The Bear that wasn't

 

The old man sat in a brand-new saddle in his living room and said, "I'd just once like to see an article written about the one that got away! It happens you know. I've seen it a lot. These big shot writers come out here to write an article, but if they don't get anything I never see the article, and when they get something, I never recognize the hunt!" I guess the old man isn't so old. I don’t know actually how old Billy is, but I do know he is in a whole bunch better shape than I am. It was 1992 and I was in the living room of Billy Stockton, one of the great names in guides and outfitters, as well as Rodeo. In the latter he placed eighth overall in the world last year at the Seniors National Finals Rodeo in Reno, NV. The saddle he was in is a brand new, custom made, hand carved floral pattern stock saddle. "I've wanted a saddle like this for nearly fifty years", he said as he sat there rubbing the horn. No doubt that saddle will see a whole lot of country this coming fall during elk season. But currently we were after Spring bear in the Big Hole country of Montana.

Billy Stockton has a unique way of hunting bears in the spring. He has spent his entire life in the Big Hole Mountain area. He grew up on a cattle ranch some thirty miles from where he currently lives. "I used to go for three weeks at a time hauling salt to the cattle in the mountains, when I got back I'd pick up another load and head out again. Then they put roads in and I had to learn the country all over again. Now I've learned these mountains twice! Guess if I don't know them by now I never will." And know them he does. He knows every square inch of the six million plus acres he hunts, and all the animals that inhabit those acres, fish as well.

In the spring, when the bears come out of their long winter hibernation, they are hungry. Mostly the bears up there eat grass and carrion.  There are no berries at the high elevations where Billy hunts. Therefore, the bears are looking for thawing and rotting winterkills they can feast upon. They know that their chances of taking down a healthy animal are slim at best. A seven hundred pound cow elk can put up a pretty good fight against a two hundred pound hungry bear. Currently the bears are looking for dead or wounded animals. They are not only predators, but scavengers, much like coyotes and bobcats. All predatory animals look for the easy meal, no more work than necessary. Billy utilizes this knowledge.

Hunters of coyotes and bobcats know of the usefulness of predator calls.  These calls imitate wounded animals. Why wouldn't this work on bears you ask? The answer: it does. Billy has been calling bears for several years and has had a great deal of success with this method. He uses a cow elk call, that imitates a cow in severe pain. If there is a hungry bear within earshot, get ready because he may come full steam ahead with his ‘jaws apopping!’ Billy claims that on more than one hunt bears were shot in pure self-defense! He has had bears home in on his calling so intensely that they had to be shot before they started feeding on him!

The afternoon we arrived it was raining. Billy said something to the effect that this would be the first bear he'd ever seen shot in the rain. He also stated that in the rain bears hole up and don't come out for nearly anything. As we loaded into his trusty rig, "This isn't my best outfit," he remarked, "my best outfit doesn't run!" with this enlightening statement, we headed out into the woods. Within two hundred yards Billy stopped to let us look at a moose which lumbered into a dense thicket along a creek. Minutes later we had to wait for a herd of elk to get out of the road so we could continue up the mountain. Did I mention it was raining? As we climbed up a mountain side with the rig bouncing unnervingly close to the edge of a pretty steep drop off Billy shouted, "There goes a bear! Get your guns, I'm not kidding! Nice Cinnamon too. We might be able to get to the head of this canyon and catch him on his way out." We made tracks for the head of the canyon and there we sat where we could glass not only the canyon, but two other mountains as well. After a while of sitting there and not seeing the bear Billy said, "I've seen bears do some stupid things, commit suicide is what they done, but not often. I didn't really think that would happen today".  He was right; it didn't.  We piled back into the rig and continued onward.  We saw more elk and several mule deer, but no more bears. It was still raining.

The next morning saw even more rain. There was no reason to head out early. Billy claimed, "I've never killed a bear in the morning anyhow". We drove up a different mountain and glassed again. We moved to a new location and Billy said, "It looks like the weather might give us a break, lets take a walk." As we got further from the truck, it became apparent that the weather wasn't going to give us much of a break. Small ice balls began to lightly fall forth from the darkening sky, and the wind to softly howl through the tall pines. Billy looked up at the sky and exclaimed, "It's going to clear up,...clear up to our butts!" But shortly the storm did abate and we came out from behind the giant pine which had shielded us from the wind and ice and began our trek once more. As we entered a small clearing Billy raised his left hand and motioned me to stop. "Smell them elk?" he whispered. Sniffing the air I had to admit I could smell nothing, but took his word for it. We crept forward cautiously into a stand of trees and soon came to the edge of a park. On the far side about a hundred and fifty yards away were five elk, all young bulls. We glassed the bulls for a bit. Some showed good antler growth for this time of year. "Those are going to be good bulls." Billy observed, "We better skirt around them, if they get boogered they'll take off and booger everything in the country." We headed downwind of the bulls and got a couple hundred yards from them on a hill side where we could see quite a ways in all directions. Billy told me to sit by a tree about four yards from him and watch. He pulled out a call from his shirt pocket and went to wailing on the thing for about fifteen minutes. I'll tell you I've never heard a cow elk being tortured, but I'd be willing to bet it couldn't sound any more like the real thing than Billy himself. When he was done we sat in silence for another twenty or thirty minutes. The cold began to take its toll on me. Even with winter clothing, my teeth were starting to chatter. Finally Billy said, "Lets move on, even bears aren't interested in being out in this weather." We started back to the rig. It seemed strange to me that we went uphill to get to this point, and now we were going uphill to get back to the truck! Billy stopped and waited for me to catch up, "if you run out of puff, just stop, I won't leave you".

