RUSSELL THORNBERRY OUTDOORS

January 2009

Happy New Year one and all! Welcome to the first RTO Newsletter of the New Year.  Can you believe another year has flown by?  It seems that every year passes faster than the one before it -- all the more reason to make every minute count.

Homecoming Deer Hunt

In November 2008, I made a nostalgic trip to the 30,000-acre Majestic Ranch in southeastern Alberta to hunt whitetails and film a show for Buckmasters.  I spent years outfitting on the Majestic Ranch back in the 80s but hadn’t been back for almost 20 years.  I was amazed at how little it had changed.  The deer still followed the same trails as they did all those years ago.  It was déjà vu when I found the remains of an old wooden treestand I made and attached to an ancient cottonwood tree more than 20 years ago, back in the infancy of the trophy whitetail craze.  Who could have guessed what was about to happen?

I hunted from a box blind out in the cornfield and watched the whitetails streaming out of the timber in the evening.  A buck caught my eye right at the edge of the timber. He looked good, but he was engrossed in grinding his antler against a fence post.

As deer after deer filtered into the cut corn, the object of my attention continued rubbing the fence post.  After 45 minutes he finally abandoned the post and headed into the cornfield.  The sun was dropping fast and it looked like he would pass in front of me at about 150 yards – and he did with the setting sun directly behind him. The sun blazed through my scope so brightly that I was virtually blinded by the glare.  As the buck continued south, two other bucks joined him. Although the glare was subsiding, I couldn’t keep track of which buck was which. I was exasperated to think this plan was not going to come together after all that.  Heck, I could have shot him when he was rubbing the fence post, but I wanted to let him get closer.  As the last rays of evening light dwindled, I asked cameraman Chris Chastain, “Which one is he?” 

“The one on the right,” he said. I pulled the trigger and the buck folded.  It was a grand finale for my homecoming trip to the Majestic Ranch.  Look for the complete hunt to be televised in 2009 on Buckmasters TV.

Hunting with Ivy

My travel and hunting/filming year ended in mid December with a trip to southwest Texas to the Live Oak Hunting Lodge www.liveoakhuntinglodge.com with my 9-year-old granddaughter, Ivy Patterson.  It was her first deer hunt and we had a wonderful time.  I had a little Remington .22-250 cut down to just her size and considering she had never shot anything larger than a BB gun, she was an amazing shot.  She put 3 shots into 1 inch at 100 yards! I doubt that I could improve on that.

In addition to being a crack shot, she set records for sitting still for hours in a blind without a complaint. That trait might have been handed down from her Gramps. When a doe presented herself about 60 yards in front of our ground blind, Ivy sat steady as a rock and made a perfect shot. To say I was proud of her would be an understatement. Meanwhile, back at the lodge, she turned out to be a pretty fair hand at the pool table as well. It was a wonderful end to my hunting season – deer hunting with my granddaughter. As the cliché goes, “It just doesn’t get any better than that.”

Changing Horses

After 24 years as the Editor in Chief of Buckmasters, Rack and GunHunter magazines, it is retirement time for me. Don’t get me wrong; the word “retirement” really just means switching horses.  It also means that Sharleen and I will spend the winters in Woodland Park, Colo., near my daughter Michelle and her family, and summers in central Alberta, Canada, west of Rocky Mountain House, where the brown trout rise to dry flies and make my heart leap for joy! Sharleen and I will be involved in ministry on a full time basis after our move, which we plan for early March. I will continue to organize men’s retreats and outings as well as hunting and fishing opportunities, all of which I will be posting in this newsletter.  So, while our mailing address will change, we’ll still be easy to find.  My website will remain the same.

Sprint B.C. Bear Hunt (May 2010)

If a huge black bear rug is an itch you have not yet scratched, and you’re, well, itchy, take note of the trip I have planned for May of 2010 with Fawnie Mountain Outfitters, operated by my old friend John Blackwell, who has been in the area for 39 years.  John has a great bear area in the Chilcotin region.  In fact, it was there that I killed the British Columbia No. 1 black bear taken by bow and arrow a few years back.  It was chocolate brown, 8 feet from nose to tail, and weighed an estimated 650-700 pounds.  It truly was a giant.

