What would your suggestion be a mountain lion cartridge in the encore? I don't want to ruin the hide or have too large of an exit hole. I am also not crazy about using too little power. I was thinking of getting a 7x30 Waters barrel from bulbberry.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Ben

The question is how are you going to hunt them? Ive got a guy at work that runs em with dogs. He head shoots em with a singe six 22 mag. If your gonna call em in I would use something bigger. I've seen two shot with a 140 grain 7 mag at 100 yards with absolutely no pelt damage. you could hardly even find the hole. neither had more than a couple drops of blood. I wouldn't worry about to much power.

Its a hound hunt in Colorado

I've never hunted mountain lion, but it's a thin skin game and I would think bullet construction would make more differece than caliber. If you don't want to ruin the pelt, use a solid or some sort none expanding bullet or controled expanding bullet....Just my 2 cents

.44 Mag.

.357 maxi!!! 200 gn hard cast!!!

Lars

I don't know if there is much difference between a coyote and a mountain lion, but my 204 will enter a coyote and not exit.I have hit them in the shoulder and in the head. The head shot exploded both eyeballs, had blood in the ears, and brain matter in its mouth. I did not skin it because the time of year, but did not find the entry hole.The 204 was supposed to be designed with minimal hide damage in mind, the bullet breaks into small pieces at that speed (4000 fps + or - 400 depending) and sends shock waves through the insides. Supposed to make a jello in there.
I had a 357 mag put a 3 inch hole in ones side though.It might have been a hollow point though.It was about 40-45 pound dog.I don't know what the difference would be between the two animals. Something to think about.

I wouldn't shoot one in the head with anything more than a 22 mag
jaws are hard for a taxidermist to sew up

357, 44, or 45 colt.

I sent my 10" 32-20 Contender barrel to a friend that went to CO for lions. It was loaded with a 115gr FN cast bullet from Penn Bullets over a medium load of W231. Velocity was right about 900fps. The barrel was topped with a 2-7X Simmons.

On the first track they put up a very nice 120# female and decided she was prime for taking. John placed the bullet into the ribs at a quartering angle, the cat jumped, ran about 60yds and stopped then he hit her again in the chest at the same angle. He told me that she was done after the first and was starting to tip over but the second shot was for insurance.

The bullets made two small extrance holes but no exits. My guess was the velocity would have been enough for full penetration when broadside but the raking shots lengthened the body depth and they lost too much energy. If I were to load them again for him, I would have bumped the FPS up to 1100+ just to be safer.

Thanks guys there are way too many choices/excuses for new barrels but I have a better idea now.
Ben

A good solid or cast will work wonders and a good taxidermist can fix those holes.In my hound days most of the folks I knew used small calibers to put holes in the cats and let them die in the tree instead of trying to knock them out.It seems to make vet bills nill.And an angry hurt cat on the ground with good dogs is not usually good for the cat or the hounds.

We use to hunt racoons with dogs. We always shot them between the eyes with a 22 and hoped they were dead when they hit the ground for the reasons cottonstalk lists. A big wounded coon can really raise hell with a dog and or you if he heads your way. They can also drowned a dog in just a few feet of water. A 22 left little or no pelt damage, and made skinning easy.

If I ever see one of those cats up here in the great north woods (there have been many sitings up here - no one has shot one in 70+ years) I hope I'm carrying a big gun that day!
I'm with the .44 crowd (of course).

Renster

This discussion has been pretty good. I break it all down this way: 1. Hound Hunt: Probably going to shoot the cat at close range in a tree or at bay. 2. You decide between head shot vs. heart/lung shot. 3. Because the head shot is a very much smaller target especially if the cat is moving and possibly would make the skull unscorable for trophy record keeping purposes, I would choose the heart lung shot (just My Opinion) 4. Therefore I would choose a high velocity varmint caliber with a frangible varmint bullet and put it right behind the shoulder. (just My Opinion) 5. I personally would go with the .17 Remington/.204 Ruger/.221 Fireball class of cartidges for fast expansion and minimal if any exit. (just My Opinion) 6. I also would carry my revolver in .44 mag/.41 mag cartridge class on my hip for back up (if needed) or maybe even a complete change in plans or circumstances (which can happen in hunting ...well duh...) As for bullet choice, that would be a good question. For ""quicker kills"" a soft nose expanding bullet may be called for but for complete penetration at any angle and I do mean ANY angle a hard cast bullet may be a better choice. Your call.

That way you would be pretty well prepared for about any situation that comes up.

I need to add that John also took along my pet all-around loads for the 32-20. They use a 110gr Hornady SP that zips along pretty quick...I'm thinking 1700fps...exact fps is slipping me now. That way he had a dual purpose gun w/o needing to carry two firearms. The cast were zeroed at 25yds which put the 110's very near zero at 100yds.