot before the cougar, which was up to its belly in the soft snow, leapt again.
The second bullet struck the cougar in the left shoulder.
Stearns said the animal was dead less than half a minute later.
He used his cell phone to call his wife.
Mary Stearns drove to the end of the nearest road, which was about 200 yards downhill from where her husband killed the cougar.
The cougar, a female, weighed 90 pounds.
Stearns took the carcass, as Oregon law requires, to the nearest Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife office, in Baker City.
(The cougar-hunting season in Oregon runs from Jan. 1 to May 31, is closed during June and July, then re-opens Aug. 1 and continues through Dec. 31.)
Stearns said biologists estimated the cougar's age at 2 to 3 years. The cougar apparently had not had her first litter of kittens.
Cougars usually bear their first litter at about 2 1/2 years old.
Stearns said that even though cougars live near his home, he isn't afraid to let his kids, 9-year-old Josie and 6-year-old Luke, play outside.
Stearns figures cougars are much more likely to attack deer and elk, the cats' favorite foods, than to go after a person or a pet.
Although cougars have killed several people in the United States over the past two decades, including attacks in California and Colorado, there are no documented cases of a cougar attacking a human in Oregon.
Stearns said a taxidermist is making a rug from the cougar's hide.
He also got about 40 pounds of meat from the animal.
"We've already eaten some, my son and I," Stearns said. "He'll eat anything and so will I."
He prepared the cougar meat by following a recipe for pork chops.
"It was quite mild, and lean, but not tough and sinewy," Stearns said. "I'd say pork has a stronger flavor."
"Stearns didn't see the cougar but he kept expecting the cat to climb a tree, as the animals often do when pursued."
http://www.bakercityherald.com/news/sto ... ry_no=5952
Baker City Herald
Except for shooting the cougar, it was an entirely ordinary morning jog for Flint Stearns.
Stearns lives along Old Auburn Road, about nine miles southwest of Baker City.
He runs most mornings.
His usual route is west on the road for a mile and half to the state's elk-feeding site, then back.
Stearns, 38, has seen quite a few cougar tracks during the three years he has lived on his 10-acre rural property, about 2 1/2 miles west of Highway 7.
About a year ago his wife, Mary, persuaded him to buy a .38-caliber revolver.
Stearns bought the lightest, shortest model he could find — a "police special" with a 1-inch barrel.
"It's kind of ridiculous for target practice, but it's easy to carry," said Stearns, who works as an occupational therapist. "When you're running you don't want something heavy and cumbersome."
Besides the gun, he bought a cougar hunting tag.
He didn't much care if he ever killed one of the big cats.
He hoped that one day he would see one, though.
"Even just to catch a glimpse of one crossing a hill 200 yards away would be a treat," Stearns said.
On Jan. 21 he finally caught that glimpse.
And the cougar was quite a lot closer than 200 yards.
That morning about 7:30, before he started his run, Stearns got a phone call from a neighbor who had just seen cougar tracks near Old Auburn Road, a little ways east of Stearns' home.
Stearns, figuring his morning exercise might lead him away from the plowed road, grabbed his snowshoes.
And his pistol.
He found the tracks right off, strapped on his snowshoes and started following the pawprints up the juniper-strewn hillside north of Old Auburn Road.
"They were quite fresh, and easy to follow," Stearns said.
He followed the tracks for the next two hours.
The cougar traveled generally northwest, staying near the top of the ridge that separates Blue Canyon, the stream that parallels Old Auburn Road, and Elk Creek.
Stearns didn't see the cougar but he kept expecting the cat to climb a tree, as the animals often do when pursued.
Then, just after the tracks crossed a steep draw, the prints veered sharply off their previous course.
Stearns stopped to look around.
He noticed that the tracks ended.
He moved just a bit and the situation became clear.
The cougar had crept into a den.
"It was so small I didn't see it at first, maybe a three-foot by three-foot hole," Stearns said.
He could neither see nor hear the cougar.
"But I suddenly realized, she's right here," Stearns said.
He wasn't afraid, though, because he was standing uphill from the den, and the den's opening faced away from him.
"I knew she couldn't suddenly spring on me," he said.
Stearns held his pistol in his right hand and used his left to unbuckle his snowshoes.
He didn't want to stumble on the oversized footwear if the cougar leaped.
Stearns stood in place for about three minutes.
Then he moved a few feet so that he could look into the den.
He still couldn't see the cougar.
But the cougar apparently saw him.
"She just sprang out of there," Stearns said. "She must have covered 10 yards in a single jump.
"She wasn't lunging at me, though."
Stearns fired one shot from a distance of about five yards.
The bullet missed.
He fired a second shot before the cougar, which was up to its belly in the soft snow, leapt again.
The second bullet struck the cougar in the left shoulder.
Stearns said the animal was dead less than half a minute later.
He used his cell phone to call his wife.
Mary Stearns drove to the end of the nearest road, which was about 200 yards downhill from where her husband killed the cougar.
The cougar, a female, weighed 90 pounds.
Stearns took the carcass, as Oregon law requires, to the nearest Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife office, in Baker City.
(The cougar-hunting season in Oregon runs from Jan. 1 to May 31, is closed during June and July, then re-opens Aug. 1 and continues through Dec. 31.)
Stearns said biologists estimated the cougar's age at 2 to 3 years. The cougar apparently had not had her first litter of kittens.
Cougars usually bear their first litter at about 2 1/2 years old.
Stearns said that even though cougars live near his home, he isn't afraid to let his kids, 9-year-old Josie and 6-year-old Luke, play outside.
Stearns figures cougars are much more likely to attack deer and elk, the cats' favorite foods, than to go after a person or a pet.
Although cougars have killed several people in the United States over the past two decades, including attacks in California and Colorado, there are no documented cases of a cougar attacking a human in Oregon.
Stearns said a taxidermist is making a rug from the cougar's hide.
He also got about 40 pounds of meat from the animal.
"We've already eaten some, my son and I," Stearns said. "He'll eat anything and so will I."
He prepared the cougar meat by following a recipe for pork chops.
"It was quite mild, and lean, but not tough and sinewy," Stearns said. "I'd say pork has a stronger flavor."
