Jackson Hole Outfitters
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December 1999 Newsletter
     Boy do I love to hunt!  This year was really fun and mostly successful, with the exception of those who just weren't in the right place at the right time.  In any hunting season there are days, and even a week or so, that we have a real tough time of it, but all-in-all we had a good year.    There were a couple of days I'd rather have been in Philadelphia (as WC Fields used to say) but there's nothing like hunting season in Wyoming!  13 of 17 elk hunters killed, and only one didn't get a shot. We also killed three 30 inch bucks.
Ron and Lynne Randall finally find elk!
     This was Ron's 4th elk hunt and the first time he has had a chance at a bull.  A couple of his previous hunts with other outfitters he didn't even see a bull, and only saw a couple of elk.  Well, we changed his luck.  One morning guide Grant Gertsch put him onto a herd of about 40 elk, including 5 or 6 really big bulls.  That same day I guided Ron's wife, Lynne (at age 60 on her first hunt with a rifle), and she had 3 chances at elk but things didn't work out to get a shot.  We took Sunday off (my normal procedure) and then went back to try for that herd again.  We split up, same as before, with Grant taking Ron and Lynne going with me.  Lynne and I spotted a herd of about 20 elk, including at least three bulls.  I left her to keep an eye on them while I went and found Grant and Ron.  When we got back to Lynne we saw them just long enough to watch them go over the crest of a ridge and into a nearly inaccessible basin.  We sent Lynne over to watch the trail coming down out of the south side of the basin, then Grant, Ron, and I climbed up the north side on a very steep game trail.  After an hour hard climb, we paused to let Ron catch his breath, then peeked over a rise.  We immediately spotted a cow elk bedded 210 yards away.  I told Ron to get into shooting position, assuring him that a bull would show up any minute.  I somehow just felt lucky today, 'cause when Grant and I team up things just sort of happen.  Literally 30 seconds later a big bull walked out broadside.  Ron's 300 Mag bellowed and it seemed as if he might have hit the bull, but it still stood there.  As he chambered another round the bull turned and moved behind a tree, with only his rump showing.  The cow got up and ran, and we thought the bull would do the same, but it just stood there.  Finally it turned around and limped back into the open.  Ron shot again, connecting solidly this time.  Then he shot again, and again, and again. 7 shots.  As Ron kept connecting the bull laid down, but it was still very much alive.    I finally moved in front of Ron, laid face down on the trail with my back pack on, and instructed Ron to use my pack as a rest and shoot the bull in the neck.  After the shot, I unplugged my ears in time to hear Grant exclaim, "You nailed him that time.  He's down for good."  Congratulations were generously given, then I quickly shed my coat and equipment and scurried up the mountain to try and drive the remaining elk back toward where Lynne was waiting in ambush.  I never saw an elk or elk tracks, so figured that they had gone over the top of the basin during the shooting spree.  I joined Grant and Ron at the bull and you can see from the pictures that he is a dandy 6X6, scoring about 340 . 
Ammo is as important as straight shooting and more important than caliber!
Ron was trying some experimental 180 grain round-nosed bullets that were supposed to really hold together well on tough game.  They held together too well, just punching a pencil-sized hole through the elk and not doing enough damage on the way.  Grant and I told him to send those bullets back to the manufacturer and tell him they were worthless on elk.  I strongly recommend that you hunters use an average weight bullet for the caliber, and that it is not designed to skewer a rhinoceros from stem to stern.  Ideally, the bullet should be thin enough to go all to pieces inside of the elk.  I know some of you right now are going to quote your favorite magazine-article-writing guru who insists that only a well-constructed bullet that will make a perfect mushroom will kill an elk, but I know whereof I speak.  Too many times I've had the above experience of a hunter pouring shot after shot into an elk with less-than-instant results.  Often, after the shooting is over, the hunter will remark, as Ron did, "I guess I need a bigger gun."  WRONG!  What is needed is a lighter, faster, thinner-skinned bullet.  In a 30 caliber, I strongly recommend Sierra 162 grain Hollow-Point Boat-tail Match bullet. You probably have to load your own to get that particular load, but I have killed elk with it, have had friends kill elk with it, and it is one elk-slaying son-of-a-gun.  If you don't hand-load, buy a spire-point bullet, with soft point or hollow point, about 150 to 165 grain (.30 cal).  Use the medium weight bullet for that caliber and it will give you greater speed and correspondingly greater performance. In a 270, shoot the 130 grain bullet.  In 7 Mag shoot 139 or 140 grain.  In .25-06 shoot the 100 grain.  In .243 or 6mm, use the 80 grain.  I personally hand-load my .243 with 42.5 grains of Dupont 4895 behind a Hornady 75 grain hollowpoint.  I've had it chronographed at 3510fps from my Husqvarna, and between my brothers, son, and I, we've killed more than 20 elk, 30 deer, two bears, and two moose with that load - in a .243!!  Large caliber and heavy bullet is not the answer.  If that were so we would still be shooting 500 grain punkin' balls in a 54 caliber muzzle-loader. Straight shooting and a very fast thin bullet will do much better.  When that 75 grain pointy hollow-point smacks a rib cage, it penetrates about three inches and then it goes all to pieces, SPLAAT!, just like a shotgun shell going off in the boiler room.  Does a lot of damage.