We got back to his house after dark and had a hot cup of coffee and a marvelous dinner prepared by Billy’s ex-wife, Suzy Stockton (that’s a whole nother story!). Billy said, "It's strange that when you leave this house everything is uphill, and you make a big circle all day long, and it's still uphill on the way home!" We sat around the wood stove for a few short hours and Billy told stories of bear hunting and growing up on the cattle ranch, and even entertained us with some of his cowboy poetry. As a poet he has few equals. Sleep came easy that night for I was dog tired after following Billy up the mountains that never end.

           When I looked out the window in the morning, it was raining. That is why nobody woke me to go hunting that early morning. Suzy said the dogs chased a small bear out of the pasture earlier. We had breakfast and headed out for new country! On the way Billy stopped in town and picked up some sodas and candy bars, "It might be a while before we get back" Billy also showed us an Elk he had guided a client too that was hanging in the local saloon. It was a fantastic bull, scoring a cleaned 406! What a beauty.

We started up a mountain again, only this time it was snowing, coming down pretty good at times too. As we came around a bend in the slippery road a bear ran down one side of the mountain, crossed the road and headed right up the other side. Billy slammed on the brakes and shouted, "I'll be damned, there is a bear stupid enough to be out in this weather!"  As I scrambled to get out of the truck the bear stopped once near the top of the hill to look and see what we were, as if he hadn't noticed us before. Then he turned on his heels and took off again. Billy said that if I wanted we could try to follow him, but the odds of him stopping long enough

for us to find him were slim.  I looked at the overly steep terrain the bear had so agilely traversed, and then at the big fluffy flakes of frozen HzO falling from the sky, and thought, "I'll never make it up that mountain!" So we headed on to some different country we could glass for a while.

We headed into more beautiful country and finally, the snow and rain let up. It was starting to look as if our luck might change.  We topped out over a mountain and a herd of fifteen mule deer trotted off to the left. I was watching them slowly move away when Billy said, "Look over there, I told you there were sheep up here. Off to our left about three hundred yards were two full-curl bighorn sheep. They were just walking along feeding, not paying any attention to us. We watched them for a while and then headed on up the next mountain. As we got nearer to the top of the mountain the fog got lower towards us. By the time we got to the top we couldn't see thirty feet. We turned around after a while and headed back to the big horns. Billy stopped the truck behind a big pine tree from where the sheep were and said if I wanted some pictures we could get pretty close on foot if we were careful.  So we got out and crept towards the sheep. They were both laying down now. I managed to get about a hundred and fifty yards and got some good pictures before they got up and walked off. When I got back to the truck and Billy said, "It looks sunny on that other mountain, lets go over there. We got two bears off that mountain last year." It may have been sunny, but the wind sure was cold! We parked the rig near a good overlook. We could see literally miles of country from this spot. We got out and sat on the side of the mountain for a few minutes before we decided that since nothing was moving out there it was too cold to watch trees!  So we went back to the truck and glassed from inside the protection of the windshield. We did see some elk feeding. In fact we saw elk from as close as three hundred yards to distance so far they were mere dots at ten power! Shortly before dark Billy decided we better find our way off the mountain. On our way out we saw another couple hundred elk. They were everywhere, but no bears.

We got back to the house after dark and once again a fresh hot meal was awaiting us. Suzy is one heck of a good cook! Billy mentioned that he had other hunters coming in the next day so he was no longer available, but that he would get one of his local guides to take us out if we wanted. Since the weather seemed to be our fault, we decided it was only fair to all others that we head out and hope the rain would follow us. Billy again thrilled us with his stories of hunting, rodeo and ranching.  He apologized for the lack of bears in our freezer, but we reassured him that we were used it, and in fact had often been blamed for this type of thing. We told him we just hoped we hadn't jinxed his entire season by staying this long! And I offered if he ever needed bad luck for any reason, not to fear calling me. Heck, I could probably ruin the fishing too if I tried. I did also reassure him that I had one of the best times I've ever had in the woods. I wasn't kidding either. It was truly a joy to spend time with him.  He is a woodsman without equal, and it was a fun education to be around him in his element.

The hunters that were coming in were from the Marlin Corporation, makers of some fine firearms.  Billy carries a Marlin 444 that has claw marks in the stock from a bear that got a little too aggressive.  One of the young executives seemed a little scared actually and asked me if Billy was a crazy as he had heard.  I said he isn’t crazy, but he is a lot of fun!  I also told him the claw marks in the  stock are as real as Billy, and he is the real deal.

So this is the story of the bear that got away. Well, he didn't really get away, he never stood still in the first place! No fault of Billy's though. I've seen the pictures and spoken with many a famous hunter who have seen the success of Billy's calling and hunting abilities, and I have no doubt that when the weather cooperates the bears'll come a'running!

 

Update.   I was in a hotel in Kaycee Wyoming on a Pronghorn Antelope hunt in October of 2021 when I received a text message from Jim Zumbo, a mutual friend to mine and Billy.  Billy had passed away earlier that day, he was 76.  He had been blind since 2009 from a Rodeo wreck in Drummond Montana.  I had called and spoken with him several times over the years after his accident, I listened to his stories, and told him of my adventures, both wishing we could walk the mountains again together.  See you on the mountain my friend.

