Back in the ‘50s I went hunting elk with a buddy of mine (this was around Aspen, CO, before it went artsy).
We loaded up my old ‘37 Ford (used to run logging roads) and headed for the hills. He had a 30-30, I had a Marlin 35 Rem and for some reason, took along a 22 WRF pump.
We laid out on blankets in a clearing and sacked out. Around 3 a.m. Mother Nature calls and I raise up, and there, about 20 feet away is a mountain lion in a crouching position. I recalled the rancher’s wife warning us about them as one had jumped one of her boys a week earlier.
My buddy slept with his rifle, mine were back in the Ford. I woke him him, pointed to the dim figure and told him to “SHOOT, DAMMIT, SHOOT! He’s going to jump!”. He said he didn’t see anything and after the third refusal, I got disgusted and crept off to the Ford, hoping I wouldn’t get nailed.
For some stupid reason, I ignored the 35 Rem and grabbed the 22 as I had read that’s all it took to bring ‘em down. I was leaning over, grabbing the rifle, when my buddy cleared his throat. I damned near tore the lining off the inside of that car and spun around, but saw nothing.
The damned cat just crouched there, not moving a muscle.
My buddy finally roused up and we both investigated the “lion”. It turned out to be nothing but a damned bush, that to this day, I will swear looked like a cat ready to pounce.
I never did live that incident down.
My Grampa and some of his Army buddies used to hunt elk and mule deer around Aspen.
One year (1960-ish) shortly after Grampa rolled into town his buddy the sheriff asked if he wanted to fill his tag without a bunch of work. So off they went... to the high school... where a herd of elk had been grazing on the football field every afternoon. Boom. Dead elk. They drove the truck out onto the field, loaded the elk, and back to camp they went.
The news beat them back to camp, and they got a royal @$$ chewing from the mayor, who was another Army buddy and hunted out of the same camp.
Somewhere there are pictures, but it’s been awhile since I’ve been able to find them. My idiot drug addict brother got the mount after Grampa passed away and sold it to a chinaman who planned to grind up the antlers to make dick pills.
Some stuff, you just can’t make it up...