Alex’s main target on the hunt to Sheep Creek Outfitters in British Columbia was elk, but he also had a bear, mule deer and whitetail tag also.

The weather started out warm. The day we had to ride the horses 11 miles into the camp we wore short sleeve shirts. Once we got to camp we got settled in and put our hunting clothes on and went out for an afternoon hunt. We saw some beautiful terrain, but didn’t hear any elk.

The first morning of our hunt, Joe, our guide wanted to take a 3 hour ride to a place that had seen a lot of elk sign. We left camp before light.  An hour into our ride, as light was beginning to break, we were riding past a clear cut and Joe spotted an elk standing about 280 yards up the side of the hill. We quickly dismounted the horses and I got the camera out of the backpack and started getting footage. Joe bugled at the bull and he returned a few bugles, thrashed a tree and put on a show. The problem was he was only a 5×5. In the area we were hunting a legal bull must have 6 points on one side. Since the bull was legal, we watched him put on a show and I kept the camera running. Once he went back into the tree line, we mounted our horses and headed to the valley high in the mountains. The 5×5 would be the only elk we would lay our eyes on that day.

The following day we left camp just before light and as the sun started to rise, we struck a bull about 20 minutes outside of camp. Once again we played with this bull. We caught a couple of glimpses at him through the trees, but we never got a good look at his rack so we had to pass on him.

Day 3 was a gloomy cloud covered day. The weather had gotten cooler, but the elk seemed to be laying low. We hunted hard, but could not get any elks to bugle. Late in the afternoon we were walking an old logging road trying to entice and elk when Joe spotted some mule deer grazing on an old slide on the side of the mountain. After glassing Joe spotted a legal buck with 6 does. We quickly rushed down a ravine and popped up on the other side of the tree line 220 yards from the buck. The fog was thick and we waited a few minutes for the fog to clear a little and make sure it was a legal buck. Once Joe gave Alex the green light, he put his sites on the shoulder and made a lethal 217 yard shot on his first mule deer. 

The rest of the week we had plenty of encounters, but unfortunately we could not get a good look at their racks or if we could get a clear view they were just 5×5s. 

It was truely awesome to hear those bulls screaming their heads off. I wish we had elk here in eastern North Carolina so I could chase some elk in my down time.

Here is a picture of Alex’s Mule Deer

Getting some scenics from the top of the mountain

One final picture before we head to camp and then to the airport

This was my first time working with Alex and I hope we have many more trips together. He was great to work with and it felt like I had been working with him for years. Thanks for the great hunt Alex!

Well here I go again! Just got back from a trip where horses were the main mode of transportation. I was not raised around horses, but over the past 4 years I have done several hunting trips where we have used horses. 

On this trip to British Columbia the horse I rode was named Zippo. He was a beautiful trail horse and he took very good care of me and my equipment.

I rode Zippo 11 miles to base camp and then each day we would ride 8-16 miles a day in the mountains on this hunt. The terrain was rough and thank God for the horses because it was way too much land to walk on foot and be successful on this hunt.

SIDE NOTE: The only problem I had was that I forgot that boxers weren’t a smart choice when riding horses! When I would go to saddle up or when the horse started trotting this caused some extreme discomfort on my part! NOTE TO SELF, NEVER WEAR BOXERS TO A RODEO!!!!!

Here is the man that put us on the animals in South Africa! He was our PH (we call them guides in the U.S.).

His nickname is Beans, he told me his real name, but I could not pronounce it and I understand why they named him beans in grade school.

He was a relentless hunter. Once he spotted our game, he would not give up until we had our animal! Beans was an excellent hunter and an all around great guy. What I found funny was that he was a BIG Cher fan! I’ve listened to Cher, but after the past couple of weeks I’ve become to tolerate Cher a little more!!!

Thanks for the great time Beans! Hopfully I can make it back next year!

I would like to suggest Tollie’s African Safaris. This place is FIRST CLASS. We had wonderful accomodations and excellent meals. Most importantly his PHs are second to none! They know their game and I can tell you first hand, they will not stop until you get your harvest.

You can’t go wrong with Tollie if you want to hunt South Africa!!!!

Check out his website at www.safari-in-africa.com

We went hunting for Sable this morning. The weatherman said the wind was going to pick up late morning and start blowing about 40 MPH and it did. 

We spotted a group of sable this morning at 8:00 and moved in on them. We followed along with them until finally at 11:15 Pam took this nice Sable with her Matthews bow.

Today we went after Black Wildebeest and Springbok and just happened to harvest a nice Mountain Reedbuck that we came across while we were after the Springbok.

It was brutally windy and very cold yesterday. We hunted some tough terrain and were up and down 6,000 foot mountains all day. Talk about wearing me out!!!!! Plus I have several blisters on my feet as trophies of my hunt. I have been wearing flip-flops the past 5 weeks and I sure paid for it yesterday!

We had a great time and Kandi made some awesome shots.

Kandi’s Black Wildebeest

Kandi’s Mountain Reedbuck

Kandi’s Springbok

The terrain we hunted in

Back in 2004 I went on a Mule deer hunt with Bill. For those of you that don’t have the background informations on Bill’s hunting style, please read Shoot the Deer Bill!

We were hunting outside of Sundance, Wyoming!  Bill had a Mule Deer tag and an Antelope tag in his pocket. With a little coaching by your’s truely Bill, with a little belly-aching, went ahead and shot his antelope. That left him 5 days to chase a quality Mule Deer.

