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Click for larger image. Bowie knife was bought at Tiffany's in 1884. In 1901, the President killed a cougar coralled by dogs. Wrote to his kids that it took only one thrust to the heart.

I know of one other case where a man killed a cougar with a knife. This was about 15 years ago on Vancouver Island. The guy used a Schrade LB-7, the Schrade equivalent of the Buck No 110 lockblade folder. The cat sneaked up and got him from behind and he had trouble opening his knife. He did kill the female cougar, but she messed him up really bad first. He was in the hospital quite awhile, and I think was left with scars. The cat yanked his scalp almost off, as I recall.

So, this begins a cougar with a knife thread. Which knife would you carry if you couldn't carry a gun or it might jam or not be within reach?

So many are suitable...The Randall Model 14 is as good as any, or the Fallkniven A-1 or their NL-2. The NL-2 has a heavy blade about eight inches long, but is so well balanced that it feels lighter than it is. The handle is leather, with an aluminum butt cap and fiber spacers. The A-1 has a checkered Thermorun handle that won't slip if your hand is bloody. www.fallkniven.com www.randallknives.com

I wish we still had a President like Teddy, who hunted and also worked hard at conservation. I'm proud of the way he led his troops up San Juan Hill, too.



T-Star

Vladmir Putin does quite a bit of hunting oddly enough. In the Russian media he'll appear shirtless with various and sundry dead animals that he's killed. Interesting fellow...

Anyway... If I had to try my luck with an edged weapon against an angry kitty cat, I suppose that I'd opt for a Tramonita machete with a 12" blade, and I'd sharpen it up with a file. I have one in the closet, not sure where I got it. I use it to hack war clubs out of random hunks of wood that I'd find laying about. (Because there is bored, and then there is sit in the back yard and hack out your own club from a hunk of hardwood bored...). A couple of fellows in Africa have killed lions with their trusty "panga" after all.

Second choice would be a nice 17" Mosin spike bayonet... on the end of a 91/30. Lotta reach...

Straight Razor or Electic Carving Knife (with a long extension cord)

I knew that about Putin. He seems to have macho issues. I think he's also very accomplished in unarmed self defense.

Guess this stuff plays well with the Russian voters. After all, that is a culture that makes a big deal out of trying to drink one another under the table.

T-Star

I have a Marine Kabar that hasn't been blooded yet. But I'd prefer a mortar for cougar.

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VIVERE MILITARE EST

The larger version of the Gerber Applegate folder is a great knife for packing/hiking. Can't vouch for it as a big cat killer, but as far as folders go, it's nice.

Cold Steel Laredo Bowie. And if it is a four-legged cougar, one of those Russkie spring loaded boogers.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

I nice start to a subject that is long over due for study. While few cougars have probably been killed by a knife, it would be interesting to hear real life experence in whick your knife helped. I decieded once to count the number of times I opened my pocket knife in one week. After 3 days I quit counting at 57 times. Peter Capstick told of a drunk cliet that killed a leapord using a pocket knife. Stight fixed bladed knives are used so seldom simply because they are cumbersome and are seldom worn.

When is a man a MAN? When he jumps into the fray of a dogs vs. cougara bar fight........for fear that the cougar might kill one of the dogs!! Nice job Teddy!

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"You're messin' up my Zen"

For additional reference, some people hunt feral pigs with large Bowie knives and manage to kill them via severing the spine as they run under logs. At least I've fead accounts of such.

A handful of people have killed lions with their bare hands over the years, so the scenario isn't that far fetched.

I suppose it'd be a manly way to shuffle off the mortal coil, ala Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall.

Something for the kids to talk about one day I suppose, "How did your dad die?" "Eh, he was fighting a bear/cougar/man eating pig/bigfoot with his bowie knife."

With enough weight in the knife and the swing, you can hack off limbs/paws with a good bowie or a panga.

One of the Confederate generals ( N.B. Forrest?) used to hunt bears with a knife, and Sir Samuel Baker killed game with one on Ceylon.

I've never encountered a case of a man killing a lion with his bare hands. But it seems vaguely familiar. Did Samson do that in the Bible?

I do know of a man who stabbed an attacking grizzly/Alaskan brown bear in the neck wth a Buck lockblade folder and saved his life. Probably disabled some nerves. It let him crawl out from under the bear, recover his rifle and finish off the bear with that. He sent the bloody knife to Chuck Buck, who told me about it. I believe he displayed the knife at the Buck factory for some years. I'm almost sure that I included the incident in a story about knives being used to kill attacking wild animals. It was published in a knife title.

That story also included incidents in which knives saved divers from sharks. I know one man who killed a grey reef shark in the Pacific with a Katz dive knife, although that shark was only about four feet. But they are often very aggressive. Another fellow ripped open the belly of a large tiger shark as it went for him.

One diver had mixed results. A big shark molested him and got a Randall Model 16 knife in the tummy for it. But it got away with the knife. The late W.D. Randall told me that he ordered a replacement knife, specifying that the wrist thong be rubber, so that he could more easily slip it off his wrist. The shark had towed him for a distance via the leather wrist thong on the old knife.! BTW, Randall designed the Model 16 at the request of noted author James Jones. Jones bought several Randalls and mentioned them in his novels.