Me, Benny Reynolds, Suzy Stockton, Billy Stockton in Phoenix Az at a rodeo

Me and Billy looking for bears

 

Cackling Roosters

The young black lab puppy (almost 2 years old) worked his way through the tall grass, weaving left to right like a seasoned pointing dog, searching for a pheasant.  The morning was cool and sunny with an occasional light breeze out of the northeast, perfect weather for a pheasant hunt.  The young dog suddenly froze, and his wagging tail went almost straight up and stood like a flag.  Mel, the handler softly told him ‘woah’ as he approached, two young men, not old enough to think about shaving, walked tentatively on either side of him as he approached the young dog.  A pheasant burst from the brushy ground in front of the dog, surprising the young men.  The bird rose and banked to the right, cackling as it flew through the bright blue sky. The young man on the right raised his shotgun and with his first shot the bird tumbled to the ground. Pretty exciting for a boy’s first pheasant hunt over a dog!  I must admit, I was excited watching from behind too. The explosion of a rooster pheasant bursting from your feet and cackling its way into the sky is a feeling one never forgets. I grew up on a pheasant club and have flushed hundreds if not thousands of pheasants while hunting and guiding as a young man, but it is still exciting 40 some years past my first rooster.

  This was day one of two at the Pheasants Forever Youth Upland Game Bird Hunt at Raahauge’s Hunting Club and Sporting Clays in Dunnigan, CA. I had met with Mike Mullins and the rest of the Yolo Chapter of Pheasants Forever several weeks prior to see what First Hunt Foundation could do to help with their events. This is one of several events that the Yolo Chapter puts on every year.  During the two days of Youth Hunts over seventy youths got the chance to hunt pheasants over dogs, and all got birds. Quite a testament to the dedication and hard work of the members of the organization and Steve Rambo of Raahauge’s and Rambo’s Guide Service.

  All the participants had to make a reservation to attend, and then check in the morning of the hunt.  They charge $50.00 per hunter, but for that they get a chance to shoot at two birds minimum, lunch, free raffle tickets to various prizes and a membership to Pheasants Forever.  Not a bad deal for a wonderful day filled with excitement and memories that will last a lifetime.

 First Hunt Foundation never charges for their mentorship, so myself and Kayla Ketchum, another mentor for FHF, were there volunteering our services as Safety Mentors in the field to take some of the pressure off the volunteer dog handlers.  We also talked about what First Hunt Foundation does for hunting and and spoke with several of the experienced volunteers who were there about becoming Mentors for FHF.

Mike Mullins, who is not only the Chapter President for PF, is a long time Hunter Education Instructor for California, gave a great Safety Talk to start the day off, stressing the 10 Commandments of Hunter Safety and talking about some of the safety specifics of hunting over a dog.  He did an excellent job getting several of the youths to participate in the discussion.  He made it fun and educational for all.

The youths were broken up into groups of 3-5 and assigned a field and a dog handler.  The parents are welcome to join in the field or wait in the parking areas from which the fields being hunted are visible, so they could see all the action. Most groups had at least one or two parents who walked with the groups. The birds were planted in each field in two waves.  The idea is for all the kids to get a shot on the first go around, and then another chance after the second planting.  As birds were missed in one field, they would often fly to another field, so some groups had more opportunities in a single wave, but all were evened out in the next plant, so that everyone had at least two opportunities during the morning.  Most hunting was wrapped up by 11 and all headed back to the club house for lunch.  After lunch was the raffle of items and then the long tail contest, which awarded a hundred-dollar bill provided by Rambo’s Guide Service.  There was another hundred-dollar bill for the one banded pheasant that was planted randomly in the fields, but no one managed to harvest that bird on the first day!

After the festivities were concluded, all were welcomed to return to the fields and hunt for any remaining birds. Several of the youths went out and many of the volunteers as well.  It was not until the second day during the afternoon that one of the banded birds was harvested by two young girls who went back out. Steve Rambo not only honored the Hundred Dollar bill for the banded bird, but since the two girls both shot at the bird, he gave each a Hundred! They plan to have it mounted with the band on!

This next weekend PF is putting on a Ladies only Hunt on Saturday with 63 women signed up and follow that on Sunday with an R3 Hunt where men, women and youths can hunt, it is also heavily registered.

I must say that this was a fantastic weekend to be involved with!  It was great to see so many youths with a bright future in hunting get an experience with such great mentors.  I was honored to be a part of this event and plan to be involved in the future as much as they will let me!

 

We are a Hunting Family

As we grow older, we often become guarded and cautious about the things we say to people we don’t really know, and the way we are perceived.  The current climate we live in now has people afraid to speak their mind often for fear of offending someone.  I talk about subjects like this in my Hunter Education classes.  I tell my students to be proud, but not cocky or boisterous about being hunters.  That there is no shame in being a hunter and it is not something to be embarrassed about.  Yet there is a need to be conscious of how others perceive us.  It is important to not intentionally offend someone, but if they are offended, realize that is their emotion, and they are responsible for their own emotions.

 When my daughter Montana (7 at the time) had one of her friends over to play.  This little girl walked into our living room and screeched to a halt with a wide-eyed stare facing a set of antlers on the wall.  She asked why those were on the wall in our house.  I panicked for a moment.  Racing through my mind were all kinds of fears that she was horrified by the antlers, maybe scared of them, maybe her parents we ardent anti-hunters, how would they react when she told them what she saw.  All kinds of things could go wrong if I said the wrong thing.

My daughter Montana without skipping a beat simply said, “We are a hunting family.”  Her friend shrugged her shoulders and said, “oh, we aren’t a hunting family.” And that was the end of the situation.  She, in her innocence of youth, had no fear of her friend’s reaction, no embarrassment whatsoever, she simply saw the fact that we hunt and that it is perfectly normal.

