The Watering Hole's 2012 Big Buck & Bull Contest.

fatrooster · Jan 4, 2013

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On December 15th the Watering Hole in Spring Creek, Nevada held its 13th annual Big Buck and Bull Contest and I'm happy to say that it was a great time. First off I'd like to thank all of our sponsors who donated prizes, time and money. The taxidermists are some of our biggest donators and make nothing on each head mount they donate. They donate thier time and materials and have graciously given to thier community and for that I ask that you guys give them your bussiness in return. Those taxidermists are, Gary Powell of North Slope taxidermy who has been with us the longest and donated two deer head mounts and several Badlands backpacks. Thankyou Gary for your continued support over the years. Al Harris of Rack em up Taxidermy who came to us on his owne accord without being asked and has been donating since 2008. Thank you Al for giving to us and the community. Jimmy Lynn who also came to me this year and donated a free head mount. Thanks Jimmy for bringing back our muzzleloader category. Also Jeff Frost of Intermountain Taxidermy and Worldwide Adventures in Twinn Falls who donated an elk and deer head mount.
Several years ago people who had gone to Twinn Falls and used Jeff told me about a taxidermist that wanted to get involved and donate to our contest. After hearing about him for two years I decided I needed to go see him. Jeff was very adamant about wanting to give to our contest and give back to the people who have given him thier bussiness in Twinn Falls. We quickly formed a friendship and he has now donated to us in both 2011 and 2012. And in addition, he has led me to another new donator for the 2012 contest which I will talk about later. But for now lets go to our contest and look at some bucks!
Starting with the archery category we go to our 3rd place winner, Alex Stone, who took a nice 3x4 in velvet in Nevada's early archery season.

Second place winner is Dave Gowan who was out cat hunting but sent his lovely daughter Kriston to stand in his place to recieve his prize.

Chris Carter was our first place winner and he won a free head mount and a new PSE bow. Congrats on a great buck Chris!

Next we will go to the muzzleloader category so stay tuned.

fatrooster · Jan 4, 2013

LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-13 AT 03:33PM (MST)[p]Ok, now we go to the muzzleloader category which deserves some explanation. Several years ago we had a muzzy category but dropped it and grouped it into the rifle category. The reason for this is because we had a couple of years of little participation in this category and also because it was one less head mount we had to ask our taxidermists to donate. But a guy named Jimmy Lynn came to me and asked me to bring back the muzzy category and as I mentioned before, Jimmy is a taxidermist. He told me he would donate a head mount to the muzzy category if we brought it back and the rest is history. So Jimmy is responsible for us having a 2012 muzzy category. Thanks Jimmy.
Third place winner goes to a heck of a hunter named Tony Langdon. Tony brought one hell of a nice buck and I'm surprised that he only got third place but thats where the chips fell.

Second place goes to Patrick Jones who took this sweeeet buck. Congrats on a very nice buck Patrick!

1st place goes to Jay D. Larsen with a great typical. Look at that width!!! Good job Jay D. Jay D. recieved a 50 cal muzzleloader and a free head mount. In addition to being the biggest muzzy buck, Jay D. also had the biggest and best scoring buck in our contest which entitles him to free beer for one year. Come get your mug Jay D. and lets drink a beer together.

That concludes the muzzy category. Next we go to the rifle category.

fatrooster · Jan 4, 2013

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Rifle is next with our third place winner being Brandi Betancourt who also placed in our contest last year. Brandi comes from a family of huge hunting fanatics, like the rest of us, but this family has a knack of always getting the job done. Brandi is also a donator and has her owne photography bussiness and has donated wildlife pictures to our contest in the past. Thanks Brandi for your support and congrats on another nice buck.
Standing next to Brandi in this picture is Kelsie Jensen our second place winner. Kelsie is no stranger to big bucks either and killed a great buck in 2009. Her family is also another family of big time hunters and always seems to get great bucks. Congratulations Kelsy on another great buck. Kelsy is on the left in the black shirt and Brandi is in the tie-die shirt.

