The man who shot the largest mountain lion so far this season said it was as much a spiritual journey as it was a hunt.

Brenden Hendrickson of Custer shot a 159-pound adult male lion about 8 miles west of Custer last Thursday that state Game, Fish & Parks officials say was about 7 years old.

Hendrickson said he hunted the lion for several days and started again Jan. 8 before sunrise, criss-crossing the granite landscape of the Hills while searching for tracks. He first heard the lion moving through the trees after calling it in with an electronic predator call.

"I heard something that was very large, and I had a feeling it was a mountain lion," he said.

Hendrickson, who said he is a Christian, prayed about the hunt right before and throughout the day.

"I'm not a killer, but I do believe in wildlife management." he said. "There was a lot of prayer in this hunt."

Hendrickson, 33, tracked the lion over the course of the day, following its prints in the snow but often losing the trail over hills where the snow had melted.

The tracks were bigger than my hand," he said.

The lion went to an old deer kill, Hendrickson said, and he continued tracking it until he found that a fresh set of tracks had crossed over the old set of tracks. Hendrickson worried that the lion was actually following him instead, and he called a friend to let him know where he was "just in case."

Hendrickson said in all of the research he has done, lions usually leave an area when humans are present.

"I think he had plans for me; he could have easily left,"he said.

Hendrickson said he came to a large rock where he had an eerie feeling, and he took his high-powered rifle off safety.

"Hunting a deer is one thing," he said. "With (mountain lions), you have to be conscious and aware of everything around you. You have to be looking not only for tracks, but in the trees and the rocks.

GF&P regional game manager John Kanta said it is common for lions to circle back behind a hunter, not to track them, but to get away from them.

"They double back and circle back around us; it's a defense mechanism," he said. "They're not coming back around to get us; they hoping to shake us off and get us off their tail."

Kanta said there have been about 120 mountain lion attacks on humans in the past 150 years in the U.S. and Canada, and half of the attacks have been in Canada. Of the 120 attacks, 25 have been fatal.

"The typical response is they're going to run away from humans," Kanta said. "The chances of a lion attacking and killing are pretty slim."

By the time Hendrickson came face to face with the lion, it was only 20 feet from him. He took three steps toward it and fired twice, killing it instantly.

Hendrickson said the lion looked as though it was about to spring into the air, the way a house cat does when it is going to jump onto a table.

"It was too close for comfort," he said, adding that he plans to have the lion mounted in that position because that was the way he last saw it alive.

The lion was about 7 feet long from the tip of its nose to the end of tis tail, and Hendrickson called his father and two friends to help him carry it off the mountain.

Kanta said a 159-pound male in the Black Hills is an established, healthy animal.

"That's going to be a trophy," he said.

As of Sunday evening, 11 lions had been killed in the Black Hills - six females and five males. The season runs through March 31 but will end immediately when 35 lions or 15 females have been harvested. GF&P estimates that 225 to 250 mountain lions in the Black Hills.

The Black Hills mountain lion hunting season has sparked debate because kittens and adults with kittens have been shot. It's against the law to shoot a spotted lion in the company of another lion. The GF&P delayed the start of the season this year to separate it from the deer and elk hunting seasons and to hopefully weed out casual hunters who might be more likely to shoot a kitten or adult with kittens.

Hendrickson said this was his first mountain lion hunt but that he had done plenty of preparing for it - reading, watching videos and spending time in the Hills.

Although some mountain lion hunters have kept quiet about successful hunts because of the controversial season. Hendrickson said he has received a lot of positive feedback. He said he hopes to make a deal with a local outfitters store to display the lion because he would like other people to be able to see it.

"They're a beautiful animal," he said.