Cougars in Yamhill County, Oregon

[Westonium]

Best of luck with the situation. I've never had to deal with cougar, but even the feral dogs we have to deal with would, I fear, not be stopped cold by a 32 caliber handgun. I believe I'd want a 44 or 45 in a handgun in cougar territory. And a good sheath knife. Never want to get to that point, but it could save one's life. Anyway, good shooting to you.

I don't disagree, but I don't have the cash to buy a more appropriate gun. I am, at least, a good shot. That's fortunate because this is a Keltec tiny P32. It is meant as a defensive gun. I could have it in my shirt pocket, jacket pocket, behind my wallet in my back pocket - fits anywhere. God bless concealed carry permits. But it has a very short barrel and is hard to shoot accurately. It's purpose is close-in shots, possibly from inside a jacket pocket, not protection from cougars with wicked scalpel-sharp claws. I've seen what that cat did to my lambs, and the threat is very real for me. This cat isn't afraid of people either - bad combo.

What I want is a 357 mag and some sort of shoulder holster. I want a barrel long enough with sights accurate enough that I can, when needed, make a 100 yd shot 5 out of 6 times with it. I can do that with my neighbors S&W .22 , so that is the standard I am looking for.

The 44 and 45 are good suggestions - and I might go that route if I decide I like the way they shoot and don't destroy my hands trying to shoot it and make follow-up shots hard. Or just too dang heavy to hold like my father-in-law's S&W 500. The .32 may not have a lot of stopping power against a big 140 pound cat, but I don't intend to just shoot it once. I have 10 rounds at my disposal, and if I was being chased, or stalked I'd probably shoot until I was out of bullets and then start throwing rocks.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Lot of big cats here in the valley. BIL a number of big cats around his place in Colton. His domestic cat population is kept in check by the big cats. He's also seen bear on his place along with more desireable wild life.

Haven't see my dosmetic cat in a couple days and hope one kind or another whild life hasn't got it. I have a problem trying to keep fish in my small pond out back. My dog is always barking at night and I suspect much of the time it is due to some wild life coming close by.

Hope you get the chance to drop the problem cat.

 

[RonMar]

You need a larger calibre my friend. You say you don't have time to sight in your 06, then you probably don't have time to practice regularly with the .32. Is this correct? By practice, I mean weekly at a range, shooting combat courses. Good shot or not there is a huge difference between putting a relaxed hole in a target or knocking over a tin can and drawing and firing on a moving creature. I think you will be hard pressed to hit that animal when needed more than once or twice... If things should happen and you need it, you will need it very very quickly. There are some old law enforcement studies done by the NY city police department. They pitted an armed police officer against a man with a knife standing amongst others. At some point the man with the knife would break from the group, charge the officer and he had to draw and fire to stop the attacker. The officer knew he would be attacked, but not by which person or when. When all the testing was done, it took a distance of 21' for a trained and practiced officer to reliably react, draw and fire at a running man before he got a knife on the officer...

Now your situation is a little different. You are up against a creature that runs a lot faster than a man, has been jumping/hunting from ambush for just about every meal it has eaten since it was a kitten and has paws full of knife blades(you have seen what they do). I am not familliar with your .32, but is it a double action? Can you carry it with a round in the chamber safely without needing to switch off a safety? IMO, these would be the first two prerequisites for a handgun. Even with these two, unless you carry it in your hand when out on foot, or setting in your lap while driving the tractor, it is highly unlikley that you will even get your hand on it in a pocket or holster in the ammount of time allowed if a shot opportunity presents itself. That is why you need enough delivered energy to do the job with one hit. .357, .44,.45, referably in a Double action revolver that can be caried safely loaded ready to employ without flipping any levers or cocking. Just like in the wifes handgun thread a few days ago, this is a job for the 3 P's. Pick, Point, and Pull the triger.

If you don't have time to hunt this thing now, perhaps you can get someone else to do it.

Good luck

 

[Westonium]

You need a larger calibre my friend. You say you don't have time to sight in your 06, then you probably don't have time to practice regularly with the .32. Is this correct? .... I am not familliar with your .32, but is it a double action? Can you carry it with a round in the chamber safely without needing to switch off a safety? ...

Good luck

The 30-06 won't do me any good defensively. You have to have it in your hand ready to shoot. I wasn't planning to hunt the cougar with the .32. More like "save myself" hopefully. I *might* have an opportunity to wound it by chance encounter, but I don't think a .32 is at all what you'd hunt it with. I just always have it and it is small enough to fit anywhere. To answer your second question first - yep, it is double-action only. It is chambered when I am out with it because I know that I may have to draw and shoot very fast. I learned that lesson the hard way when I finally saw this raccoon that had been terrorizing our cats and eating our cat's food even though it had to squeeze through a cat door to get to it. I didn't have it chambered and that second and a half cost me the shot.

edit: as I said before, I want a larger caliber handgun, but money is an issue at the moment.

I practice with the .32, and I don't have to go far to do it. My neighbor (retired FBI and once SWAT) has a range he built, and I am pretty familiar with the studies you talk about. I hear all those things all the time not just from my neighbor, but from my father-in-law that is a captain in Federal Law Enforcement. It is fun practicing with my neighbor because he throws new stuff at me all the time. Shooting in pairs, making sure we stagger the amount of rounds so we aren't both empty at the same time, etc. Good stuff.

When I say "good shot", I mean I can put 2 rounds, tightly grouped, center of mass on a target in under 3 seconds while simultaneously jumping to one side or another (someone yells right or left at random) with either hand (still better with my right) at 15 yards in low-light. I made a lot of amazing shots with a .22 and iron sights shooting squirrels up tall trees in the deep woods of Mississippi. Maybe I should blame video games? Squirrels aren't 140 pounds and considering tearing my neck apart though. I am well aware. Frankly it puts a real damper on enjoying the beautiful area we live in having to be ready to shoot a cat in a heartbeat's notice.

In terms of combat shooting, I need more practice with things like reloading under time constraint, clearing stovepipes or nasty jams, shooting from inside a jacket pocket (need a crappy jacket to practice that) etc.

Time?
Sighting in a 30-06 for a specific down-hill 200yd shot takes me a lot more time than popping over to my neighbors pistol range to practice, and hunting the cougar takes the local professionals on average of several days solid.

I have to get the animals out of that pasture, and set up my target.

I would *love* someone else to kill this cougar. I would *love* for my county to get its priorities straight. I would *love* for them to repeal the dog hunting ban and give us a much better chance. In fact, back when they hunted cougars with dogs, having an outdoor big dog was pretty good cougar repellent. Not anymore. I am hoping I can knock out the weatherizing stuff so I can focus on baiting that cat in.