My son's recent cougar

[Okanagan]

Very nice hide on this tom, not scarred up from fighting like older cats and his teeth are perfect as well, but he is pretty big so he’s probably in his first year of maturity, say three years old, between 3 and 4. 



The Barnes bullet did not exit from a near broadside hit on a 125 lb. animal, which seems odd.  It was a long range Barnes at 20 yards.  I suspect that the bullet is designed to open easier at long range and slower velocity, so with the high speed hit at 20 yards, it came closer to explosive expansion than regular Barnes bullets.  It destroyed the near shoulder and jellied that whole side plus inside the chest cavity, and stopped in the side muscle wall of the belly on the offside behind the last rib.  All petals gone, a 7mm diameter cylinder of copper left.

I knicked my finger when skinning the cougar, a tiny poke with the point of a knife that barely bled, but man did that make a painful infection.  I tried alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, opened the wound to get meds inside, polysporin under a bandaid, and what finally seemed to cure it after ten days was ten seconds of close up ultra violet light from a disinfecting wand not intended for skin.  I gave it ten seconds or so super close to the light, three times over two days.  Ultra violet light may cause cancer but apparently not in small short doses like I did. 

[Yotehntr]

  Congratulations, very nice.

[slagmaker]

Congratulations on a fine harvest.

I'm assuming it will be mounted.

[Okanagan]

Congratulations on a fine harvest.

I'm assuming it will be mounted.

Thank you! 

We skinned it in prep to make a head mount rug.  This is his 4th cougar and he has a nice head mount rug from his first one, though this one is bigger and the best hide yet.  The hide is in a freezer and I don't think he has made up his mind whether to pay the price of having a taxidermy rug made or just have it tanned.