Final effort pays off!  Darrell Turner is 60 years young and in great physical shape.  He hunted hard, seeing several bucks and getting a shot at a nice 26 incher but didn't kill it.  The night before the last day of his hunt, and the final day of deer season, I lay awake trying to figure out where to take him.  Weather was hot and dry.  Bone dry.  The bucks were hard to find as they were lying up in the timber all day.  Only one thing to do; go to the nastiest hell-hole I could think of.  At  breakfast I explained my plan to Darrell and he was game.  A few hours later we found ourselves sneaking along a game trail within a bottomless canyon.   Darrell told me he had never seen a bedded mule deer, so I found one for him; a good buck!  We made an hour-long stalk, getting within 75 yards undetected.  Darrel was lying prone, and almost killed the 32 inch buck in its bed.  Almost, because he had to put a couple of finishing shots in it as it rolled down the mountain, deeper into the hell-hole.  It was darn tough getting the horses within 200 yards.  We had to quarter it and carry it up to the horses.  Even then the horses had a gut-bustin' job getting out of that steep canyon.
75 year old kills whopper bull.  Bernard Lopez, age 75, and his son Stephen, came for a "meat hunt".  The first day Stephen killed a spike and Bernard had chances at several elk, including a five-pointer.  They saw about 40 elk that first day.  The second day Warren took them up behind camp, and within a half hour ride of camp, first thing in the morning, Warren spotted a big bull, about 250 yards away on a timbered hillside.  Bernard stepped off his horse, shot, and the bull just stood there.  "Shoot again!" Warren hissed.  But before another shot could be fired, the bull toppled over.  Great bull for a great guy!
Talk about professionalism!  Warren was guiding John Heikkenen, our moose hunter.  As they were glassing, a very large buck appeared below them and then bedded 150 yards away.  Warren had a valid deer tag, and it was a bigger buck than he had ever personally killed, although he had guided a number of clients to whopper bucks.  John urged him to shoot it, but Warren remembered that Grant and his hunters should be hunting a mile or so away.  So Warren left John to keep an eye on the buck while he rode hell-bent-for-leather to find Grant.  He found Grant and Rich Kerri SR and Rich killed the buck.  Absolutely great buck, very heavy beams, almost 29 inches wide, 7X9.
Opportunity knocks, Frank answers:  Frank Wojtek passed up a couple of pretty-nice-but-not-quite-big-enough bucks the first couple of days of his hunt.  Then he had two tough days where he hardly saw any deer at all.    Weather was hot and dry.  The last day of his hunt I, Jonesy, led the way while Frank, Jimmy Jaynes, Ray Bartels, and guide Dennis Hale followed behind.  We were riding along a major horse trail when I spotted a small white spot in a small patch of timber 100 yards to our left.  It just didn't seem to fit, somehow.  A quick check through binoculars revealed the white face-patch of a small buck.  Jimmy, Ray, and Frank quickly dismounted and covered it with their rifles.  After about 5 minutes two other bucks finally stood up, one of them a real dandy.  Frank fired and hit it and they went into the patch of timber.  The other two bucks came out the other side and even though Ray tried, he just couldn't get a shot at the bigger of the two.   The three hunters went in the trees fully expecting to find a dead buck.  Suddenly the buck came barreling out of there 90 miles an hour.  Frank fired three very quick shots and bowled the buck over like a rabbit.  The patch of timber was only about 20 yds square, surrounded by meadow, and only 100 yards off a main horse trail.  Those three bucks had probably been bedding there every day, as we had seen them a couple of days earlier and Jimmy had passed on the buck, not realizing how good it was.  A hunter would never think to look in that little patch of timber for a trophy 26 inch 8X7 buck.  I wish I could report that Ray and Jimmy were also successful, but it was the day of the big wind.  We hunted hard with the wind blowing 60 mph with gusts to 80.  We saw several huge trees fall and we finally left the mountain, fearing for our lives.
