Boone and Crockett Club's Audio Adventures
Boone and Crockett Club
Hunting stories from the Boone and Crockett Archives
Episodes
Tearing Up the Brush
By Kenneth R. Adamson There were a thousand thoughts zipping through my mind as I crouched in my makeshift blind, straining to hear a hint of sound that would let me know that I was not all alone here in the woods. Thoughts such as, did I blow it? Did the wind spook the bull? Should I just pack up and leave quietly and return tomorrow? Should I have tried stalking the noises I had heard? Will I hit a branch if I get a shot? Is this hunt going to be one of those that end up as a good story, but no meat?
The Longest Night
By Michael J. O’Haco, Jr. It was the first weekend in August 1985, and I was out of town. I called home because I knew the Arizona hunting permits should be in the mail. My wife Linda said there was good news and bad news: I said I wanted the bad news first. She said that I had not received an elk permit. However, the good news was that I had received a deer and pronghorn permit. Already having a mule deer in the Arizona state records book, I was pleased at having drawn a deer permit, but not half as pleased as I was with the pronghorn permit. This was the twentieth time I had applied for an pronghorn permit; the 19 previous times I had been rejected. The computer finally came through.
Old Flare
By Lester A. Kish To say that hunting is a sport of luck is an understatement. In 1990, I had the good fortune to draw a bighorn sheep permit in Montana’s Unit 213, near Anaconda. With odds exceeding 100 to 1, just drawing the permit was an incredible stroke of luck.
Cat and Mouse
By Ronald N. Franklin I had just received the news I had been drawn for one of the toughest units to get a tag in the Arizona draw. I called everyone I knew to pass on my good fortune. Everyone was so excited and ready to help on the hunt. Then the sleepless nights started, dreaming of big bulls screaming and rutting. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures #Hunting
A Hunting Tradition
By Charles J. Hogeland I am only a young man, but hunting is a family tradition that is already dear to my heart. I went on my first hunting trip with my father, mother, and six-year-old brother when I was three months old. Hunting is bred into me, as I come from at least five generations of hunters. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Determined
By Jerry J. James, My cougar hunt began in the spring of 1979 when I first decided to go on a hunt. I wrote letters to guides, and then eagerly awaited the morning mail for the replies to come. I was able to narrow my guide selection, and after calling several references, I finally decided on Bob Smith of Kooskia, Idaho. I had read about Idaho’s reputation of having large cats, and the Selway-Bitteroot area has yielded numerous record-book cats. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Big Bullets Do Big Work
By Holland D. Butler Once the haunt of Butch Cassidy’s outlaw gang, the Henrys were rumored to hide an old Spanish gold mine. Today, the Henry Mountains are famous for one of the last free-roaming bison herds in America. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures #Hunting
The Best Present
By Doug Johnson My dad and I boarded a plane in Portland, Oregon, on August 27, headed for Dillingham, Alaska. This was the beginning of a 10-day hunting trip for moose and caribou, in the Wood-Tikchik State Park. I graduated from Eastern Oregon State College in the spring of 1995. Instead of giving me a gift with only monetary value, my dad decided to give me a gift that would be loaded with memories. This gift was a self-guided hunting trip in Alaska. We agreed that I would hunt for caribou, and he would hunt for moose. This would be our first, but not the last, hunting trip to Alaska. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures #Hunting
Polar Bear Number 9
By Robert B. Nancarrow I had just been thrown from the sled, when John, my guide, prematurely threw out the anchor before the sled had slowed enough for a safe dismounting. I landed on my chest, with my rifle under me, sliding across the ice in the snow. We had tried to intercept a large boar that had been pursuing a sow, with two year-old cubs. We just weren’t quick enough. The boar had reached the new ice, and was quickly on its way to the rough ice. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Dark Timber Grizzly
By Eugene C. Williams I shouldered the rifle and peered through the scope at the strange form. It was the grizzly! The bear was facing me head-on, while standing with front feet atop a downed tree. It was huge! The bear’s intent stare told me it had seen me before I saw it. The grizzly was too close! For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Play Hooky Ram
By James M. Peek I sensed it was about time to hear from Ross Peck of Fort St. John, British Columbia, about a hunt for Stone’s sheep. We had invited him into the Taylor Ranch in the central Idaho wilderness last winter to show him a bighorn, but time and weather prevented his visit. He asked me up to the Tuchodi River area of British Columbia four years ago, but I declined because of teaching commitments. If he told me he had space this time, I knew I was going, come hell or high water. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Montana Mega Bull
By Chuck Adams The huge elk caught me by surprise. I was hunting mule deer with my guide when a bull bugled 200 yards away. I say “bugle,” but that’s really not the word. “Growl” would better describe the sound. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
The King
By Lester H. Miller - From the very first moment that I saw this buck, I knew I had to have him, no matter the cost in time or effort. He was standing at the back-end of an open hay field, near a patch of second-growth timber. His antlers glistened in the morning sun and he looked almost like an elk. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Deer Diary
By Don McGarvey As a lifelong resident of Edmonton, Alberta, I was aware of the trophy whitetail potential of the area surrounding my hometown, even prior to September 20, 1991. On that day, that trophy whitetail potential became trophy whitetail reality. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Our Way or No Way
“No closer!” cautioned my Inuit guide Charlie Bolt, raising his rifle just in case. “Shoot now. Shoot the white-horned bull.”
