A North Dakota pheasant hunter shot and killed a mountain lion that charged him from thick grass.

Gary Gorney of Minot was hunting pheasants in late December when his German shorthair, Milly, went on point. The dog got a whiff of something in tall grass and locked up, which caused Gorney to end his phone  call and put away his phone.

As Gorney readied for the flush, a female mountain lion emerged and charged. 

“That cat got up and started coming right at me,” he told the Minot Daily News. “I guess my instincts took over. I dropped my dad’s 100-year-old double-barrel, I don’t even remember doing that, and went for the sidearm that I carry with me underneath my jacket. My instincts as a military law enforcement officer took over. There was no thought process. It was self-defense.”

Gorney drew his 9mm pistol and shot the cat, which was about 10 feet from him. He contacted the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, which investigated and said the female weighed more than 100 pounds.

“After I shot it both of my dogs went after it,” he told the Daily News. “They were on top of it. I wanted to pull them off but I wasn’t going anywhere near that lion. I bowhunt the Badlands and I’ve been hunting the Custer Mine for 31 years and I’ve never seen a cat. I felt like I was in Africa hunting. The grass perfectly matched it’s coat.”

Gorney was in the Custer Mine hunting area.