Headed out to Colorado a couple of weeks ago with Brenda Potts and Kandi Kisky for an elk hunt at the Three Forks Ranch!
This hunt got started off on the wrong foot, but ended up being one of the better film jobs I have done to this date. It turned UGLY on my flight from Denver to Hayden. This was only a 42 minute flight, but it was the most TURBULENT flight I have ever been on. The plane violently shook the whole way because of a big storm front that was passing through the area. Once we landed I contemplated kissing the ground!!!!!
Once inside the airport at Hayden I got my camera out so I could start filming. When I turned the switch on my camera started flashing all kinds of error codes!!!! Instantly my thought was, “This isn’t good!” I shut the camera off, removed the battery and tried restarting the camera after 5 minutes! Once again it started flashing several error codes!!
Instantly I get on the phone with my technical guru at the office and he starts to investigate the list of error codes I gave him. Once I give him the list of error codes we get in the ranch vehicles and make the 2 hour drive to the ranch.
Once at the ranch I call the office and we try to reset the camera with no luck. Once that doesn’t work I call Sony and talk with their service department. We go through several “reset” steps and they do not work! The technician then advises me that I will have to send the camera back to Sony to be fixed!!!! OH NO!!!!! This is not what I want to hear! This camera is like an extension of my right arm and I could run it with my eyes closed and now I’m going to have to run a backup camera for a couple of days until I the office sends me a backup camera.
The hunt gets started with the backup camera! We get out and see plenty of elk. The bulls are rutting and are very vocal. We hunt have several great encounters with bulls the first two days of the hunt.
On the third day, Sunday, we take a 2 hour drive to the South end of the ranch. As soon as our guide, Dave, parks the truck we start to hear bugles in the distance!!!! We get out, get our gear ready and head towards the elk. The darkness is slowly giving way to light and we are easing closer to the elk. We are sneaking up to an open pasture. First hunter up is Brenda! Dave leads us to the edge of the pasture and we set up behind some Poplar trees. We see the elk on the side of the mountain hiding in the brush. Dave gives a few cow calls and the elk starts to head our way. He clears the tree line and eases out into the pasture bugling nearly every step. Dave tells Brenda to have her rifle ready because this one is a shooter and when he presents an opportunity that he was going to get her to take him. The elk comes to within 80 yards and presents a shot. When Dave gives the command, Brenda DROPS him in his tracks!!!!

While were at Brenda’s elk, we heard another elk bugling on the mountain. After a few quick photos Dave told Kandi to get her gear ready because we were going after that elk! We get to the general location where the elk was bugling and he had moved up the mountain. Dave leads us up the mountain towards the bull!
It’s slow going! The terrain is steep and I have 50 pounds worth of camera equipment that is making me work for every step!
Another elk starts bugling between us and the bull we are after and he is not far from our location! We set up in a thick cover of Poplar trees. The elk is coming our way fast and we don’t get set up like we had hoped! He appears in the trees and Kandi and I can’t see him at the same time for her to get a shot. The nice 5×5 walks to within 15 steps before he smells us! We were unable to get a shot off and the elk runs down the mountain!
Once the 5×5 was gone, we continued towards the bull that is up the mountain bugling! Dave is pushing us hard to close the distance on the elk. I feel like I’ve blown out both lungs, but determination won’t let me stop! There is NO WAY I’m going to be the cause of us not getting a shot at this elk!
We come into a small meadow on the side of the mountain and the elk is only a couple of hundred yards. We set up behind a fur tree. Dave and Kandi sit on the ground and I get several yards behind them. No sooner do we set up and we see the elk crossing the mountain in front of us and disappear to our left behind the stand of fur trees that we are in! The worst possible scenario runs through my head!!! If this elk keeps coming the way he is come he will pop out less than 5 yards to my left and Kandi will not be able to get a shot! Dave does a soft cow call!! The camera has been recording the action since we took our position. In the blink of an eye the elk pops out 20 yards in front of us! Dave gives Kandi the command, “TAKE HIM!!!” Kandi does not hesitate and her shot rings true!!!
Kandi and Dave are excited because we have shot the elk and I’m ELATED because not only have I got the shot on film, I’ve got Kandi and the elk all in the same frame when she pulled the trigger!!! In all my years of filming hunts, this elk hunt is one I’m most proud of! A lot of time and effort has gone into this hunt and all parties have done their part to make it successful! We worked our fannies off and it will go down as one of my most memorable hunts to date!
Now the fun would begin!!!!! We have harvested 2 elk within 2 hours and we had to pack them out! I made a deal with Dave! If he would help quarter Kandi’s elk I would pack it off the mountain while he went back to get the truck! Needless to say I slept VERY good that night!!!

