I thought it was interesting that the word, “poaching” does not appear in the story. It makes sense if you think about it. It’s not poaching to kill a neighbor’s cow. Just because this happened to be a whitetail doesn’t make it a wild animal. In fact the story says as much:
“He basically went in there and killed a pet.” Peabody was a tame deer, and Knight said it may have played a part in the animal’s death by approaching Jernigan.
But not to worry, you can still buy plenty of tame deer. After seeing this article this afternoon I spent a few minutes looking for big high fence deer you can kill. It seems like to me $86,000 isn’t even that good of a deal. Most of the time you don’t even need to go through the farce of buying a hunting license. Makes sense, since you’re not hunting.
For example, take a look at the website here. Now I don’t know the specifics of Ruttnut Hunt’s personally but I found this revealing. From their page:
All of our hunts are totally confidential…. When you are hunting with Ruttnut Guide Service our hunts are kept 100% confidential. Guaranteed.
Why are they offering the same guarantees as high priced hookers? I’ll give you a hint… Sunlight is the best disinfectant… I can see the hypothetical conversation now:
Guy Shooting Tame Deer: Why isn’t he afraid of me?
“Guide”: It’s because you’re such a stealthy and skillful hunter! Now shoot already, I’ve got $25,000 to spend.
GSTD: But we’re just standing here 50 yards away and he’s looking at us like he expects to be fed.
“Guide”: It’s that apple cover scent I sprayed on. Quick, shoot him before he gets away!
GSTD: Where would he go?
“Guide”: Look, we’ve got 200 Million acres of prime habitat he could escape into. Shoot him NOW!
GSTD: Then how could you sell me a 1 day guaranteed hunt for this exact deer?
“Guide”: If you don’t shoot now I’ll sell this deer to another GSTD!
GSTD: You promise I can make up a story so I can tell everyone about what an experience this half day hunt was?
“Guide”: You read about our confidential guarantee didn’t you?
GSTD: BOOM!
Some of you may remember that dihardhunter got his first turkey this year in Kansas. I posted the link here. Short version: he flogged one to death. Great story, even better pictures.
Now he’s tried his hand at guiding pig hunters. Some parts of the story might sound familiar. Great story, even better pictures. Take a look here.
I get an incredible amount of Google hits from people checking for a health update on Tred Barta. I’m not sure why because I don’t speak Google and I certainly have not gone out of my way to position myself as any kind of expert. Nonetheless, since people are checking here anyway, I’ve added today’s update from Dan Harrison:
I talked to Tred yesterday and his spirits are high. They think they have the cancer under control hopefully!! He should be heading home in about 3 weeks? not sure.
I am trying to find a utv for him to get around the ranch on. We also ordered a special needs saddle that should be done in about 8 weeks.
I’ve written a couple of stories on this already, (here and here) but there’s more sad news from Tred Barta. Long time friend and show co-host Dan Harrison has released another letter this time revealing that Tred has been diagnosed with Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia, a rare type of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Tred is now in the process of going through Chemo treatments and will be returning to rehab soon after. For Tred and Anni this is life-changing and life challenging. Tred is not poor by any means but how can anybody prepare themselves for this type of disaster? To equip his house to be handy-capped accessible will be close to $100,000 dollars. I have posted a couple of messages from his wife Anni so you can see what they are going through.
“We just found out today that Tred has full blown Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, a rare but very treatable form of lymphoma. The aggressiveness and sudden onset leads us to believe that it may be the cause of the paralysis and perhaps even reversible over time. We have been moved to Porter Hospital where Tred’s cell phone works just fine and we will be there for 5 days for plasma pheresis and chemo. This again has kept me from getting a letter out but I promise tomorrow, now that the discovery is done. FINALLY!!!!!! love, ANNI”
“Hi Dan, The damage signals on Tred’s spine are progressing, moving up to his neck now. We are basically starting from scratch now, trying to come up with the correct diagnosis. We have EVERYBODIES attention now, and they are all over us with tests in every quadrant. The good news is that if they can find the cause soon and find a solution, possibly some of the damage could be reversed. Yes, I am way too busy. I am struggling to put together a synopsis of where Tred is right now medically. I absolutely would love to rely on you to manage all the posts and keep an eye on the threads. However, I don’t have enough time to follow the streams but if you can please print them out if possible, for reading as time allows. If you see something especially good or valuable, timely of course forward it to my email or call me. Thank you so much Dan, you are such a good friend!”
