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Huntin’ Hunters

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It’s nice when an event comes off better than the hype given to it and such was the case with the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl party we threw at the Silver Legacy in Reno. Now you might say there was plenty of hype given to the game but Shane and I were too busy at the Wild Sheep Foundation Convention in Reno to pay it much attention. And since our good buddy Jeff Batchman from Visalia Safe Co. did most of the inviting to the party it didn’t take Joan and I much effort at all to put it on.

The Sheep Foundation return to Reno was a much anticipated event. It turned out to be well organized and thought out with the food at the welcome back party the best I’ve had at a buffet for such a big event. The volunteers and staff went out of their way to look after the details and to assist the exhibitors. Sadly lacking were attendees. Like Yogi Berra said “If people want to stay home and not watch us play, there’s nothing you can do to stop them”. It did give us a lot of time to visit with colleagues and other exhibitors but there were some pretty empty aisles at times. WSF did announce that in the future the Friday and Saturday auctions would not take place during exhibit hours.

The Safari Club International convention 2 weeks earlier at the same venue, the Reno Sparks Convention Center, was a much larger event of course and really kept Shane and I hopping both during the show and with follow ups. The attendance appeared to be down slightly but those who came were there to buy. It’s also interesting to see all of the nationalities represented in our bookings from that show. While American hunters still predominate, Hungarian, Czech, Austrian and Australians were there buying as well. Most were interested in mixed bag hunts and as a result we still have some Stone Sheep hunts available for 2010.

Our final show on this tour will be the Grand Slam Club / Ovis convention in Las Vegas beginning Feb. 17. Joan and I will be there and I will be giving a presentation on the “Future of Stone Sheep Hunting in BC”. I will post that presentation here following the convention. There are some interesting things to consider. The most important being if you can afford a Stone Sheep hunt in 2010 or 2011 don’t wait until 2012.

Still here - still at it

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I've been meaning to give a 2009 season update for awhile now but always something more pressing came along, most of it involving finishing up the season. We have the trophies all shipped now so that's one of the more time consuming items out of the way. And given the way that the year unfolded, it's easier to look forward than backward. Like everyone else in the guide-outfitting buiness in the world, we were short of clients by the time the season started, mostly from cancellations but we got through it. Our sheep season was only about half full and while I'm a firm believer that you can't bankroll wildlife, maybe we'll have a few older rams in 2010.

We got off to a great start with Steve Lulich returning to hunt with us again and getting a nice ram on day 2. This was Kyle Serle's first time guiding a sheep hunter for us and with my son Brian along to help and they showed us they're up to the task. Our hard luck hunter was another returnee, Don Stogdell. We had to medevac Don last year although he came right back into the mountains after a few stitches but got beat by weather then. This year he and Shane put in a supreme effort, moved camps, travelled miles and had the misfortune of a miss on the final day of his hunt.

Two things that don't happen frequently with our sheep both happened on the same hunt while Lee Friend was hunting with Roy. First, they stalked a ram for over 4 hours that was by itself; that's not unusual. But it was well over a full curl and under age (less than 8). That doesn't happen often in our area. Then after they shot it 2 big rams stood up, both being over 40 inches - Roy and Lee's assertion. And they had lots of time to look at them. Unfortunately we had no more sheep hunters coming. We're hoping they make the winter OK. And then to top this off Roy and Lee had a similar thing happen when they went after grizzly. They spotted a good size, solitary bear feeding in a big blueberry patch. While they made a mile long stalk on it, out of sight most of the time, another hunter watching the bear saw a much larger bear come along only to be run off by the first bear. The first bear turned out to be an old sow with just about the worst bunch of teeth I've ever seen. Obviously she was mean enough to put the run on anything. The hunter who watched the whole thing, Rudy Nelson, had bought our Parent/Youth hunt we had donated to Safari Club International last year. His son Rudy, was hunting goats that day with Kyle so Rudy Sr. had tagged along with Roy and Lee hoping to find a caribou. Neither of the Nelson's were lucky that day but did manage a very great caribou and moose a few days later.

We had the great pleasure of Petersen's Hunting Mike Schoby hunting with us in September along with Cameraman Jed Henry. Kyle and my son Rob showed them a lot of country looking for a big moose and although they didn't find one right for the show, Mike did get a heck of a caribou. Casey Bishop was chasing around in the mountains with Shane and also took a very good caribou.

I managed to get in on only 1 hunt this fall and I was really looking forward to hunitng with John Ziegman again. He and I had had a very memorable hunt together back in 2006. Well, since it was my only hunt, I got greedy and talked John out of taking a very respectable 52" moose ealry on and never got him a chance for another, we also got fingered by the fickle winds on a really nice grizzly after we'd made a great stalk to within 150 yds. Meanwhile, John's hunting partner, Larrry Davis was shooting every day it seemed. He got a great moose which his guide Paul Gladue had to take back from a grizzly when they went back to pack it out the following day. Larry also took a good caribou and along with Peter Clark got inot a pack of wolves and thinned them out a bit. Peter had travelled from Australia and hunted with me in 1984 in my previous area on the Finlay River and we'd kept in touch over the years. Two other international hunters with us again this year were from Spain. Joaquin deMesa and Domingo Gomez were back for moose, having both taken caribou the previous season. Joaquin's 54" bull put the pressure on Domingo and he turned down several bulls looking for one to win the bet with.

