Tag Archives: Big Game Hunting

Tales Are Numerous When You Are The Hunter of Big Game

Tales of a Big Game Guide by Russell Annabel, The Derrydale Press

Sportsmen’s Alliance Files Brief in Great Lakes Wolf Case

By The Sportsmen’s Alliance

On Dec. 8, the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation and our partners filed its brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals in the long-running Western Great Lakes wolf lawsuit. The case, brought by Humane Society of the United States and their anti-hunting allies, sought to reinstate federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Alliance and our partners are fighting to ensure wolves are delisted and returned to state management.

“The science is settled and the experts agree, wolves are recovered, period,” said Evan Heusinkveld, head of government affairs and interim president and CEO of Sportsmen’s Alliance. “We should be celebrating this as a great victory of the Endangered Species Act, but instead we’re forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting anti-hunting interests in court just to ensure the ESA is applied correctly.”

Despite wolf numbers at record levels well-beyond what was required when originally listed as endangered in the late 1970s, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell returned wolves to the endangered species list in late 2014. The ruling effectively requires wolves to be recovered in their entire historic range before they can be considered recovered in the Great Lakes states.

READ MORE

See more of the good work of the The Sportsmen’s Alliance HERE

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Posted by Michael Patrick McCarty

A Pronghorn for the Books

Pope Young Record Book Pronghorn Antelope. Taken by bowhunter Michael McCarty in Moffat County, Colorado in August 2015
Horns Made of Hair, Not Antlers!

It’s official.

My 2015 archery pronghorn antelope has officially scored 73 Pope and Young inches.

I took this great buck with a Samick recurve bow and a Fred Bear razorhead on a self guided hunt in Moffat County Colorado.

It’s not always about the trophy, but, then again, sometimes it is.

Pronghorns Rock!

How many more months to antelope season?

Posted by Michael Patrick McCarty

You can see the story of my hunt HERE.

There’s a Lot of Desert in This Sheep

Don Waechtler of Slim's Taxidermy in Glenwood Springs, Colorado poses with a Desert Bighorn Sheep, taken in The Sheep Range near Las Vegas, Nevada, while hunting with Jim Puryear of Nevada Guide Service in 2015
There Are Some Truly Magnificent Animals in the World – And a Desert Bighorn Sheep is Surely One of Those!

Obtaining a Desert Bighorn Sheep permit from almost anywhere in North America generally requires a towering casino jackpot of luck, and that may be the easy part of any sheep hunt. However, it takes much more than wishful thinking and a lucky roll of the dice to harvest a really large trophy ram.

Don Waechtler took this stunning specimen in the Sheep Range near Las Vegas, Nevada in November of 2015, while hunting with Jim Puryear of Nevada Guide Service & World Safaris.

This is not just your average Desert Bighorn ram either. With a green score of 169 inches, it just may meet the Boone & Crockett minimum score of 168 inches when officially measured early next year. No doubt there may be some finger crossing here and there while Don waits for the end of the required 60 day drying period. But hey, what’s an extra month or two to matter when you have already waited thirty years for a tag?

Either way, it is a big game trophy of a lifetime, and proof positive that not all things that happen around Las Vegas stay in Vegas. Sometimes, you get to bring your winnings home.

Congratulations Don!

By Michael Patrick McCarty

 

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The Desert Bighorn: It's Life History, Ecology, and Management, Edited by Gale Monson and Lowell Sumner.
Everything You May Ever Want to Know About A Desert Bighorn

*We have some copies of “The Desert Bighorn” in stock, as well as other sheep and sheep hunting titles for sale. Please email for quotes and availability.

You Might Also Like To See Some Interesting Colorado Bighorn Sheep Pictures HERE

*Don Waechtler, aka Slim, is a master taxidermist from Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He has been in business for over 35 years, and I highly recommend his work.

**Don is now retired, but I understand that he may do some work on a limited basis. Congratulations, Slim!

 

Don Waechtler, Slim's Taxidermy, Glenwood Springs, Colorado
But First You Gotta Get Em

 

You Can find More Information on Nevada Guide Service HERE

You Might Also Like Rams of the Fryingpan

Red Rock Sentinels of the Fryingpan

A video clip of a small band of bighorn sheep on the red cliffs above the frying Pan River near Basalt, colorado in bighorn sheep hunting unit S44
Bighorn Sheep Above The Fryingpan River, Basalt, Colorado. Photo courtesy of David Massender.

 

Watch the full video below.

 

  • In the past, some limited resident and nonresident licenses for archery and rifle hunting have been available by lottery in Bighorn Sheep Unit S44 of Colorado.

