While John is pursuing Colorado Pronghorn, he left a few stories that you might find enjoyable. He will be back on the 22nd.

“If a fella can’t buy someone a ham sandwich when he’s alive, why bother buyin’ him flowers when he’s dead?”
A local rancher as he was turning down payment for a few gallons of fuel from a neighbor.

This epitomizes the Western tradition of taking care of folks in the community when they need help. It is one of the things that makes living in the west such a privilege.

Many people have written about hunting and occasionally I will find a quote that truly makes me think that this person was rattling around in my brain and expressed exactly what I was thinking but couldn’t elucidate.

I’ll include a few of these thoughts here….

Jose Ortega y Gasset,(May 9, 1883 – October 18, 1955)  wrote Meditations on Hunting which is still the most quoted piece of literature on hunting.

“One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted…If one were to present the sportsman with the death of the animal as a gift he would refuse it. What he is after is having to win it, to conquer the surly brute through his own effort and skill with all the extras that this carries with it: the immersion in the countryside, the healthfulness of the exercise, the distraction from his job.

Aldo Leopold, in A Sand County Almanac is well known for this quote:

“A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than by a mob of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this fact.”

Snakey” on the Kifaru Forums, quoted an “old hunting article”…” from a back page story by Gary Sitton (writing as Jacob Bowers) Hunting April 1991. It was reprinted in last months issue of Hunting and is a good article as a whole. ”

“No matter what happens, whether you succeed or not, if you stand up and do it right and pay attention, hunting will always give you what you need. It may not be what you were looking for, but it will absolutely be important enough to justify whatever you did to get it.”

Many my favorites is from an author by the name of Edison Marshall from his book Heart of the Hunter.

“At that early age I had not yet isolated the fact, although I had seen it’s signs, that hunting is a lonely sport, that a hunter is essentially a lonely man, more often than a ‘lone’ man; and the bigger the game, the lonlier it gets”

“To judge from the trophies, the only legal evidence, the only record, they had a better trip.  Yet there was another counting that only Dean and I knew.  By that counting, made up of failure, success, dreams, facts, snow on mountaintops, or beaten in to my face, firelight and dawnlightand starlight, in truth countless imponderables, my trip was one to cherish all my life.”

What words on hunting inspire you, and make you think?  What words describe what hunting means to you?

A fellow Pope and Young measurer from the San Diego area, Nate Treadwell has saved for 3 years to go on the hunt of a lifetime in South Africa.  What does a South African hunting trip have to do with Western Hunting?  Well it just goes to show that western hunters like Nate can adapt to hunting situations anywhere in the world.  Those spooky San Diego and desert deer gave Nate plenty of practice in the years leading up to this epic adventure.

He spent months testing broadheads for this trip and destroyed a number of them performing the “Treadwell test” to pick out his leading blades.  In the future I will cover which heads performed best in his torture test.

His research paid off as the following pictures show:

A female Blesbok

An old Impala.  Even I can see the Mass in those horns…Lots of character

A real nice 24 inch Impala.  Can you say TROPHY? You see how there is more horn length and the way they sweep out back and up…Something about Impala intrigue me.

Warthog.  Those are some impressive teeth.  I guess Nate’s experience on Tejon Ranch Hogs paid off.

Nate’s Kudu.  The Elk of Africa.  Nate related a story that he captured a BIGGER bull on Camera, but this one looks plenty good to me.  I’ve heard of many a bowhunter who was skunked on Kudu multiple years before connecting on one.   

In a future column, I will show the photos from another fellow California P&Y measurer who was on the trip and went 5 for five arrows, spoken of in hushed and reverent tones as Bok Baard .

All seasoned hunters know about it…The feeling of anticipation that turns your brain into mush the week before a big hunting trip.  Your attention span is diminished to short bursts of dealing with short tasks in between dreaming about the adventure you are about to embark on.  You ramble about your preparation to workmates endlessly about the minutia of your plans.

Then there is the calls and emails from other hunters who are in the same boat, or just returning from a successful trip.  I will be featuring some of these photos over the next few days that have arrived in my inbox, so you too can experience the anticipation with me…

• My buddy Ed just returned from Kodiak Island and is headed out soon to Western Oregon after Elk. 
• A couple of Southern California buddies returned from Africa with a laundry list of trophies. 
• My Bay Area friend Rich is headed to Northern California after blacktails , then on to Wyoming for archery elk. 
• Zeke, our resident Sage Creek triathlete sent me a text message that he is in Central Georgia hunting feral hogs.  He has plans for Bear and Deer in Bzone later this season as well.
• My Alaska archery connection Doug is headed out with his son to Kodiak Island with a Mountain goat tag and Sitka blacktail tags. 

