Got my Cougar

[GilaMonster]

I shot this Cougar last week here in New Mexico. I went with Wayne Billings. He operates WB Guide Service near my home town. We treed this Tom after about four hours. I just got the skull measured for SCI tonight and he scored 14 13/16. He might make the minimum of 14 8/16 after the 60 day drying period for the B&C awards minimum. I have my fingers crossed.
He weighed 170 lbs. on a certified scale and was 8' 3" long from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail.

Here's a picture of him in the old Cottonwood tree just before I shot him with my .270 Win.

 

[Delw]

WTG
That looks like a nice cat....


Delw

 

[Kraven]

Great looking Cat Gila,congrats man.

 

[Washington Hunter]

Good job!

 

[Ovis]

Gotta love the before and after pics. Way cool! Congrats Gila.

 

[Elkhunter]

Congrats on the cat and thanks for the pics.

 

[Moosie]

GILA !!! WTG Buddy !!! I remembered you saying you were going to get a "Puddy tat" one day

 

[Wylee]

Awesome Gila, thats one nice look'n Kitty.

 

[cougar 44]

Cool pics Gila

Awesome cat-- congrats

 

[TheTone]

Awesome cat. Congrats, what a nice way to start the year.

 

[OSOK]

Nice lookin Sylvester!

 

[Tom]

I hope he doesn't shrink too much. Whew! Way to go, congratulations.

 

[GilaMonster]

Originally posted by Moosie:
GILA !!! WTG Buddy !!! I remembered you saying you were going to get a "Puddy tat" one day

I figured it was just a matter of "putting in my time", but I finally had to resort to getting some professional help. LOL
I tried everything else and couldn't get the job done. Wayne worked with me on my limited time off from work and he was close to home. This was only our second day out this year, so it went pretty easy for the most part. The hard part was getting enough snow to stay on the ground long enough for the dogs to stay on the tracks. The dogs worked the tracks about four hours or so before finally treeing this puddy-tat. The shot was no big deal, but the chase was interesting and a lot of fun. We shot the entire thing on video and that was a bonus for me. It was killing me though. We had the cat in the tree and Wayne kept telling me not to shoot until he got all the pictures he wanted and shot a bunch of video first. Man, that was the hard part... The waiting. He assured me that the cat wasn't going anywhere and he was right, but you know, you always have your doubts.. LOL

 

[Moosie]

You could put it in the Freezer for the Full time.. Rumor has it that wil keep it from Shrinking.. BUT I'm not sure

 

[AZ402]

That's a great cat.....

 

[Calif. Hunter]

Great cat! Tell Wayne I said "Hi." Is he coming out for the hog hunt with Jason? I guess we might be going ocean fishing, too. I hope those NM boys don't get sea sick.

 

[D13er]

Hey Moosie,

Here's something that you can be sure of. I'm a B&C measurer and if it comes to me to be scored it had better not have any meat on it and it must be dry and white. If you can get that accomplished by leaving it in the freezer for 50 years that is ok.

JB

 

[danr55]

Great looking cat. Congratulations..

 

[GilaMonster]

Originally posted by Moosie:
You could put it in the Freezer for the Full time.. Rumor has it that wil keep it from Shrinking.. BUT I'm not sure

I put it in the freezer yesterday afternoon. That's what I did with my bear skull too. Don't know if it actually does any good, but I figure it is worth a try. He11, I just hope it doesn't hurt..

Originally posted by D13er:
Hey Moosie,

Here's something that you can be sure of. I'm a B&C measurer and if it comes to me to be scored it had better not have any meat on it and it must be dry and white. If you can get that accomplished by leaving it in the freezer for 50 years that is ok.

JB

The funny thing about putting it in the freezer for a while. I guess it's like getting a freezer burn. They seem to come out dried up really well. Every time I need to clean a skull, I always wish I could find someone with beetles. No luck so far, so I am forced to boil the skull every time. I am told that boiling will shrink it to some degree, but I have no way to prove it. I boil the skull until every single little minute piece of anything is gone. It's really white when I get through. I add some dish washing detergent to the water and that seems to help further clean it. Don't really know if that's good or bad, but that's what I do. I let the skull dry up for about 24 hours prior to placing it in the freezer. Again, I don't know if that is good or bad. I have just always done that with skulls. I guess we will just be forced to wait and see.. I still got my fingers crossed.

 

[Moosie]

Originally posted by D13er:
Hey Moosie,

Here's something that you can be sure of. I'm a B&C measurer and if it comes to me to be scored it had better not have any meat on it and it must be dry and white. If you can get that accomplished by leaving it in the freezer for 50 years that is ok.

JB

I think there is a way to Clean it, Freze it, and Thaw it a few Days before you bring it in. NOW like i've said, I've never done this, But rumor has it "EVERYONE" does that even gives a Crap about a Score. All my Skulls are Eithere boiled, or USed to fill Nail holes because they are so small, Freezing wouldn't even help. To me, Cold jsut makes it Smaller