For many of us hunting is not only traditional, enjoyable and a way to spend quality time outdoors- it is who we are, it is as much a part of our identity as our face, and we need not be embarrassed by that.

Idaho Gear Review

Gear Review

Oct, 2023

Slamon-Chalis National Forest

 

I just returned home from a 6 day Mule Deer Hunt in the Salmon-Challis National Forest.  We rode horseback 8 miles into the backcountry with Big Timber Outfitters out of Leadore Idaho to our camp from which we hunted on foot for 6 days.  Our camp was set at 7816 foot elevation at the side of a beautiful high mountain meadow of sage brush on the edge of the timber.  The mountains surrounding us climbed to over 10,000 feet rocky peaks dusted with snow.  Our average temperature during the hunt was 34 degrees, with the nights dropping into the 20’s and some sunny days into the 40’s.  The wind came up in the mornings and evenings adding a wind chill factor.  We had drizzles of rain on the ride in, and a dusting of snow in camp on the first and second day, with accumulations of snow at slightly higher elevations that we hunted into, but it did not last for more than a day or so.

  There were a few times in the evenings when sitting and glassing that I did become cold, but that was due in large part to me not properly managing my layering fast enough to accommodate for the dropping temps and wind chill.  Once you get cold, it can be difficult to warm back up by simply layering, you need to move to generate heat, and I easily warmed back up as soon as I was on my way hiking..  I never felt cold enough to be afraid I must say.

I also want to point out that I am not sponsored by any manufacturer, so these are my honest and unpaid for opinions on the gear I was using and how it performed.  I will work from the bottom to the top, and if I had an influence in my purchase, I will talk a bit about that as well. That being said, if anyone wants to sponsor me, lets talk!

Boots.  I wore Danner Element uninsulated boots.  I bought these boots much earlier in the summer, partly because they were on sale, partly because I have hunted in Danner boots since I was a kid, and mostly because they fit me well.  I have a wide foot, and these boots seemed to have the best toe box area fit for my feet.  I normally hunt in California and often in the Coastal Foothills during warm weather, so they are a very good fit for that environment.  I was concerned about the lack of insulation, in the past I have always had boots with 400 grams of Thinsulate insulation and have hunted in some really cold weather with those, along with good wool socks and been perfectly comfortable.  For this adventure, these boots met the minimum of functionality.  I was able to hike and climb the steep slopes with them, but a stiffer sole and insulation would have made them more comfortable.  I wore thin merino wool socks and a pair of regular boot socks over those, which made the boots a little tight, but it was functional, and while my feet were never hot, they weren’t overly cold either.  The last few days, I wore the merino wool socks doubled and that seemed to work fairly well also.  For my next adventure, I will spend a little more and get some higher quality and thicker Merino wool socks.  My right boot did loose a little of its waterproofing over the toes, but the merino wool socks kept my feet comfortable even with a little moisture.  So for high mountain excursions, I would recommend a better boot and better socks, but all in all, I was pleased with the performance of my slightly inadequate footwear.

Pants.  I wore Kuiu Attack Hunting pants in the Vias camo pattern.  I must say, I have always liked certain camouflage patterns just based on their look.  I also acknowledge that more deer have been killed by guys in red wool jackets and blue jeans than anything else.  So I don’t actually wear camouflage that often while deer hunting, I prefer to wear simple earth tones.  That being said, I went to the Kuiu Mountain Academy day this last year in Dixon, CA,  and they had these pants and matching jacket on the clearance rack for more than 50% off, so I bought them.  The pants were about an inch too small for me in the waist, but they were close enough I could button them, I was worried that I might not be able to tuck a shirt in when I first got them home, but they were the closest to my size they had on the sale rack (I began dieting and increased my exercise). I was immediately impressed with the quality of workmanship in their construction, and the feel and fit other wise was fantastic.  Multiple pockets, well located helped out as well.  The pants are a treated fabric which makes them highly water resistant, but not waterproof according to their website.  I wore these pants every single day of the trip, the cuffs got wet and muddy in the slushy snow and mud, but dried quickly, and did not wick up moisture to where I ever felt wet like I would have with a pair of jeans.  The stretch of the material makes them very comfortable to climb in and the durability of them against the abrasive rocks and sage brush is fantastic.  They have no real insulation, in them so I wore an older pair of Rocky long johns underneath and was comfortable without any problems of my legs feeling cold.  I could tell it was cold, but my legs were not cold.  I was very impressed with the performance of the pants.  I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a pant that meets or exceeds expectations of a hunting pant.  In my Hunter Education Classes, I often talk about clothing being the first part of any survival situation, and how cotton is not a good pant for cold or wet weather, these pants really do fit the bill for mountain hunting over anything I have owned before.

Upper Layers.  I had a couple of base layers that I brought along.  Base layers being what is next to skin underneath anything else.  I had a Kings Camo merino XKG 150 merino ¼ zip top and a Russel Athletic Base layer top ( I have owned this for several years, bought it at Walmart).  The Kings 150 was a little light weight for this trip, so I actually used that to sleep in, and wore the Russel top to hunt in.  It performed well for warmth, but its moisture wicking was not as good as I would have liked.  While climbing the steep slopes I would get warm and begin to sweat and could feel the moisture.  If I stopped and took off my jacket, it did evaporate fairly quickly, so it did wick moisture away, but I feel that possibly a better base layer may have worked better at that.  All in all, my base layer system did work adequately.  I wore a Kings Camo long sleeve 100% Polyester shirt that was fairly thick and soft.  It worked well for moisture wicking and had some insulative factor in the layering.  Most days I could deal with the temperature with just the base layer, the shirt and the jacket.  In the early morning and late evening I also added a puffer jacket underneath.  The puffer Jacket I wore was an Eddie Bauer down jacket that was packable.  It is not a durable piece of outerwear, but for an under layer in the system it worked perfectly.  It is thin, but had just enough down to really make it warm under the outer jacket.  It was also on sale at Sam's club for about 37 dollars which is a bonus in my book.  It was lightweight enough to stuff down into my pack and not take up too much space when I didn’t need it during mid day.