I try to keep track of incidents in which knives and handguns have saved lives in conflicts with wild animals. I include domestic dogs. I keep toying with the idea of a book on dangerous animals and want to include a chapter on that. But I am now too busy trying to finish a detective thriller...

But I was impressed with TR killing that cougar with a knife. Most Presidents have done well to shoot quail with a shotgun. Then we have Jimmy Carter, who encountered a "killer" rabbit that charged him. It was probably a moment when Mr. Carter briefly reconsidered his policy on gun control.

Oh: the term "hunting knife" probably arose from those used in medieval times to hunt and stab game run down by dogs. Puma used to make a traditional knife of that sort. They had it until quite recent times. May still make it.

I knew Capstick slightly and much enjoyed his droll humor. I have most of his books. Where did you read that? I want to look it up. Sounds like a good story.

I think fixed blade knives are stronger than folders, and do wear one in the outdoors where it won't cause legal issues. My state limits blade length to 5.5 inches. I have Fallkniven and Puma knives that meet that limit. Where I could, I've sometimes worn longer knives. One reason is that a knife may have to be used for emergency defense. Those individuals who scoff at that and ridicule men with such knives are sarcastic so-and-so's who remind me of the southern end of a northbound horse. We have some on this board, the guys who smirk at a handgun being carried for use against a bear, and tell stale "jokes" about how the bear will cram the gun where the sun doesn't shine if one is deployed in extremis against said bear. But I know of cases where pistols have saved mens' lives.

I don't want to hunt with anyone who makes fun of someone for wearing a sheath knife, what some call a "straight" knife.

But if Capstick's client killed a leopard with an ordinary pocketknife, that is an account that I want to read. I know that Carl Ackely (sp?) killed one by strangling it while breaking its ribs and puncturing its lungs by kneeling on it and pressing his substantial weight onto it. It was a female leopard of about 80 pounds. The famous explorer survived, but was badly ripped up.

Is that outfit the nineteenth century version of "Tacti-cool?"

I'm a big fan of TR and his accomplishments, but one thing that allowed him to pursue his many endeavours was the fact he lived off an allowance and didn't have to have a job for income, especially in the early part of his adult life.

Now, I'm thinking if I didn't actually have to work for a living I could have accomplished some more interesting and wonderful things.

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- Change it back -

When I lived alone, I wasn't much of a housekeeper. My dust bunnies were attack rabbits.

Good point, but his Winchester 76 doesn't have the full-length magazine. Tactical guys like Billy the Kid had those, in the Kid's case on a Win. 73.

I think TR used that rifle on most Western big game, including grizzlies. He later replaced it with a Springfield sporter and a couple of Win. M-95's and had a British .450 double rifle for his famous 1909 safari.

The guy was rich, but he had guts and a lust for adventure.

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Get that finger off the trigger, Teddy!!!!

Texas Star, good to hear from a fellow Capstick fan. Many of the incidents he writes about he himself didnt actually do, but are a collection of experences of fellow professional African guides, according to a few who knew him over there. Anyway I have read way too many books since the late 1970's and early 1980's when Capsticks works arrived on the scene. I have them all but cant recall the book. I also may be mistaken about the author of the incident but I dont think I am. The way I recall the story is, seems he had a client that was a large man prone to bragging and drinking. Having consumed too much drink himself the PH went to bed leaving the client to finish the bottle himself by the campfire. In the morning the PH found the client slumped in his chair bleeding from many punctures. When asked what had happen he replied he had to urinate and walked into the brush when in his words "a large pussycat" jumped on him from a tree and he had to use his pocket knife to fend it off. The PH went looking for the scene of the attack and soon found the "pussycat" dead from its wounds. As to those who scoff at sheath knife carriers, I am not one. I however see very few people who do carry such a knife, yet know few people who dont carry a folder. Aristotle himself carried a folding knife. I study gear, knives, guns, holsters, ect. that were actually used everyday, by men of the west and north. Few if any real western type of old and present carried sheath knives on horseback as a fall from a horse could easily drive the blade through the sheath and into your own leg. I knew an old outdoorsman that trapped and hunted 70 years in remote Colorado that claims he never owned a sheath knife. Anyway those who scoff at handguns and knives as protection from the big hairy critters dont get out of their Lazyboys too often in my opinion. I want every advantage when im in the bush. For those that admire them that take game with a knife must remember that in most cases the animal is subdued by dogs when the knive is plunged. As to the photo of Teddy, you must realize that is a studio shot. While he is holding his favorite rifle, I dont know about the knife. I do know it wasnt worn that was as it would be very uncomfortable and easily lost.

[QUOTE=Texas Star;136037955]One of the Confederate generals ( N.B. Forrest?)

Wade Hampton, I believe. I'll thumb through my copies of Capsticks works, as I too remember this story.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

Meh... couple of cosmos & most are GTG....