My son-in-law, Barry Patterson, my daughter Michelle, and their four kids came up to Alberta for a visit in July, which naturally resulted in some serious fly-fishing on ‘Possum Creek, my favorite and testiest brown trout stream. Right at dusk Barry hooked this great fish on a #16 Adams and we actually netted the fish in the dark. Barry was using a little 3-weight rod with 7X tippet. In the dark we couldn’t see where the fly was hooked so he just snapped off the leader and released the fish. The next day at 3 p.m. Barry caught the same fish in the exact same spot, still wearing the # 16 Adams in his lip. I jokingly told Barry that if he caught the same fish a third time, we’d go straight to Vegas. The next day he hooked what we believe was the same fish yet again, however, due to an ill-placed bush, the fish broke off. Oh well, maybe we’ll get to Vegas in 2010.
Russell Patterson, my oldest grandson, made his fly-fishing debut on Alberta’s little known ‘Possum Creek in July of 09, and after several close calls he connected with this Rocky Mountain whitefish, thereby becoming a full-fledged fly fisherman. Like his father, Russell has infinite patience and unlimited desire. This is the beginning of something very special – not the least of which is a new fly-fishing partner for gramps!
Darcy Dirsten from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, has been a professional big game guide for years for everything from deer to elk to moose to bears to Bighorn sheep, so he knows how to hunt. However, he decided to try his luck with bow and arrow for the first time this fall. By the third day with a bow in his hand he was hitting a 2-inch bulls-eye at 60 yards with alarming regularity. Shall I say he’s a natural? He set up a treestand near his home and took his first animal with a bow – this pretty white-tailed buck – no more than three weeks from the time he first had a bow in his hand. No time wasted here! So, “Deadly Darcy Dirsten” (AKA ‘Triple D’) enters the ranks of successful bowhunters in record time. Way to go Darcy!
Corrine Bott, also of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, made a perfect shot on her first white-tailed buck in September – her first animal with a bow and arrow, but certainly not the last. Her husband John is an avid bowhunter and a winning competitive archer himself, and has his whole family flinging arrows. Corrine caught on to bowhunting in a big way and if John’s not available to take her hunting, she goes out by herself. I’m sure bagging this buck will spur her on to many more fruitful hours in treestands. And speaking of treestands, according to her father-in-law, Ray Bott, she shot his buck out of his treestand – or so he says. Sorry Ray, you gotta be present to win!
This September Jim Rogers of Grapevine, Texas, traveled to Saskatchewan for his first bowhunting trip since having open heart surgery and he was rewarded with a 210 6/8-inch B&C gross whitetail, clearly Jim’s best ever buck with bow or rifle. Jim is a hard-core whitetail hunter with plenty of bragging bucks on his wall, but this one is the icing on the cake. And it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy. He has the patience of Job and is willing to put in the time and energy it takes to get the job done. Congrats Jim. I hope you will continue to speak to us mortal deer hunters. Shooting a buck with a bow and arrow is hardly a “famous first” for Jim Rogers, but shooting one of this caliber certainly is! By the way, that’s Jim’s wife Jeanne in the photo with him and she is as devoted a deer hunter as her husband. It’s a family thing.
Allen bagged three bulls with his rifle in Colorado back in the late 80s, but this was his first opportunity to bag an elk with bow and arrow. He and his hunting partner Brad Glenn had been applying in Wyoming for the last three years and this was the first time they were drawn. Their first hunting day was Sept. 14th. On the 16th Allen had two close calls with two bulls and was at full draw at 27 yards on one but the angle was wrong so he held his shot. They found a great spot to hang a tree stand that Brad hunted a couple of days and the last day he shot a big cow at 15 yards. He made a great shot and she only went about 50 yards.
