At the Cabela's in North Reno, they have a taxidermized mountain lion on display that was killed in the Virginia Mountains behind my house. It's bigger than the taxidermized timber wolf mounted on display just below it. I was in shock when I saw it.
I've seen mountain lions in SoCal that were half the size of this Nevada animal and had thought that mountain lions were mountain lions and didn't know that there were several types that can dwarf the SoCal lions I'm more familiar with. That trophy lion on display at Cabela's is damn near African-sized and it just startled the Hell out of me knowing that they could be coming down our road looking for a meal. You're gonna need a lot of gun to take one down.
I carry a Ruger Redhawk in .44 Magnum with Garrett 330-grain +P 'Hammerhead' hard cast loads when I go out in the wilderness behind our property. If that won't drop the biggest mountain lion on the planet, I don't know what will.
Moutain lion can get pretty big.
African lions can get HUGE.
Tigers can just be **enormous**.