Just got back from a special hunt! I went out to New Mexico to film a Hunt of a Lifetime hunt for a young girl named Samantha. She has been battling cancer since she was 10 years old! It started in her femur, which they had to remove and insert a titanium rod. After treatments she was cancer free for a while and unfortunately the cancer came back in her lungs. For the next three years she has been taking treatments and battling lung cancer. Several months back Samantha was giving a clean bill of health and pronounced cancer free by her doctors.
Samantha was given a Governor’s tag to hunt elk in New Mexico. Hunt of a lifetime officials set her up a hunt with Trophy Ridge Outfitters in Western New Mexico. Our guide was Audrey McQueen, owner of Trophy Ridge Outfitters, Champion Elk Caller and Professional Angler.
Our first morning out we weren’t a mile from camp when we saw our first elk. We got out and got set up. The elk was roaming a large pasture with his nose to the ground. We were pretty sure he was tracking a cow. He didn’t pay us any attention and we were able to get a good look at him. He was a 300 class elk, but Audrey wanted to hold off because she wanted to get Samantha something nicer!! I told Audrey I couldn’t believe we were passing on this elk and she asked me to trust her on this!
We had several more encounters with elk that morning and all were very nice elk, but Audrey still wanted to hold off.
That afternoon we went and build a ground blind overlooking a water hole! We sat a few hours and watched cows come in to water and then at 4:00 a couple of bulls came in to water. They were thrashing around in the water and having a good ole time and even went and founds some cows and chased them around the water hole for about an hour! At approximately 6:00 we saw the bull Audrey was hoping for come off the mountain. He had about 20 cows with him and he was busy running off smaller bulls that were trying to steal his cows. He mingled around at 400-500 yards for a while and then he started running the cows towards our position. Samantha’s dad said she could shoot up to two hundred yards so once he got within the 200 yard range Audrey had Samantha up on the shooting sticks in the ready position. Once all the cows cleared the bull, Audrey told Samantha to “Take Him!” Without hesitation Samantha pulled the trigger on her 300 mag and dropped the giant bull in his tracks!!! We were all very excited! We got up and went to take a look at Samantha’s bull. The closer we got, the bigger it got! It turns out that her bulls green scores 375. In my 10 years filming hunts, this is the first gross Boone & Crockett that I have filmed!
Thank you Audrey and Roger for the GREAT hunt and Congrats to Samantha on an elk of a LIFETIME!!!

Been offline since late June. Took the family to the Outer Banks of North Carolina the last of June and first week of July to have some fun in the sun. After our beach trip, where there was no internet connection, I made my way to Namibia and South Africa for a couple of interesting hunts. I will be updating the blog the next couple of days and bring you guys up to date on the African Safaris.

While I was home this spring I was graciously VOLUNTEERED to coach a T-Ball team by my sister-in-law. When signups were held my sister-in-law called and said she was signing her son up to be on my son’s T-Ball team. She said our team didn’t have a coach and that her husband and his brother would coach the team if I would help them! I told her I would be glad to help, but with my schedule I couldn’t be the Head Coach. Well, 30 minutes later I check my voice mail and have a message. It’s my sister-in-law telling me that she put me down to be the Head Coach and that her husband would be glad to help!!!! Thanks Lynn, with sister-in-laws like you, who needs enemies!!! By the way, please don’t do me any more favors. You have volunteered me to be a coach and you’ve talked my daughter into playing the trombone in band. I always heard the 3rd times a charm and I can’t imagine what you have in store for my family for favor number 3!!!!

With that being said, I only missed 2 games this season and I had a fun time teaching the kids the fundamentals of baseball! We all had fun and were sad when the season came to an end.