Tick Tok, Tick Tok

On the Sage Creek Forums, a number of hunters from Idaho are members.  It stands to reason since the Forums are run by Scott Whitehurst of Athol, a small town in the Panhandle of Idaho.  A llittle more than a week ago, there was a post that caught my attention:

Mon Jun 23, 2008

First post here all. I’m in the position of having found a GPS out on a hillside, and I’d hate to lose one of those, so I’m trying to locate the owner. The GPS was found somewhere on the South Fork of the Clearwater River, somewhere above Harpster.

While I don’t know much about GPS’s, and neither did those that were with me, I’m told that most have an “Owner” screen that comes up when the unit is turned on, with address, phone number, etc. This one didn’t, at least it didn’t when we figured out how to turn it on and somewhat navigate through it. I guess one of us could have messed up and deleted something we shouldn’t have.

I have found a “Home” waypoint, which (with the help of others) plugged the coordinates into Google Earth. This took me to a screen shot of a place somewhat outside of Harpster. I’m a 7-hr drive away from this location….otherwise, I’d drive to the place myself and inquire. If any of you know of anyone that has lost a GPS, and can provide the model number and likely location that it was lost, and other waypoints that are entered, I’d gladly mail the GPS back.

Failing that, next time I’m up that way, I’ll make the drive to the place myself. Thx for the help.

Now I don’t know about you but there are probably a number of people out there who might consider finding a GPS lost on a hillside, in a remote river canyon to be their good fortune.  The temptation to keep it would cross the mind of nearly anyone…  But this guy was determined to find the owner.

The suggestions rolled in , see if the local sporting goods store knew anyone who lost a GPS, Local LEO’s, A lost and found ad, etc.

 Tue Jun 24, 2008

A member on another forum who visits this forum suggested I try here. I even emailed (and got a reply!) from the GPS manufacturer when I provided the GPS serial number, hoping the owner had registered it for warranty. It hadn’t been, so I’ll run out my search options as best as I can.

Sat Jun 28, 2008

I called Rae Bros and they had no reports of lost GPS’s. I left a Lost & Found ad with the Free Press, and, sent an email to Grangeville law enforcement to see if they had any Lost reports of GPS’s. We’ll see what happens, if anything!

Then I checked in this morning, and I saw that all his hard work had paid off.

Wed Jul 02, 2008

A successful day for me! I found the GPS owner (a Mr. *******). I placed a ‘Lost & Found’ ad in the Idaho County Free Press in Grangeville and got a call today on it. I returned the call and the Owner was able to name off the ‘Home’ N & W coordinates, and several other waypoint names that were entered in the unit. He gave me his mailing address, so it will be off to him shortly.

Turns out someone borrowed the GPS from him to go find a specific tree, then lost the unit on his way out.

Thx everyone for your helpful suggestions

Folks, this is a great example of modern technology meets the “Code of the West” .  Good things still happen to good people.  Even when people aren’t looking. So the next time you have a chance to help out your fellow outdoorsman, even if you don’t HAVE to, remember this example.  We all could be on either end of this situation, and I think we can all agree that in this case it was definately a WIN-WIN outcome.

Here’s to more Happy Endings…

“Adversity introduces man to himself” Anonymous

It was printed on a bookmark sent to me from a friend who is fighting Parkinson’s, and it made me smile.  Not because I want to wish adversity on anyone, but because I identified with the statement.  It seems that when we are faced with a dire situation physically, financially, or emotionally, when we look back on that experience we recognize qualities we didn’t know we had.  Sometimes it is a good quality such as being steady and resourceful under pressure.  Sometimes we see our faults and we can work to correct our quick temper or pessimistic tendancies.

Perhaps that is why humans find ways to challenge themselves physically, or mentally.  We desire to push our limits and see just who we are when things aren’t in our favor.  I know that pushing myself in training will only pay off in the future.  It makes the discomfort, whether at mile 20 in a marathon, or day 6 of a backcountry hunt, more bearable, because I have felt this before, and I survived.

Use this quote when the going gets tough, cause I know you are tough, and you will get going…

When I think I am doing everything I can do to be a better bowhunter, Cameron Hanes, from Oregon, makes it look like childs play!   

Cameron Hanes’ New Years Resolution

I have to admit that part of what got me into bowhunting was the intensity and dedication I saw in other bowhunters. Cameron goes well above and beyond that.

I get a kick out of old hunting photos.  I received a copy of this one from a fella who I work with and did some detective work to figure out who is who in the photo.  The most colorful figure is the big man on the right. Charlie Hall was the stuff legends are made of.  The “Bloomfield Giant”  could out-work, out shoot and out drink nearly anyone who would take him on.

From the LEFT
Chuck Bricker (on the ground looking to his left)
Back row L-R
Frank Bean
Chuck Reeves (boy with no hat)
Paul Martin (John’s dad)
Colby Martin (John’s Uncle)
Marie Roberts
Fletcher Roberts
Gene Steinbeck

Front row L-R
George Reeves
Ken Martin II
Harry Steinbeck
Ken Martin I (John’s Great Uncle)
Kenny Reeves
Billy Steinbeck

Charlie Hall (on the ground on the Right of the picture)
Dog-Jill (Harry Steinbeck’s Turkey herding dog)
Taken in 1962,
at the Steinbeck Ranch on Roblar Rd.

