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I can relate to South Woods and GH22's dad them thangs will scare the tee-total crap out of you from far off or like my encounter, up close and personal.

I was 12 years old(1984) when I found out what true fear was. I had slung my trusty ole Marlin 30-30 on my back, strapped my big buck knife to my leg, and packed a lunch and water in my back-pack. The great deerslayer of Sparta, MS was goin huntin. (If that animal had brown fur or hair, it was an endangered species that day) Well I was quietley slipping through the woods, just like Geronimo would, to get to where I was going to hunt. It took me about an hour and a half for me to walk to the area I was going to hunt.(To this day I still haven't figured out how I could have gotten a deer out of there)I had to cross one last creek to get to my hollow. I hopped in the dry creek bed which twisted and turned like a slinky for my last 100 or so yards. I turned a corner and locked up like a 8 yr old pointer on 20 bird covey of quail. About 20 yards from me was a panther(yellow) coiled up underneath a huge oak stump hanging over the creek. The big Sparta, MS deerslayer became the biggest coward in .001 seconds. He/She let out the most terrifying growl/moan I have ever heard in my life. I did my best to get that 30-30 pointed somewhere close to that cat, but I damn near shot my foot off getting the gun off my shoulder. At that point I couldn't tell who was more frightened, it or me. It bolted kind of at an angle toward me, but not directly at me. My water broke. It was actually racing up a deer slide that was about halfway between us. Chuck Connors would have been proud of me while I was doing my best Rifleman imitation when that cat hit the creek bank. I dropped my back-pack and hit mach two getting out of that creek bank. Problem was that I knew I had a long way home and there was a panther in the woods. I had three shells in my gun and my back-pack was back down in that creek. There was no way in hell I was going back down there to get it. I was running so hard I had slung my knife out of the scabbard somewhere back down there- I didn't get it either. So here I am 12 years old, an hour and a half walk through the woods to get home, 3 shells in my gun, a panther in the woods, and I now smell like piss. The realization that I was alone in the woods with the most terrifying animal I had ever seen hit me. I almost fainted. I wanted to cry, but was scared it would here me and think I was wounded. I believe I walked 90% of the way home backwards.

My grand dad told me that he had seen panthers before on our land and my dad said that he had heard them screaming at night before. I will always remember that horrible gut dropping feeling the rest of my life and hope that my three boys(and yours) never experience it.

WWF RAW MONDAY'S 9/8 PM CT......THAT STUFF IS REAL!!!!!!! [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Pewee-

I believe Lowery's Book was copyright in 1974. Keep in mind that they do have verified accounts of melanism in the South American population of the species...there are also well advertised cases of black jaguars.

"I'll tell you what it was...It was that damn Sasquatch"

quote from Billy Madison - seemed appropriate. [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Here is a good article on Panthers in Miss.

Mississippi Panthers

well, since we're sharing stories here, a retired gentleman and i (about 16 yrs old) were coon hunting in the yockonookany swamp one night when the dogs treed. we'd start towards them and a few yards out from them they'd hush then start running again. we'd sit tight till they treed again, usually not too far, and we'd start towards them again. this happened a few times and they crossed the river and treed again. it was then that we heard the most terrifying scream. we left the dogs in the woods and made fast tracks to the truck. we never found out what it was they were running, but i had never heard anything like that before or since.

I also have seen a big cat (cougar i think).. I was watching my dove field one evening in August sitting on my four wheeler. I heard something crash in the woods and all of a sudden doe jumped out of the woods. I was proally 150yds from her but I could see the hair on her back standing straight up. She then jumped back in there and some more crashing and right then she bolted out of the woods with that cat right on her butt. It was tan and about 3ft long and its tail was about 2ft. It chased her thru the dove field and back in the woods. What i figured she had a little'un in the there and she was trying to keep the cat off of it. My wife claims I had to many cold ones, all i had was two. HONEST

Thanks Longbarrel. Good article.

But GH22 says the video is legit and people have been seeing black panthers for years...I just don't know who to believe here.... [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[ November 20, 2001: Message edited by: dos gris ]

Panthers, no, they are really Mountain Lions. The scientific community does not want to admit that there really are panthers or mountian lions in Mississippi, even though people video tape them, cast plaster casts of their foot prints, and run over them every year. What is the the scientific community trying to hide? Biologist say, "oh, they are just pets that escaped." Yeah, right! What about the "pets" that are reproducing in the wild?

They may actually be cougars, but anyone who sees one calls it a panther, or what black people say, 'dem panners'. [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

The cat in the video was solid black and close to 200 lbs.

While I personally have never seen a cat
larger than a bobcat in the wild, my wife at the time (early 1990's) was on our property in Carroll county checking/feeding horses &
promises she saw a very large cat.(not black)
I remember her being quite excited, yet somewhat reluctant to tell me her story for
fear of my disbelief. Her description (if memory serves me still) was a brown/very dark
tan cat larger than my lab (75 lbs.) with a long slender tail that was as long or longer than the body. It seems the horses became quite agitated & kept looking down a ridge in the pasture between two wooded draws. then cat crossed the short strip of pasture near a small pond & disappeared down one of the draws. I feel she definately saw something that shook her up & her description was quite sincere. Who knows?
Maybe there are a few big cats still around.
I have no reason to doubt her account. [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Now I have been on my "back forty" in a climbing stand and heard something let a spinetingling scream/meow/hiss sound that put the fear of God in me. I got my butt outta the woods, post-haste. I figure that it was either a congested owl with a choke hold on a bobcat or the Blair Witch. Not real sure on which one, but I had the Browning's safety off just in case it wondered my way. This has happened on more than one occasion.

Have any other readers heard or seen something they can't explain or am I imagining things again? [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]

I don't think that I have ever been in the woods when I haven't heard something I couldn't explain. Most are from birds owls, hawks, ect. I have heard a cat scream down in Pearl River county. It was either a bobcat or a panther. Sounded just like a woman screaming. Stained my undies. I saw a panther there then next spring turkey hunting. Strange thing was that I saw the cat on more than one occasion the same morning. He even busted up a group of hens that were nearby. I know he saw me because we were eye to eye at 50 yards. I was standing in the road when he walked out down from me. I know it was a panther because you couldn't get this big cat confused with anything else. My family from around there has numerous reports over the last 40 years of different sightings of panthers. All were
brown never black. They do exist, that I'm sure of. They aren't overly scared of humans either. At least not like coyotes.

Well....Like everyone else I will now share my panther siting. My father, a guy that worked for us, and myself were checking on some cows we had in a field that bordered the Chunky River. When we came into the field the cows were all in a wad, like wild dogs were messing with them. We went across the field to try and get to the supposed dogs...a large black cat came across the field...shocked we were...we chased the cat across the field and almost wrecked the truck running into the woods. The cat was really poor looking, but did have a long thick tail. I don't really think the cat was going to really be able to take on a full grown heifer though. People in the area had sitings of a cat with cubs around the same time....this happened about 10 years ago. I have related this story to Dr. Leopold here at State....he really did not take my seriously. I can understand why he can't believe me...but that is really what I saw.

I know a wealthy gentleman who has a long standing bet with nother man for a healthy amount of money. The bet is based on wether there is or isnt a black panther in MS. The wealthy gentleman contacted MDWFP and offered a healthy contribution to anyone who could produce even a shade of proof of a panther in MS. After the man finally took him seriously and some time passed, he received visit from the MS game and fish dude and he had some photos. None of which were at allconclusive. The two men invloved in the bet agreed and the bet still stands. No Panthers. This was as of August 26 2001.