Blackwell’s area has a very good reputation for large black bears, and his hunts are similar to the Vancouver Island black bear hunts, producing similar sized bears with excellent coats due to colder winter and a variety of colors including black, brown, and blond.

Guides drive 4x4 pickup trucks to feeding areas, glassing, spotting and stalking bears that are just emerging from hibernation where they feed intensely on green shoots, clover and dandelions. Some hunts are located on fly-in lakes, but with float lanes on hand, hides are flown out to freezers to ensure that they do not spoil.

Rainbow trout are plentiful at camps and at the lodge. Blackwell also offers fishing packages for trout, steelhead and salmon in the summer months.

2009 prices for 7-day hunts are $3,800 U.S. per person for a 2x1guided hunt and $4,950 for a 1x1 guided hunt. Should you choose to shoot a second bear (you can be licensed for 2 bears), there is an $800 trophy fee charged for the second bear.  No trophy fee is charged for the first bear. The prices include the floatplane flight from Anahim Lake B.C. and the delivery of your bear trophies to a local taxidermist.  Hunting licenses cost $180 Canadian, plus a black bear tag price of $180 each. You can purchase 1 or 2 bear tags. Blackwell’s guides all have from 10-12 years of experience, and they have a keen sense of competition between them to produce the best bears, which serves their hunters well.

I have hunted with and guided for John Blackwell. I know his territory and his character and would gladly take my mother hunting with him, but she’s not into bears!  I’m planning about a year ahead here so we have plenty of time to get organized.  Let me know if this hunt is for you and I’ll save you a spot.  Bookings are available on a first-come-first serve basis.

I have hunted with John Blackwell, and on occasions, and I have guided for him, as well. I know his territory and his character and would gladly take my mother hunting with him, but she’s not into bears!  I’m planning about a year ahead here so we have plenty of time to get organized.  Let me know if this hunt is for you and I’ll save you a spot.  Booking are available on a first-come-first serve basis.  There are 6 places available in total for this hunt

Arrival date in Anahim Lake B.C. (accessed from Vancouver B.C.) is May 21,

Departure Date is May 28, 2010

The deposit for a 2x1 hunt is $1,900 US per person

Call for information and availability: (334) 409-0574

This Month’s Feature: “A British Columbia Bear and a Half” chronicles the hunt in which I took the B.C. record black bear while hunting with John Blackwell in the Fawnie Mountain region.

Coming in the February Newsletter: Highlights of the 2009 Archery Trade Association Show in Indianapolis covering what's new in archery for 09, as well as field test of some of the hottest new bows!

The Final Frontier

Bowhunting technology has advanced more in the last 50 years than in all of history, and I am among its millions of beneficiaries. But when considering the ultimate bowhunting challenge, I realized I’d have to take a giant step backward into the world of primitive man. The process has given me a newfound respect and admiration for ancient technologies that we modern hunters have never known.

Several does milled around my ground blind like gray ghosts, emerging at dawn from the vicious Mexican flora of chaparro, black brush, mesquite, cat claw and prickly pear cacti. I watched them through tiny holes between the leaves of the thorn-clad walls of the ground blind that I had bled to build. If one of them ventured into range in front of my shooting window, I would launch a river cane arrow tipped with a stone point, propelled by an Osage orange longbow – all of my own making. I had spent a long, ambitious and often frustrating year preparing for this moment, and I was about to find out what primitive bowhunting was all about.  My hope was to shoot a deer with my antiquated equipment in an effort to experience what hunting was like in North America before Europeans set foot on these shores. Any deer would be more than ample. After all, Native American hunters were not after trophy antlers – they were after food.

Suddenly a doe appeared five yards from my blind, standing broadside in front of my ragged shooting window. I took a deep breath, leaned forward slowly, and in one motion drew and launched my cane arrow.  I watched in amazement as the arrow arced over her shoulder.