Big nerd bull:  I bugled and a bull answered.  Bowhunter Tim Stocker crouched behind a bush.  I whispered that it sounded like a big herd bull.  The bull bugled several times as he came toward us.  Finally a calf elk came out of the trees, being herded by a nice 6 pointer.  That was the extent of his "herd".   Must be a nerd bull instead of a herd bull.  He got within 70 yards of us, but wouldn't come closer.
Buck takes a dive:  Robert Henneke and Jimmy Jaynes saw a sight they will never forget; a trophy buck falling end over end down a 300 foot cliff.  Jonesy kept exclaiming  "No, no, don't break your rack!" as the buck fell toward us.  We had spotted three bucks up above us on a slope with a cliff above and below them.  We got within range and the bucks started across the slope.  Robert shot and killed a 25 incher, high rack, nice buck. 
Dejavu bulls:  Bob Traylor's wife booked his hunt with me and surprised him.  He was so excited!  Late in the afternoon of his 3rd day we were on a ridge and spotted two bulls feeding across a hillside a mile away.  One was a huge 6X6!  We took off on a dead run through timber and blowdowns to get to them.  Even though Bob was in good shape, he thought he was going to die of lack of breath before we got there.  We ambushed the bulls in some heavy timber. The smaller one, the 4X4, was the only shot we had.  The bull left no blood trail at all but we found him within 150 yards, mortally wounded.  Two days later I took Don Barrett up to watch that same hillside in the late afternoon.  After about an hour here came a bull feeding across, right on schedule.  It took 5 shots from the 300 Mag at 300 yards to put him down (lousy 180 grain bullets again).  Big 5X5.  It was dejavu all over again.
Jim Windham calls the shot
The last afternoon of his hunt Jim and I were near the bottom of a narrow canyon and were glassing the semi-open hillside across and above us.  I told Jim about the 32 inch buck that Bob Crosby had killed from that very spot, guided by my brother, Ron, up on the ridge across the canyon above us.  It was 500 yards and a very steep climb.  "Let's kill one up there" I suggested to Jim, knowing how tired he was after hunting archery and rifle for 8 days straight.  He pointed out a bush on the other side and said, "I'm not shooting anything above that bush, so don't even look."  Five minutes later a feeding buck appeared about 30 yards below the bush.  Jim shot the very cooperative 24 inch buck and we were able to drag it down to the horses just as it got pitch dark.
30 inch buck holds tight!  Ken Woodson spotted the big buck in his bed.  Guide Grant Gertsch set up a drive so that he and Glynn Ralls would push the buck to Ken.  Everything worked great except that the buck held as tight as a quail, causing Glynn to shoot him at forty yards in his bed.  30 inch spread, 7X6 whopper buck.
Idaho produces big bulls!  We have an Idaho hunt right across the border from our Wyoming camp.  Our 5 Idaho hunters killed four bulls.  Gene Quinn killed a huge 6X6 (8 shots at 250 yards, 5 connected, still had to finish him off.  Darn 180 grain bullets!)   Dan Walkup killed a nice 6X5, one shot right in the heart. Ralph Barret was the only hunter that didn't kill and he was in the best shape of any of them.  The last day  we spotted a 5 point bull feeding in an opening and it only took us 5 minutes to get in range.  The bull fed into the timber just as we got there, so I made a drive to kick him out.  He went the wrong way but I saw where he went.  So four of us made a drive and three of us could have killed him.  He came back past us instead of going to Ralph's ambush spot.  He was just jinxed.