Hip shot drops crouching lion

Cat may have been stalking elk when it confronted hunter

By JIM MANN/Daily Inter Lake

With a hip shot to the head, an elk hunter killed a mountain lion that was stalking him on Crane Mountain south of Bigfork on Sunday.

Matt Smith, a 29-year-old from Whitefish, was hunting with his brother Josh and his father, Walt, successfully bagging a mule deer buck at around 8 a.m.

After getting the buck back to the truck, the group returned to an area where they had seen considerable elk sign.

"I was in a heavily timbered area just off an old logging road," Smith said on Monday. "I was leaning up against a tree right where there was fresh sign of elk that had gone through the area. I was using a cow call and I was bugling when I heard a twig snap behind me.

"I turned around and a little less than 10 behind me was a mountain lion, belly to the ground, crawling right toward me," Smith said. "It was a pretty instantaneous response, it being that close and being in the attack position it was in."

Smith fired once from the hip with his 7 mm magnum rifle, the bullet striking the mountain lion in the head and killing it.

Smith said he was rattled with adrenalin, but he fired two more shots in rapid succession to let his brother and father know that something had happened.

"Within five minutes they found me," he said. "I was walking down the trail back to where the vehicles were at."

The three went to the big-game check station at Ferndale to report the incident.

Soon after, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Warden Nathan Reiner responded and was at the scene of the shooting with the Smiths.

Reiner said evidence at the scene, including lion tracks, supported Smith's story and the shooting has been determined to be an act of legitimate self-defense.

"There was a lot of fresh elk sign," Reiner said. "I'm guessing the cat believed it was sneaking in on elk."

Reiner said the mountain lion was a fairly small female that probably was no more than 2 years old.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials have been dealing with a rash of livestock depredations and other conflicts involving mostly young mountain lions over the last few months in the Flathead Valley.

During the 2007 hunting season, a hunter was jumped by a mountain lion in the Swan Valley's Squeezer Creek drainage.

The man suffered a gash on his leg, along with puncture wounds and scratches after the cat pounced on his back, knocking him into a tree. The man was able to draw a handgun and fire a shot that spooked the mountain lion, causing it to flee.

Matt Smith's mother, Bonnie Smith, said her son has been known to be lucky in the past.

"Thank God he turned around when he did," she said. "Who knows what would have happened just seconds later."

Smith said he will have a good story to tell for years to come.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com