The Kudu

Photographed from a land rover, this kudu bull is similar in size to the bull on my wall, but this bull lived in the safe haven of Kruger National Park.

Linda was never open to the idea of hanging a mounted animal in our home - until we returned from Africa. A trip to Africa will change anybody and everybody in one way or another. And, although Linda continues to have no interest in hunting, she has formed a bond with the kudu. Being unique and stylish, the shoulder mount of the kudu arrowed in South Africa has achieved a status beyond any other animal I’ve hunted. It hangs over our fire-place.

It has been in that place of honor for five years. We are very comfortable with it and Linda has redecorated the room, making the kudu the centerpiece.

My guide (PH) was very accommodating and I enjoyed his company.

Although the kudu is the most beautiful trophy animal I’ve ever bagged, the hunt was far from the most difficult. In fact, the hunt was very easy. I sat in a blind made out to look like an ant hill. The blind had a vertical opening about six inches wide through which the arrow was released. The kudu bull and the other three animals I killed from that blind, were about 20 yards from me. All the animals fell after one shot and within 100 yards of the blind.

Although not a difficult challenge to hunting skills, the experience of sitting in a blind in South Africa, within feet of many animals never observed before is exhilarating. The hunt was exciting. And, the ability to bring home a representative from a far-away place was appealing to me.

Sometimes a trophy’s significance is based upon qualities of the hunt and other times it’s based upon what it stands for. In the case of the kudu, it’s about the environment of South Africa and the unique animals found there, especially the antelope species, of which the kudu is probably the best known among hunters.

 

Next week we will begin the process of selling our home. We have asked a few people their opinion of the kudu mount and their thoughts about having it on display while selling our home. So far, all have taken the politically correct opinion.

“Take it down.”

“Why take a chance?”

Panoramic view of our family room.

It would be fairly easy to follow their advise. The mount is a bit awkward to store when not on a wall and a picture could replace it, but we have decided to leave the kudu in place. It’s become part of our home and we are selling our house, not a model home. It is the place where we live. It represents a part of us and we want to sell the house in that form.

Maybe we won’t get as much for our house (we probably will) and maybe somebody will be offended (I hope not), but we won’t feel hypocritical by watering down signs of a lifestyle that includes hunting.

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Want to Go To Africa?

Maybe it’s time. MDF Livermore-Pleasanton will have a trip to Africa in the Live Auction this Friday night.

Thormahlen & Cochran Safaris, with camps in South Africa and Namibia has donated a seven-day hunt which includes $1,000 credit towards trophy fees.

Go to www.africatrophyhunting.com and read about them.

Do your homework before the dinner, or you’ll have a hard time making a decision.

Here are the hunt donation forms for South Africa and Namibia: Donations SCI SA Nam13

Here is a list of trophy fees: trophy fees

I purchased my trip to South Africa at an MDF event. It’s a bit of a leap, but we’ll have a representative on hand at the dinner to explain the details.

Here’s a flyer. Only a few days left.

Livermore 2013 flyer

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Trophy Chasers Supports MDF

Trophy Chasers has donated a one-person, two-day wild pig hunt to the Livermore-Pleasanton Chapter of MDF banquet on March 10, 2011. Hunting will take place on a portion of Trophy Chaser’s 100,000 acres leased land near King City.

 

Trophy Chasers hunts year round for wild pigs in this area. The donation is for a meat pig, but can be upgraded to a trophy boar for a $200 trophy fee. A trophy boar is categorized by tusks greater than two inches from the jaw. The hunt does not include lodging or accomodations.

 

For more information about the hunt go to the Trophy Chasers web site: http://www.trophychasers.com/

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BC Deer Hunt

BC was great, the deer were there and the hunting was good. Although I didn’t bring home a buck, I was impressed by the opportunity and also the bucks my friends Jeff and George bagged. The area was densely wooded except where fields had been created by clearing timber and those fields held both whitetail and mule deer.

The forest held mostly mule deer, which were very elusive, even during the rut. The fields were all on privately owned property and the deer there were easier to spot and probably easier to approach as well. Farming and ranch activities somewhat moderated their willingness to accept the presence of vehicles.

Here are photos of bucks taken on the trip. More later.

