Billy finds Hoffa - WTH is it?
Well I was asked back to Fort Knox in late Fall of 2011. I think it took the guys a few weeks to figure out if I worthy to hunt with them again or not. I had to say I didn't know if I would ever be able to enjoy this hunt again or not. Every day after the 2011 season I dreamt of elk hunting for about eight weeks straight. So when I got the text that I got the text that I made the cut I extremely excited. I was ready to go do all over again. I don't think I gave Will or Billy much of an excuse not too. Hell when I drove I stayed awake, unlike Billy, who 20min after he gets behind the wheel is head bobbing even though he just took a four nap. Will, he drug me through nastiest gnarliest places to hunt that he could think of. I am not sure why he joined but he did every bit of it. He could have just said hey walk down into that canyon and belly crawl back up the other side, while I ride the horse and watch. But he didn't do that. He joined me in on every free fall and belly crawl for the entire ten days. Maybe Will just figured hey I found someone dumb enough to follow me wherever I go and answers to Ted, Kent or hay you. At least he didn't call me Sue like Johny Cash. Nah I don't think it was any of that. More like, hey, here is a guy with a weak mind strong back and is willing to work hard. Oh and brings a great movie collection with a TV and cell phone booster. We would be fools not to bring him.
This first evening in camp the three of us Will, Billy and I all rushed to get the stuff put in the cabin so we could get out and do an evening archery hunt. We saddled the horses and loaded our gear in record breaking time. I was super excited because I didn't have to ride that asshole Nugget. This is going to be great I thought to myself, a horse that isn't going to try to kill me every chance it gets. We made it part way up Sugar Loaf when Will hit the brakes told us to shut the hell up and get off the horse. What what whats going on? Oh Oh elk wait not just elk lots of bull elk. Whales Tales that one has whales tails too! Will couldn't even talk anymore he was frothing at the mouth in the excitement of seeing such nice bulls first thing. I was just trying to play catch up with my binocs and see what I was missing out on. Well next thing you know I'm holding all three horses and Billy and Will are over making a war plan on how to get to the two big whales tails. Now the horses want to keep moving so they can get some grass to eat so I wasn't able to watch the great whales tails graze below. I felt like the little kid trying to see what the big kids are doing, but I was still loved being there. They came back with a plan of get out of the area and go after them in the am. So we had a quick horse ride back to camp. That night we all talked about what a great hunt is was going to be in the morning.
Well, were do you go when to get an elk. Yep the "Promise Land" Billy had a new feather picker and hadn't shot an elk in a couple of years so he was the favorite to get first crack at nice Bull elk. Will fire up his call and immediately he got a response. We scramble to get into position and had Billy go to where we thought was the best spot. Will would cow call the bull would bugle back. Oh man this is going to be good. The bugle kept getting closer. We were all on alert looking for other elk that may wander in without a sound like they like to do. Silence, I think to myself why isn't Will calling? Did he move is he pinned down? I slowly turn to look behind and sure enough here was a rag horn staring down at Will trying to figure out where the sweetness that was calling was. The little bull was probably only five yards away from Will and 20 from me. The bull was on a knoll looking down at both of us. We couldn't do anything but sit and wait for it to move. We were pinned down. Crack! we heard from down by where Billy was set up. What the hell was that a branch breaking? We look up the bull is gone. Will starts to call the little bull comes back but see's something isn't right and wandered off. We hear nothing of the other bull now that was approaching. Could it be that Billy dropped him and that was the crack that we heard? Will tried to call for a while longer but stopped since everything was silent and the sun was fully risen. We gave the hunt over call and went to see what kind of action Billy had. There he stood new bow two missing arrows. Where is he Billy?! Did you get him huh huh? Head down, no I don't think so. What the hell was that crack? Well, um ah um my arrow hit this stupid fig leaf and flanked the arrow and hit the elk in antler. Laughing out loud what did you just say? I ah um hit this stupid...No Billy did you just say shot this monster bull in the horn!. Now Will and are laughing so hard we can't even stop to give him shit. Let me get this straight Will says. I call you in this nice bull for you and shoot it in the antler is that what you are telling me?! Are you trying to tell me that you tried to kill an elk and by shooting it in the horn!? No No my arrow hit this leaf that I didn't see that's why it hit the antler. Yeah but why are you missing two arrows? Well I um it walked out to about 50 yards and I shot again. Did you hit it? I don't know. Did you hit another leaf? I don't know. By this time I was feeling bad for Billy but the a shot in the antler that's a classic. A guy has to laugh. We began a search party for blood or an arrow. We found the arrow in a few minutes. No blood no hair no velvet from an antler just a clean miss. Oh well Billy if it can happen its going to happen when you are bow hunting.