Goat-hunting Bug
After moving to southeast Alaska almost 10 years ago, it didn’t take me long to learn I was living in some of the best trophy mountain goat territory in North America. I knew someday I would hunt for a trophy goat, but at the time, I was hunting Dall’s sheep each year, and that was using up most of my hunting time and money. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Quest for the Giant Moose
Hunting has always been a very important activity for our family. My grandpa Isbell taught my dad how to hunt and the tradition has continued through the generations. Our family consists of my mom, dad, and four daughters. I’m the youngest of the girls. Dad started each of us shooting when we were about five years old with twenty-twos and used various firearms working up to a bolt action, scoped twenty-two long rifle. We’ve all spent countless hours practicing shooting.
A Long 27 Years
For 40 years, I have hunted cougar with hounds; and, hopefully, my 1988 hunt will not be my swan song. The last 30 years, I have hunted in the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness in Idaho each winter, trying to kill a Boone and Crockett lion. Each winter for the last 20 years, I have hired a ski plane to fly me, my dogs, and camp, into the backcountry where I hunt for a month or longer. I prefer to start hunting about the first of February, as the weather tends to improve rather than deteriorate after that time. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
World's Record Grizzly
Jason, my son, was then 12 years old; this was to be our first “real” hunt. He had hunted since he was seven years old, around our ranch in southern British Columbia. We had decided on grizzly. I had always wanted a trophy grizzly. I had ranched some years before in the Anahim Lake area. We had friends there, and we knew there were large bears in the area. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
If You Have To Look Twice
On one hand, I can say Boone and Crockett has never really been the objective of any of my hunting trips. But on the other hand, I can never remember sitting on a cold deer stand, rifle in hand, that thoughts of a record whitetail didn’t cross my mind. In fact, on my second elk hunt, I felt the rush of adrenalin on a Wyoming mountain. But that big bull, the largest one in the whole world to me at the time, measured 320 unofficially and it takes 360 to make the Awards book. For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Lady's Day in the High Country
Drawing a tag for a bighorn sheep takes patience. A lone, do-it-yourself hunt in the high country makes it even more of a challenge, but to do it as a 65 year woman, now that makes it even more of a story! For more of B&C's Audio Adventures, visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Ten Days Among the Elk
This true story was written by William Dallas “Dall” DeWeese in 1888, over 115 years before his elk was ever scored for the Boone and Crockett records book. It is not simply a recounting of the story of his hunt; It is also a priceless look into the past of our hunting heritage. Everything in this story tells a tale, whether it’s the hunting slang of the day, the things they saw, or what common thoughts and acceptable practices were in that era. For pictures, scorecharts and other audio adventures visit: https://www.boone-crockett.org/tags/bc-audio-adventures
Lucky
Lady Luck often seems fickle, but in reality, she tends to favor those who most deserve a shot of good fortune. This truism proves itself regularly in the whitetail world, where hard work results in consistently good results for certain hunters.
Terrified
I hunted bear in the Galiuro Mountains for several years, but September 9, 1982, was to be a day that I will never forget.