Jeff and his guide Corey with Jeff's whitetail

Jeff’s whitetail had a gross score over 160 B&C. He shot it from a tree stand while Corey rattled.

Jeff with the head and cape of his mule deer buck

Jeff’s muley had three points on each side, double eye guards, heavy horns, an outside width of 26 inches and a height of 21 inches. It was aged at about seven years old. The buck came to the sound of Corey’s rattling horns.

George "W." with his muley.

Seattle George took this buck during heavy rutting activity. It had typical muley antlers, a width of 23 inches and antler height of  18 inches. Jeff and George took these mule deer bucks within 100 yards of the same spot, two days apart.

I found a buck I would have shot, on the last day of the hunt, but despite huge outside dimensions, the buck was not legal. After the 20th of November, mule deer bucks must have four antler tines on each side and the buck I encountered on November 22nd was only three by two.

Light was poor and he was far away. Here’s the best photo I have. Our outfitter, Kiff Covert of Dome Creek Outfitters took good care of us and I recommend him highly.

This buck had great dimensions, but not enough antler tines.

Kiff has a better picture of this 3×2 and I intend to publish it in a later post. More BC info as I find time.

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Mule Deer and Whitetail Deer Hunt – Looking Forward to Some British Columbia Weather Next Week.

Dome Creek, BC forecast for next week. 

Sunday: Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Low plus 5. High 10.

 

Monday: Periods of rain. Low plus 3. High plus 3.

 

Tuesday: A mix of sun and cloud. Low minus 3 (Celsius). High minus 1.

 

Wednesday: Cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 9. High minus 5.

After traveling on Monday, we’ll begin our deer hunt on Tuesday. The forecast sounds like perfect deer-hunting weather. I’ll be packing some cold-weather clothing, but cold is preferred over rain at just above the freezing level. Cold weather might keep the deer out. Hope so.

I’ve been working hard on packing. Trying to take just the right amount of clothing. Extra luggage is expensive, so we’ll work out the best plan for that. I purchased a couple U. S. Army duffel bags today and I’m picking up some soft cooler cases for meat. The huge bags won’t be fun to carry, but they will hold a lot of deer meat. Since we can tag two deer each, we’re hoping to come home well loaded and hopefully with some respectable antlers.

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Montana, Land of Plenty for the Outdoorsman

Just back from a week in Montana. What a place. Here’s a snippit of what we saw.

We viewed Merriam turkeys and whitetail deer constantly from the porch.

 

Whitetails were present along the river while we fished and in town when we passed through.

 

These four bucks were watering at the river as we fished.

 

Left to right, Jerry (guide), myself, brother-law-Bill and Monte (guide)

 

We caught lots of smallmouth and some pike. The smally in the photo is three pounds, our largest. Fishing at Thompson Falls, we caught two others about that size and a zillion small bass. Largest fish caught was a five pound pike.

We spent the week with Flat Iron Outfitting, owned and operated by Ross Fratzke. He runs a hunting operation on about 3,000 acres of private ground for white-tails and elk. He also guides on the Lolo National Forrest for deer, bear and elk.

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Deer Hunting 2010, Decision Time

Had to make a couple calls regarding deer hunting in 2010. First I had to decide whether to purchase a landowner tag in Nevada again. I paid $4,500 for the tag in 2008 and 2009, a price that I thought was maybe a bit high, but it gave me some amount of control over the tag for future years, so I figured that added a little value.

My hunting partners decided to pass in 2010, leaving me the option of purchasing two tags, one for me and another for a hunting partner. I checked in with my first two choices and they didn’t want to spend that much money for a tag. I could have purchased one tag for $4,500, but decided that my budget was $3,500 this year. Business is down and it makes sense to have a budget.

So, I told the landowner that I could only do $3,500 – essentially declining the tag, but he could have changed his mind and accepted $3,500. He didn’t.

I went to the WHCE at the Salt Palace armed with my $3,500 budget. It took me a couple days of shopping to pick out the hunts that peaked my interest. It came down to a Montana deer/elk combination - seven day pack trip for $4.500, a Montana mule deer/antelope ranch hunt for $2.500 or a BC  7-day mule deer/white-tail combination hunt in November  for $3,250. All three prices are for two hunters to one guide.

