last year my brother and i were hunting elk. it was the end of the season and we were in the kill anything that moves mode... we were sitting on a beautifull peak cliff looking over what couldve been easily hundreds of miles of untouched nature. 11 head run down the middle pasture with a spike nestled in the middle. whilst them running across the tree line, a white owl with about a 4 foot wing span flew right nxt to them and then towards us, it was so elegant... a half hour later we broke out our sandwitchs. 2 hrs later we were in the same spot and out of food. we killed 4 grouse and ate them right there. we left the spot and radioed for a pickup(28 miles from camp). we decided to just walk the road towards camp until we saw some lights. about 300 meters from where we had gotten on the road, my brother saw a cougar walking 10 ft alongside me. he literally shit his pants, froze and and stuttered the words," big,babababbig cat". keep in mind were in the woods in the dead of night no light except a keychain flahlight. my reaction to this was to call bullshit. i walked straight to were he said he saw the cat, to my demise there the fuck he was. his head tucked into his shoulders, ready to attack. i fired one round out my ot six, and he pounced off. at the same time i shot i saw a distant campire explode into sparks, in lew of protecting ourselves i almost shot somebody with a high powered rifle., i love hunting, but after that i will never aim and fire in the dark again, im just gonna fire in tha air.