Our first place winner is Todd Compston with this great typical. Todd had a great year and brought in a heck of a nice bull for show and tell that he took in Utah. Thanks for letting us slobber all over your bull and congrats on the great buck Todd. Todd recieved a rifle and a free head mount.

Several years ago we started handing out a prize for the smallest buck and this years winner is Brandon Elegante. Brandon will also recieve free beer for one year. By the way, Brandons nephew won smallest buck in the youth category in the 2011 contest and won a rifle. And another relative of his won youth smallest buck in this years contest. Congrats guys but its time to go after the biggest buck, lol. Actually, it goes to show that every buck is a trophy and a winner. Thanks to the elegante family for bringing in your bucks no matter how big or small it is. Brandon, come have a drink on us with your mug. Here is Brandon's buck.

Bull elk is next.

fatrooster · Jan 4, 2013

LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-13 AT 04:04PM (MST)[p]Bull elk is our next category and our third place winner is Brittany DelGrande. Brittany has been a huge supporter over the years and has done lots of work preceding and during our past contests. In addition Brittany and her husband bought several items that we auctioned off for a cancer victim during our contest and was one of the main supporters for this victim. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Mario DelGrande, newlyweds, for your support of our contest and the support of the cancer victim. Here is Brittany's bull.

Second place winner is Jacob Farley who took his first bull with a bow. Congrats Jacob on a very fine first bull. The first of many I'm sure. Here's Jacob's bull.

First place goes to Darla Faux. Darla's husband, Greg, took a 390's bull two years ago and Darla took this great bull to win our 2012 Big Bull Contest. Congrats Darla on the great bull!!!!
Darla recieved a rifle and a head mount and free beer for one year. Don't share your beer with Greg, Darla, lol.

fatrooster · Jan 4, 2013

Next is the youth category and its my favorite. I'd like to mention that for the last two years we got some negative feedback on this site when I posted up our Big Buck contest. Well, there was a guy in Las Vegas who frequents this website and goes by the handle of joevegas. Joes real name is Joe Blockovich and Joe saw some of this negative feedback and it kinda got him angry. Joe got in touch with me and explained that he felt the contest was a good thing and he and his wife Leslie wanted to donate to it. Joe has three daughters and they all had rifle deer tags in the Elko area. Joe and two of his daughters came to hunt in October and Joe brought a Remmington 243 in camo with a scope to be used in the youth category. All I can say is that Joe is one stand up dude. To live in Vegas and support our contest which is so far away from him was just outstanding. The next time Joe or any of his family gets a tag in this area, I am giving him all of my time to help him fill those tags. Thanks Joe for your generosity. And as always, I welcome any feedback, good or bad. I would prefer that you contact me personally but as you can see, even bad feedback on the internet can turn into a good thing.
Also, some of that feedback mentioned that we did not have enough prizes for the youth category. I agreed with those comments and set out to make a difference. I bought a rifle last year and sold raffle tickets and was able to give rifles up to third place in the youth category. This year I did the same but was much more successful. This year I was able to buy rifles up to sixth place and had backpacks from 7th to 10 place and a rifle for the youth smallest buck. Thanks to all of you who bought tickets, we were able to turn the youth category into a much better event. Thankyou to all of you supporters and all of the feedback that was both good and bad. All of YOU made the difference.
So we will start with the youth smallest buck which was won by Austin Elegante. Austin, thanks for bringing in this buck and showing him the respect that all bucks deserve no matter what the size is. Congrats! Austin recieved a lever action .22.

And now we go to 10th place which was won by Jillian Deeisbrough.
Thanks for bringing your buck Jillian.

Caden Constable got 9th place with this nice buck. Congrats Caden. Hey, you kinda look like that guy thats in the background, lol.

8th place went to Issacc Cordova. Sweet buck Issacc.

7th place goes to Tyler Long. Great buck Tyler.

6th place went to Coleton Berlin. Another great buck!

5th place belongs to Seth Watson. I really like this buck.

