RE: Way to go outdoor writer
LAST EDITED ON Aug-21-09 AT 02:23PM (MST)[p]Long post, folks:
First, I apologize for taking over this thread. That wasn?t my intent. And? I would have dropped it until bowhunter95, who is obviously part of the DD tribe, got involved. So in deference to Founder, this will be my last comment in this thread.
Those who know me from this board or others also know that I usually avoid personal confrontations, name-calling, etc. on the boards. Of course, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy a healthy debate on an ISSUE as long as it's just that ? a civil and non-personal debate on the ISSUE.
I think once you read the rest of this, you'll understand why I made my initial comment. Some of you will likely disagree with me. I expect that and have no problem with it. I'm a big boy.
Perhaps some might even think I was dumb to not verify the story with more than the four people involved. Here's why I didn't see the need.
I've been in the outdoor writing business for nearly 40 years, full-time since 1984, and during that time I have had contacts, dealings and conversations with dozens upon dozens of outfitters, guides and hunters for any number of reasons, including writing articles. Other than this ONE instance with DD, I never had a reason to complain about the professionalism, friendliness and honesty of everyone involved. Thus, I had no reason to doubt the concocted tale of four people, and I wouldn't do it any different today. I still believe in the honesty of 99.9999% of the people I have contacts with.
And because of my profession, I'm well aware of the libel/slander statutes. Thus, I wouldn't make a statement that would leave me open to legal action -- at least one that would be won. In fact, I would love to have an attorney question the principles involved under oath in a countersuit. ;-)
My beef with DD goes way back to 2000 and the elaborate ruse they concocted so I would do an article on the three bulls in the photo above that their clients from TX killed in 1999 ?
supposedly during the Nov. hunt in Unit 10. Not only did Darin Collins contact me and lie, but he also convinced his clients to lie during my interviews with them. (see the bolded parts, including actual quotes, in the article)
As soon as the article appeared, several readers contacted the magazine and me to tell us the bulls had been killed on the Hualapai Rez during the SEPTEMBER season and NOT in Unit 10 during the Nov. hunt, as perpetuated in the concocted tale.
One such reader from the Bullhead City area who knew the game warden in unit 10 had him check his list of permit holders for 1999; NONE of the three hunters had a permit in that unit for that year. Once I found this out, to be sure I had the AZ game department do a search of its entire database; same result - NONE of the three hunters had a permit in unit 10 that year. And since this is a matter of public record and available under the Freedom of Information Act, anyone can call the AGFD, even now, to verify that. This is a
FACT, not opinion.
Now, if you look closely at the photo I added to the thread, you'll also not the absence of any AZ state tags attached to the antlers. I still have several other photos of the same bulls; no tags in any of them. Whoops. The law reads that tags must be attached IMMEDIATELY upon the kill.
That said, they MIGHT have attached them to the rear gambrels, which is also legal, but from my experience, most hunters attach the tags to the antlers. So this is only circumstantial evidence of the falsehoods. Then again, if they didn't have AZ tags, the absence would also make that FACT obvious. Sadly, I didn't notice and question it until after the incident concluded.
Also, note that bowhunter95 has yet to reply to the ?where and when? in my question to him. Maybe he hasn't been back in the past two days; then again, maybe he has been back but isn't about to be embarrassed even more.
Anyway, as a result of all this, we published a retraction in a later issue of the magazine, and when I confronted Darin Collins by phone, he didn't even apologize for the obvious ruse.
So given this experience, I stand by what I stated earlier. Now you all know why I say I will never believe anything from DD, regardless if they are telling the truth or not.
The article is below. The clients? names are redacted since they were also sort of victims in all this.
GRAND CANYON STATE BULLS
The ?secret? that Arizona grows big bull elk ceased to be a secret many years ago. The odds of taking a 6X6 or better trophy bull are extremely high, and the chances for record-book class trophies are better than anywhere else in the country.
The Boone & Crockett Club (B&C), Pope & Young Club (P&Y) and Safari Club International (SCI) record books list dozens of bulls from the Grand Canyon State, several of which rank within the ?Top 10? in both the typical and non-typical categories. The B&C Records of North American Big Game alone contains more than 75 entries from Arizona in the typical and non-typical categories. One bull killed in 1997 by Las Vegas, Nev. resident Mike Shipsey on the San Carlos Apache Reservation isn't even listed, though. If it was however, it would rank as the non-typical world record because it scored an incredible 487 points.
