My uncle just texted me on his way to the check station in Rapid City SD - he shot a VERY large cat this morning. He got lucky enough to pull one of the few available tags this year. I have very few particulars at this time other than the story which i'll relate to you here as best I know.
He cut tracks last nite driving around and went back out at first light following the tracks. he tracked the beast over 2 miles from the point they crossed the road last nite, and eventually followed them to a mining shaker, and climbed up on the shaker to get a good look around. after scanning the horizon for a few minutes with his binocs, he took a look around closer and realized there were no tracks leading away from the shaker. he got down, layed next to the shaker and looked underneath. The cat was 5 feet away from him and visibly upset. Rocky dumped a 300WM from his Sako into it's chest and it bolted out of the shaker past him. he's lucky he didn't get snagged - his rifle acted up extracting the round (he said it acted like it had a hot load - more likely that it ice in the action according to him from crawling under the shaker and then wrestling his way back out) but he "eventually" got the gun cycled again and hit the cat again about 20 yards away. This shot put the big cat down, and my uncle took a while to chill out...the adrenaline dump rough he said. I'm so happy for him! CONGRATS UNCLE ROCKY!!!!
He cut tracks last nite driving around and went back out at first light following the tracks. he tracked the beast over 2 miles from the point they crossed the road last nite, and eventually followed them to a mining shaker, and climbed up on the shaker to get a good look around. after scanning the horizon for a few minutes with his binocs, he took a look around closer and realized there were no tracks leading away from the shaker. he got down, layed next to the shaker and looked underneath. The cat was 5 feet away from him and visibly upset. Rocky dumped a 300WM from his Sako into it's chest and it bolted out of the shaker past him. he's lucky he didn't get snagged - his rifle acted up extracting the round (he said it acted like it had a hot load - more likely that it ice in the action according to him from crawling under the shaker and then wrestling his way back out) but he "eventually" got the gun cycled again and hit the cat again about 20 yards away. This shot put the big cat down, and my uncle took a while to chill out...the adrenaline dump rough he said. I'm so happy for him! CONGRATS UNCLE ROCKY!!!!
"
