It doesn’t happen very often, but when hunters are calling to elk, sometimes it attracts other predators. Steve Tintzman and Barry Lemon know first hand. While calling to a bugling bull elk, with a cow elk call, a cougar was attracted to the sound and Was stalking Tintzman. Lemon shot it once with his traditional longbow just yards from his hunting partner.
“As it got closer and closer, I saw it much too low to the ground,” Lemon said. “Steve was behind me cow calling. When it got about 25 yards away, I saw that it was mountain lion.”
It was coming right at the camouflage-clad hunter.
“Maybe 15 yards away, it crouched down low and it was flipping its tail,” he said. “It was looking beyond me. Its eyes were glued on Steve.”
The big cat stopped, slowly turned and began walking away.
“I thought, ‘That’s a good sign,’ ” Lemon said. “I thought I’d just let it walk away.”
Suddenly, the mountain lion turned and began creeping right toward Tintzman, who had no idea the animal was anywhere near. Lemon began to inch backwards. He already had an arrow nocked in the string of his traditional longbow.
“It was crouched down low and heading right at Steve,” Lemon said. “My mind was racing. All my experience in the outdoors told me the lion could cover 15 yards to zero in a matter of seconds. It was moving fast.”