Once again on the next to the last day of the hunt I find myself having to beg Bill to shoot another trophy.

This hunt was fun and in beautiful country. Yes, we had a 2 1/2 hour drive from camp to get to our hunting grounds, but they were full of game and the landscape was gorgeous!! We had been glassing some hills and we spotted a mule deer laying in the shade. The guide said he was one of the bigger mule deer he had seen on the lease and we were running out of time and if Bill wanted to harvest a deer we should put on a stalk for this deer.

Bill took a long look at the deer and said he didn’t think the deer was quite big enough!!!! I reminded Bill that the guide said that the guide said the deer was one of the bigger ones left on the lease. Once again he started whining about he didn’t know if he wanted to shoot the deer or not!

Finally after several minutes of arguing, Bill finally agreed to shoot the deer. We made the 1 1/2 hour walk to the back side of the hill he was sitting on and set up within 100 yards of where we thought he would come down the hill.

We were there about 20 minutes when I heard the guide say, “there he is!”

I got a few seconds of pre-roll and told Bill, “shoot the deer!”

I was a little nervous that Bill would not shoot, but as soon as I gave the command he shot without hesitation!!!!

Below is the deer Bill did not want to shoot until we talked him into it! 

Back in 2002 I made my first trip to Mexico. I would be hunting with one of the owners of an Outfitting service called Whitetail Adventures. His name was Bill and I had been on several hunting trips with him.

A little background Information to help this story:

Two weeks earlier we had been hunting in Saskatchewan for whitetail. We were hunting on an Indian Reservation so Bill had several tags he could use on this trip. The weather was very warm for October in Canada, it was in the mid 40s for highs. You just don’t get much deer movement when it is that warm. The next to the last afternoon we spotted an HUGE black bear in a cut oat field. I talked Bill into checking the bear out since we had a bear tag. The wind was perfect and we stalked to within 75 yards of the bear. 

Living in Eastern North Carolina I get to see plenty of world class Black Bears and this one was right up there with the ones we had back home so I tell Bill to get his rifle ready. I wanted to get some good, steady footage of the bear and then I wanted to get Bill to harvest the bear. Well, one problem, Bill didn’t want to harvest the bear. After a long drawn out conversation I could not get him to harvest the bear.

Long story short, when I got back to the lodge I showed the other owners of the outfitting business the footage of the bear Bill would not shoot and they were a little upset. One even told me if it happened again for me to grab the rifle and shoot the animal!!  By the way, the bear that Bill would not shoot ended up weighing 632 pounds and made Boone & Crockett. 

Back to the story in Mexico:

Like I said, it was my first trip to Mexico and it was our first afternoon to hunt. We were sitting in a couple of tower stands and had been watching several young bucks come in and out of the brush, when I looked up and all I could see were tines coming out of the brush! The deer came out at 325 yards and began to graze. 

Well as the old saying goes, you’ll know a good one when you see it!

I got Bill’s attention and he glassed the deer with his binoculars while I was getting some footage of the buck. The deer actually fed to within 80 yards of us while I was filming. Without looking at Bill, I told him “Shoot The Deer!” A few seconds went by there was no shot! Once again I said, “Shoot The Deer Bill!” Once again no shot!

I look over my shoulder to see Bill with his binoculars still in his hands! I asked, “Did you hear me Bill, SHOOT THE DEER!”  I was getting angry with him and I was raising my voice. I was scared we were going to scare the deer off, but once again Bill was not cooperating. 

He told me he wasn’t going to shoot the deer because he did not have any brow tines! Once he said that, I about blew a gasket. I told Bill that the chances of us seeing another deer that big on the trip was slim to none! Once again Bill said he won’t shooting the deer because he didn’t have any brow tines!

Finally I said, “Give me your rifle!”

Bill said, “Are you serious?”

I said, “Yes I’m serious, I will shoot that Buck in a NY second, GIVE ME THE RIFLE.”

Bill said, “Nope I’m going to shoot him.”

BANG!!!!!

Long story short, the deer scored 157″ as a 7 pointer and the next closest deer shot that year on the ranch scored 141″.  Bill told me he would have never guessed that deer would be that big! I told him he needed to take up picture taking, because he sure wasn’t a hunter!!!!

Here’s a photo of the deer Bill didn’t want to shoot!

Take a look at the Jim Shockey’s blog and see what happened to his cameraman on a recent trip to Peru! Thank goodness he is still alive, it could have turned out much worse!!!

Click on his Peru stories to see what happens!

http://www.jimshockey.com/Blog/

Since the new hunting shows started this past week I’ve been getting a few inquiries as to where they can see my work on TV. The following is a schedule of Shows to keep up with.

Bass Pro Next Generation – The Outdoor Channel – This week Ben’s Hog Hunt

                                             Sat.  1:30 p.m.    -      Sun.   1:00 p.m.

Muzzy Bad To The Bone Bowhunting TV – The Outdoor Channel – Yukon Moose (PART 1 of 2) Had loads of fun on this trip!!!                              Today 1:30 p.m.

Prohunter Journal – ESPN Outdoors        Saturday  8:00 a.m.

Whitetail Country – ESPN Outdoors         Sunday  8:00 a.m.

Tom Miranda’s Territories Wild   – ESPN Outdoors  Sunday 8:30 a.m.

Watch these shows and tell me what you think!!!!!

Your input is always welcomed!!!

Kenneth