A trophy hunt to remember

During and since the last hunting season I have had a number of hunters complain to me that there are no longer any big bucks on the North Fork. It is not something I ever thought about since I am more of a meat hunter, not a horn hunter. In my experience horn and track soup are not very tasty. The comments about no big trophies did remind me of an old story.

Right after World War II my dad, Ross Wilson, was hired as a game warden and was the district supervisor of District No. 1 which encompassed the five northwestern counties of Montana.

At that time a hunting rifle with scope was offered as a prize for the biggest mule deer rack and another for the biggest whitetail rack. My dad was the official Boone and Crockett judge of this annual event.

In 1952 entries were far from huge and hunters were complaining that all of the big bucks were gone.

My dad disagreed and bet he could go out the next day (the last day of the season) and not only get the biggest mule deer but also the biggest whitetail. At that time it was legal to shoot both a mule deer and a whitetail.

And he did. He left before daylight and by 1 p.m. he was back with the muley in the picture. It was shot up north somewhere around Eureka. By 3 p.m. he was off again into the hills west of Lakeside. He returned after dark with the whitetail shown in the picture. The elk rack came from a bull he shot earlier up the South Fork in the early season.

Yes, his bucks were the biggest taken that year.

Dad was not eligible to win the rifles but he always said the bragging rights were worth more than any new rifle. He was satisfied with the rifle he already had.

In my biased mind, my dad was the best hunter (and fisherman) I ever knew. He was raised at a time when those skills were vital to a family. He always told me that if you could hear yourself walking in the woods a deer could hear you a quarter mile away. It would sometimes take him 30 minutes to get out of sight of camp.

I wonder if today’s hunters just don’t hunt as hard as they used to. I no longer climb Thoma Mountain looking for deer or spend all day, on foot, hunting.

At most I hunt in the early morning and again in the late evening.

I’ll bet that big buck is still out there. He may be wiser than his younger relatives and hides better but I think he is there.

I just prefer easier meat that is more likely to be tender. What do you think?

Larry Wilson’s column, North Fork Views, appears weekly in the Hungry Horse News.