wyo2007

Well I am back from two weeks hunting in Wyoming. What an experience! There is so much to tell and I will attempt to do so with words and
pictures and video, although I did not get as much video as I would have liked. We were hunting hard and there was always something to do
around camp. We collected five cow elk in five days and 12 antelope in 3 days. Storms before we got there made for a difficult ride up the
mountain and for hard access to some areas because of the damage done by tornado force winds in the high peaks. We are just average
hunters and things could have been done differently and better, but in the end we all have memories that will last a lifetime. Try not to judge
us too hard. I will tell it as it happened, the good and the bad. No one here claims to be the best shot in the world, nor an expert in anything.
Bad shots were made and through them many things were learned. So here goes!

We arrived in Wyoming along the Snake River, below Jackson Hole on Saturday the 8th of September.. We were hunting up the Wolf Creek
Drainage. Our permits were for cow elk. This area is under study to become a wilderness area. We prepared our gear and soon our horses
arrived. We were taking 8 horses up the mountain. Yellowstone horse rentals provided the horses. We were ready to go about 12pm. There
are lots you forget about packing horses between trips when they are spread out by years!   We had to stop along the trail often on the way up
to adjust packs and saddles and so forth. The weather was good with blue skies.
A few days before we arrived there had been some severe weather in the area and this was evident by the debris along the trail. In fact we
were to learn that a tornado had touched down not far away. Flash floods had raged down the canyon and wiped out the trail in places. It was
quite a task getting the horses to blaze new trails where there were no longer trails. I have hunted this area in the past and knew where to
go but often there were new logs or gullies in our way. The horses seemed to be a bit less than we had hoped for and it took some extra time
to get us all into camp. Camp is about 8 miles from the trucks and about 2000 feet up in elevation. This is very rugged country! Mountain
Goats are now common along the canyon. In fact we had a couple right above camp most evenings.

Sunday morning arrived and my son and his friend, a crew member on my boat, Nick, the Stick, headed back down the mountain for some more
gear and food. They were also to call the horse outfitter and request two replacements because of incompatibility. One was Princess, we
called her Paris Hilton, a beautiful horse but came with an attitude and was high maintenance. And the other name I don’t remember. Paris
broke her halter several times and was in general a pain in the neck. The other horse just laid down when the saddle was put on and would
not get up. Anyway the outfitter met the boys later with two new horses that turned out to be the best of the trip. Yellowstone Horse
Outfitters really came through and I would like to thank them for the help. It was late Sunday evening before the boys were back in camp.
Monday would be our first day of hunting.

The next morning we set our plan in motion. I was only half way up what we call the “stair step trail” when I heard some shooting. We were
the only hunters in the area and so I knew it was someone in our party. We carry radios but do not turn them on till later in the day. We don’t
want to use them to get the elk, only for safety and for bringing in help to get the elk out. I saw some elk up high above where I waited that
morning and had a lot of bugling in the timber in front of me. But nothing came close by the time it was time to check in with the guys. When I
called on the radio I got my son who was back in camp and had an elk down. I had him saddle up the horses and head for his elk. I met him
there an hour later. It was a young yearling cow. Shot placement could have been better but I would have nothing to say as I was to find out
later. This first elk turned out to be the easiest to get back to camp of the five we got.

After getting my sons elk back to camp, and eating some lunch we had just laid down for a nap when we heard a shot. Doc was the only one
out there and it was late in the afternoon. All of us were back in camp except him. Well we soon heard Doc come up on the radio and say he
had an elk down. My son saddled up a horse and headed in Doc’s direction to help him clean the elk. But Doc got the elk done without help
and was back in camp before my son.

While sitting on the mountain waiting for his elk to come out, Doc had a sow and two cubs come out quite close to him and root around for
stuff to eat. They never saw him and were soon out of site. There was lots of bear sign around, and we should have kept a better camp as to
food storage, but in the end we never had a problem with bears.

It was a great first day with two elk down. One was already in camp.
The next morning my son and Doc took some horses up to where Doc had shot his elk.

An old friend, and three time member of our expeditions to this area, Steve, or as I used to call him, “Elkless George” headed up the “Stair
Step Trail.” We call it the stair step trail because it goes up a very steep hill and hunters and horses alike have to step up as though going up
a flight of stairs. But it is a “short cut” to “death valley” and I have never seen anyone use it but us. It has a somewhat hidden start and as I
said does not get used by anyone but us and the elk. Anyway as we got to the rim overlooking “Death Valley”, called this because of the many
elk we have killed there, and looked across the valley, we could see about ten cows and calves. It was a long shot but we put our backpacks
down for rests and took a shot. You know one of those “one two three” kind of affairs. Nothing ever gets hit when you do that because often
one or the other of you will have to hurry the shot. Well anyway I headed over there to see if we had done any damage and as I dropped into
the trees I pushed out some elk into the valley right in front of Steve. As it turned out our shooting that morning only harmed the tissue in
our shoulders. All misses. Long shots to be sure, but misses nonetheless.
We waited the whole day up high on the mountain while my son and Doc, did a little drive for us through the trees before heading back down
with Doc’s elk. They could hear many elk break away from them but none came out to the rest of us. It was late when I headed down through
the trees back to camp. I would take a step or two and then look around with the bino’s for elk. This is thick timber but not like here on the
coast. But thick nonetheless. At some point I saw what looked like the whole rib cage and partial shoulders of and elk up ahead. But there
were lots of stumps around that looked just as good. I looked at it with my bino’s. I looked at it with my scope. I finally determined that it must
be a log or stump and began to step away. At two steps I got a different angle on the stump elk and took another look. I could just see the
darker color of the legs and neck from here. But I could not see the head and had to wait. As I could see the head I took the shot but there
was no movement. I was sure I had just talked myself into shooting nothing more than an elk colored stump or log. Then it slowly took a
couple of steps and disappeared. I laid down for a better view and was able to get another shot. Hit a tree. Stood up and now there were
several elk within site but what one was mine? I thought I saw one lay down, so I just waited some and called camp telling them I thought I
likely had one down. They had heard me shooting. As I talked I was walking forward and up jumps my elk. Its hard to shoot with a radio in
your hand and as it turns out I wish I had not, because I shot it in the ---, well I guess you get the picture. But elk down. My elk turned out to
be the closest to camp, but the hardest to get to camp. We had to drag it down hill to where we could get the horses to it. That was a chore
because of the recent storm and the abundance of downfalls!
Third day was a work day for us. We took two elk to the truck and then to the butchers. “Paris Hilton” was taken down and returned to the
outfitter. And the rest of us dealt with getting my elk down to where we could get at it with the horses. We left it there next to the stream in
game bags and up on limbs, since it was much cooler there next to the stream. Hey the signs said to keep game meat ½ mile from camp!
Fourth day saw us back up at death valley and death did enter the valley. Steve got his elk this day. I worked my way down to him and helped
him quarter the elk.

Doc and my son went for horses and in time the elk was back at camp. Nick stayed up on the mountain that afternoon but did not get any
shots. I know Nick was feeling discouraged as he came into camp that evening. Steve and I took our elk to the butchers that next day. Doc
went with Nick back up the mountain. On our return from the butchers we found meat in camp.

Doc and Nick worked well together and dead elk was the result. We were tagged out on elk. We sent that elk out the next morning with as
much of camp as we could.    The day after we pulled camp and headed down.   Here are some pictures of camp life for us!

Sometimes there was time for a bath, mountain style!

Food of course was an important part of our hunt. Doc was the cook, and he did a good job! It was hard not having members of the hunt eat
the food before it was totally ready!

It was a sad evening just before leaving camp there in the high mountains. A toilet seat that we had used for maybe 20 years was in such a
state of disrepair, that it was decided that it should not make the trip back down with us. This toilet seat had been to the wilds of Baja Mexico
and to the high mountains of Wyoming. How many people had found relief upon it can not be measured. So it was with great sadness that we
gave it a fiery funeral.

Heading down the mountain from camp!

Free of the horses that afternoon we went to Jackson for a needed shower and some wife shopping. Or shopping for the wife. I think the
young guys were after girls and us married guys were looking to keep the wife happy with some doodad or other. By the way, my wife loved
her fox fur and leather coat! Hey, a new blender for the kitchen was just not going to cut it!

We were off to the desert later that day for some antelope hunting. Again we were after does and fawns. No horns. My dad met us at this
camp to hunt antelope with us! That made three generations in camp!

It is great to hunt with him. We set up came and were sitting around a fire when we hear a sheep bleating. My son made his best impression
of a bleating sheep and soon we had “Betty” right there in camp with us. He, yes he, or I guess more appropriately, it, had been left behind by
the herder and wanted friends. Betty stayed with us the rest of our time there. My son caught him a couple of times but would let him go. It
became a game with both of them.

We shot 12 antelope during 3 days in the Wyoming desert.

This area is rich in history. The pony express, Oregon, California and Mormon trails all passed this way! These markers were found
throughout the area.

We saw hundreds of Sage Grouse, and were planning to hunt them, but the season opened that Saturday and since we were done with the
antelope we elected to come home early.

My dad wounded one antelope that we tracked across the desert for three or more miles. My son and him followed the blood trail for the first
part. It was easy to follow as there was a lot of blood. Once we saw her out there and I tried to give chase in the truck so as to get her shot
but she could still run at top speeds. At some point I picked up my dad and dropped off Nick to keep following the wounded antelope. Dad
and I drove around a hill to the other side in hopes of cutting off the doe. Finally we saw a doe and buck ahead that started running. I got
ahead of them and stopped. The doe stopped near us and we could see that it was the one we were looking for. Dad finished her off. The
bucks in the whole area were deep into the rut and the smell of blood was turning them on. We had several bucks that would try and mount
the dead or wounded does. The rut was quite early and running very strong.
Anyway the wound on this antelope was very severe. It was hard to imagine that she could travel as far as she had and run as fast as she had
with a wound like that. Now before you get all worked up over us wounding animals, this was not the only one wounded. We found all of them
we could. It is a tragedy when any animal is lost and we made all efforts to insure it did not. But the wind was often blowing very hard and
mistakes were made. That’s just the way it is. Here are some pictures of the wound on this animal. I know my dad was very happy to finish
this antelope off!

If you want to have good quality meat from an antelope, you have to take extra care in how you handle it! We had brought out two coolers full
of ice. I also had a 20 gallon ziplock bag for each hunter. At the end of each day we would de-bone the antelope and put it in the bag and get
it on ice. Wyoming requires evidence of sex left on the animal while it is in the field, so we left the udder attached to a small amount of meat
and put that in a separate bag and then into the main bag. The tag also went into a small ziplock and into the main bag. We had to go to this
kind of trouble because there is not any kind of facility that you can take the antelope to for cooling and storage. They are all far away.

Once we had all the antelope shot we took them to Hendersen’s Meats in Green River Wyoming. Hendersen’s will trade your meat for
prepared sausages and jerky and so on. We had no time left to wait for our own meat to be processed.   They had several different kinds
available, but were out of some kinds. They were great to work with and the product was very tasty. I picked Hendersen’s because when I
called them the first thing they told me was that they would not accept any meat that was spoiled or had lots of hair on it and so on. They were
very impressed with how we had taken care of our meat. They often have to turn away hunters who have not done the work needed for good
animal care. We spent approximately $600 in processing fees at Hendersens! That was for 6 hunters and 12 antelope.

Dana’s cold storage, where our elk was being taken care of, had to throw nearly a whole moose away because of spoilage. The moose had
been shot the day before but had only been gutted and then left lying on its side the rest of the day. Our hunt was for meat. We took extra
care with our meat. That moose should have been quartered and laid out on some limbs so as to get air movement all around the meat. This
was not the only animal lost in this same way during our time in Wyoming. What a sad thing to happen.
Our hunt was now nearly over. Well the hunting part was I guess. We needed to take down the camp in the desert, then drive over to Thayne
Wyoming to pick up our elk. It was hard leaving Betty there in the desert. Sage Grouse season opened in a few days and we all hoped he
would make it past the coyotes till then. We drove for a few hours and then slept along the road till morning. We were the first hunters at
Dana’s to pick up our meat.

We had a bill there for a little over $800 for the processing of the five elk. It was now time to drive home.

One last thing. There were three different bullets used during our hunt.
Winchester 7mm 150 grain silvertips.
Fusion .270 150 grain
30 06 Remington core locks.

By far the best performer was the Fusion bullets. They had the best looking expansion and weight retention of the group. Of course that is of
the bullets we found. None of the corelocks were found. One having totally gone to pieces and the others going clear through. The
silvertips lost most of their weight. I know that most of us will be shooting Fusion ammo the next time out. Just an observation.

These last two pictures show you what can happen when you forget to put toilet paper in your pocket or backpack. T-shirts will suffer in these
situations! One took the bottom of the shirt off and the other took a sleeve!

Wyoming
2007