Jacket.  I wore a Kuiu Guide DCS Jacket.  Again, I purchased this at the Mountain Academy at the main store at a great discount.  The fit was perfect, and as with the pants, the functionality of the design was fantastic.  The jacket, like the pants, is a treated stretch fabric, which is highly water resistant, but not waterproof.  However, in the little rain and snow we had on the trip, I never got out my rain gear as the Jacket and pants were more than sufficient to resist the weather we encountered.  The wind resistance was also excellent.  Multiple pockets allowed me to carry my phone, GPS, eye drops for my contacts, and my blood glucose meter (I am a type II diabetic) and still be able to put my hands in the pockets.  The slightly longer back on the jacket is something that most people don’t think about until they sit down and realize that a breeze is coming up their back, that doesn’t happen with this jacket.  The stretch and durability of the material like that pants is phenomenal.  I have hunted in the snow and been caught in blizzards in Wyoming chasing antelope while wearing a ¾ length wool lined Carhart, which did its job and kept me warm, but this jacket from Kuiu way outperformed my expectations again and will now be my primary hunting jacket.  I stayed dry and warm with the layering system I had, and more than enough storage pockets for what I needed.  The adjustable hood was also great for when the wind or rain came up as well to protect my head and neck from the cold and wet.

Head.  I often wear a felt cowboy hat when hunting and I had it with me on this trip as well, but I didn’t wear it while hunting, just during the ride in and out and around camp.  When I was hunting I wore a FirstLite Catalyst Brim Beanie in Dry Earth color.  This is one of my favorite pieces of gear I bought for this trip.  The beanie is waterproof, warm and soft so it was easy to stuff into my pack or pocket, and did a great job of keeping my head warm.  Since I have virtually no hair on top of my head, my heat loss is rapid without a head cover, and this hat did a great job.  The brim is just right to keep your eyes shielded from the sun or excess light even from a cloudy sky and flips up easily to allow for the use of binoculars.  I could easily pull it off and stuff it into a pocket when I got hot climbing for a few minutes to help cool down and then put it back on.  It has low sides so it covers your ears, but can also be folded up to expose them when warm.  Only once did I get hot enough to actually sweat and get it wet from the inside, and it dried pretty quickly compared to other hats I have worn in the past.  I picked this hat specifically because it had a brim, and it was a fantastic choice. I first saw this hat on an episode of Meateater with Steve Rinella, and I do trust his opinion on many things.  Even tho he is endorsed and advertises for FirstLite, I believe him to be a person of integrity and not driven by his checkbook.

Other Clothing Gear.  Gloves, I had a pair of gloves I had bought a couple years ago and they have been okay, but for this trip, they pretty much sucked.  My hands got cold!  I don’t know the brand name, if I did I would tell you not to buy them.  I will be investing in a new pair of gloves before I head into the mountains again.  I will look at the Kuiu gloves, possibly the Kenai Packables or the Yukon Pro’s,  they aren’t cheap, however judging from the quality of their other gear, are probably worth it. Another item I always have with me hunting is a silk scarf, or wild rag.  I have found them to be very good at helping to contain body heat.  I had an Alps back pack, I don’t know the model as it is older, but it is close to the Alps Falcon, it has an internal frame, good shoulder straps and a padded waist belt.  The pack was comfortable and carried what I needed it to carry for hunting, but I could have used more storage space and will be looking for a new pack before my next hunt. It would have been insufficient for packing out quarters of deer in a decent fashion.  .  Fortunately I wasn’t worried about that because the outfitter was available to bring pack horses to close proximity for anything we shot.

Binos/Spotter/Tripod.  I have Vortex Diamondback 10x50HD binoculars and they have always served me well.  They are not the best binoculars on the market, but they work well even in low light, are bright and clear.  I can see better with them than the naked eye as far as low light conditions.  I have a Maven CS1.A 15x45 angled spotting scope.  For the money, I think it is about the best out there.  It seems heavy, but for its size I believe it is comparable in weight to other spotting scopes.  I was able to find bedded deer and see them clearly at over 1000 yards distance.  I have liked Maven optics for sometime and got these off Amazon during a prime sale and they were $200 off the regular price so I couldn’t pass that up.  They do out perform my much larger and higher magnification Vortex spotting scope, the Mavin also weights half as much as my Vortex spotter.  For a Tripod I have a Vortex Mountain Pass Tripod.  It is aluminum and a very good versatile tripod.  I found it to be easy to pack and set up.  I think I will upgrade to the carbon fiber tripod simply to save weight on my back however.  I will say having a tripod along for glassing is such an advantage.  I got a generic Binocular adapter thru Amazon for under $20.00, so I use my Binoculars on the tripod until I find something I want a better look at, then switch to the spotter.  Using Binoculars on a tripod, is light years ahead of hand holding them, you really do see a great deal more and clearer when they are on a tripod.

