Wildlife Callers

Steve Tormala, the owner of RainShadow Game Calls, is a Wildlife Callers’ blog subscriber and fellow mountain lion hunter.  He called, filmed, and shot this big female cougar not far from his home in Washington State. 

Steve Tormala and His Dec 5 Cougar

 

Steve has his own line of downloadable sounds he’s developed for mountain lion calling and a hand call that mimics a young cougar whistle.  Steve used his sounds to call this cougar!

 

 

Wildlife Callers’ Store will be offering Rainshadow sound packages and calls on our site starting next week. 

Now, here’s Steve’s story!

Quick Response Results in a Quick Response! – By Steve Tormala

I just got back from a DISMAL coyote calling trip to the dry side of Washington 3 days earlier. 1 shot fired, no fur, 20+ miles of walking the desert, 850+ miles of driving, 26 formal stands, 10 – 15 quick stands… Nothin’!

I was down on hunting, calling, and anything else to do with predators!

I hadn’t planned on hunting at all this week, possibly not even next week. I’m finishing up a few custom knives and starting a couple others for Christmas orders. Plenty to do, time to stay at home and sulk!

I guess it was about noon:30, I get a call from a friend of my wife,

“Are you still looking for a Cougar?”
“Yeah!”
“Well, one was just sighted on our road, right next to a guy walking.  He said it was big!  Scared him pretty good!”
“Where?”
“Just before my house, over the hill in the DNR clearcut next to such-and-so road…”

“How long ago?”

“10 minutes, he saw it ten minutes ago!”

  As negative as I was about sitting on another calling stand, you just don’t pass up a located Cougar!  That’s like turning up your nose at GOLD!

It took me about 30 minutes to suit up and head out. I was almost out of gas, so I had to stop, but I had all my gear in the 4runner from this week’s trip, so I didn’t have to pack anything. Just grab the 243WSSM and go!

I got to the spot, drove around 2 sides, and tried to knock on a neighbor’s door, they had a llama and dogs, I wanted to see if they had noticed anything.

Nobody home.

The DNR plot was about 150 acres. 1/3 of it logged.

 This is in the very low foothills, first hump of 3 before you get to the main mountains. The area is still quite timbered, but roads and houses everywhere. I was 400 yards from a major road, 400 yards from a subordinate road, both paved. I was probably 300 yards from the house I tried door knocking.

 I walked in to where the clearcut was tapering into the standing second growth. The timber was so thick, I decided to go against my own advice and set up out in the clearcut.

 I found a big root ball and set up on the shady side.

I decided that if the cat was there, and if I hadn’t already been busted, it’d come from the second growth. So I faced it, set up, and put the call out about 35 yards. I had been about 10 minutes since I stopped walking, and I sneak around pretty carefully when I’m at my stand location, so it was time to start in.

I set up the video camera and panned it around, then back to me and described how this stand was a local Cougar sighting, and it was really tight with the roads on two sides and houses on a third, etc. Then I panned back around across the cut towards the timber.

I called for 5 minutes with JS rodent, then 5 with MO Baby Cottontail, then 5 with my new sound, RS Cougar Up, then switched it to my new sound RS Cougar CFPC. Contentedly feeding, purring, and calling. (Check my website, you can hear sample files of these sounds.)

While CFPC was running I saw flashes of movement past the caller slightly to the right. It was walking up so carelessly that I thought it was a Coyote or something. It was walking right in! Head up high, ears perked, kinda stiff legged, no sneak. Walking like it was out for a stroll! I looked harder, “That’s the freakin’ Cougar! Just walking right up to the call!!!” I thought very loudly, but I don’t think I said out loud!

Under the stress of the moment, it took me a second to remember I had a video camera sitting on the tripod, but I eventually got it switched on and panned a little right just in time for the lion to come to a stop and look for the caller 10 yards away. I didn’t zoom in, I was too nervous, and didn’t want to make that much extra motion.

 This is a close crop of the cat when it arrived, before the shot. It’s not zoomed, this is what’s on the screen. (I’m hoping it can be digitally zoomed, but that’s over my head by quite a ways right now!) The cat is centered. It’s in the frame, head held high when the camera comes on, then it drops down to take a few steps closer, then comes back up head held high, and you see this.

It stopped at about 50 yards, just looking at the call, and looking around…

I leaned forward and picked up the AR out of the sticks. The sticks were a full 8 inches too low for this angle, so I just lifted it up and set my forearm on the end of the right fork. I released the safety and found the cat in the scope. Then the unthinkable almost happened!

My arm slipped off the sticks and I almost tumbled forward onto my face! I was so nervous my muscles wouldn’t work properly! I managed to just barely catch my balance before making much motion at all… and just inches before the gun clacked onto the branch in front of me! (You can see the camera bump, because the sticks and the tripod were touching!)

I got my arm back up and placed it into the crook of the sticks. I found the cat in the scope again and it was still looking down at the caller, wondering where that CFPC Cougar was eating on that kill! I started to squeeze…

Kaboom! center chest. I saw it’s tail flailing around in the saplings. NO TRACKING THIS TIME!!!

 Here’s a screen capture of me walking up to the cat, Survivorman style! (The camera is in the tripod and I’m carrying the whole thing at my side like he does.) You get to walk up to the cat with me!

 Another Screen capture, checking to see if it’s really dead, or if I’m just having a really good dream! (Again, Survivorman style.) This is where I recognize that it’s indeed a very big, mature, adult cat.

 
Another, I actually grab it by the scruff here and try to drag it… no possible way! I’m really realizing how big it is now.

 
And finally… Ok, no question about it now, it’s a big cat! And heavy! I’m 5’09” and the Cougar’s tail is still well on the ground.

I never turned the camera off! I kept it on the whole time, for the whole emotional outburst! For the whole approach to the cat, and while looking at the cat, then doing the traditional bear hug hero shot. THEN I shut the camera off, for the first time since 20 seconds before the shot was fired!

 This photo is looking back at my stand location next to the root ball. I got a good follow up video clip and description of this too. I was in the shade of the root ball. The trees standing in the distant background are along the main road. You can hear the cars in the video! The sun was perfectly in my favor. The wind wasn’t, but the cat didn’t notice, which is typical. They can smell, better than we can, but they tend to not bother.

Guys, I was jittery for a day or so! If you haven’t experienced this yourself, you need to! The rush is unbelievable. Every second is a lifelong memory!

I couldn’t believe how TEXTBOOK this stand went, but even more than that, I couldn’t believe how calmly and unwarily this cat just STROLLED right into these new e-call vocals. No sneak, at all!! The thing just walked on up and looked at the MAD Big Country. Unbelievable.

It’s a big female, really similar to the one I shot 07/08. Just over 6 foot. Just over 100 lbs. If I had been in the high country, I’d have MAYBE taken another minute to decide if I wanted to take it… it was a big mature female, and I’d sure love a big dominant Tom!

However, this was a neighborhood lion,  a livestock killer (come to find out later from the Warden.)  It was literally under 400 yards from two dogs, a Llama, a flock of tame geese, and who knows what all else around a house. With several other homes and plenty of other livestock within 500 yards, It had to go down!  I’m happy to have been the one to do it!  It’s a gorgeous, big lion, with a flawless hide!

I’ll be back out with friends, family and clients this season, trying for more call-ins and more footage, so you never know… but I sure couldn’t have asked for a better result than this!

 I’m excited!      Can you tell?!?!?

Yes Steve – we can tell.  You ought to be!  Congrats on this outstanding hunt and thank you for sharing your memories and cougar calling tactics with us.

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Thank you for reading,

Marc Reindell

marc@wildlifecallers.com