More to come stay tuned.

fatrooster · Jan 4, 2013

LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-13 AT 05:14PM (MST)[p]4th place goes to Nick Cortes. Very nice buck Nick.

Dennis Branning took 3rd place and recieved a Thompson Center .204 coyote and varmint rifle. Congrats Dennis.

Weston Warrick took 2nd place. This was Weston's second year in a row to place in the top three. Weston was at a wrestling match and so his Dad Jessie accepted Weston's prize. Weston recieved a Savage 243 rifle.

And first place goes to a young lady by the name of Shelby Ackley. When Shelby came up to accept her prize she was crying up on stage because she was so happy. I almost broke down and started crying my self, ha ha. Shelby hunted this buck hard with her family and saw him almost every time they went out. But this buck liked to bed in 6 to 8 foot high sage brush and getting a shot was almost impossible. When they did see him they usually could only see part of an antler. At one point the buck spotted them and took off and Shelby shot a hole in the base of his left antler. He got away on that day but a week later Shelby was finally able to put him down. Congratulations Shelby. Your hard work paid off. Shelby by the way, is a huge advocate for the Nevada Youth Clay Pigeon Club of Nevada. Now I might not have that title exactly correct but the big picture is that we need more youth like Shelby to promote hunting to the rest of the world. Keep up the good work Shelby and what a great buck you got. Shelby recieved a free head mount and the Remmington 243 rifle that was donated by Joe Blockovich. YOU GO GIRL!!!!
Shelby, by the way, asked me for Joe Blockovich's phone number and she personally thanked him for the rifle donation. Thanks Shelby. Here's Shelby with her buck which was later scored by Brandin Fordin who is an official Safari Club International Scorer. Here buck scored a whopping 202".

Although we do not score SCI or Boone and Crockett in our contest, Brandin Fordin helped us measure our antlers this year to put to rest any and all questions about our measureing. Thankyou Brandon. Little things like this are a huge help.
Brandon Fordin, Official Measurer, 775-777-3150 or 775-934-7574. Call Brandon if you need an animal measured.

kilowatt · Jan 4, 2013

Great pictures and info on all the hunters in the contest Drew. I still need to just drop everything next year and drive over there for the contest just to see them all and enjoy the "party".

Now if I can draw a tag this year might be a good reason to show up there.

Brian
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fatrooster · Jan 4, 2013

Thanks Killowatt, would love to have you show up. Lets hope you get that tag! fatrooster.

fatrooster · Jan 5, 2013

Now I'd like to introduce you to a new sponsor that joined up with us this year. The taxidermist in Twinn Falls, Idaho, Jeff Frost of Intermountain Taxidermy & Worldwide Adventures, told me that I needed to go see a guy named Ricky Franks at Rob Greene auto dealership also located in Twinn Falls. So when I did Ricky explained that he also wanted to get involved in supporting our contest. Ricky said, like Jeff, that he has gotten a lot of bussiness over the years from the Elko and Spring Creek community and he wanted to pay them back for thier bussiness. So Ricky Franks sent his right hand man, Kirby Butler, down to our contest to display a sign, put out a truck and trailer display and see how we could help each other out in future contest. So meet Mr. and Mrs. Kirby Butler.

In an ongoing effort to better our contest we are beginning to reach out to our community as well as others to raise money. Kirby Butler, Ricky Franks and Jeff Frost were all to eager to help us out. Please repay them by giving them your bussiness. The way I see it, sportsmen need to support sportsmen and we need to stick together as much as we can in this modern day when everybody is trying to take away our hu nting and gun rights.

Yours truley posing with Mr. and Mrs. Kirby Butler.

Kirby has been putting on these kind of events for 25 years and had a few pointers and suggestions which I have duly noted. Thanks Kirby, Ricky and Jeff for your support of our community. Looking forward to working with you in the up coming years.

mickeyelk · Jan 5, 2013

Outstanding event you put on every year Fatrooster. My hat off to you and all of those lucky hunters. Have a great 2013.