How could I have missed? She was only 4 ½ paces away. I went back and shot at my target and all was fine. To be sure, instinctive shooting is a whole new challenge, but I was deadly out to 15 yards. Had I actually choked on that doe?  Could excitement have had such an effect on me? I wasn’t sure. I had taken a grizzly bear and a Cape buffalo with bow and arrow, which caused me considerably more angst than that doe. I was puzzled and frustrated. Does,1 – Russell, 0.

That evening another doe followed in the footsteps of the first. At approximately the same range, I missed her, too.  That miss really rattled me.  As before, when I shot at a target, I was dead on. Desperation set in. I wasn’t going back inside a blind until I figured out what was wrong. 

Fortunately I discovered the problem the following morning.  I realized that when I drew my arrow I was bent at the waist to a lower position than my blind’s shooting window allowed. It was too high. With confidence I returned to the blind in the middle of the day and lowered my window.  That evening, just before dark, I made a perfect shot on yet another doe and felt as though I had just conquered Mt. Everest. Man, was I pumped. A year of preparation had paid off and I had taken the most challenging animal – THE bowhunting accomplishment – of my half century-plus hunting career.

The generous folks of 2J Outfitters (www.2joutfitters.com) at Rancho la Palma celebrated with me and urged me to try for a buck. It was an easy sell. At dawn the following morning I watched the deer movement around another blind I had made.  Jimmy Ferguson told me there was a nice 10-point buck in that area, so I wanted to sit back and watch from a distance before I made my move. At first light I saw the buck and was stunned. Nice? This buck was not nice; he was awesome. I couldn’t imagine driving a flint-tipped arrow into his ribs. To make things even more dramatic, he was nibbling the tips of the newly cut branches of my ground blind.  Adrenaline shot through my body. I could scarcely believe my eyes. This was going to be a hunt!

After a couple of days of peek-a-boo from the blind, the buck reappeared just after dawn and looked like he might give me a shot. I stood back from my shooting window, fighting to breathe quietly as my heart slammed away in my chest like a jackhammer. My bow hand trembled involuntarily. My mind screamed for control, but my body couldn’t hear it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw high mahogany antlers only feet from my blind. I was not sure I could hold myself down for the shot. The hair stood at attention on the back of my neck, and my knees felt like they would buckle at any moment. His antlers passed my shooting window and then his rib cage. He paused and began nibbling on a black brush bush, angling slightly away. Everything was perfect. It was now or never.

The doe entered the picture as I began my draw. She saw movement and blew up as I was releasing my arrow. In a millisecond she jumped for cover, taking the buck with her, but I was too far-gone to hold. My arrows plunked into the rocky ground where the buck had been standing less than a heartbeat ago. I felt like a dishrag – entirely spent. It was like every muscle and nerve in my body was going to come unwound. Never had I been so electrified. I walked back to the lodge and took a nap. It’s better to lie down on purpose than fall down by accident, I guess. 

The next attempts proved fruitless and finally it was time to head back to Texas.  To call it quits was a hollow event, like breaking up with your first girlfriend, only worse. I wanted just one more chance. Just one more cast, as fishermen say. I changed my flight schedule so I could have once last chance at that glorious buck.  If he didn’t show the next morning, then so be it.

At daybreak Saturday morning he appeared suddenly … like an apparition. My body assumed its involuntary electrified state as my nerves went from 0 to 60 in an instant. This time there was no doe around. The buck looked relaxed and confident. Admittedly, I was completely off the wall by then. I was pinning the needle on my pucker factor gauge. A year of preparation and practice had come down to this magnificent moment. I knew exactly how Peyton Manning feels when he’s backed up at his own goal line, down by six, with two seconds on the clock and no receivers in sight. Exhilarating!

I can take little credit for what happened next because I hardly remember it. When the buck passed my blind at five paces my body responded beyond my mind’s capacity to call the play. I went onto autopilot, I think. I remember initiating the draw, but in truth I have no idea how the arrow got to his heart. Somehow it did.  The buck piled up in the brush and I had my own version of a nervous breakdown.  If I never hunted whitetails or anything else for the rest of my life, hunting owes me nothing. I am grateful, I am content, and I am very, very lucky.

