Time to let you all know how things went in 2005, and what we’ll offer in 2006.

Page Senn was here for bear hunting in early May; saw lots of the Elkhorns and Big Belts.  It still kind of surprises me to find myself watching bighorn sheep in the Elkhorns; there are enough there to let out two permits now.  Page saw several nice rams, and a couple of black bears, but not the big color phase bear he wanted, so he’ll be back another time.
 
Fall hunting season started with Fred Blackburn as our cook and resident archaeologist at Ramshorn.  Bric and I guided Jim DeMeerLeer for sheep the first couple of days; then Jim Burns walked in from the Yellowstone River side of the mountain with a 95# pack on his back, in the dark, to keep us company and help us glass.  Jim got a nice 5 year old ram with 15 inch bases his fourth day of hunting.  As usual the ram chose a tough place to die, and I really appreciated Burns’ strong back in helping us get the ram to the horses.  This is the second year that our hunters were the only ones to take rams in our district.

Bric guided Ken Cypress bowhunting from Ramshorn for elk the rest of the week.  Ken saw game every day: moose, goats, bears, mule deer, and elk.  Fred and his dog were on moose duty, keeping them out of camp.  We moved to the Holliday ranch camp for the last couple of days of Ken’s hunt.  Ken got trapped by two bulls, one on each side of him, and neither close enough to shoot.

Mark Wood arrowed a porcupine, and passed up a badger and a 3x4 mule deer, just wanting a bull.  Scott Davis had a close call from the “duck blind” with a bull and several cows; lots of bugling on both sides of camp, but couldn’t get close enough.  Daryl VanBrandt got a 4x4 whitetail; hit him in the jaw to knock him down. Steve McVay just couldn’t get in position for a good shot. On our new adjoining lease on Daisy Dean, we had 70 elk at 100 yards, and couldn’t get closer.

Brian Hall and his father-in-law, Charles, began their archery antelope hunt with Brian getting a 13 inch buck right off the bat.  Charlie shot at several bucks without effect, but he sure had fun scaring them.  It was all practice for next time!
Chuck Benhoff’s five friends from Virginia were here opening day of antelope rifle season.  It had rained, and the countryside was more lake than land.  Four good bucks the first day.  Bob Muscolino was a little fussy and went to shooting at coyotes; he got one. Saved his antelope for last day and had another trophy.

Second antelope hunt saw Jim Berghorn, from Tampa Bay SCI, and Kent Regli, from Idaho FNAWS, here on donated hunts.  Jim brought his wife Gail and son Carl along.  Jim picked out a nice buck that ran into a fence and got his horns locked in the wire.  Jim thought he should have a fair chance; we all watched him get “un stuck” and run after the rest of the herd.  Jim caught up with him half a mile later and made a good sporting kill.  Kent took a  15 inch buck after a long stalk to within 300 yds.

The Ost brothers rounded out the antelope season with 13, 14, & 15 inch bucks.  We had a lot of Hungarian partridge this year; the boys found out they are mighty small, and you don’t get every one you shoot at.

General rifle season started off with lots of excitement.  Steve Hayne got a big five point bull and Dennis Muellner got a nice six point bull.  Ken Cypress came back and took a big 5x5 whitetail buck and a coyote.  It was real foggy the last morning of his hunt, so Kenny pulled out early; Dennis and Steve got their bulls when the fog lifted.  Dennis also took a mule deer buck north of camp.  Jeff Risner & Steve both took nice antelope; Steve can explain the importance of having a friend coach while trying to shoot antelope.  On the fourth day of the season, Steve, Jeff, and I had 181 elk coming toward us, with 20 rack bulls in the bunch.  They pegged Bric and his hunters, turned around, and left the country.  Elk are darned alert!

Second week of the season, Jeff Thompson took a mule deer buck the first evening from duck blind, while watching a small rack bull.  The next couple of days, he took both a buck and a doe antelope.  Then in a good snow squall, from the same blind where he got his muley, he took a “five point” rack bull.  This guy had been through the wars; he had broken off his browtines on one side, and all but a few inches of the entire antler on the other side.  Quite a load of meat to drive back to Tennessee.  Jeff’s brother Ronnie added a nice buck antelope, but gave his deer and elk luck to his brother.  Elroy Hodder took a nice 4x4 mule deer buck.

Bill Narke keeps on hammering the big whitetails.  This year’s buck was a 4x4 with a 21 inch spread.  Bill and Allen saw lots of elk, but bulls would not cooperate.  The Californians, Mike, Charlie, and Larry, passed up some good muley bucks, and didn’t get into bulls.

The following week we had no hunters. We had stormy weather, and wound up with about 400 head of elk on Daisy Dean Creek.  Peter Wipf, Chuck Benhoff, and I watched two big bulls from one of those herds that had a attitude problem.  They were doing some very vigorous fighting a couple of days that week, and the following week I watched them do it again, several times.  Very impressive.

The last week of the season, Jeff Schmit got a big whitetail buck; shot him in his bed at 75 yards.  Lee and Mike Zimmerman took two 4x4 whitetails.  We all saw lots of elk every day, and the last day was too close of a call.  400 elk split on both sides of Jeff.  The bulls had us pinned down at 600 yards; it was just too risky to shoot at that distance.  There are dozens of big bulls left!!

This was our first year on the Daisy Dean lease, just northeast of Holliday’s.  It always takes awhile to figure things out.  We sure got in to lots of action; next year will be better.  We have some rock blinds to build for those elk.  The Holliday ranch continues to produce plenty of good antelope and whitetail, with some mule deer and elk thrown in for good measure.  We use horses on Holliday’s and hunt on foot after we drive over to Daisy Dean.  We’re planning a new cookhouse for camp next fall.  So far this winter, we’re having mild temperatures and adequate wet snow, so game is doing great.

We’ll take two sheep hunters to the unlimited area, and see who is lucky enough to draw in limited entry districts.  The goat population is tremendous near Ramshorn; would sure like to have a hunter draw a tag.  Moose seem to be on the increase everywhere; if you can draw a tag, you’ll have a good opportunity.