PleaseDear · Jan 5, 2013

Pretty dang cool---again this year!

Every year I tell myself that I am going next year and I still haven't!

Thanks for sharing this years event fatrooster.

Robb

joevegas · Jan 6, 2013

Thanks for the kind words Drew and I sure wish we could have been there. We got back to Vegas the night before the contest after driving in from Oklahoma. A trip that usually takes 16 hours turned out to be 25 due to bad weather. Looks like you all had a lot of fun and another great contest. Shelby did call and she is one top notch, classy young lady. She actually had me a bit choked up as well and when I got off of the phone with her my wife had wondered if something bad had happened!! LOL. I hope if Shelby ever makes it down south she gives us a call so we can get her out on some desert quail. Anyway, thank you for letting us be involved and introducing us to some really good folks. Talk to ya soon.

fatrooster · Jan 6, 2013

Mickeyelk, pleasedeer, and joevegas, I expect all of you to be there next year, lol!
Another sponsor I'd like to bring up is Farns at Gun World in Elko. Farns has been a sponsor since our first Big Buck contest in 1999. We get all of our rifles from him at cost and he makes nothing off of this contest or the rifles that we get from him. This is huge considering the number of rifles we give away each year and the number of rifles gets bigger and bigger each year. Thanks to farns for his support and generosity over the years. Again, give Farns at Gun World your bussiness please.

Farns is on the right with the black beard and Bo, also of Gun World, is on the left.

elkassassin · Jan 6, 2013

Nice Job there Fat Banty!

I always enjoy the Watering Hole's Big Buck & Bull Contest Threads/Pics!

Drew is a Good Man!

Thanks for everything you do!

So?
You think you wanna take My Hi- Capacity Magazines & Assault Rifles Huh?
Just Try taking My American Pride/Rights!

It's been a long hard ride
And I won't lose hope
This is still the place
That we all call home

Longun · Jan 6, 2013

Now that is what makes huntin' fun...good times with good bud's.....hey do you have a taxi service that would run to Wyoming after the party????

elks96 · Jan 7, 2013

Looks like a good time, but never can figure out why so many people attempt to have the smallest skull cap ever? Maybe they think it makes the antlers look bigger. Sorry just makes me wonder why not take the whole skull plate.

kingfish · Jan 7, 2013

Congrats Rooster for another fun contest looks like it would be a lot of fun to attend.

Government doesn't fix anything and has spent trillions proving it!!!
Let's face it...After Monday and Tuesday, even the calender says WTF!

NickW · Jan 7, 2013

Great coverage again! I gotta make it to Spring Creek for the next one!! Thanks for sharing, Fat Rooster!

fatrooster · Jan 7, 2013

elkassasin, thanks for the kind words. Hopefully I'll get to make some Utah events this year and will get to BS with you.
Longun, now thats funny, ha ha. Wyo is just a little too far for taxi service, lol.

fatrooster · Jan 7, 2013

Kingfish and NickW, the door is always open for visitors. fatrooster.

takeahike · Jan 7, 2013

Another great contest I'm already looking forward to next year!

BrowningRage · Jan 8, 2013

That youth buck taken by Shelby is the best buck in the whole competition... Next for me is that 3rd place Muzzy buck... What a stud...

"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!" 2 Ne. 28: 24

Gazelle · Jan 8, 2013

I swear, If There was a house available in Elko I'd move today. Nice goin FR.

fullcurl74 · Jan 8, 2013

Looks like fun, and I have to say the youth hunters smoked the adults this year. Good job kids!

6x7 · Jan 8, 2013

That 3rd place muzzy buck scored around 185 I think I was told,and is a small buck compared to the buck he took in the Colorado muzzy hunt last year it was a smoker for sure.

bigbull1 · Jan 9, 2013

Congrats to the Elko Community for putting on a great event!
Thanks fat rooster for taking the time to share this with the rest of us in the Silver State...

Love Shelby's Monster buck!!!!!

Ed