Here’s our team at last night’s trophy ceremony!!!! By the way, Lynn helped out in the dugout a couple of games. I think I’ll volunteer her to be the Farm League coach next year!!!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Getting Footage From a Helicopter"][/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Getting Scenics"][/caption]

Just got back from an AWESOME trip to Four Season Safaris on the South Island of New Zealand. This was just a great trip all the way around. From the outfitter to the accommodations to the hunt, everything was excellent.
Our Outfitter’s name was Shane Johnston and he was top notch. He knew his hunting area and was able to put us on some Stag and Tahr.
Here are some photos from the trip.

 

Pam found this stag on the first morning of the hunt and wanted to harvest it. We spent 4 days chasing this big double drop tine stag around the hills before we caught a lucky break.

 

 

It pays to have friends with a helicopter. We harvested Pam’s stag deep in the hills of the South Island. Lucky for us, Shane had a friend with a helicopter so we didn’t have to pack the stag out.

 

We got lucky with this big guy. We were able to harvest him after setting up on a game trail in some thick cover.

 

 

We changed gears and headed to the mountain tops to chase Tahr. What an awesome hunt.

 

Second Tahr of the trip and what a rush chasing this majestic animal around the mountain tops.

Leaving in the morning for a hunt in New Zealand. We will be chasing Red Stag, Chamois and Tahr. It will be my first time there and I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully we will have an internet connection so I can post a daily log and pictures of the hunt

The weather has warmed up and the Striped Bass or as we locals call them “Rock” and White Perch are running up the Roanoke River. I took my son fishing a couple of days last week and he thoroughly enjoyed it. I had taken him fishing a couple of times before, but this time was special.
Friday we invited his Papa Neil to go fishing with us. He has never been fishing with his papa. OUt of the 3 of us, Kolby was the only one to catch a fish. It was a BIG black fish. we cut him loose and put him back in the river.
Sunday after church my friend Rob invited us to go fishing with him and his son Jordan. Kolby was very excited about this trip, because he had never been on a boat before.
The great thing about fishing Sunday is both boys caught a good number of fish and they had a great time together.

Thank you Papa Neil for joining us Friday for an afternoon of fishing.

Thanks Rob & Jordan for taking us out on the Roanoke Sunday  for an afternoon of fun and fellowship!

Moose over at www.moosedroppings.net brought this to my attention this morning. A few days after I saw Marcus Luttrell talk about his first hand account of Operation Redwing he had some low life thugs come and do the unspeakable, the shot his dog!!!! Here is the Fox News account of what happened.

Scumbags Kill Dog

This past hunting season I went on a trip to Saskatchewan for whitetail. Having spent several weeks a year hunting in Canada since 2000, I know the days can be very long and sometimes uneventful!
Like most of my Canadian adventures I left RDU for a connecting flight in Minneapolis. During my lay over I passed a book store and decided to see if any books sparked an interest. Sitting on the Bestseller shelf was a book called Lone Survivor. After reading the synopsis I knew I wanted to buy this book to help pass time while sitting in the hunting blind. 

After a few hours in the ground blind in Saskatchewan and not a lot of deer movement, I pulled my book out and began to read. The problem was, I couldn’t put it down. It was a good thing there were 3 of us in the ground blind looking for deer. That gave me plenty of time to read the book. It only took me 8 hours to read it. By far the best book I’ve ever read!!!!!

When I got back home from the hunting trip I contacted my good friend Michael Allen that I worked with in the Public Affairs office for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade at Camp Lejeune and asked him had he read this book. He said he had in fact read the book and he surprised me by telling me that Marcus would be speaking at one of his breakfast meetings in March and invited me to come. Without hesitation I accepted his offer.

 A couple of weeks ago I went to Richmond, Va to spend some time with my good friend Michael and to attend the breakfast where Marcus spoke. Marcus gave an awesome presentation. To be able to hear him tell the events that unfolded on that mountainside first hand was bone chilling! Thank God for Americans like this that fight to keep our Country free! I wish more American’s felt like Marcus about our Country!  

 

CBN Story on Operation Red Wing