Connectivity.  I used a Garmin InReach Messenger Bluetoothed to my Samsung cell phone.  Once I got it set up, the ease of communicating was amazing.  I was able to send text messages to my family and friends back home, as well as communicate with outfitter when away from camp thru her Garmin.  I could also get weather reports and had the ability to send an SOS incase of emergency which would begin a rescue.  Garmin also offers an emergency insurance policy which I recommend as a helicopter ride from the back country can be 60-100,000 dollars to get you to an ER.  I also found the battery life of the Messenger unit to be very good, I did charge it on the second day, but it was only down to 93%, and even two days after I got home (10 days after initial charge), it still had a charge on it. I had set up tracking on it and my family was able to log into the Garmin map and see where I was as I hunted.   I also use OnX on my phone, which worked well most of the time, except the one time in the dark I needed it to find my way back to camp.  It froze on my location where I had been sitting an hour earlier.  I was able to find a trail marker and locate the trail on the map and thus navigate my way back to camp, where it finally caught up with my location.  Other than that, OnX has been a very good piece of technology for me over the years. The other items I will mention are battery packs.  I had several, but I found they did not like the cold.  I had two small solar ones that would give a small charge, but not fully charge anything after a couple of days in the cold.  We did have a larger, fold out 4 panel solar charger that got enough sunshine to pick up a charge and keep all our devices running.

Camp Gear.  I had two duffel bags with me, one for clothing and one for gear.  I will say that I will be getting individual small stuff type bags for my clothing for my next outing of this nature.  After the first day of digging for underwear and socks, the clothing was so mixed up that I practically had to empty the duffel to find anything.  Having smaller bags for socks, underwear, shirts etc would have been very helpful.  I purchased a Teton Sports 0 degree bag from Sportsman's Warehouse for this trip, and was never cold in bed.  It was a rectangular bag because I can’t handle the confines of a mummy style bag, yet it still stuffed into a fairly small bag and did not weight very much.  I also brought a small stuffable camping pillow, that was good purchase, my neck and back were very thankful.

Overall, my gear performed well for this trip.  Because of my gloves, my hands got cold, which is not ideal.  I was nowhere near frostbite conditions, or that could have been a real issue.  I cannot say that my lack of success at harvesting a Mule Deer on this trip was due in any way to my gear not performing, but rather to the harsh previous winter and its reduction of the deer herd in the area we were hunting.  If I had been in possession of an Elk Tag, the trip would have been very different as we could not hardly seem to get away from the elk!  I am putting in for an Elk Tag for next year early.

As an add-on, I was hunting with a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight rifle in 270 caliber with Hornady Superformance 130 Grain CX ammunition, topped with an Athlon Neos 6-18x44 rifle scope.

Below I am listing several of the items I used on this trip along with their suggested retail price.  Many of the items I purchased on sale, some items I purchased a while ago and not specifically for this trip, but this is just a list of the items.  Some items I have had and I could not find pricing for either, so this is not a complete list.  The Vortex Binoculars I won in a raffle and the Alps back pack I was given by a friend.  Most of these I will be able to use for years to come, so I consider them to be long term investments in my hunting.

 

 

 

ITEM	COST
KUIU GUIDE DCS JACKET	$     249.00
KUIU ATTACK PANTS	$     149.00
KINGS XKG 150 MERINO BASE LAYER	$     109.99
FIRST LITE CATALYST BRIM BEANIE	$        45.00
MAVIN CS.1A SPOTTING SCOPE	$     800.00
VORTEX DIAMONBACK 10X50HD	$     329.99
VORTEX MTN PASS TRIPOD	$     224.99
ALPS OUTDOORZ FALCON BACKPACK	$     149.99
TETON SPORTS CELCIUS 0 DEGREE SLEEPING BAG	$        89.99
RUSTIC RIDGE CAMPING PILLOW	$        14.99
DANNER ELEMENT BOOTS	$     169.95
GARMIN INREACH MESSENGER	$     299.99
ONX ELITE ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP	$        99.99
HILUCKEY SOLAR CHARGER	$        37.59
	$  2,770.46

Kuiu DCS Guide 

Kuiu Attack Pants

Kings Merino XKG 150

Firstlite Catalyst Brim beanie

Maven Optics Spotting Scope

Vortex Diamondback HD 10x50

Vortex Mountain Pass Tripod

Alps Falcon Backpack

Teton Sleeping bag

Danner Boots

Garmin InReach Messenger

OnX Elite

Hilucky Solar Charger

 

 

The Blood Trail Buck

September 2^nd 2023

Moving up the dirt road along the canyon side I spotted two doe’s moving through the tan grass between the sparse blue oaks in the hot midday sun across the other side.  I figured I had just bumped them out of their shady beds as I was driving by on my way to set up camp for the weekend.  It was warm, probably 90 degrees and the sun was almost directly overhead.  I was surprised to even see them at all, but happy about it.  I figured this would be like many hot dry weekends in California’s A zone, see a few deer, get some good exercise, come home with an unfilled tag and hoping for the weather to change and get the bucks stirred up and moving, preferably before the end of the season.

