The Exciting Lives Of Government Hunters

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To appease its desire for horse meat the puma has often gone from hunted to hunter. A puma acting thusly gave one government hunter the most exciting fifteen minutes of his career. His hounds had pursued the puma into a canyon after hours on the trail. The going was so rough, he had to tie his horse to a tree and continue on foot behind his dogs. As he checked the rim of the canyon the hunter realized the puma was now creeping the opposite direction; towards his horse. The puma struck as the hunter and his dogs closed in. The hunter shot the cat with his .30/30 rifle as it jumped onto his horse‘s back.

Puma caused a great deal of trouble for early settlers of the South and East, but they were gradually eradicated by hunters such as Meshach Browning. Browning killed more than 50 puma in the forty-four years he spent hunting the rough country west of Maryland. By 1880, puma were nearly extinguished east of the Mississippi. Despite this, puma remained a serious threat throughout the West for many years. The puma were so adept at keeping out of sight, that only a few were killed in chance encounters with sportsmen or cowhands; which caused stockmen to hire professional hunters to rid the range of them.

John B. Goff was one of the most well-known of these hired hunters. Goff killed more than three hundred pumas from 1855-1900, most of them in the rough country north of the White River in northwestern Colorado. Goff used foxhounds to track his quarry and mongrel fighting dogs to keep it at bay until he could kill it. In 1901 Theodore Roosevelt, then Vice President, went hunting with Goff in 20-below-zero weather. They were out five weeks and killed fourteen puma, the most impressive weighing 227 pounds.

Roosevelt narrowly avoided serious injury on one of these expeditions. Roosevelt’s hounds had brought an old female to bay. Three of his fighting dogs had the puma by the head, so brash T.R., his six-gun in his left hand a long hunting knife in his right, leaped in to make the kill. At the same time the puma wrenched its head free and targeted Roosevelt. One of Teddy’s fighting dogs got a fresh grasp on the old cat’s paw. Roosevelt jammed the butt of his gun into its mouth and, as the sharp teeth crushed it, killed the animal with a thrust of the knife between its shoulders.

The puma is one of the most unpredictable of all predators. Sometimes the cat cannot be found, even in areas where it is known to be plentiful and others it has been known to stalk and even attack men. Their varying reactions to dogs are more evidence of the unpredictability of the puma. Despite growing to over 200 pounds and being armed with paws and wickedly sharp claws, they will sometimes allow a single wire haired terrier to run them up a tree and keep them there. Yet other times a puma will choose to fight to the death with a pack of dogs, and may kill several of them before the hunter can get in a finishing shot.

The Exciting Lives Of Government Hunters
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