Author’s Note:

I dedicate this article to two awesome men: Ben Contreras, my arrowhead hunting mentor, who God placed in my path when I was a wild teenager in need of a father figure, and the late Bill Metcalf who tutored me in flint knapping and bow building. Without him this story would have never taken place. May he rest in peace.

I also owe a debt of gratitude to Jimmy Ferguson, Jr. and Abraham Garcia for the privilege of hunting on their incredible Rancho la Palma in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Both the lodge and the hunting are as good as it gets!

December 2008

Barry Patterson Breaks Elk Drought in Saskatchewan

In early September I took my son-in-law, Barry Patterson, to Saskatchewan to bowhunt for elk. He’s been beating his feet up and down the mountains around his home near Woodland Park, Colo., for ages, trying to arrow an elk, but unexpected circumstances and shrewd, pressured bulls have left him with a goose egg. I told him that the Saskatchewan hunt with Spirit of the North might be something of a let down because there were no mountains, plenty of air and lots of good bulls.  Nonetheless, he begrudgingly accepted my invitation.

Not only did he break his goose egg wide open, he broke it twice, bagging two gorgeous bulls and returning to Colorado a certified elk hunting celebrity. His first bull nearly trampled him before he got off a quick shot at point blank range. His second was taken from a ground blind we made near a wallow.  Bull No. 2 came to the wallow like he was on a string. Barry made a perfect shot, driving his arrow through the boiler room.  The bull jumped into the murky wallow, stood up on his hind legs and pitched back on solid ground and expired.  What a show and what a joyous time we shared amidst screaming bulls and clear, crisp weather.  I have a feeling that will not be our last Spirit of the North trip. 

I take a group of hunters to Spirit of the North in early September.  If you’re interested in joining me, feel free to call or email.

Bad Wind in British Columbia

Immediately following our elk hunt, I traveled to Fort Saint John, B.C., to film a hunt for Buckmasters TV with my old friend Ray Jackson of Horseshoe Creek Outfitters.  I held over-the-counter tags for elk, mule deer, whitetails, moose and black bears. That’s the good news. 

The bad news is that as Hurricane Ike was ripping up the Texas coast it created impossible winds all the way up through western Canada.  During daylight hours the wind never quit swirling.  The minute we’d hear an elk bugle, the wind would betray us. One night we slept under an ancient spruce in the heart of a nest of bulls.  They screamed all night, keeping us awake, but at dawn, the wind swirled once more and the elk fell silent. 

I arrowed one black bear and had a close encounter with a magnificent mule deer.  We found him bedded on the steep river hills.  I crept into forty-something yards and waited for him to stand.  When he did, I drew and managed to stick an arrow in the center of his bed, between his front and back legs.  Ugh, the agony of defeat.

Naturally after I left B.C. the weather began to cooperate, and later hunters fared much better than I did.  You can’t control the weather, so you have to take it as it comes, but in my hunting experience, there’s no place like the Peace River drainage in B.C. for a mixed bag of game where tags can still be purchased over the counter for many species. I have taken everything you can name with Ray Jackson and highly recommend him. 

www.horseshoecreekoutfitters.com  (250) 783-5220

Where the Buffalo Roam

Rounding out a very full September, I spent two amazing weeks in South Dakota and Wyoming on buffalo hunts arranged by my friend Mitch Kjose, founder of  Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen Plus (www.fcsplus.org).  Mitch arranges every imaginable kind of outdoors experience with a Christian emphasis, ranging from mountain bicycle tours, prairie dog shoots, pheasant hunts, fly fishing outings, etc.