  I was climbing up the canyon road towards camp, looking but not expecting to see more than I had already seen when I hit the brakes.  I wasn’t looking specifically, but my brain shouted “Buck!”  I looked and sure enough, a buck was standing between two oak trees across the canyon from me.  The canyon was tight at this point, he was close enough that I could tell it was a buck without my binoculars.  I reached to the passenger seat and grabbed my 10x50’s and looked at him, sure enough it was a buck.  He was standing quartered to me slightly and looking downhill right at me.  I couldn’t tell how many points he might have, but I could clearly tell he had forks on both sides, and they were tall.  He had thick bases, and that with the tall forks told me he was likely a mature buck.  I debated for a moment, this was too easy, then again what are my odds of seeing another shooter buck in the hot weather?  My rifle was packed away and my ammo was too, all buried under my camping gear in the backseat.  I thought he will for sure run off as soon as I open the door.  I got out and opened the back of the truck and began to unbury my rifle.  I kept looking back and he hadn’t moved.  I figured he would have bounded over the trailing ridge he was standing on three quarters of the way up the steep mountain.  I managed to get the rifle out, then dig to find the bag with ammo, then dig more to get my shooting sticks out.  I finally had everything out and turned around, he was still standing there!  I moved off the road and a bit to try and get to where I had a decent angle with no trees or brush in the way.  I couldn’t take a standing shot, tree limbs, I couldn’t take a prone shot, too much brush and nowhere flat enough, finally I found a spot to sit and set up the sticks.  He was still standing there staring at me, probably wondering what this comedy act was all about!  I put a round in and settled down to take a shot.  With all the commotion and trying to stay calm, my heart was now pounding.  I pulled out my range finder to check his distance and to my surprise, he was only 134 yards across the canyon.  The steep grade of the canyon sides made it look deceivingly farther.  I finally settled down and debated where to place my shot.  The angle made it a little tricky, he was uphill and slightly quartering towards me. If I went behind the shoulder, it would be a gut shot for sure and probably ruin a ham or loin, I made the decision to take a mid to high shoulder shot, edging towards the rear.  I pulled the trigger and felt the familiar recoil of the model 70 rifle.  It was a definite hit.  With the recoil I couldn’t see the impact, but I instantly put another round in and got the scope back on him.  He had turned away from me and was staggering uphill and away from me, and in two steps was behind a tree, I briefly saw his butt as he disappeared behind some brush.  I began to breathe a little again.  I wish I had seen him drop, but I was confident he had not gone far, he seemed to be hit hard.

I called my buddy Marc’s cellphone, service is spotty up there, but sometimes works, he was up the canyon only a few minutes or so ahead of me searching for a spot to make camp.  He answered and asked “did you get one?”  When I said “yep”, he said a few choice words and said he was kidding when he asked that.  I confirmed that in fact I had just shot a buck.  He came back down the road to me, and I told him the story.  He decided to go back up to where he had just dumped his gear for camp and would come join me to help with the recovery.  I laid a log along across the edge of the road pointing towards the buck, so I would be able to see direction from where I had shot from and found a cattle trail down to the bottom of the canyon.  It was only about 100 feet to the bottom, but it was steep.  In the bottom was a rocky spring fed creek that only had some puddles left in spots, but steep rain cut banks.  It wasn’t too hard to cross on foot though.  Then the climb up the dry grass slope.  It was very steep with few places to get a foothold, at times I was two feet and one hand on the hillside!  I made my way up to where I thought the buck had been standing when I shot and started looking for blood.  Eureka! I found blood, it seemed to be trailing uphill and away from where I thought he was standing so I began to follow.  The blood trail led me uphill about 20 feet and then turned to the right along the hillside moving away from where I had shot from, just what I saw him do through the riflescope.  Marc was in the bottom of the canyon by now and we were close enough to be able to shout to each other.  He decided to stay at the bottom in case the buck went down the hill, while I tried to follow along the trail it looked like he had taken.  The hillside was still steep, but not as bad as coming up the face of the trailing ridge the buck had been standing on.  The blood trail disappeared; I tried circling but found no more blood leading away.  Now I began to doubt my shot, had I gut shot him?  Did he stop bleeding and start moving hard?  I have heard of gut shot bucks traveling long ways before dying.  In this country, covered in brush piles and oaks, he could have gone a couple hundred yards in any direction and disappeared to die unfound.  With every step I was more and more worried with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.  The hillside curved around after a couple of hundred yards and opened into a beautiful little bowl dotted with oaks.  I was continually scanning every brush pile and tree for signs of the buck.  Marc had made his way through the bottom and into the bowl as well where we met up and discussed the situation.  I told him that no matter what, I was considering my tag filled.  We worked our way up to the top of the ridge and back towards where the buck had been to begin with.  We came down over the edge looking back to where I had shot from, and I tried to figure out exactly where he had been standing when I shot.  It looked different from above, but checking all the brush piles and looking around, Marc found some blood.  I worked down below him a bit and found the blood spot I had seen when I first started.  Then he found a lot of blood, blood I hadn’t seen before.  We found where he had stood still for a moment blowing blood out both sides.  With that much blood loss, he could not have gotten far.  It turns out he had done exactly as what I thought I had seen, he turned, went away from me and uphill, but what I didn’t see is when he turned and back-trailed before going down hill!  He was 20 yards down the hill from where I first found blood, piled up against a grey downed pine tree, blending in perfectly and hidden from view when above him.  I had crossed his blood trail between him and the point where he had turned around.  I followed up and to the right then the blood disappeared, If I had turned left, I would have seen where the blood trail really started, 10 yards farther uphill and to the left.  The blood trail was shaped like a ‘T’ on the mountainside, I never saw the left side of the trail, only the right.

  It was a good ending, with a great lesson in blood trailing.  Just because you find blood, don’t always assume you found the start of the trail!  I found the last part of the trail and followed it backwards away from the deer, missing a turn, and added a whole lot of unnecessary stress and steps to my day!  The shot had entered the shoulder high and slightly back, it passed thru both lungs at an angle, and went right above his intestines and exited.  He had a bit of smell of a gut shot deer, but the guts were still intact, a lot of blood in the cavity though.  It was a rather easy haul out, he slid down the mountain most of the way, the hardest part was the last 100 feet back up to the road!