With all the notoriety, however, drawing one of the hard-to-come-by permits has become quite difficult. And it's especially so for nonresidents because of the 10 percent limit on tags they may receive in any particular unit. But a trio of family members from Texas didn't let the lousy odds deter them from applying.
The head of the clan was 60-year-old ***** *****, Jr., a real estate developer from *****, Tex.
?I had already hunted and killed elk in a couple of states, but all those rumors about the monster bulls in Arizona kept going through my mind. So four years ago, I finally decided it was time to give it a go. I convinced my son ***** and my son-in-law ***** ***** to apply for a permit with me. *****, who lives in *****, had never hunted elk, and *****, who lives in *****, had only chased them around Colorado. He had killed a small bull in the process. ?
?Once we decided to apply for a permit, I began researching guides and settled on Double D Outfitters in Bullhead City, Arizona. Several people I spoke with had told me that the two ?D?s, Darin Collins and his brother, Derek, were aggressive young guys who knew where and how to hunt elk. Truer words were never uttered.?
?I called Darin and he didn't hesitate when I asked him what hunt unit we should apply for. His answer was,
?The best one ?10.? So that's what we did. BUT?Darin also mentioned that getting a permit in that unit was as likely as getting struck by lightning. His prophecy proved true. For three years, we got little pink cards back telling us we failed in the drawing and now have so many bonus points.?
In June, 1999, the Texas contingent again applied for the #3025, the November hunt in Unit 10. This time when the drawing took place in late July, the trio avoided the lightning but received their permits.
***** was ecstatic about the luck of the draw. ?I couldn't believe we actually succeeded in the lottery after all I had been told about our poor chances.
Darin had told us that he and many of his prospective clients had been applying in that unit without success for years. So when he found out we had drawn, he said the hardest part of the hunt was over. After we arrived at camp, I believed him. Even though the rut was mostly over by them, we had bull elk serenading us to sleep the first night. ?
Unit 10 is a vast area that encompasses the Coconino Plateau in the north-central part of the state, just northwest of Williams. It borders the Hualapai Reservation on the west and the Havasupai Reservation to the north. The southern boundary is Interstate 40. There are lots of elk, with a very high bull-to-cow ratio and lots of trophy bulls. The hunting can be tough, however, because mostly low-slung cedars and junipers dominant the vegetation. Even though finding a high spot to glass is fairly easy, getting within range is a different matter. Once a hunter gets down into the thick stuff, seeing and approaching a good bull takes patience and more than a bit of luck.
On opening morning, the elder ***** paired off with Darin. ***** and *****?s son went searching for their trophies with Derek.
***** ***** was excited right from the start.
?We started off at daylight by listening for the bulls to bugle, and we heard them all around us. Then we did lots of glassing. By the time it got dark, I had seen at least 60 elk and at least five or six of them were ones I would have shot if I had been hunting alone. Fortunately I wasn?t.?
?Darin kept a tight rein on me every time I saw a shooter bull. He would constantly say, ?No, not what you want. It's only the first day, and there are a lot bigger ones around.? But I did pass up a 7X7 that was probably better than the two ***** and ***** killed. On the second day, we also saw about six or seven decent bulls, but none of them were as good as the one I passed up the day before.?
?On the third day, we saw two really good bulls. Later in the evening, we had been glassing and spotted my bull heading for a water tank. He was with a bunch of cows, but there were two other satellite bulls hanging around with them. When we first saw them, Darin?s rangefinder showed they were 500 yards away.?
?As soon as the elk got to the tank, all the cows waded into the water up to their necks. The biggest bull stayed on the ground, though, and didn't even take a drink. Darin looked at him through a spotting scope and told me he was a good one, with eight points on one side and nine on the other. I decided it was the bull I wanted to kill.?
When ***** made his decision, Collins quickly questioned it. ?Are you sure??
***** again confirmed it with, ?Yeah, I'm positive.?
Collins put the rangefinder on the bull. ?He?s just under 300 yards.?
***** rested his .30-06 rifle on a small bush and shot.
?The bull didn't even flinch, and we both thought I had missed cleanly. Neither of us had heard the bullet hit because it was so windy. Darin told me to shoot again. We knew the second 180-grain bullet hit him. The bull buckled, then ran off into the trees. By that time it was starting to get dark.?