Brad and Allen were hunting about 10 miles apart. Brad dropped Allen off on top of the mountain that morning about an hour before daylight and as he hiked down the ridge into the canyon he could hear the same bull that he had hunted earlier in the week. He knew where there was a saddle in the ridge coming up out of the canyon where he thought the bull would come up the mountain to bed in the black timber. He got to that spot before daylight -- set up and started calling. When he cow-called the bull started answering and getting closer. Positioned behind a big spruce tree on the side of the ridge, he couldn't see the elk as they came up the mountain but when the cows stepped out they were only 15 yards away and Allen new the bull was right behind them.
He drew his BowTech 101st Airborne and when the bull stepped out and cleared the brush, he cow- called and stopped him at 22 yards. When he released his arrow he knew the shot was perfect -- a complete pass through. The bull took off running and Allen began cow-calling to him, stopping him at about 40 yards, as the bull looked for the cow he thought he was hearing. He was getting wobbly so Allen didn't bother nocking another arrow. The bull started to run again but only made it 10 more yards and piled up. The celebration began. It was an awesome experience that Allen will never forget. He described it like this: “To be in the Rocky Mountains on a cool September morning with golden aspen leaves and ‘elk music’ in the air -- only our God could create places like this!”
Custom rifle builder, James Ferguson Sr., (left – accompanied by guide) famous for creating the flattest shooting rifles on planet Earth, created a brand new rifle and cartridge by necking a .30-.378 Weatherby case up to .338 caliber, essentially creating a .338-.378 Magnum, just the ticket for those who want to make big dangerous critters very dead very quickly. To proof test his new rifle and cartridge he booked a September grizzly bear hunt in British Columbia and bagged this gorgeous specimen. Satisfied that this new creation is as devastating in the field as it is on paper, the new .338-.378 Ferguson Grizzly is now available from Ferguson Custom Rifles www.fergusonrifles.com. Mine is already on order. You’ll be hearing a lot more about this incredible cartridge in the future. Congrats on your first grizzly James, and on a great new rifle!
My friend Jeremy Johnson shot this Alabama alligator on August 22 at around 3 a.m. on Lake Eufaula. He was 8 feet long and estimated him at 130 pounds. Jeremy shot the gator with a bow and arrow and finished him off with the bang stick and was one of only 80 people that drew a tag for the gator hunt in Eufaula this year. Jeremy is a camerman for The Backwoods Life TV show, but this time he got to be in front of the camera while two of the show’s hosts filmed him making good on his first alligator hunt. Congrats Jeremy!
Clay Tiringer comes from a family of notoriously successful deer hunters. The Tiringer name strikes fear into the hearts of whitetails all across Saskatchewan, and rightfully so, they’re excellent hunters and they never give up. That said, a little luck now and then never hurts.
Okay, the stage is set. Clay decided to go bowhunting one evening in Sept. 09. But there was a problem -- he didn’t own a bow. So, he borrowed his father-in-law’s bow. Problem solved. Clay saw no need to shoot the bow or practice with it before he climbed into his treestand. After all, how hard could it be? He found out 1 1/2 hours later when a mind boggling, 36-point, non-typical buck walked under his stand, which he shot and killed. It was the first animal he ever shot with a bow and it turned out to be the new Saskatchewan bow and arrow record scoring over 244 inches!
I know, I can hear you bowhunters groaning from here, and you’re probably saying to yourselves, “Well, he better enjoy that buck because he’ll never get a shot at another one like that.” But remember, his last name is Tiringer and the Tiringer clan does not believe that lightning only strikes once – and they have an embarrassing collection giant record book whitetails to prove it. So you probably haven’t heard the last of Clay Tiringer.
RT
On the third straight day of struggling to learn how to shoot a muzzleloader — all by myself — I swatted mosquito number 72 from my temple and swore at the 92-degree Alabama afternoon. My shirt was drenched from the humidity — or perhaps the pressure of having only two days remaining until my hunt in Southern Ohio.