We finished the season on a very good note going 5 for 5 on moose, all very good bulls but the one that Shane got for Keith Beasley of Canada in The Rough really stole the shw. An honest 63" bull that green score netted 219 B&C points.

There were challeging times but some determination and at times pure stubborness got us through it. And I'd better not forget to thank our families and crew. My wife Joan got rooked in right off the start when our new cook got sick the day the horses and 1 crew and guides were coming in, Brian came in with us in June and we worked him hard until the end of the season. Shane's boys, Corbin and Joel continue to amaze me with their ability to wrangle, guide, cook and generally bust their butts and Rob also came along to help do whatever it took. He's taking his pilot's training and I look forward to some more relief from him next year. Brandon Klein and Kyle Serle are really becoming the foundation of our crew and have that pride in themselves and the success of their hunters that really shows on every hunt.

We're really looking forward to 2010 and are already seeing that there is a lot more confidence in the economy both in North America and internationally. We will be at the following shows:

Dallas Safari Club - Booth 2044

Houston Safri Club w/ Global Adventure Outfitters

Safari Club International - Booth 1561

Wild Sheep Foundation - Booth 523

Grand Slam/Ovis - Booth 448

Please contact us and be a part of it with BC Safaris.

Spring is just a promise away

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We know it's coming, the calendar says it's less than 3 weeks away but spring will no doubt follow it's own schedule this year. There has been a lot of snow in the Cassiar mountains this year which appears to be tough on the moose but along with the snow came a lot of wind. That has kept many of the upper slopes clear making it a bit easier on sheep, caribou and goats. Although I'm not certain any winter is easy on goats. Having flown hundreds of hours of telemetry tracking thoses beasts, I've yet to find them living easy on winter range. Outfitters, like most everyone else, are having kind of a "goat winter", struggling to get through some of the toughest economic times since the early '80's. However, as one of our hunters said as he gave us a deposit on a sheep hunt and a fishing trip "If I just go about my business things are fine. If I watch the news I'm ready to hang myself!" In total we attended 5 shows over the last couple of months including Dallas & Houston Safari Club, SCI, WSF and GSCO. Safris Club International was as always superb with lots of hunters buying and none of the other shows was significantly off its pace; so far so good. And a couple of phone calls can turn the good into a very good for us. There are a couple of holes in our season that we are eager to fill though, including a sheep hunt. If you're still sitting on the fence, time is getting short so give us a call to at least discuss the situation. And remember, if as Benjamin Franklin said that time spent fishing is not deducted from a man's lifespan, then time spent hunting with your kids most assuredly puts time back on. We have an excellent program for a parent/child hunt.

Where to Start ?

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I'm still kicking and screaming as I get dragged into this new age of technology so despite the fact that information moves at the speed of light, I spend a lot of time in the mounatins and can more closely relate to the way our glaciers move. Even when I brag about our "new" airplane I have to confide it was built in 1957. But it's hard to beat a DeHavilland Beaver on floats for bush flying so I will gloat a little bit.

That was one of the good things about the season, taking more control of our operation and no longer subjecting our clients to the whims and moods of an indiffernt charter operation. The down size of that move was that I was the only pilot available so instead of spending 50 days guiding like I did in 2007 I got a total of 3 days in the field! And thanks to my son Rob and his hunter Steve Zimmer letting me come along for a day I even got in on a kill.

We are back at home after a long season and looking forward to next year already. There will be some changes mad eto the look of the site in the next few days and the 2008 newsletter should be onlinr very shortly as well. A few photos have been added to the 2008 Gallery so have a look - and come back real soon to see what we have up our sleeve for 2009.

Conventioneering

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April is supposed to be one of the "easy" months of guide-outfitting in the north. Spring break-up time, when you can get your books done and taxes paid. Well, winter still has a pretty good grip on the north so we're heading back to Turnagain for another run at some wolf hunting and get in the firewood we didn't get on the first trip. Actually, we didn't get any wolves on our first trip either even though we couldn't have asked for 2 more patient guys than Otto Bollig and Franz-Josef Schmitt to give it their best. We had a week to try,with a dark moon but the wolves were somewhere else until our last night. The day we had to leave there were fresh wolf tracks of at least 6-7 wolves on 3 of our baits. So we'll head back, freshen the bait piles and hope for better timing

We just returned from the Guide Outfitters Assoc. of BC annual convention in Victoria. Always time well wasted as they say. Great to get in touch with some long time friends (notice how I avoided saying old), make some new ones, find out what's really happening in our industry, have some fun and raise a bit of money for wildlife conservation. We succeeded on all counts, especially having fun! My wife came up with a great idea on spoofing Jeff Foxworthy's "Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader" and we hosted a very special event "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Rate Outfitter". I guess when I was highlighting things above I maybe should have added "maybe lost a few friends too!". We have to send thanks out to Steve Rakes, Jerry Tyrell, Bill Hesse and Gray Thornton for being set up as "contestants". We made certain none of them made the grade as a 5th rater, wouldn't want any image tarnishing done. Theirs or ours - you decide.