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My wife and I were walking through the woods in Banff and it was quite peacefull - the ice was melting on the creek we were beside - a few birds were pecking and singing - a nice Spring day. Then we both heard 2 low growls like, say a Cougar. Wow, did that wake us up! My wife grabbed my arm and tried pulling me away, but running isn't a good idea, so I stopped, looked around, and out came my Millie right away. After looking all around we saw nothing, but we definately heard it, and I was ready (kind of :o ) to defend my wife with a large, excellent knife that I'm glad I chose to carry for just that purpose that day.
Funny thing - later when sharing the story with her sister, my wife said the knife I had out was "bigger than the whole Cougar's paw". Anyway, it got the adrenaline going! Thanks for listening.

- best wishes, Jazz.

meow! ha! great story. glad your safe.

Nice instincts! Glad you are safe and sound.

Hi Jazz,

Glad nothing happened. Big cats can be nasty.

Reinforcement, "The most important part about a knife is that you have it with you when you need it".

sal

I though you were gonna say you whipped out your Johnson, but thank go you pulled your death delivering Millie instead!
Ya know..what happens on those "Walk through the woods" sometimes.

sal wrote:Hi Jazz,

Glad nothing happened. Big cats can be nasty.

Reinforcement, "The most important part about a knife is that you have it with you when you need it".

sal

Thanks - I'm glad too. I am also glad I always carry 1 or 2 Clipits, and the Millie is a great knife for a lot of purposes - I felt better with it in my hand. Thanks for the great design.

- best wishes, Jazz.

I suspect that if you go up against a Mt. Lion with a Military, all you accomplish is feed the cat and we don't have a chance to buy your military because it is lost in the woods

Imagine the most pissed off house cat you have ever seen and think about trying to give it the sharp end of your knife without getting scratched or bitten. Now scale up the cat by about 10-15x.

Iterate until sufficiently worried

Fred S wrote:I suspect that if you go up against a Mt. Lion with a Military, all you accomplish is feed the cat and we don't have a chance to buy your military because it is lost in the woods

Imagine the most pissed off house cat you have ever seen and think about trying to give it the sharp end of your knife without getting scratched or bitten. Now scale up the cat by about 10-15x.

Iterate until sufficiently worried

Perhaps, but I think the takeaway here is that Jazz's instincts were to put himself between his woman and danger while utilizing whatever resources he had at his disposal.

I commend him for that!

I might further argue that the fruits of his accomplishments are greater than a meal for the cat.

His instincts are commendable, his equipment is lacking. I used to run around in the woods a good deal, and I always had a bullet launcher of some description. I think the OP was in Banff, which I think is a national park in Canada. Unlikely you are supposed to have a gun with you.

Soooo..... that being said, certainly a commendable on doing what you can with what you have.

Glad you didn't have to use it Jazz. Stay safe.

I know what you mean, noises from the woods in Banff.
I start work at 04:30 on the edge of Banff, the woods are all around. When the wind is blowing in the trees, the groaning and creaking along with the unknown.
It doesn't take me long, to sprint from the car to the shop :p

I'm glad you had your millie with you too, however, the lead slinger is also a must have. And I'm a believer in judged by 12 vice carried by 6.

Great story, I love my Military ive been edc one for as long as i can remember.
CHECK YOUR 6

VADER1313 wrote:I though you were gonna say you whipped out your Johnson, but thank go you pulled your death delivering Millie instead!
Ya know..what happens on those "Walk through the woods" sometimes.

You sir, certainly got a solid lol out of me.

I've been to Banff. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Did you check out those Hoodoo lounges.

Firearms are a no-go in Banff. Due to how 'touristy' the place is, even small-mid sized fixed blades can be problematic. The Military is a great choice, and the instincts of the op were good.

Jazz glad you and the wife are OK...Can be scary in the woods, and those Cats can be mean for sure...glad you had a handly spyderco with you in case you needed it. Reminds me of a story of mine back many years ago I was hunting for some flying squirrel in Florida...all I had with me was a slingslot (David and Goliath style) and three throwing knives. I was stalking some squirrel in the pine trees when I came to an open field. Out of the brush about 40 feet away on full charge was a wild boar...Mind you it had me :eek: in it's sights and was making extraterrestrial noises as it approached (scared the bejesus out of me) The hunters who were chasing this boar said it was a small pig (only 328lbs.) For me a city boy 328lbs of anything is not SMALL!....Well I didn't know what to do, I wasn't about to do mortal combat with this monster with my three throwing knives so I ran back into the woods and climbed a tree (coward...LOL) Before that time I never had the experience of climbing a tree...but in that type of circumstance you learn real real quick. The hunters finally arrived and shot the boar with a .357 magnum Contender and a .30-06...The boar took one to the body and one to the neck and still killed two of the hunter's dogs with just a swipe of its claws then it ran for about 75 yards before dropping....On the way back home I spotted a Diamondback Rattler and few minutes later I saw 5 Black Panthers rolling around on a sand dune sunning themselves, (but they didn't bother me) I said to myself...what the **** are you doing in the woods with a slingshot and three throwing knives LOL. When I got home I ran out to the gun store and purchased my first two firearms...a Colt Detective Special .38 and five boxes of snake shot for the snakes..and a 12 gauge shotgun and a dozen boxes of slugs....for anything bigger than a squirrel.....the next time I went off trucking thru the woods I was more than prepared...LOL....lesson learned......Doc :D

Fred S wrote:I suspect that if you go up against a Mt. Lion with a Military, all you accomplish is feed the cat and we don't have a chance to buy your military because it is lost in the woods

Imagine the most pissed off house cat you have ever seen and think about trying to give it the sharp end of your knife without getting scratched or bitten. Now scale up the cat by about 10-15x.

Iterate until sufficiently worried

I think you'd be a little shocked at how well a 3"+ blade can do at battling bad kitties. If you do a search on here you can find the post about a 60 year old man in Colorado, I believe, who was attacked by a cougar and pulled out his blade and did what he had to. He got scratched up pretty bad, but he walked away leaving the cougar fatally wounded.

Here we go

http://spyderco.com/forums/showthread.p ... light=Lion

That's it. I gotta get me a Military. lol