A big difference in  total cost of these trips was tags. In Montana the guaranteed tags would add $1,500 for deer/elk and $1,250 for antelope/deer, while the BC tags  would cost about $500 total for the two deer species.

I figured that travel cost would be basically the same for each of the hunts – in the ball park of $600-$700 for plane, taxi and possible overnight hotel stays.

Out-the-door the BC hunt price came closest to matching my budget and also filled my personal hunting desires as I’ve never bagged a white-tail deer. And, it kept open my chances for a big mule deer as well. Kiff Covert, of  Dome Creek Outfitters is our guide/outfitter.

I put the check in the mail yesterday.

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The Wildebeest

The wildebeest is a distinctly African animal. If I’d seen “The Lion King” prior to going to Africa, I might have made different decisions.

The blue wildebeest in the above photo was observed and photographed from a vehicle at Kruger National Park.

I took the  photo on week two of our African “safari.” On week three, I stood in a pit blind looking at a wildebeest and zebra 20 yards away. With bow in hand and a broadhead tipped arrow on the rest, I considered which to shoot.

I have to admit that the wildebeast seemed more appropriate and when it turned broadside, my arrow was released without regret. It pierced his hide right behind the shoulder and ended his life quickly. I didn’t think much about passing on the zebra, until my wife stated that she didn’t want a zebra rug anyway. That seems strange to me now.

One of the risks of traveling to Africa is that you may change your some of your opinions. I did and I don’t regret it. I like the music from lion king, but I doubt I’ll ever watch it.

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Sunny-Day Mallards at the MDF Convention

Sometimes good things sneak up on you like sunny-day November mallards. When you go to the marsh on those sunny November days, you don’t expect much. You know the odds of taking home more than a bird or two are slim. But for some reason, unknown to you, the ducks arrive in numbers. The drake’s green heads glimmer in the bright sun and the birds come to your calling.

They don’t seem as wary and they give you shots you can hit. Your duck strap fills and you can’t believe your good fortune. Sunny-day mallards are the best of them all. But, to bag sunny day mallards, you’ve got to hunt often and have your share of empty straps as well.

That’s the way I felt about The Mule Deer Foundation convention in 2008. I had no great expectations about the trip. I hoped that it would provide me with energy and reason to continue to work for their conservation efforts. What I found was much like the flocks of sunny-day mallards that bring me back to the marsh.

The members of MDF are big hearted and appreciate these events for the right reasons. They donate what they can afford, sometimes more sometimes less, but it’s meaningful. There are no big buck awards at the MDF convention. It’s not a contest to see who can spend the most money to impress the crowd.

Yes there are those exceptions like the sale of the Utah Governor’s mule deer tag for $187,500, but the person who bought that tag phoned his bid in. The real “sunny-day mallards” at the convention are the people that just come to share good feelings about making a difference for wildlife.

One of those is Alan Stuart. On Friday night after the convention events were over, I joined my good friends Jerry and Pat Lowery and Hal and Linda Stauff in the MDF hospitality suit. As we had not attended the last of the evening events, we arrived a little early, before the crowd.

Tired from partying the night before, I was not expecting to last very long as I sipped on a bud light. A couple came in through the back door and approached the bar in a manner that let me know they were new. They had a European look about them and I was a bit surprised to see them.

Not that they weren’t welcome, but we don’t get many foreigners at the MDF hospitality suite. Mule deer are for common folks and unlike some of the other successful conservation organizations, we don’t have a lot of interest from traveling hunters; that’s for the sheep guys and Safari Club.

It wasn’t long before the couple approached the table where I sat and asked if the seats next to me were available. I replied yes, happy to have them aboard. They introduced themselves as Alan and Sue Stewart. As we struck up a conversation, I realized that Alan looked familiar.

“Are you the guy who won the desert sheep-hunt raffle?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

I think he blushed, but I couldn’t see it in the dim light. Sue was a bit more comfortable with the subject and she filled in a few of the details about the upcoming hunt.

For those who don’t understand the significance of winning a desert sheep hunt, let me explain. Each year at the Wild Sheep Foundation’s convention, the Foundation conducts a series of drawings for sheep hunts. Raffle tickets are expensive, about $100 each, and the Wild Sheep Foundation sells many tickets with much of the proceeds going to conservation.

