Alyssa Caldwell and her father, Joshua, were heading to what they hoped would be a great spot for Alyssa to take a nice bull elk on the edge of a meadow in New Mexico’s unit 52 just south of the Colorado border.
After hunting a makeshift aspen blind over a waterhole, dad and daughter decided to stalk to a meadow and see if any elk had come out to feed lower on the mountain. However, after about 200 yards, Joshua realized he had forgotten the shooting sticks back in the blind.
“I decided to head back up to grab them and told Alyssa to sit tight,” he said. “About 30 to 45 seconds after I had started walking, I heard a shot.”
He thought she had killed a big elk — Not exactly.
“I asked if she had shot a bull?” he said. “She told me she had shot a cat. He was only about five yards away from her. She thought quick. When I saw how close he was, I got emotional.”
Alyssa said she had no idea the mountain lion was there until she was looking him in the face.
“I saw him first,” Alyssa said. “I didn’t hear him or see him until he was really close. I didn’t know exactly what it was but I knew it wasn’t a bobcat. I raised my gun when he crouched down.”
The big mountain lion was only about five yards from the Odessa hunter when she shot it head on — killing the cat instantly.
