Stories

There it is! An answer! The best thing an archery elk hunter could ask for. It was a reply to my location bugle, deep down in a nasty Idaho backcountry hell hole.

Hunting hogs with handguns is challenging. It adds a layer of interest and skill to a pastime normally undertaken with rifles. If you holster a handgun instead of slapping a magazine into your AR-15, being close isn’t just a fun test of your talent. It’s a necessity.

As all good stories begin, it all started when someone threw out a crazy Idea: “Let’s go shoot a mountain goat in Alaska.” said Ben jokingly, yet serious. I don’t think he ever expected Don to agree. From this moment on, these two men were hanging on for a ride that they were just barely prepared for mentally, physically and emotionally.

Many people don’t realize it, but Texas is home to tens of thousands of free-ranging aoudads, Axis deer, blackbuck antelope, fallow deer, and nilgai, among others, none of which originated on the North American Continent much less the Republic of Texas.

As we loaded up the truck in preparation for the 45-minute drive to our hunting location, Wade and I were still reliving the unbelievable action we’d experienced the first day of the contest. 18 coyotes in a day was a personal best for each of us and we knew we’d put ourselves in a great position to win the National Coyote Calling Championship.

WARNING! GRAPHIC CONTENT – When Cody Shipman, 24, and Hayden James, 15, set out to hunt Mallards one frosty January morning on the Snake River in Oregon, they expected the excursion to end like any other: with birds in the boat. But what should have been a successful hunt turned near-fatal after a simple mistake left Shipman with a gruesome wound that’s taken four surgeries to mend.

Bagging 30 coyotes in a 2-day contest? Most would agree that a total that high is virtually impossible and as history has proven, they would be correct. Coyote hunters have only imagined killing that many in a 2-day, day-time only calling contest because it’s a feat that has never been accomplished.

“If it was easy, everyone would do it.” That was the thought going through my mind as I woke up to my alarm clock obscenely early yet again. The coffee pot was gurgling away as I dressed in the dark and tried not to wake my sleeping wife.

I thought readers might like to hear about one heck of a migration that occurred in 1955 and really given the weather we are seeing now, could occur again.  Snow in Alberta, North Dakota and South Dakota, falling temperatures, huge fronts and all the pieces needed to move ducks in 2018.