Mike Richardson, of Darby, Montana, left to go mountain lion hunting back in 2003 with a a few close friends and family members and returned home a happy hunter.
With the help of a trained dog, they successfully treed a female early in the day, and, being that it was one of the spectator’s birthday, they chose the birthday boy to be the one to climb the tree next to the cat to try and get it to jump. I was apparently quite a sight to watch a mountain leap from 30 feet up a tree to the ground.
The tree-climbing spectator described his experience in the tree as “really freaky because I was eye-level with the mountain lion and he was hissing and growling at me”. When asked if it was worth it, he responded with “definitely”.
After finding and treeing a few more cats that day, they came across a large male they had treed earlier, and Mike decided this was the one he wanted.
He got a clean shot at him, still in the tree, and took it–the rest is history. This big boy weighed in at 142 pounds.
As you can see by his smile in the picture above, Mike was very pleased with his new trophy. Congratulations to you on your first successful cat hunt, Mike!
