Spot lighting for yotes, called in something else

RidgeRoamingRichard

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Helena, MT
I went out to a small piece of state land near my home in Helena. I've seen a lot of deer, rabbit, and coyote sign in the area and have been hunting for jacks and yotes at different times of day. I decided to try tonight, so I hiked about a half mile in, set up against a tree, and started blowing my predator call. After almost an hour, I heard what sounded like a scream from the timbered ridge behind me, about 1 mile away. I thought i was hearing things; "nothing out here but coyotes, and that wasnt a yip."

I sat listening for a few seconds, and heard it again, then repeatedly every few seconds, and it seemed to be moving in my direction. I've heard that noise once in my life before when my dad and i were followed back to the truck my a mountain lion.

Needless to say it is the fastest I've ever left the woods, scanning with my spotlight the whole way. When i got up to leave and stated crashing through the brush, the screams got more frequent, but as I got further away, they seemed to fade, so I don't think i was being followed.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Am I going crazy? I have yet to stop shaking, and have vowed to never hunt predators at night alone again.
 
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I’ve had similar experiences with bobcats making a screaming sounds that they set there and repeat I didnt realize what it was until just happened to be watching some animal show on tv that had a segment about bobcats and they were making the exact sound I heard
 
I went out to a small piece of state land near my home in Helena. I've seen a lot of deer, rabbit, and coyote sign in the area and have been hunting for jacks and yotes at different times of day. I decided to try tonight, so I hiked about a half mile in, set up against a tree, and started blowing my predator call. After almost an hour, I heard what sounded like a scream from the timbered ridge behind me, about 1 mile away. I thought i was hearing things; "nothing out here but coyotes, and that wasnt a yip."

I sat listening for a few seconds, and heard it again, then repeatedly every few seconds, and it seemed to be moving in my direction. I've heard that noise once in my life before when my dad and i were followed back to the truck my a mountain lion.

Needless to say it is the fastest I've ever left the woods, scanning with my spotlight the whole way. When i got up to leave and stated crashing through the brush, the screams got more frequent, but as I got further away, they seemed to fade, so I don't think i was being followed.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Am I going $*)Q!#@$ crazy? I have yet to stop shaking, and have vowed to never hunt predators at night alone again.

My hunting partner and I woke up to it one night in the elk woods. It was close! Under 500 yards. Neither one of us slept much. Smelt a skunk in the area of the sounds the next morning, best we could figure that cat tried to eat the wrong animal.
 
I've had similar experiences hunting Hogs. Something about sitting out there in the dark is spooky. Part of the fun IMO is the adrenalin rush.

I was sneaking into a high seat at zero dark thirty getting in early for a dawn Deer hunt. Heard a racket in the woods to my left front and one of the bigger Sows I've ever seen comes out of the trees through a patch of meadow right at me running at around 30 MPH. I almost crapped my pants. Learned my lesson, now I carry a semi-auto shotgun when walking into a high seat in the dark, a bolt action rifle just didn't seem prudent anymore. :)

I've had three close calls with big Cats, all in daylight thankfully. Something about coming face to face with a big Cat touches something deep in my snake brain. Makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and my rectum pucker.
 
My daughters ex bf and i were doing a sit for coyotes. Hunting the area where elk are in PA. Gave some fawn in distress calls. Saw 2 coyote heads peek out of the brush. They started coming in, when a bear head popped out too. They started coming in at almost a dead run. Racing each other.

Had same happen with cow elk call.

And the state says coyotes don't kill elk or deer.

State claims that there are NO mountain lions in PA. All the neighboring states have them, but i guess not allowed to cross the border. Same with wolves.
 
And the state says coyotes don't kill elk or deer.

Love to see where the state has ever said that.

Here's the most recent state sponsored research on fawn survival from Penn State: https://ecosystems.psu.edu/research...018/who-is-eating-bambi-north-america-edition

State claims that there are NO mountain lions in PA.

Conspiracy theory nonsense.

In PA there's 900,000 hunters that spend 5 months a year in the woods, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of trail cameras, and no one has ever had a verified sighting or taken a picture of a mountain lion.

Lets also not forget the 14 million people driving 5 million cars on 250,000 miles of paved roads that have never hit one.....ever.... Our secret mountain lions must be better at dodging traffic than every other population of lions in North America.

Now it is POSSIBLE that there is a mountain lion in PA at any point in time from the dozens of lions in captivity that may have escaped. There's also at least one documented case of a juvenile male cat leaving the black hills and heading east until he was... you guessed it... hit by a car in Connecticut in 2011. What we dont have is a secret, wild, reproducing, traffic conscious, trail camera wary, mountain lion population.

All the neighboring states have them, but i guess not allowed to cross the border. Same with wolves.

None of the neighboring states to PA (NJ, NY, DE, MD, WV, OH) have any documented populations of wolves or mountain lions.
 
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Myself& 10 others traveling west on the PA turnpike witnessed one just east of the rest area at Blue Mountain tunnels. Called into Game Commission. "There are no mountain lions in PA".

Whilst living near Cacapon State Park in WV. About 10 miles south of Berkeley Springs WV. All the dogs started going nuts, barking at something, then wanted nothing but to get inside. My 190 lb Neo Mastiff included.
I had to run to the store a couple miles down the road, where i happened into a VA Game Commission officer. Chatting with him, i mentioned the behavior. He asked where i lived, and proceeded to tell me of reports of a "big cat in the area". He left the store for a couple of minutes, came back in, and asked me to meet him at his vehicle. Once there, he asked exactly where my residence was.
He followed me home.
By the time i got there, i had 2 WV state troopers, 2 Morgan County Sheriffs, WV Game Commission, VA Game Commission with spotlights cruising my neighborhood.
The WV Game Commission was driving on the back of my property. (Not an easy feat).
Was told by WV Game Commission that Mountain lion comes down about once a year from Cacapon State Park. That year happened to be my neighborhood.

And unless we are growing coyotes in the 100+ lb range, i'm here to tell ya, there are wolves.
 
I keep thinking it must've been my mind playing tricks, but that's certainly not the first time ive been in the woods at night and it definitely wasn't the most remote.
 
None of the big Cats I've seen ever made a sound. The one that spooked me the worst I spotted lying partially under a Mesquite bush watching joggers run past. It was just laying there flicking its tail. When they aren't afraid of me, I'm afraid of them. :) I was out walking two of my dogs and they tipped me off it was there. They wanted a piece of that Cat, all I could do to hold onto the leash and not get pulled flat on my face.
 
If it was me I'd be right back there calling in the daylight, if it's a cat there's a chance ge or she is hanging around. You gotta have a tag though if you don't there's a 5 day waiting period until it's valid. Good luck! Supposed to snow tomorrow!
I'm looking into a tag right now. Is late winter a hound-only season?
 
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