***** and Collins worked their way to the spot where the bull had been standing when hit. They immediately found blood. They moved toward the place where the elk had disappeared into the trees.
?We hadn't gone 20 yards into the trees when the bull jumped up and started to run. By that time it was so dark, I couldn't even find him in the scope to get off a shot. We knew he was hurt bad, though, because he had laid down so quickly.?
Collins knew the best thing was to call it quits for the night and to come back early the next morning to track the wounded elk. He also knew they would likely find it already dead.
His hunch was correct.
*****?s hunt was over in three days. ?We got back to the spot just after daylight the next day. The bull was dead and less than 100 feet from where we had left his track the night before. When we dressed my bull, we found both bullet holes. They were less than two inches apart.?
*****?s bull grossed 383 6/8 Boone & Crockett (B&C) points.
The third day was also the lucky one for ***** and *****. The latter was the first to hang his tag on a bull.
?We began the day by watching a water hole and could hear bulls all around us. None of them ever came to the tank, though. My guide thought they were watering during the night because of the full moon. So we decided to move.?
?Once we got into the trees, Derek began bugling and getting lots of answers. We managed to walk up on at least three or four bulls, but Derek kept shaking his head ?no,? and later telling me they weren't the kind of quality I wanted. In one instance, though, it was a good bull. But a cow spotted us sneaking in on them and ran the herd off.?
?While we were hunting down low, we kept hearing lots of bugling from the hills. So we headed toward them. One bull was a lot closer to us than the others. So that's the one we decided to chase. And boy, did we chase. We probably followed him two to three miles. We?d get close; he'd run off. Derek would bugle; the bull would answer. We played hide and seek with him for two hours.?
?We finally got into real thick stuff, and when the bull bugled, he was only a couple hundred yards away. Then he bugled again, and we realized he was heading right for us. A minute later, he stepped out from behind a tree and into an opening. He stood about 12 feet away from us. We froze in place, but the startled bull jumped as soon as he figured out we were there. My guide used his cow call to stop him.?
?Derek had been running his video camera. As soon as he saw the bull, though, he put it on pause so he could tell me not to shot. He too late. When the bull stopped only yards away from me, I shot him. In fact, he was so close, I later told my dad that I had killed the bull in self-defense.?
Although ***** ***** had passed on several larger one over the first two days, he was still quite satisfied with the 353-point bull he tagged. ?Chasing that elk was one of the most exciting things I've ever done, and it certainly was the best hunt I've ever been on. I felt I earned my stripes in Arizona.
Later that day, ***** completed the Texas triple.
?We had packed out *****?s elk and began glassing again late that afternoon. We eventually spotted a bunch of elk meandering through the juniper trees. They were about 400 yards away when we first saw them, and Derek told me the bull was definitely a shooter. So I decided it was time to end my hunt.?
?We had been up on higher ground while glassing, so we had to drop down into the trees to get close to the elk. Once we did, though, it was really tough trying to see through the tree branches. Then we heard the bull bugle. He was close. We stayed put rather than risk spooking him and hoped he would show himself. Our wait was a short one.?
?About three minutes after we heard him bugle, we saw feet below the low hanging branches of a juniper. It was less than 150 yards or so. But we didn't know if the feet belonged to the bull or to a cow.?
When Derek saw the feet, he told 34-year old ***** to click off his safety and get ready. Then the tips of antlers appeared above a branch.
?When I saw the antlers, my heartbeat really went crazy. I had never hunted elk, much less shot at one. And here I was staring at the monstrous horn and getting ready to shoot what will probably be the bull of a lifetime for me. What happened over the next few seconds will undoubtedly be etched in my mind for years.?
The bull, walking broadside to *****, reached an opening, stopped and looked at him. The hunter?s .30-06 boomed and the elk dropped right where he had stopped. It scored 370 B&C points.
The three Texas hunters had killed three trophy bulls in three days.
***** ***** never thought such a thing would happen.
?When we applied, we were happy to just get drawn. We never figured we would all kill good bulls. Actually, we didn't think we would even all fill our tags. But obviously we're all happy with our tripleheader.?
TONY MANDILE
How To Hunt Coues Deer
