And definately post up those pics of the tracks you found.

No way. A CPO would surely arrest you here in IL.

I've shared it a time or 2. No one believes in it because they are all sold on cougars NOT being black. But I'm open minded.

let's see these pics!!!!

how can we have a pistol deer season but can't carry a pistol while hunting the countryside? wilderness?

we'll get our concealed carry one of these days...

It is because regardless of Illinois great majority of rural area every friggin detail is dictated by Chicago, it's corrupt systems and corrupt politicians starting with Mayor Daley. Because Chicago can't keep from dribbling all over themselves the whole state has to wear the bib.

If you want to get CC passed we all have to stand together. It will be work and will take time. Go to the meetings like the one salukis posted up here. Check his link.....

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/midw...y-meeting.html

Not to start a fight or anything, but it wasn't as easy as that when the cops took the shots at this thing. I got the story the news didn't talk about, but may have depending on what outlet you saw it.

The cat had been spotted and all sorts of cops were trying to track it down. Finally 2 cops spotted it cutting between 2 houses (houses in this neighborhood are VERY close together, usually 6 or so feet as most. When the Cops came on it the cat was darting to get away and about to jump a fence at around 50 feet. They didn't have any time to get sharp shooters or tranq guns. They had to get a shot off fast before the cat disappeared again and with how much news was going on around this, they had to kill it before mass pandamonem (sp) broke out. The guys that took the shot were good shots, they just had to shoot immediately with a handgun in a alleyway 6 feet wide and if that cougar turned it would be on them in 2 seconds. You'd be a little shaken too if your 50 feet from a cougar and it has no where to go but straight at you.

Don't mean to sound rude, but I knew who these cops were and believe me, when they woke up that day they didn't think they'd be face to face in a 6 ft alley with a cougar. I and many of the other hunters around there praised them, it couldn't have been easy.

Uncle Matt, I'll try and uplaod the photos in the next few days. Unfortunately with the snow melting the way it was a few weeks ago the tracks are very great but I have good pics of the trail of whatever this animal was. Im going to try and get out there again this week and see what I can find.

That is absolutely,positively without a doubt a small common house cat.

There has never been any evidence of a black mountain lion existing.Melanistic traits do not exist in cougars.That's a fact.Florida panthers are not black.

Doug I agree 100% there is not such thing as a black Florida Panther or black mountain lion in north america. Pike

Sorry it took so long, but Ive been swamped with work. Here are some of the pictures I took earlier last month. I wish I would have gotten out there before we had a warm day. The tracks themselves are about 20 inches apart from each other and front track to rear track is about 65 inches. There are no big dogs that live in the neighborhood. The biggest one is a German shorthair and it is never far from its house, but these are way to big for a shorthair. On a good day, you can make it to the Sears Tower in 30 minutes from where these pictures are taken. If they aren't from a big cat, sorry about it, they are just nothing like Ive seen before here in the Midwest, Especially in backyards in the greater Chicagoland area.

Also, there are some coyotes that live in the neighborhood and the tracks cross here and there and you can tell when they cross there is a BIG difference in the tracks. Let me know what you guys think. Im up for suggetions of what it is.

Uncle Matt, quick question for you. Im not sure the answer to this put have heard peoples views. If you are shotgun hunting for deer aren't you allowed to carry a sidearm that is legally large enough for deer? I can see not being able to carry a .22 or .38 but If Im carrying a .45 which is legal to shoot deer in Illinois, isn't that legal? Again, Ive never carried a handgun hunting in Illinois but Im pretty sure that in Michigan, Wyoming and Kansas if it is a legal caliber to shoot a deer you are legal to carry in during the Firearm season. Bow season I completely understand not being legal to carry one but Firearm it should be OK. Not that I would ever carry one but just thought Id ask.

Also, I think Matt hunts around where I have hunted in Southern Illinois and the property owner of a piece of land that I have hunted has said in the last 10 years there have been a couple instances where he has seen a BIG black cat, larger than a house cat on a track of his land. He said that he doesn't tell anybody because he isn't there to brag about it but he has lived there his whole life and this is far different from a house cat.

When I was in school at U. of Kansas there was documented evidence of a large black cat in Douglas county. There were about a dozen good pictures of it over a couple years and it was some sort of large panther/cougar type cat. The crazy thing about it was that one spring it was spotted with 3 kittens. Now the large cat was declawed from the tracks they had found in the previous couple of years, but the kittens all had there claws. It had to have meant there was another large cat roaming the hills that no one ever saw.