The next couple of days were pretty slow but Will did shoot a cow with Dave over in the promise land. I remember Will coming back and asking if we wanted to help pack out a small cow. Billy was my teammate so I just did what he said. I think Billy's response was something like yeah sure right after this three hour movie is over with. Will replied with yeah well its getting hot out. So you and Dave need our help? I mean this is a good movie we are talking about here and its only a cow. You guys should be able to walk the horse right over to it. Yeah fine Will said as he left in a haste. I kept my mouth shut as I was still a newbie learning the ropes. You ever watch the "Last Samurai"? It's a great movie who could blame us for not wanting to leave in the middle of it. We did how ever debone and cut the cow up and bag it once it was back at the cabin.
A couple of days later Dave had to leave and Billy said the sleeping gods were calling to him. So Will and I set out for a morning hunt which I think turned out to be a late morning hunt ending in a down pour. We woke Billy up from his slumber around 11am and had him make us a nice hot breakfast. He was more than happy to cook us up some homemade hash browns with eggs and bacon. Nothing like a hot breakfast with queso and a couple of red beers. A down pour starts in again so it was perfect time for a movie and nap before the evening hunt. Well the rain didn't let up until about till about an hour and half before dark. Billy said lets go hunting. Will and I said hey how about you grab us a beer since your up. Billy replied with fine, I am going to go kill a bear then. OK have fun Billy. Just before dark we heard the radio squelch. Billy did you say something? Radio was silent. Ah must have been nothing. Hey Will you need a beer while I am up? Yes sir he replied. We sit back down to enjoy the movie radio squelches again, bring the chainsaw. Did you hear that? Ah he must be bull shitting us. I'm not going out now its dark and rainy out. It is cool enough isn't it? Now we start wonder if Billy was serious or not. So we try to call back on the radio, nothing. Sent him a text nothing. What do you want to do Will? Do we need to go pack stuff up? Well we don't even know where he is for sure, lets give it a few minutes. Now the movie isn't as relaxing because we are on edge of do we go pack the horses or start making dinner? A couple of minutes late we see a headlamp come bouncing up the road. It was Billy with a big shit eating grin on his face! We knew right away just looking at him that he had shot something. Well what did you get? Bear, big bear, in the woods, need chainsaw. Billy was working on getting his breath but we wanted answers. Where? Why? How far? Are you for real? Answer dammit! Da da down on the trail up to the wallo. You mean the wallo where we hung the stand? Yes not for from there. Were you in the stand? How far? Is it a nice one? No not in the stand. I was walking to the stand and there it was eating berries about 40 yards from me. So I blazed him. He dropped right where he was. So why do we need chainsaws Billy is he deep in the brush? The whole trail is blown over with logs. We need to cut our way in to be able to get the horses in. Wow ok do we have tonight? Now the debating and strategizing started. Two hours late well past bed time, the plan was finalized. We would all go hunt elk in the am for a short hunt. We would then come back to camp and load things up to get the bear.
No elk the next morning so we made haste to go retrieve Billy's bear. I packed lunch while Will and Billy packed everything from camp onto a wheeler and one horse. With only two chainsaws there wasn't much for me to do but toss logs that had been cut and bring the horse. For some reason Will kept stopping. I think he saw I didn't have to work too hard doing my part. Before you know I Wills chainsaw and he was in the shade drinking gator aid and checking his email. I am pretty sure he told me he would catch up when he couldn't hear the saws running anymore but I don't know for sure because I was cutting timber. Billy and I finally reached the bear and a good thing because the saw I had was dull as you can get a chain. I think thats why Will gave it to me. You really had to work at it to get through a piece of wood. Billy and I fell in the shade and admired his bear while wondering where Will was with the drinks. We were soaked in sweat from working our ass off. You have anything to drink Billy asked? No I drank the last of mine a half mile back. I guess that means you don't have any either? Nope, where is Will with those drinks. Probably taking a nap in the shade after he ate our lunch. Oh well..
Hey great Bear Billy! Will said with great enthusiasm. There he was pretty dark chocolate black bear.
Billy taking another look at his trophy
Billy looks pretty happy
After we had of the picture taken we said now what? We left the horse a ways back because we were thinking the horse may be scared if it saw the bear. How the hell are we going to get this on the horse. Billy said he wanted to make a rugg so we just couldn't take meat and load that up. Will said, I have some of those extra large game bags maybe we can wrap those around it and see it the horse notices or not. Ok sounds good, it's a plan at least lets get to it. Billy has to buy dinner tonight and I didn't even get a sandwich yet. This what we came up with.
We call it the Hoffa Bear
Too bad I don't have a pic of it on the horse. It would have been great to have a video of the three of us trying to get the bear on the horse. One big mistake was that we brought the tallest horse from the coral. What the heck was Will thinking.!? It was a complete circus let me tell you. We needed more brawn and less brains when it came to getting this bear strapped to the horse. It was a wonderful day and we had an awesome dinner all on Billy! Thank you Billy for the wonderful memory.
What it this? It's a story for another time..
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