“We are trying to put together a fund raising effort for all of his medical and new living equipment needs. They will probably amount to around $100,000 can you believe it. Anyway, if you would send a letter to friends and also pass along to me any websites that you think would be good. Here is the info: Donations can be made in Tred’s name to The Vail Valley Charitable Fund, which is a 501(c)3 charity, and funds are tax deductable. Their address is: PO Box 1275, Avon, CO 81620, or call 970-845-6339 or pay by credit card on line at www.vvcf.org<;http://vvcf.org> Be sure to mention that it is for Tred. You may also make deposits to Wells Fargo Bank, Tred Barta medical fund. Routing #102000076, acct # 8990772827.
So I think this makes the 16th consecutive year I’ve been to this lake. We’ve dealt with 3 owners and about 10 different arrangements of transportation and management. This year’s adventure included landing a small private plane on this abandoned airstrip so we could get picked up by the float plane. Beavers had apparently decided to build a dam that backed up water on one end of the runway… not good…
Fortunately our two expert pilots managed to make yet another wonderful landing and within a couple of hours we were fishing.
So only two of us headed afield on the last day. The other gentleman had somehow damaged his bow and was using a borrowed rifle. He was holding out for a large bear. He killed two nice bears in about two hours. Unfortunately for me, they were already skinned by the time I got back so I don’t have any pictures to show you. Unfortunately for him, neither of his bears could beat the monster his daughter shot the day before and she made sure he knew it.
I started seeing bears almost immediately but again, nothing that would even challenge P&Y. For probably an hour the same bear was wandering around the bait site. He’d eat some meat bones, wander around behind us, then come back and eat some more. Then suddenly his head snapped up, looked off into the woods for second, and ran. I got ready but the intruder followed the first bear into the woods behind me. For the next few minutes it sounded like two giant lumberjacks fighting back there. I couldn’t see it but it sounded like they were tearing trees down and throwing them at each other. Eventually the smaller bear ran past us on the way to parts unknown.
This guy was the victor:
Unfortunately my expert evaluator and I agreed that he wasn’t what I’d been holding out for. You can see on the previous video that he’s about 1/3 of the way up past the second ring on the barrel. The biggest bears will approach or be over the barrel while the minimum for shooting is around the second ring. With an hour to hunt I decided to pass…
Day 5 found The Old Man and I put in a stand that was getting hit very regularly. As we were checking the site our guide told us that they couldn’t figure out how the bears were getting the beaver. They were stringing the rotting carcass between two trees a few yards apart and probably 15 feet off the ground. It was unreachable from either of the trees or the ground. After it was strung up we settled in for the evening.
The morning of the fourth day started with a search for the “big bear” that The Old Man stuck the night before. They didn’t find much blood that night but the stick looked good on video. That site requires a 20 minute boat ride followed by a back wrenching 40 minute 4-wheeler ride, so they headed out early. For a while they saw no sign of the bear but eventually some blood was stumbled upon and the bear was found a few minutes later. He’d gone 50 yards from the stand but it’s amazing how easy it is for a bear to disappear in that thick bush. The night before they had apparently passed within yards of it without knowing. The Old Man was true to his claim; it was a big bear. It measured better than 20 inches and seemed to weigh twice what the P&Y sized (18 inch) bears did.
The basic routine from the first day was the same except instead of raining it snowed. It was cold and windy all day but no worse than a Midwestern deer hunt. Once again everyone got on their various stands from 4:00-5:30 depending on how far they had to go. I was sitting alone so I got my camera set up and then sat and tried not to get too cold.
I caught a flight out of KC on Friday morning. After stops in Denver and Edmonton I arrived in Fort Mcmurray around dinner time. Amazingly, my bow case and bag were on the same flight. We were greeted by Brian and Pat Garrett, the principals of Garrett Brothers Outfitting, who made sure everything was proceeding smoothly and on schedule. The next morning we loaded up in two jet boats for a roughly 1.5 hour ride upriver to their hunting camp. We arrived in time to meet the other hunters (8 in camp including us), get a briefing on what to expect and how to judge bears, grab some lunch, check our bows, and head to the stands.