The rifle had failed to fire on my last two attempts — not a comforting thought to a guy who’d never even shot a blackpowder rifle until then. I shuddered to think that in a few short hours, a similar mishap could arise while coming face-to-face with the biggest buck I’d ever seen.
Thunder added to the tension as a storm began to loom above the pines. I was almost thankful at its approach, since it would put a merciful end to my frustrations. Giant drops began to fall, forcing a mad scramble to clean the rifle, throw a mountain of gear in the truck and retreat. As I ran to retrieve my target, I was astonished at the sight of a magnificent rainbow gradually forming on the horizon. It crept across the sky, almost indiscernibly, pushing the blackness eastward. I stopped in mid-stride to witness it slowly develop into a double-arcing prism before my very eyes. It was as if God was saying, “Go easy, son. This trip is my gift to you, and you are worrying all the fun out of it.”
At that moment, a sense of peace flooded my spirit.
Four days later, I huddled inside a ground blind, cursed another state’s rain and watched an alfalfa field full of nothing. I tried to keep a dry towel wrapped around the muzzleloader’s breech as water dripped from a window flap. It was while repositioning one of the flaps that I first noticed the buck standing 250 yards away. Even from that distance, its antlers looked HUGE. My jaw dropped as it shook the downpour from its coat, spraying like a wet dog and finishing with a vigorous headshake. It teased me by hanging out at the edge for an eternity, pawing, hooking branches, grazing and waiting for the rain to cease. Suddenly, the sun burst through the clouds, and the buck began to feed in my direction.
In short, adrenaline didn’t conquer me; the rifle didn’t misfire; I didn’t make a bad shot; and 90 minutes later, I was posing for photos with a 186-inch 15-point buck — the finest of my career and my first with a muzzleloader.
And as the warm evening sun created perfect picture-taking conditions, it occurred to me that rainbow I’d seen in Alabama wasn’t just some sort of scientific optical phenomenon. It was a reassuring promise that if I stopped worrying long enough to enjoy His gifts everything would turn out fine. The proof of that promise is something that I wanted to share with you.
Tim Martin
Russell,
Glad to see your alive and having fun. I heard you had retired and moved to Alberta.
Judging by your website: i would say your not too retired.
Since I Caribou hunted with you I have been all over the world hunting and fishing. I will be with James Ferguson 12-3-09 at 2J Outfitters. Hopefully he will have the Grizzly there so I can see it and shoot it.
I see you will be in Reno. Hopefully I will meet up with you.
Keep me on your e-mail list.
Gary Neal
Posted by: Gary Neal | November 18, 2009 at 07:41 AM
Russell,
Great to hear from you!
My oldest son CJ. and I bow hunted Pike County, Illinois November 9-10-11 with a friend of mine who runs a hunting business there. The weather had warmed up.. but we did both see bucks in the 150 - 160 class, running does at full speed from our stand, just too far to fling Carbon and G-5's at.
We will be going back again this year and I hope to be taking both of my son's with me as we all drew archery tags for Pike county. Football play offs have got in the way for my youngest son Cody to go on the last hunt..and CJ, my oldest son is in College..hope he can go again this season
Have been hunting here in Arkansas since we got home, working on getting our freezer filled with good success! Got a great buck chasing does here on our farm, and else were.
He is a cagey critter that I have been trying to get in my sites for 3 years..bet he is 6 years old now and a truly great buck for our country, probably 170 - 180 class. Hope I can send you a picture of him with me or one of my kids with a big grin on our face soon!
Hope you are doing good!
Good Hunting,
David Capps
Capps Guide Service Inc.
The Fisherman's Lodge
1-800-268-3474 - office
1-870-404-2890 - cell
capps@mtnhome.com
http://www.thefishermanslodge.com
http://www.cappsguideservice.com
http://www.ozarkbirdhunt.com/
Posted by: David Capps | November 20, 2009 at 06:04 AM
U ever hunt in ft lauderdale fl
Posted by: hamilton | December 28, 2009 at 07:53 PM