I still needed to butcher my deer and get it in the freezer, but it was in the truck and I was pointed toward home. The moment I started my truck and put it in gear I felt an enormous sense of relief from not only half a day of grueling hard work, but also from the intense mental pressure of needing to get this deer out. Almost like flipping a light switch, everything changed in an instant. I was ...  Read More

I was drenched in sweat and my shoulders were raw from the thin rope harness I made to drag my deer, but I somehow made it up out of the coulee onto level ground. But I faced another problem. Directly between myself and my truck was an old barbed wire sheep fence with wires stretched so tight and low to the ground that I couldn't get the deer under it. It took all of my strength to cut the wire wi...  Read More

The antlers made nice handles, but I couldn't budge the mule deer even one inch up the side of the steep coulee. I decided to backtrack, climb out on my own and head back to get my truck. My hope was that I would be able to drive around the coulee and park close to the upper edge. In my truck I found a 10 foot piece of rope, cut it in half, made two loops and tied one on each of the buck's antlers...  Read More

As I hit the edge of yet another coulee I jumped a nice mule deer buck. It was a large mature buck, but looking back, the antlers were clearly average. He was doing that bounding 'bounce' peculiar to mule deer when he stopped broadside halfway up the coulee wall. In my excitement and inexperience, I shot him right there. If I had waited another minute, he would have climbed up out of that coulee o...  Read More

The high plateau that borders Montana's Missouri Breaks looks flat and lifeless. Sagebrush and tired looking soil called 'gumbo' go on for mile after mile. That's at first glance. In truth, the country is rich with game. Antelope herds thrive on the plains and small draws called 'coulees' offer shade to deer and elk during the heat of the day. I was hunting deer by myself, walking those draws and ...  Read More

And so we passed on the buck of a lifetime and made our way in silence down to the truck. I was not a Christian then, and I said in a moment of honesty, "Doug, if you hadn't been here I would have shot that buck." He grinned and said, "If you hadn't been here, I would've shot that buck." Though we would never have gotten caught, accountability kept us legal. Face it, we are all sinners. Having bro...  Read More

We stood motionless on the steep, snowy mountainside, senses on high alert. We were hunting elk, and a deep, musky scent told us that an animal was very close. The sun was just going down as we saw the tips of very large antlers not 30 yards beneath us. The animal was still hidden by a small knoll, but as he moved our way, we saw long tines and a wide spread. We already had our rifles up when he s...  Read More

I couldn't get my frozen fingers to work. My partner loaded my rifle and zipped up my coat. There was a foot of fresh snow on the ground, and we were at the bottom of a steep ridge. I started climbing immediately. Ten minutes later, part way up the ridge, I was warm and toasty and felt fine for the first time in many hours. We walked all day and saw nothing but an occasional track in the snow. We ...  Read More

My body hurt. I was in significant pain and could not stop shivering. My hunting partner was breathing peacefully beside me in his goose down sleeping bag. I simply suffered minute after minute as the hours slowly dragged into morning. When we ran out of propane for the heater, we closed the side windows of the topper on my pickup to try to retain heat, but we could not keep out the bitter cold. D...  Read More

It was my first hunt in Montana's Crazy Mountains. My 'guide' and hunting partner was Doug Bingeman, the science teacher in Moore, Montana. I taught elementary school there. We decided to take my truck because I had a topper on it and had cut out a foam pad and carpet so that I could sleep in the back. It was mid-November, long after dark and bitterly cold as we opened the side windows of the topp...  Read More

The cold snap continues with the temperature in the single digits. I saw a crew working on a metal building yesterday. I've worked construction in these temperatures. It's impossible to keep your fingers warm. You lose dexterity- even the ability to pick up a nail or a screw. Everything becomes more difficult. This same truth applies to those who are spiritually cold. Believe me, I've been there. ...  Read More

"Are you guys awake?" My hunting partner and I had taken an older teen on a hunting excursion up the Snow River past the glacier. We had three small 'solo' tents pitched about 20 yards apart. As some of you know, camping out in country that is full of bears can be interesting. At times your imagination can run wild. My buddy and I were used to this and did not realize that our teenage companion wa...  Read More