Sean Fulton
New member
I had been watching this area for a few years and had know it to have a lot of cougar activity, especially after hunters start pushing the cats around. I had a scouting camera up in it for most of the month of Dec. and got some great pics of a gorgeous collared lion right around Christmas.
Earlier in the year I had decided that I wanted to call in this area and hung a tree stand. The cover in the area is so thick that I ended up using a chainsaw to cut several shooting lanes out up to 50-60 yards, but made sure that my stand was still concealed.
For the first six days of the season I had focused on different lion that I had located on opening day. I had found a kill that it had dragged across the road. I set up on this kill first with a tree stand and then with a blind. I tried calling a couple times and also tried just sitting on the kill a couple times. I had several sets of tracks coming in and around the kill but seemed to always come in at night. I have several pics of the lion feeding on the kill too but they were all at night too. The kill ended up being cashed and the lion seemed to have left the area so I changed my plan of attack to other areas and stands.
I woke up early on Jan 7th got ready and jumped in the pickup to head out for my morning set before going out to check my trapline. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the temps were in the low 20's so decided to go to the stand that I had set up earlier in the year.
I tiptoed through the crunchy sunbaked snow on the way into my stand trying to make as little noise as possible. I placed my E-caller in a thick downed tree, right below and about six yards from my tree stand. I climbed into my stand and after tying myself in and getting situated, double checked all of my yardages while I waited for enough light to start calling. I started calling with a distress sound and switched it to a similar but different one about a minute later. I hadn't been calling but 2-3 minutes and there it was, a cougar, she was quickly moving through the thick timber and stopped in one of my shooting lanes. It sat on its haunches at 40 yards and stared in the direction of the caller for a minute or so. Then she started to move towards my right and creep in closer. I made sure to draw my bow while she was moving and not looking towards me. As she stepped into a a shooting lane at 30 yards she stopped quartering a little towards me. I placed the pin just behind her shoulder, steadied the shot and let it fly. I hit my target and she jumped straight up in the air. She slowly walked out of sight and I texted a couple buddies and one of them said they would come back me up as I tracked it.
Knowing better than to go directly after an animal I found my arrow and saw that there was a good blood trail showing in the snow so I decided to go back to my pickup and wait for my buddy to come help. When he showed up he was pretty excited and wanted to go look for it right away. I told him that we needed to wait a little longer. Reluctantly agreeing we waited.
We soon got on the track and worked our way closer to the cat. The brush in the draw was getting really thick. About eighty yards from where I had shot it we caught movement to our right and the cat took off through the brush. I started to become afraid that we were going to end up chasing it through the brush for a couple miles. We pressed further and saw that the cat only went a couple yards and was not doing so well. I found a small hole through the thick brush and shot it again. This quickly finished her and there she was. My first cougar with a bow and I did it without dogs. I was STOKED! We took some great photos and after checking it in at the Game & Fish I found out that it is the first cougar ever shot with a bow in the state of South Dakota since the reopening of the mountain lions seasons six years ago.
She was an 80lb 6' 3yr old healthy female with a gorgeous coat and beautiful face.
She is not nearly as big as my first cat... here is the cat I got two years ago. I took him via spot and stalk.
He was a 4-5 year old 140# 7'5" male and was only 2/8" from making Boone & Crocket and had nothing in his stomach.
Earlier in the year I had decided that I wanted to call in this area and hung a tree stand. The cover in the area is so thick that I ended up using a chainsaw to cut several shooting lanes out up to 50-60 yards, but made sure that my stand was still concealed.
For the first six days of the season I had focused on different lion that I had located on opening day. I had found a kill that it had dragged across the road. I set up on this kill first with a tree stand and then with a blind. I tried calling a couple times and also tried just sitting on the kill a couple times. I had several sets of tracks coming in and around the kill but seemed to always come in at night. I have several pics of the lion feeding on the kill too but they were all at night too. The kill ended up being cashed and the lion seemed to have left the area so I changed my plan of attack to other areas and stands.
I woke up early on Jan 7th got ready and jumped in the pickup to head out for my morning set before going out to check my trapline. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the temps were in the low 20's so decided to go to the stand that I had set up earlier in the year.
I tiptoed through the crunchy sunbaked snow on the way into my stand trying to make as little noise as possible. I placed my E-caller in a thick downed tree, right below and about six yards from my tree stand. I climbed into my stand and after tying myself in and getting situated, double checked all of my yardages while I waited for enough light to start calling. I started calling with a distress sound and switched it to a similar but different one about a minute later. I hadn't been calling but 2-3 minutes and there it was, a cougar, she was quickly moving through the thick timber and stopped in one of my shooting lanes. It sat on its haunches at 40 yards and stared in the direction of the caller for a minute or so. Then she started to move towards my right and creep in closer. I made sure to draw my bow while she was moving and not looking towards me. As she stepped into a a shooting lane at 30 yards she stopped quartering a little towards me. I placed the pin just behind her shoulder, steadied the shot and let it fly. I hit my target and she jumped straight up in the air. She slowly walked out of sight and I texted a couple buddies and one of them said they would come back me up as I tracked it.
Knowing better than to go directly after an animal I found my arrow and saw that there was a good blood trail showing in the snow so I decided to go back to my pickup and wait for my buddy to come help. When he showed up he was pretty excited and wanted to go look for it right away. I told him that we needed to wait a little longer. Reluctantly agreeing we waited.
We soon got on the track and worked our way closer to the cat. The brush in the draw was getting really thick. About eighty yards from where I had shot it we caught movement to our right and the cat took off through the brush. I started to become afraid that we were going to end up chasing it through the brush for a couple miles. We pressed further and saw that the cat only went a couple yards and was not doing so well. I found a small hole through the thick brush and shot it again. This quickly finished her and there she was. My first cougar with a bow and I did it without dogs. I was STOKED! We took some great photos and after checking it in at the Game & Fish I found out that it is the first cougar ever shot with a bow in the state of South Dakota since the reopening of the mountain lions seasons six years ago.
She was an 80lb 6' 3yr old healthy female with a gorgeous coat and beautiful face.
She is not nearly as big as my first cat... here is the cat I got two years ago. I took him via spot and stalk.
He was a 4-5 year old 140# 7'5" male and was only 2/8" from making Boone & Crocket and had nothing in his stomach.
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