The South Dakota hunt was booked with Jim Lutter (www.buffalocountybuffalo.com), 605-293-3262).  Lutter offers the most unique buffalo hunts I’ve ever seen: period-specific to the 1850s, including covered wagon and horse travel, camping out and eating chuck wagon meals – all in the gorgeous Gana Valley next to Wind Cave National Park in the Black Hills.  This is where your old-west buffalo hunt comes alive and the cowboy in you is finally free. Lutter offers other conventional hunts for buffalo in other areas, but this is the epitome of true “old time” buffalo hunting, as true to the 1850s as can be experienced. I even used an old Sharps .45-110 buffalo rifle that plinks 500-grain bullets accurately out to 800 yards!  I bagged a gorgeous bull and enjoyed reliving the past with Lutter’s staff of cowboys. They even dressed the part to a “T.” The only thing missing was John Wayne, but with a pilgrim like me onboard, maybe that was best.

The second hunt was on the sprawling IPY Ranch snuggled in the shadow of the famous Devil’s Tower, the location for the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”  Happily, all my encounters were with buffalo, mule deer, whitetails and elk.  Now that’s my kind of close encounter.

This bowhunt gave me an opportunity to put the new BowTech General through its paces.  I was amazed and consider the General ( www.bowtecharchery.com) the finest compound bow I have ever shot. After chasing one bull for 10 miles through hills and timber and eventually losing the chase, we stumbled right into an ancient bull, alone, beside a dry wash. I put an arrow behind his shoulder as he was quartering away.  He stumbled 25 yards and dropped.  After taking pictures in the dry wash where he fell, we took advantage of the flatbed truck with the Hydrolift and hauled the bull onto a bald ridge where I could get some pictures of him with the Devil’s Tower in the background. Ranch Manager George White made our stay at the IPY Ranch an unforgettable experience.  In fact, one of these days I’m going back to hang out with George and enjoy the scenery … and some fly-fishing.

www.ipyranch.com, 307-467-5540

Russellville Wild Game Dinner

I was honored to be the guest speaker at Calvary Baptist Church in Russellville, Ala., on Oct 30th, 2008.  It was a great event with a capacity crowd of about 300.  We had some great food and good laughs in story and song before I shared my testimony of God’s faithfulness to my family and me.  Eight people accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior.  My special thanks to Brian Pace and Pastor Wade Wallace for inviting me to speak at their event.

www.discovercalvary.com, 256-332-2804

Men in Their Own Skin

By Dudley Hall

Our world needs men and not just a few of them. We don't need any kind of man. We need men who are strong, able to lead, courageous enough to persevere, wise enough to make good decisions, and generous enough to give strategically and effectively. But where can you find this kind of man? Most people wouldn't look for them in a church. They believe churches are full of nice guys who don't want to offend anyone. They'll tell you to look for a warrior in a bar, prison, on a football field, or in a combat zone. This is not God's design. He designed man to be strong and spiritual, equal parts worshipper and warrior, fighter and father. Men In Their Own Skin will show you what a man of God looks like. He knows who he is and doesn't apologize. After all, the world is waiting for him to rise to his calling. As you embrace these life-changing perspectives, you'll enjoy being the man God had in mind when He thought of you. You'll never be the same. Go ahead. The world's waiting for you.  This is a must-read book for every Christian Man

Men in Their Own Skin  ($15) is available on www.sclm.org or by calling (817) 267-9224.

Southeast Sportsman’s Retreat Cancelled for 2009

Unknowingly we booked the Southern Sportsman’s Lodge for our annual S.E. Sportsman’s Retreat on the weekend of Valentine’s Day.  By the time we realized the mistake, it was too late to change the date due to scheduling of Dudley Hall and several other key people.  So with hat in hand I offer sincere apologies to those of you who were planning to attend.  The good news is that we’ll have our May retreat in Texas right on schedule.  Dates and particulars will appear in a forthcoming newsletter.

December’s Feature: “The Last Frontier”

Russell takes a trophy whitetail with self-made archery tackle including an Osage orange long bow and river cane arrows tipped with points he knapped from stone.  Read all about it on here.

Coming Next

In my January newsletter, I’ll be reporting on whitetail hunts in Ohio, Mexico, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Texas, as well as speaking engagements for 2009. 

Until then, good hunting and God bless,

Russell Thornberry