Hello, Hunters!

You never know what’s around the corner!  After 35 good seasons spent in tent camps, we were offered an unexpected opportunity to change to a lodge camp early last spring.  It took several months to get everything put together.  On October 2nd, we set our (96 ft. by 32 ft.) lodge on a concrete foundation.  Over those same months we upgraded and reorganized our leases so that our hunters now have the best opportunity ever to enjoy hunting several species of large and small game on one hunt.

The lodge was formerly the cookhouse/dining hall for the nearby Hutterite colony.  It was moved about five miles across country to our new location, across the valley from our camp of the past several seasons.  It came complete with a big walk-in cooler and freezer.  Now that we have spent a season in a warm, dry, solid building, we wonder how we survived in tents so long!  We’ll have a lot more remodeling done by next fall.

We expanded the lease we had on the colony in 2005, to include more whitetail hunting, fishing, and upland bird and waterfowl hunting.  There are abundant herds of antelope, plenty of mule deer, whitetail, and elk.  We had thousands of ducks, hundreds of geese, and coveys of partridge.  We added another nonexclusive lease in the nearby Snowy Mountains and renewed our BLM permit in the Elkhorns, to give our hunters greater trophy opportunity for elk and mule deer.  (We’ll still have tent camps in those areas, to increase hunter opportunity.)

With the lodge project ongoing, we didn’t have an archery hunt or sheep hunt this fall.  I’m looking forward to getting back to that next fall.

Our first hunter of the year was spring bear hunter Ron Gil.  He saw all kinds of wildlife during his week here, including several bears.  He knew exactly what color brown he was looking for, and saw him the last day of his hunt.  He didn’t have time for a clear shot, so he’ll be back to hunt him again next spring!

The antelope population must be at an all time high in our area.  I don’t think hunters took very many overall this fall, mostly due to lots of rain making it hard to get around.  Steve Hayne brought his family and a friend’s family to help him enjoy his antelope hunt this year.  He had a great time getting his antelope buck last year.  He saw lots of game on this year’s hunt:  elk, mule deer, whitetails, and lots of antelope.  I was surprised to hear Steve say, “No, not big enough” to bucks most hunters would take in a heartbeat.  He’s turned serious!

Chuck and his son Logan brought more rain and snow to their antelope hunt.  Logan showed us how to shoot partridge!  Chuck and Logan got into and shot at a couple of our biggest buck antelope and found out the damage done to their rifles by airline baggage systems.

Although there is almost 100% chance of drawing an antelope permit in our area, one group of hunters did not draw because their packet of applications did not get to FWP.   Hard lesson:  either apply online, or send your applications with delivery confirmation!

We started elk season with lots of elk and too much snow for our Snowy Mountain hunters.  They had an adventure, sleeping in collapsed tents and slogging through hip-high snow, and seeing hundreds of elk and dozens of big bulls too far away.   Brian and Paul got into a big herd of elk on the colony.  Brian got the herd bull; great job on a bull that didn’t want to die until the next day.  It was a great stalk.  Brian and Paul know what it’s like to be pinned down by a bunch of elk in tall grass at 20 yards.

Brian Hess and Richard got to watch four big whitetail bucks run faster than antelope up on the east plateau.  Brian celebrated Hallowe’en by taking his biggest buck of a lifetime; a beautiful whitetail with sticker points.

Lee Gobble took the biggest mule deer buck of the season.  That took some fine tracking by Bric and all of us--a one shot kill and no blood.  Good job, Lee!  Several of our hunters passed up on a couple of big mulies with broken antlers.

Bill Caton has hunted in every camp we’ve had since 1979.  Bill and Ronnie’s first sight of a deer this year was huge whitetail with only one antler.  Nobody ever saw him again.  Bill and Ronnie got their bucks the same day; Bill’s scored close to 140.  Tim and David, whitetail hunters the same week, spent their time on the river bottom with lots of whitetail all over, and the evening skies black with ducks.  They filled out early and had time to watch elk and antelope.  Bill and Ronnie each killed nice rack bulls the last afternoon of their hunt.  A great job of shooting by these two veteran elk hunters!

Wouldn’t you know it, the day after the last hunter left, I saw the biggest whitetail buck I’ve ever seen!  He’ll be waiting for someone next season.

Our hunters saw several bucks with broken antlers, and also a bull elk with both beams broken.  Late in the season, we came upon a mountain lion kill.  Two of the guys enjoyed watching a young bobcat struggle to carry a huge jackrabbit back to its den.  In all my years hunting and trapping this country, I’d never gotten to watch something like that.

Now that our accomodations are larger, we can room and board some nonguided hunters.  A group from PA and NY stayed at camp several days this fall.  They added to the camaradarie and fun in camp.

Now that hunting has ended for 2006, I’m feeding cattle and horses, and setting out a trapline.  I’m figuring on going along with Jim Burns to try out his lion hounds some day soon.

I hope you had a good year, and a good hunting season.  I’m looking forward to having you hunt with us soon.