CHICORA — Bagging a mountain lion wasn’t easy for Jim Coyle.

But it didn’t take long.

Coyle, 53, of Chicora succeeded in his scheduled mountain hunt in Colorado within 24 hours after his flight left Pittsburgh.

“I had booked a few days with a guide in Collbran, near Grand Junction,” Coyle said. “But this guide I had was really good.

“This guy knew exactly what he was doing. He knew where to scout. He went out at 1:30 a.m. looking for tracks. Once he found some, we went out with his dogs at daybreak and were able to track one down.”

That may sound easy, but it wasn’t.

A snowmobile got Coyle, his guide and the dogs 900 yards out on the mountainous range. From there, they had to travel a half-mile on foot, climbing hilly terrain in roughly 18 inches of snow.

Coyle was hunting with his bow and wanted to bag his prey that way. His guide had a gun.

“The dogs were able to tree the mountain lion and I couldn’t get a clear enough shot at it with my bow,” Coyle said. “The shot had to be lethal. I couldn’t wound the animal for fear of the dogs’ safety.”

So the guide handed Coyle the gun. Coyle made the shot count.

Just like that, the hunt was over.

“I hung around for another day to help scout tracks for another hunter, then flew home early,” Coyle said.

He plans to have the 140-pound mountain lion mounted. It will join other mounts in his home that include a bear he shot in Fenelton and some bucks.

A hunter for roughly 40 years, Coyle estimates bagging 35 deer during his lifetime. The biggest was an 11-point buck.

“There’s a lot of hunting history in my family,” he said. “My grandfather hunted and so did my father. I’m a third-generation hunter.”

Coyle has hunted white-tail deer in Illinois, Iowa and Kansas.

He’s hunted elk in Colorado, Idaho and Arizona and has bagged one elk — three years ago in Arizona.

He plans to hunt for grizzly bear at some point.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Coyle said. “But these hunts aren’t cheap. I have to save up money.”