With a harvest objective tag in my pocket, I’d searched for cougars in the back country of Utah for a while now. I spotted a cougar in the area in early January so I knew there was one on the prowl. After a heavy snow, it was time to head into the mountains and look for fresh tracks hoping they would lead to a mountain lion. After spotting for a while, I figured I would do a quick predator call. Since I hadn’t seen any cougars I thought I might have better luck finding a coyote. No coyotes came in, but on my way back down the mountain I crossed a cougar track and it was huge! I followed the track until it went down along a cliff edge. I didn’t feel comfortable going into the cliffs so I decided to go around the other side of the mountain to see if I could look back at the cliffs. Sure enough, there was the cat…and his eyes were on me. I was 335 yards away and decided I had a clear shot. The weather was coming in so it was now or never. As I lay in the deep snow with my rifle slung over my backpack, I told myself “This is the shot of a lifetime, make it count”. I had never felt so sure of a shot in my life! As the rifle went off, I heard the “whop” of the impact. Though I couldn’t see the big cat drop in my scope, I was sure I made the show. Sure enough, the cat had dropped in his tracks. Turns out it was a 150lb Tom with a 14.5″ skull. I couldn’t be happier! Cougars are rare to see so getting an opportunity to kill one without dogs in a general harvest objective unit was the pinnacle of my hunting career so far!