The desert sheep hunts typically sell for in the neighborhood of $50,000. The reason they sell for so much is that they are in high demand and are very limited in number. Sheep hunters looking to take home one of each species of North American sheep are often wanting a desert sheep as the last of four species.

The sheep hunt was Alan Stuart’s sunny-day mallard. As we continued our conversation, I learned he was from New Zealand and that he owned and managed a 10,000-acre ranch and hunting operation on the South Island. He farms sheep and red deer along with outfitting hunters for the many New Zealand exotic species. He claimed that his area was excellent for trophy red stags, and I believed him.

The evening came to a close and we exited the party about the same time. I thought nothing more about the meeting until later the next day, when I realized that Alan might be a good source of a donation for our Livermore-Pleasanton banquet. Just before the show closed, I located Alan’s show booth. His company is called Leithen Valley Trophy Hunts.

As I approached, Alan lit up and stepped over to acknowledge me.  It’s always awkward, asking for donations, but I made my best effort.

“I don’t want to twist your arm, but I’d like to know if you could make a hunt donation to our MDF banquet coming up next month,” I asked.

“Yep,” he replied.

Not believing what I was hearing, I continued to talk, “We’ll have 350 to 400 people their and your hunt will sell well.”

“Yep,” he said one more time, “It will be a five-day hunt for silver-medal red stag.”

I finally realized that not only did we have a hunt to help us raise money at our dinner, but also that Alan had donated it in a way that had minimized my discomfort and for that (and the hunt as well) I thank him.

Alan and Sue’s web address is http://www.leithenvalley.com.

  

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Ducks, Deer and Wildlife Conservation in Alberta

 

On a recent hunting trip in Alberta, I was surprised to learn that in Alberta, the government does not permit land owners to lease hunting rights to other people, in other words the hunting rights cannot be segregated from the land and sold to somebody else on a periodic basis. However, my guide could hunt on any landowner’s property by gaining permission and, because the landowner had no way to generate income from hunting, the likelihood of getting permission was (unlike California) very good.

Some landowners would turn down requests for access because somebody had abused them in the past and others were apparently opposed to hunting. In some cases people just didn’t want outsiders on their property. However, many of the landowners where open to letting us hunt and I was able to see many great mule deer bucks on private farms. I failed to bag the trophy I was looking for – but that’s another story.

(Caption: This young four-point buck walked by within archery range, but I couldn’t use my tag on this one.)

It appears the lack of hunting leases works in favor of the blue-collar hunter who cannot afford to pay for access to land. However, I had to wonder if it wasn’t working against the wildlife. For example, if hunting leases were in place, the financial incentive would create motivation to improve or maximize wildlife habitat.

One of the main incentives for draining potholes and plowing every possible square foot of land is to maximize farm income. If, on the other hand, if farmers could generate income through hunting leases, the potholes and bush patches would be a source of revenue via the expansion of wildlife populations and hunting opportunity.

I recall this issue coming up at some point in the past when a waterfowl hunter explained to me why Ducks Unlimited invests so much money in protecting potholes on the Canadian prairie. DU works to encourage landowners to place conservation easements on the land and in some cases purchases conservation easements and develops potholes. After traveling in Alberta, the value of DU’s habitat work is much more clear to me.

One of the likely ways to overcome the lease issue would be for hunters to purchase Alberta ranches to gain the right to hunt and also improve the hunting conditions with habitat improvement. Unfortunately, non-citizens must have a guide while hunting big game in Alberta, limiting another avenue for wildlife habitat improvement.

When I mentioned this to my Outfitter in Alberta he suggested that there is a way to form a partnership between non-resident alien hunters and outfitters. Such as partnership might be one way to own land in Canada and create a way to hunt there on land that you improved for wildlife yourself. Although possible this type of arrangement would require a great deal of thought, legal research and expert council. I found out later, discussing this issue with an Alberta real estate agent, that hunting waterfowl and upland game does not require an outfitter and also that there are many ways to set up trusts so that non-resident aliens can enjoy the benefits of land ownership.

In the meantime I’ve heard stories about some great sounding waterfowl hunting trips to Canada at a reasonable price. Maybe next time I’ll try a combo trip – mule deer and ducks. For now, it looks like you don’t need to own land in Canada to go and have a great hunting experience.

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