Nevada turkey hunter bags a mountain lion

Tom Bird of Wellington and his son, Ryan, of Reno had the bird hunting trip of a lifetime last Sunday.

They both had wild turkey tags for the Spring hunting season at the Mason Valley Wildlife Management Area, which is near Yerington.

They arrived at their hunting location in the dark, built a small brush blind, set out two turkey decoys, sat down with their backs against a tree to wait for their prey and fell asleep.

When Ryan woke up, he saw a small movement out of the corner of his eye, turned to see what it was and saw the ear of a mountain lion about 5 feet away.

The lion was busy quietly sneaking up on their decoys and did not pay any attention to the two hunters.

Suddenly, it made two giant leaps, grabbed the decoys with both paws and began to thrash them.

The older Bird (who had a mountain lion tag) fired his shotgun at the lion and missed. It spun around and charged the two hunters.

At point blank range, Bird fired again and killed the cat. It weighed 125 pounds and measured 6-foot, 10 inches for the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail.