Thanks for the kind words on the bear video. My setup was a simple little Sony video camera and a slightly modified Gorillapod:

The modification was just a little bungee cord that could really add stability:

Bears really lend themselves to video. Generally when they come in you’ve got minutes, if not hours, before they leave. They also can’t see especially well so a little movement won’t bother them. For me the cameras help pass the time, and they also make for good conversation at dinner:

This was our second hunt with Garrett Brothers Outfitters and I couldn’t recommend them enough. If you’re thinking about a hunt with them feel free to drop me an email at dukkillr@hotmail.com and I’d be happy to expand on my thoughts.

Check back occasionally. I hope to get my hands on a few more of the kill videos. I promise I’ll post them as soon as I can.

Two years ago I loaded up the truck and headed West for a DIY antelope hunt in central Wyoming. Actually it was the research for that hunt that eventually led me to Skinny Moose and it’s writers. I drove across Nebraska alone, at night, and got to my unit around 5:00am. I was chasing antelope around as soon as the sun came up. I lived on pop-tarts, jerky, and the 10 gallons of water I hauled in with me. I slept in the truck. I also had a fantastic time. I wanted to go back to the sage brush last year but I already had a conflict between the birth of my daughter and an archery elk hunt (the daughter won out). So 2010 it was.

This hunt was very different. The crew that I hunted with this time aren’t really sleep-in-the-truck kind of guys, so we booked with Table Mountain Outfitters. They are based out of Northeast Wyoming, not far from Douglas. When we got to camp there were antelope and mule deer walking around within range of the kitchen!

The next morning The Old Man and I headed out after breakfast. Our guide’s plan was to spend the first hour or more looking over bucks and helping us get a feel for what it was we were looking for. My limited antelope hunting experience had already taught me that it was tough to tell an 80″ goat from a 70″ and perhaps even harder to tell a 70″ for a 60″. With three pairs of binos and a spotting scope we picked apart maybe 40 bucks over a hour or so. Too shot, too thin, no prongs, etc… In a relaxed morning hunt I looked over more bucks than I did during the entire 2008 hunt. Bucks like this one were literally everywhere you looked:

After a while we started covering more ground. It wasn’t long before we found a shooter buck. We hid the truck behind a hill and started trying to close the distance. Around a hill, down in a wash, and at 200 yards we couldn’t find the group we were looking for. We crept forward to 150 yards of where we thought they were when I spotted a doe looking at us. I lined up for a standing shot on a set of shooting sticks while the guide and the old man dropped down below sight line. The buck came towards us to investigate but only his head was visible. The guide took my white hat and waived it in the air to “flag” him. It gave me the 20 yards I needed to see his chest. A short but somewhat uncomfortable standing shot took care of business:

Good length, great prongs, and fantastic mass throughout. I was very pleased!

I’ll tell you about The Old Man’s hunt tomorrow.

I’ve told you about Harrop Lake before. This makes something like the seventeenth year in a row that I’ve gone north to this particularly spot with my friends and family. What’s so great about this particular spot? Well, this is the view from my cabin:

Actually the view is great, but it’s the fishing that matters right?
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Here’s the info from Whitetail Journal.

I thought it was interesting that the word, “poaching” does not appear in the story. It makes sense if you think about it. It’s not poaching to kill a neighbor’s cow. Just because this happened to be a whitetail doesn’t make it a wild animal. In fact the story says as much:

“He basically went in there and killed a pet.” Peabody was a tame deer, and Knight said it may have played a part in the animal’s death by approaching Jernigan.

But not to worry, you can still buy plenty of tame deer. After seeing this article this afternoon I spent a few minutes looking for big high fence deer you can kill. It seems like to me $86,000 isn’t even that good of a deal. Most of the time you don’t even need to go through the farce of buying a hunting license. Makes sense, since you’re not hunting.

For example, take a look at the website here. Now I don’t know the specifics of Ruttnut Hunt’s personally but I found this revealing. From their page:

All of our hunts are totally confidential…. When you are hunting with Ruttnut Guide Service our hunts are kept 100% confidential. Guaranteed.

Why are they offering the same guarantees as high priced hookers? I’ll give you a hint… Sunlight is the best disinfectant… I can see the hypothetical conversation now:

Guy Shooting Tame Deer: Why isn’t he afraid of me?
“Guide”: It’s because you’re such a stealthy and skillful hunter! Now shoot already, I’ve got $25,000 to spend.
GSTD: But we’re just standing here 50 yards away and he’s looking at us like he expects to be fed.
“Guide”: It’s that apple cover scent I sprayed on. Quick, shoot him before he gets away!
GSTD: Where would he go?
“Guide”: Look, we’ve got 200 Million acres of prime habitat he could escape into. Shoot him NOW!
GSTD: Then how could you sell me a 1 day guaranteed hunt for this exact deer?
“Guide”: If you don’t shoot now I’ll sell this deer to another GSTD!
GSTD: You promise I can make up a story so I can tell everyone about what an experience this half day hunt was?
“Guide”: You read about our confidential guarantee didn’t you?
GSTD: BOOM!

Some of you may remember that dihardhunter got his first turkey this year in Kansas. I posted the link here. Short version: he flogged one to death. Great story, even better pictures.

Now he’s tried his hand at guiding pig hunters. Some parts of the story might sound familiar. Great story, even better pictures. Take a look here.

I get an incredible amount of Google hits from people checking for a health update on Tred Barta. I’m not sure why because I don’t speak Google and I certainly have not gone out of my way to position myself as any kind of expert. Nonetheless, since people are checking here anyway, I’ve added today’s update from Dan Harrison:

I talked to Tred yesterday and his spirits are high. They think they have the cancer under control hopefully!! He should be heading home in about 3 weeks? not sure.

I am trying to find a utv for him to get around the ranch on. We also ordered a special needs saddle that should be done in about 8 weeks.

Thats all I Know.

Thanks Dan

From here.

I’ve written a couple of stories on this already, (here and here) but there’s more sad news from Tred Barta. Long time friend and show co-host Dan Harrison has released another letter this time revealing that Tred has been diagnosed with Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia, a rare type of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Tred is now in the process of going through Chemo treatments and will be returning to rehab soon after. For Tred and Anni this is life-changing and life challenging. Tred is not poor by any means but how can anybody prepare themselves for this type of disaster? To equip his house to be handy-capped accessible will be close to $100,000 dollars. I have posted a couple of messages from his wife Anni so you can see what they are going through.

“We just found out today that Tred has full blown Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, a rare but very treatable form of lymphoma. The aggressiveness and sudden onset leads us to believe that it may be the cause of the paralysis and perhaps even reversible over time. We have been moved to Porter Hospital where Tred’s cell phone works just fine and we will be there for 5 days for plasma pheresis and chemo. This again has kept me from getting a letter out but I promise tomorrow, now that the discovery is done. FINALLY!!!!!! love, ANNI”

“Hi Dan, The damage signals on Tred’s spine are progressing, moving up to his neck now. We are basically starting from scratch now, trying to come up with the correct diagnosis. We have EVERYBODIES attention now, and they are all over us with tests in every quadrant. The good news is that if they can find the cause soon and find a solution, possibly some of the damage could be reversed. Yes, I am way too busy. I am struggling to put together a synopsis of where Tred is right now medically. I absolutely would love to rely on you to manage all the posts and keep an eye on the threads. However, I don’t have enough time to follow the streams but if you can please print them out if possible, for reading as time allows. If you see something especially good or valuable, timely of course forward it to my email or call me. Thank you so much Dan, you are such a good friend!”

“We are trying to put together a fund raising effort for all of his medical and new living equipment needs. They will probably amount to around $100,000 can you believe it. Anyway, if you would send a letter to friends and also pass along to me any websites that you think would be good. Here is the info: Donations can be made in Tred’s name to The Vail Valley Charitable Fund, which is a 501(c)3 charity, and funds are tax deductable. Their address is: PO Box 1275, Avon, CO 81620, or call 970-845-6339 or pay by credit card on line at www.vvcf.org Be sure to mention that it is for Tred. You may also make deposits to Wells Fargo Bank, Tred Barta medical fund. Routing #102000076, acct # 8990772827.

Read the rest here.

So I think this makes the 16th consecutive year I’ve been to this lake. We’ve dealt with 3 owners and about 10 different arrangements of transportation and management. This year’s adventure included landing a small private plane on this abandoned airstrip so we could get picked up by the float plane. Beavers had apparently decided to build a dam that backed up water on one end of the runway… not good…

Fortunately our two expert pilots managed to make yet another wonderful landing and within a couple of hours we were fishing.

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So only two of us headed afield on the last day. The other gentleman had somehow damaged his bow and was using a borrowed rifle. He was holding out for a large bear. He killed two nice bears in about two hours. Unfortunately for me, they were already skinned by the time I got back so I don’t have any pictures to show you. Unfortunately for him, neither of his bears could beat the monster his daughter shot the day before and she made sure he knew it.

I started seeing bears almost immediately but again, nothing that would even challenge P&Y. For probably an hour the same bear was wandering around the bait site. He’d eat some meat bones, wander around behind us, then come back and eat some more. Then suddenly his head snapped up, looked off into the woods for second, and ran. I got ready but the intruder followed the first bear into the woods behind me. For the next few minutes it sounded like two giant lumberjacks fighting back there. I couldn’t see it but it sounded like they were tearing trees down and throwing them at each other. Eventually the smaller bear ran past us on the way to parts unknown.

This guy was the victor:

Unfortunately my expert evaluator and I agreed that he wasn’t what I’d been holding out for. You can see on the previous video that he’s about 1/3 of the way up past the second ring on the barrel. The biggest bears will approach or be over the barrel while the minimum for shooting is around the second ring. With an hour to hunt I decided to pass…

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Day 5 found The Old Man and I put in a stand that was getting hit very regularly. As we were checking the site our guide told us that they couldn’t figure out how the bears were getting the beaver. They were stringing the rotting carcass between two trees a few yards apart and probably 15 feet off the ground. It was unreachable from either of the trees or the ground. After it was strung up we settled in for the evening.

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