On July 31st, 2007 my grandfather, Claude Martin passed away at the age of 89. For those of you who never had the opportunity to know my grandfather, I thought I would try to convey some of the things that he did to help me to appreciate the outdoors.

Grandpa was a lifelong outdoorsman and shooter. He would tell me stories about when he was a young man growing up on the ranch, working for my great-grandfather. Every day, at lunch, grandpa would shoot a box of 50 rounds through his High Standard .22 cal pistol. One day, his father made a derisive comment regarding grandpa’s daily practice. When grandpa emptied the clip at rapid fire at 25 yards all within the black on the target, great-grandpa decided he wouldn’t scoff at the lunchtime practice.

I don’t think there was a firearm my grandfather didn’t shoot well. I always marveled at the groups he could get at long distances with his pre-’64 Winchester model 70 in .270. Whenever any of us borrowed his Model 12 shotgun, he always cautioned us…. “Now don’t go teaching it any bad habits, like missing. I’ve got it trained the way I like it.”

As I was growing up, Grandpa was always there to coach me in my shooting. It started with a BB gun and aluminum cans in the backyard, then on to a .22, and the Model 64 Winchester in 25-35. It was at the Buckeye canyon, with grandpa that I shot my first blacktail buck. When my daughters became old enough to learn to shoot, it was he who helped them fire their first few shots. I still treasure the picture of Erin, Kelsey and him holding their .22 rifles, and all smiling. When Erin shot her first pistol, it was grandpa’s .22 that she learned on. The yellow fiberglass longbow that Kelsey used to win her division in the 2007 Sonoma County Bowmen’s Ultimate Bowhunt, came from her great-grandpas gun closet.

While we will miss my grandfather being part of our daily life, I will always treasure the time we had together. Having him as a mentor, advisor, next-door neighbor, and best friend is something that I wouldn’t trade for any amount of money. He made my children’s life so much better through his stories and encouragement. I think I enjoyed watching him interact with his great-grandkids nearly as much as I treasured his company. He made everyone around him a better person.

Trevon Stoltzfus is a lifelong outdoorsman who has been able to pursue his love of the outdoors and turn it into a career. He has served in the past as research editor and field editor for Eastmans Hunting Journal and Eastmans Bowhunting Journal as well as filming for the television show Eastman’s Hunting TV. Currently he serves as the archery co-host
and advertising manager for the show The Best of the West , on Men’s Outdoor and Recreation channel.  He has also been featured on Double Bull Archery’s TV show and the new Muzzy Big Game Extreme’s 6 DVD.  He maintains a website www.westernbiggamehunter.com , and has a blog called Campfire Camraderie.

Trevon was also a professional bull rider in his younger years and can be seen making this bull ride in 1994 in Winslow AZ.
Trevon exemplifies the spirit of the western hunter in everything he does.  Recently he had the honor of having his song, The Western Way, used in a promotional video by Mile High Outfitters. If you listen to the words, I think you will agree that Trev has expressed it well.

So I thought it would be worthwhile to hear from Trevon on how he has been able to make his outdoor passion into a career and some of the barriers he was able to overcome to accomplish his goals.

How did you get started hunting?

My Grandad, Uncles, and older Cousins are really the ones that got me started hunting and fishing. They really instilled in me a respect and love for the outdoors.

What made you think that the outdoors could be a career for you?

Well, I have always loved the outdoors and when I had the opportunity to 0hunt and fish as a I grew up in NM, the desire to make it a fulltime job continued to grow. I also had the privilege of guiding other hunters for Elk, Mule Deer, and Antelope as I grew up. Uncharacteristically I also loved to write and when I moved to Colorado the two passions merged and I started writing for some different publications.

What was your first “big break” ?

My first big break was getting to work with Eastmans Hunting Journal as their research editor and the Eastmans Bowhunting Journal as a field editor. I learned a ton from Mike Eastman, Guy Eastman, and Cameron Hanes. It was tough but they are the best at what they do and I really went to school under their tutelage.

What opportunities are there for outdoor careers?

My suggestions for those who want to break into the outdoor industry is learn the sale process. What I mean by that is the easiest way to get involved in the outdoor is in sales. Outdoor manufacturing companies always need good sales reps and that can open doors to other opportunities. I would also take some writing and field videography classes at your local community college. If you have a skill level in those areas it can make an easy transition from sales to writing outdoor article or filming fishing/hunting trips for TV shows!

What obstacles did you have to overcome, and what sacrifices did you have to make to get to the point you are at now?

The biggest obstacle was that nobody knew me, who I was, or what I could do
so I had to prove myself. I spent a lot of time behind the camera before I ever had the chance in front. As far as sacrifices….. I would have to say time away from my lovely wife and daughter, but they are very supportive and I am truly blessed.