Posted by Michael Patrick McCarty

You Might Also Like To See Some Photos of Bighorn Sheep in The Fryingpan River HERE

Some Young Hunter’s Luck!

Some call it luck. Some call it skill.

I know Mackenzie, so no doubt there was quite a bit of skill involved on this hunt.

Those young guys can sure throw the hindquarters around too!

Congratulations on a fine Mule Deer trophy.

Until next year! See you on the mountain.

 

Mackenzie Hayes of Glenwood Springs, Colorado with his 2015 trophy mule deer buck from Game Management Unit 21 (GMU 21) near Rangely, Colorado
MacKenzie Hayes With His 2015 Mule Colorado Mule Deer

 

MacKenzie Hayes of Glenwood Springs packs out his trophy mule deer taken in northwestern colorado in 2015.
Packing is the Hard Part – But Maybe Not!

 

Posted by Michael Patrick McCarty

You Might Also Like Our Post Mule Deer in Motion

You Know It’s Big When They Call It “The Spider Bull”

BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB CONFIRMS NEW WORLD’S RECORD ELK
FRIDAY, JANUARY 02, 2009

The Record Class Spider Bull Elk

MISSOULA, Mont. (By The Boone and Crockett Club)

Perhaps the largest elk ever produced in the wild—a Utah bull taken in 2008 by a hunter on public land—has been confirmed as a new World’s Record. The official declaration was made today by the Boone and Crockett Club.

A Special Judges Panel determined a final score of 478-5/8 Boone and Crockett non-typical points, an incredible 93 inches above the B&C minimum score of 385 for non-typical American elk and 13-plus inches larger than the previous World’s Record.

With official data dating back to 1830, at 499-3/8 inches it is the only elk on record with a gross score approaching the 500-inch mark.

The giant bull has 9 points on the left antler and 14 points on the right. The larger antler has a base circumference over nine inches.

The Boone and Crockett scoring system, long used to measure the success of wildlife conservation and management programs across North America, rewards antler size and symmetry, but also recognizes Nature’s imperfections with non-typical categories for most antlered game. The bull’s final score of 478-5/8 inches included an incredible 140 inches of abnormal points.

“Along with measurements that honor the quality of the animal, Boone and Crockett Club records also honor fair-chase hunting,” said Eldon Buckner, chairman of the Club’s Records of North American Big Game committee. “Through our entry process, signed affidavits and follow-up interviews with the hunter, his guides, and state and federal officials, we were satisfied that this bull was indeed a wild, free-ranging trophy and that the tenets of fair chase were used in the harvest.”

Posted by Michael Patrick McCarty

You Might Like Our Post About The John Plute Bull HERE

Guard Dog Of the Mountain

Just a friendly (or unfriendly) mountain dog, or otherwise lovely example of Mountain Man Chainsaw Folk Art.

I was surprised to find this standing post at an old miner’s cabin near the edge of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness in Colorado, while hunting for mountain goats on the high peaks above.

You never know what you will find out there in them’ woods…

a photo of some chainsaw folk art, carved from a fir tree near an old miner's cabin at the edge of the maroon bells-snowmass wilderness area near aspen colorado while goat hunting in game management unit 12 gmu 12
Watch It There Buddy!

 

Photo by Michael Patrick McCarty

You might also like Planet Goat

What Does Hunting Mean To You?

As Ortega Y Gasset so famously said, “We do not hunt to kill, we kill in order to have hunted”

As you can see, wiser philosophers than I, and other people of the hunt have weighed in on the subject of hunting since the dawn of man. Just look at some of the amazing cave art found around the world if you don’t believe that.

My thoughts about hunting are simple, and complicated. In the end, I hunt because I can. I hunt because “I am” … a hunter. I make no apologies in that regard.

Here are some of my feelings on the matter.

Care to share some of yours?

 

Some Selected Excerpts

 

“We can only be as strong as the sum total of our experience, and I cannot comprehend a life barely lived without the solid grounds of woods and field beneath the boots. The pursuit of wild things is a foundational activity, built upon the realities of the natural world and the spirit of the quickening heart. It is an opportunity to learn some core moral values, while becoming part of something much larger than one’s self”. – From a Pheasantful of Memories

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“There is a place I have been that many elk hunters must eventually visit. The mountains may shine amidst spectacular landscapes and it may look like typical elk country, but somehow things are different there. It is a land of mystery and natural forces inaccessible by horseback, jeep or other conventional means. Inward rather than outward, it is a journey of the heart on a path unique to each individual. It is a place you only know once you get there”. – From Forever Humbled.

