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For hunting or for self-defense?
As some have said, people kill mountain lions with even smaller calibers than 9mm. You have the luxury to calmly sit back and take your best aimed shot if you are hunting.
As some have said, if it is a defensive scenario, the first you'll likely know of the mountain lion is when it is attacking you. You will be scared, sliced up, in pain, and you may think you are dying. Do you think you'll do your best aimed range-like shooting in that situation? Yes, a mountain lion is a thin skinned animal and about our size, so a caliber suitable for self-defense against human attackers should be OK. However, against human attackers, you won't necessarily already be physically under attack and injured when you pull the trigger, and your attacker will probably be at least a few feet away. When attacked by a mountain lion you have already been jumped from behind and their dagger like claws are tearing into you before you know you need to defend yourself.
In that situation I want a couple things:
-A handgun. I'm not going to be able to put a rifle into play.
-As powerful a caliber as possible. I doubt I'm going to be able to get off a good aimed shot into COM. I want something that gives me as much of an edge as possible. While a 9mm may do it, I'd feel much better with at least a .357mag in a revolver or .40S&W in an auto (and preferably a .41mag, .44mag, .45LC or .45ACP). Against a mountain lion I might like the auto over the revolver though so I can empty as many rounds into the animal as fast as possible (though a revolver would be OK).
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