The Day the Turkeys stood still

 August 31, 2023

The hills and mountains are my church, my place of reflection and peace.  The place I feel closest to God and loved ones gone.  Whenever I am in the hills alone hunting, my mind often wanders to friends and family who I have lost over the years.  I think about the times spent with them hunting, fishing or just being together.  I think not only of the times together, but how I wish they could be there with me still.  I believe that they are in spirit, I believe that every time you remember someone who has passed, they know you are thinking of them, especially in the solitude of the mountains. 

  I sometimes think of missed opportunities to be with them.  For some reason or other, we didn’t get together for something.  Those are the things that we often regret in life, missed chances to spend time with someone special, even if you don’t realize how special they are in your life at the time.   I would give almost anything to have my father be here to hunt with me and my daughters, or at least be able to share the stories of our hunts with him.  I believe he knows, and is there,  but it is not the same now that he is gone from this earth.

There are other people who were influential in my life besides my father as well that I would love to share the woods with again in life.  They are the ones who are with me every time I go into the field to hunt, I hear their words of wisdom, sometimes their jokes and sometimes I even ask for their help to encourage a buck in my direction!  George Hoeper, was one such man.  He was the best running game shot I have ever seen, and a fantastic writer.  He wrote for several newspapers and published a couple of very fine books.  I think of him every time I teach Hunter Safety especially.  He is the one who pounded into my head that “we are Sportsmen, and we use rifles and shotguns, not weapons!  The word ‘weapon’ changes the feel of everything when you use it, so use the correct word!”  He told me that when I asked him to proof read an article I was writing for a newsletter when I was just 15.  That was about 40 years ago, and I can still perfectly hear his voice and see him saying it in my mind like it was yesterday. I use a similar statement in every class I teach.

Today, I lost another good friend too soon.  He and I never hunted together, although we always planned too.  For one reason or another, it just never happened.  We texted back and forth quite a bit about hunting for sure.  He was mostly a bird hunter; he was a fantastic duck hunter and loved hunting turkeys and pheasants as well.  He shot one deer in his life, it was a nice Blacktail buck that he actually shot from a duck blind, not during duck season tho!  We were constantly sending pictures back and forth of turkeys we saw and/or harvested.  We even texted pictures and videos while we were hunting sometimes if it was slow.  He was also excited about becoming a Mentor with me in the First Hunt Foundation and helping grow the program here in California, bringing new people into the sport we both love.   I know the next time I take a picture of a turkey; I will want to send it to him, and that hurts so much right now.

There is a large flock of turkeys that live on our half mile long dirt road to my house.  I see them every day as I drive in and out. I have sent several pictures to him of the poults when they were little, of the big Toms and even the one bearded hen I occasionally see.   Usually the turkeys scatter and run, some fly across the ditch to get away from the truck.  But today as I drove home, thinking of my friend, the turkeys didn’t scatter, they didn’t fly, they all stood, stoically and silent as I passed, as if they knew.  I will miss you greatly my friend, and I am deeply sorry I missed our opportunity to share a blind, but I will always have you with me.  God speed.

First Hunt Foundation

 

The First Hunt Foundation's main emphasis is on mentoring new hunters. Mentor-based experiences can develop life-long skills and a passion for hunting. This support for hunting can be passed on to future generations of new hunters.

As a Hunter Education Instructor, I help students take the first step in the classroom.  I know many instructors also have live-fire components to their classes, which is awesome, but many of us do not have access to a safe range or enough instructors to handle the safety concerns that go along with this next level of training.  Most of us just have the classroom and pass on as much information and knowledge as we can in the prescribed time constraints.

After many of my classes, I ask my students if they have someone to hunt with or even plans in place to go hunting.  Often, I hear that they will be hunting with their family or friends for doves, duck or deer.  Occasionally I hear that they have no one, but just want to try it and don’t know where to go next.  This has been distressing for me to hear.  I want to really try to help those students take that step, but as one person, I can’t help them all.  Those are the ones we really need to reach out to.  I have in the past compiled lists of available hunts and experiences for new hunters and shared that with my classes.  I even had a local pheasant club donate a 2 bird card for each of my successful students one year, and that was pretty awesome.  But if they didn’t have someone to take them, they still did not get to go.

The First Hunt Foundation strives to change that.  With our Mentor program, we are trying to find those ‘lost’ students and help them get started in hunting beyond the classroom.  But that takes a lot of Mentors.  As we all know, our time is precious, there are not enough weekends for us to hunt as much as we want just for ourselves, let alone taking someone we don’t know hunting for the first time.  If some of us can take one person hunting, we can make a difference.  It becomes a ripple effect, as that one person we help, now tells their story and they can move forward helping others get started in the future.

And if you are someone looking to find what the next step in to get into hunting,  FHF is here for you!  You can contact me directly, or you can go to the website and find a Mentor in your area!

I hear the statistics every year of the number of successful students vs. the number of new licenses sold and the numbers never match up.  My goal is to get those numbers closer, get more people actually involved beyond the classroom.  I have wanted to do this since I became and Instructor, and I am certain many of you feel the same way.  When I heard about the First Hunt Foundation, I knew I had to get involved.  I have been a mentor for three years now, and it has been incredibly satisfying to help people with the real world knowledge of hunting.   Now I have taken on the role of California State Director to help build this program here in California.   If you are interested in becoming a Mentor with the First Hunt Foundation, or just want to know more about FHF, please visit the website to see what we do, or reach out to me and we will be happy to help you help others beyond the classroom!