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“A few things I know. A hunter’s fate is determined by his relationship with, and actions upon, the mountain. It probably would not be a mountain goat hunt without a fall of some kind somewhere in the mix, and hopefully I have now had mine. A man’s knee will lose a battle with a rock each and every time, and I am probably not the first person that these goats have observed bashing themselves upon the boundaries of their bedroom.

Perhaps that tired old euphemism is true, sometimes, and what did not kill me will make me stronger. I have been initiated upon the altar of stone, and may now have some protection against further mishaps. My boots will be set down more precisely from now on.

No matter what happens, blame cannot be placed at the feet of the goats. They are just being goats, and what becomes of this insignificant, two-legged animal is not their concern. They know as well as any creature on earth the perils of miscalculation, and the mortal ramifications of a misstep. They live with those truths for practically every breath of their life”. – From Careless For Just A Second Can Get You Killed.

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“At that moment I see through other eyes, from some other time.  A hint of memory flashes and reveals this place as it looked long, long ago. I see the ancestors there, huddled in the mist beneath heavy robes of fur, watching, waiting. I see their spears and primitive weapons, eager to sink their sharpness into hide and flesh. I hear their footfalls and their labored breath heaving in their chest. I feel the spear’s blade upon my hand, at the razor’s edge of all things. They are but a heartbeat away.” From Sacred Ground.

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Elk give perspective to the concept of what it means to be tough.

From our point of view he is a pitiless and unaffected creature, and he expects nothing of you that he would not expect of himself. He is a “game animal” with a lot of game. He believes strongly in equal opportunity, for he will take on all comers with hardly a care. Should you decide to enter his backyard and hunt him, you can tread lightly and show little effort, like many, and experience small success, like most. Hunt him big, and you can peg the throttles until the rockets burn out. He can take it. Can you? Your choice.

Once committed, he will meet you head on and wear you out physically and mentally, a little or a lot. He can grind your hopes into gritty powder and turn your dreams into nightmarish obsessions. He will turn and happily watch from the hill above, as you beat yourself bloody on the rocks. He waits, until you sheepishly stop to pat yourself and make sure that nothing is permanently broken…”              – From An Elk Hunter Looks At Fifty

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I warn them several times to stay clear of my knife in case I slip, but they never miss an opportunity to touch or prod or examine in some way this elk. Their mother has sternly warned them to not ruin their cloths, and both their father and I reminded them more than once. For all the good it does. They want to be close, to smell its’ smell and lay their fingers on its teeth. Even in death, they want to become part of its life. These two are hunters, make no mistake, and I’m proud to be with them on this mountain at this moment in time when two young people chose to join us all in the adventure that we love. – From How It Ought To Be

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“Time is the hunter of all men, and no one knows this better than we do. That knowledge gives us perspective, and direction. In that regard we are never lost in this great big world, not in life, nor even in death… ”                 Michael Patrick McCarty

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Please See Our Catalog of Used and Rare Books HERE

Planet Mountain Goat

July 12, 2015

As you can see, our two friends from the previous week have found some company. It’s a boy’s club for sure.

This view was taken through a spotting scope at twenty power and may not be the best photo.  However, I can assure you that there is one big boss billy in this group.

How many more hours to opening day?

A photo of a far off view of mountain goats in a spotting scope, in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness of Colorado in GMU 12

 

You Might Also Like Our Post The Improbable Beast HERE

Posted by Michael Patrick McCarty

The Bowhunting Looks To Be Good In Virginia

Congratulations to the Virginia bowhunting contingent. We can’t wait to see what you turn up next.

 

A hunter poses with a trophy white-tailed deer. This buck was taken in Virginia during the archery season.
A Buck To Hold Onto. Jeff McManus with His Virginia Bowhunting Dream Buck.

 

Cay McManus, Championship Archer, poses with her latest virginia bowhunting whitetail buck.
One More, of Many. Cay McManus With Her 2015 Buck

 

A woman bowhunter poses with a doe white-tailed deer taken with archery equipment in the Virginia hardwoods.
Whitetail Steaks Tonight! Cay McManus Knows How To Get It Done.

 

-Cay McManus is a World Class Archer (literally). She has won the Indoor World Championship one time, and the World Outdoor Championship 5 times.

She has also won The National Field Archery Championship in various categories a total of 33 times, a record for any woman archer. As she said to me recently, would you like to help me dust some championship bowls?

It is an amazing accomplishment in any sport. As you can see, she knows her way around the deer woods too!

Rock On!

 

Posted by Michael Patrick McCarty