A pheasant hunter in North Dakota relied on his law enforcement instincts when a mountain lion emerged from the tall grass and charged him.
The frightening incident occurred Thursday afternoon in the Custer Mine hunting area near Garrison while Gary Gorney of Minot was on his cellphone, according to the Minot Daily News.
When his dog suddenly went on point, Gorney quickly put his cellphone in his pocket, expecting a pheasant to take flight. Instead, a mountain lion appeared and charged him.
“I dropped my dad’s 100-year-old double-barrel [shotgun], I don’t even remember doing that, and went for the sidearm that I carry with me underneath my jacket,” Gorney told the Minot Daily News. “My instincts as a military law enforcement officer took over. There was no thought process. It was self-defense.”
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The attacking mountain lion was 10 feet away when Gorney shot the animal with a 9-millimeter handgun. Gorney’s dogs then went after the mountain lion. He said he wanted to pull the dogs off, “but I wasn’t going anywhere near that lion.”
“I bow-hunt the Badlands and I’ve been hunting the Custer Mine for 31 years and I’ve never seen a cat,” Gorney told the Minot Daily News. “I felt like I was in Africa hunting. The grass perfectly matched it’s coat.”
Gorney reported the incident to the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. Officials determined it was a female mountain lion that weighed more than 100 pounds.
Photo courtesy of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.