Deer hunter comes home with a cougar

Justin Allen of North Powder was stalking a buck deer when he noticed a big cat was doing more than that

Justin Allen didn’t think until the arrows hit and the 90-pound cougar lay at his feet.

Then he realized he and the big cat had been stalking the same deer.

“I started shaking, tried calling my brother but I couldn’t talk very good,” said Allen, 18.

On the opening day of archery season, Aug. 28, Allen and his brother loaded up their gear and headed out to the Little Lookout Mountain area in search of a buck.

As he rode on horseback through a draw, Allen spotted three deer in the shade of a tree. It was mid-day.

One was “a really big buck,” one a three-point and the other a doe.

He set to stalking, and in two hours he was about 25 yards from the bucks.

But before he got a shot, the deer spooked and ran. He watched, but only saw the big buck and doe.

“Then I looked down in the bottom of the draw,” he said.

He saw the small buck with its head down to the ground.

“He kept thrashing and running around,” he said.

He thought the buck’s antlers were caught in something, and made his way down the draw for a better look.

“I looked through my binoculars and saw the cougar,” he said. “She was laying on her back with her mouth around the buck’s neck and claws wrapped around him.”

He “quickly nocked an arrow” and aimed for the cougar’s heart. It hit, and she spun around.

His second arrow hit right behind the cat’s shoulder.

“It finally let go and died.”

That’s when he realized he was only 20 yards away.

“Pretty crazy,” he said. “I had no idea I’d ever see a cougar, let alone shoot it with a bow.”

The small buck, once released from the cougar’s jaws, acted “disoriented and dizzy,”Allen said, but the deer quickly ran off.

“Still haven’t gotten a deer or an elk,” Allen said.

He has the sport pac — tags for a deer, elk and cougar. He began archery hunting five years ago.

“I like to archery hunt more — you get a lot closer to the animal,” he said.

But 20 yards might be too close for comfort with a cougar.

“I’m carrying a gun with me this afternoon,” he said Thursday as he headed out in search of an elk.

Though he’d already filled his cougar tag, he said the gun was insurance in case he ended up a little too close to another cougar.

“Depends on if it’s after me,” he said.