EP: 79 Winning Big in Wyoming with Russ Elms

This is going to be something people have never read about ever before. Killing two sheep in the same state on draw tags the same year. Anything to do with Western big games.

Welcome to the Epic Outdoors podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody, here we've got another great episode today with the Epic Outdoors podcast. Got a great guest with us today, Russ Elm. From Baker City, Oregon. And he's one of those guys we all read about and don't ever think it'd be us. But got a great story to go through with him about some great hunts he had here a year or so ago. But before we get started real quick, I want to give a shout out to Under Armour. They're the title sponsor of our podcast. We appreciate their sponsorship of that and everything we do here at Epic Outdoors. And all we're doing, projects and got a bunch of great new gear they're coming out with here this summer. So stay tuned there. Russ, you on there with us? I am. Good morning, Adam. Hey, good morning. Well, I got myself, John Peterson, and Russ.

Maybe just before we dive into maybe some of the incredible luck you had a year and a half ago or so. Just tell us a little bit about, I know you're from Baker City, Oregon. I've known you. We've known you here for, I don't know, 15, 20 years it feels like. But tell us a little bit about your background, where you're from, what you do for a living. And, you know, we've always known you in the hunting world, but that's how we've got connected. But tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah. You know, like you said, I live in Baker City, Oregon, which is a rural community in northeastern Oregon. And I'm married and I have two teenage daughters that keep me on my toes, that's for sure. And like you said, I've known you for quite a while, met you through the hunting industry. And I am a small business owner with several different interests that I do here in Baker City. Gotcha.

So have you always hunted? I mean, I know that's a loaded question because, and we'll get to this a little bit later. I know your dad hunts and he had a couple of great hunts last year himself. But so I assume your dad's probably who got you started into that and you've pretty much hunted your whole life. Yeah, I've always hunted, you know, just locally. Really had, didn't even know anything else existed out there other than just hunting in Oregon. And, you know, you go to the top of the mountain and you make drives down through and you shoot anything that has horns. And, I mean, that's just how I was brought up. I mean, that's how you kind of did it. And then went to college and then worked in big cities. And when I moved back, had an opportunity to move back to Baker City. My wife and I did.

I tied in with a guy that was a big hunter here named Steve Adams and told him my interest in hunting and stuff. And he invited me out to his house. And I walked into his trophy room one time and looked around at all those other critters on the wall and thought, Oh, that was like fun. Next thing you know, man, he turned me on to a publication that talked about tags and stuff like that. And so I started putting in for tags. And, you know, I got in, what was that, like 25 years ago. So I got in on the ground floor in a lot of states, which was, which I never really thought was that big a deal at that time. But now I look back, that was probably what has helped me on a lot of these draw tags, you know, and such. And then I started going up north, chasing the sheep more and more. And back when I was doing it, when I was younger, I'm 48 now. It was much more affordable than it is now.

It seems like that price has really jumped up. But that's kind of how I got into the hunting in the other states stuff was through Steve was his name. And like I said, we, he kind of got me interested in sheep. And then I drew a sheep tag here in Oregon in 1996. And from then on, I've just been trying to go as much as I can. Yeah. Well, that's, that's a great intro. And, and for maybe from some of you listeners are like, well, what's this Russell? What'd he do? Why they got him on there? Well, let's get to that. Cause that's a pretty neat story here a year or so ago. I think it was, I don't know, mid July sometime. I got an email from Wyoming game and fish emails or whatever. Hey, the super tag results are out. And you know, that's one of the, nothing that you ever really go get.

It's not like a normal, Hey, when the draws for Wyoming super tag is going to be out like the regular states are. But, you know, remember looking at him, glancing, I saw your name. And I'm like, Holy crap. I can't believe that. And, and I know that guy, you know, this is real. There's a live person at the end of these things. And you drew the trifecta. The, for those of you that don't know what that is, it's a part of Wyoming, a super tag raffle. They, they raffle one individual species tag for all species, which are bighorn sheep, elk, goat, moose, you know, bison, deer, elk, antelope, all those. But then they also have a trifecta, which you can apply. It's $30 per choice there. And you were the one guy drawn for that. And so that allows you to pick three species.

And I remember texting you and I think it turned into a call later that day just because you were probably, your phone was probably blowing up. But, but you were the guy. But then I remember you told me and I hadn't heard yet, but you had, you had an additional tag already. You'd already drawn a sheep tag after 19, 20 years. You'd drawn in the regular draw, right? Yeah. Yeah. No, I had a, I had a, I'd already drawn a sheep tag. In Wyoming. We're talking about Wyoming. Yeah. So. Oh yeah. Yeah. No, I, I, and I knew I had enough points drawn. I thought that was a good year to do it. And, and so I went ahead and, and cash my points in and, and drawn that tag. And so, uh, I was actually on my family vacation, uh, out of like area where I don't have good service that week in July.

But before I was leaving on Friday, I got an email that was kind of odd that said, stay tuned Monday, exciting news coming. And I was like from the state of Wyoming. I wonder what that is. You know, and I, I didn't even know what it was. It was just an odd email. You know, and I thought, huh. But it was kind of specific. Like, like, like maybe it thought was to you only and not to the 150,000 other people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I thought, nah. And, and so went to, and I happened to be by my phone. We were at, we were in Health Canyon and there's not good service there. And, and, uh, on Monday and I saw, I had a call and, but I was busy and conversation and playing with the kids and, and recreating. And it was from Wyoming fishing game. And, but I know I had bad service. And so I didn't even take the call. I mean, I never thought anything about it.

I mean, I thought, and then I started thinking, man, maybe let's, where I drove that. Honestly, what I was thinking, this is kind of funny. I was like, we're at already on a sheep tag. And maybe they have leftover gear tags that they're trying to sell. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I never, never even thought of it. Probably forgot you'd even bought, bought tickets. I mean, we, you did this probably like we do. You, you bought one $30 choice. Wow. Yeah. When I was checking out. Yeah. When you were doing your regular sheep app, you, yeah, you can apply them for them the same time. The deadline is a little later, July 2nd this year. But yeah, you just added it on like we do in a lot of other state raffles. Yeah. Exactly. That's exactly what I did. And then moved on and never even thought about it. So Tuesday I had to come in for work.

And as soon as I, I hit like Baker city, my phone started blowing up with all these messages to call. I thought, well, what would they want me to call for? And this was from Wyoming Game and Fish. And I'm like, man, I don't know. So, you know, I, I. They better not take my sheep tag from me. They better not be having to die off and they need my sheep tag back and something weird. So I came. Yeah. I came and took care of business and finally called like late morning. And, you know, I said, I'm calling for Scott. I was, and, and who's the director of Wyoming Fish and Game. I have a message called. And she's like, who's this? And I told her, she's like, Hmm, is he expecting a call? I said, I don't know. I said, he called me. I said, he's left a couple of messages. Uh, I don't know. She says, well, he's not here. I'll have him call you. And I'm like, okay, no problem.

You know, so I hung up and, and did my work and headed out about, you know, one that afternoon, two that afternoon and was fueling up. And, uh, I got a call from Wyoming Fish and his name was Glenn Pauley. And Glenn, uh, who actually became a good friend. I mean, very, uh, accommodating, uh, in helping through everything. Uh, anyway, Glenn called and he's actually, I think is, I'm not sure his title. I think it's director of communications. Does that sound right? Yeah. He's PR and yeah, a lot of that type of stuff, I believe. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, he called and he says, oh, talk to me and a little small talk. And I said, well, did you have a good conversation with Scott? I'm like, I haven't talked to anybody. And he was like, you don't know why we're calling you. And he, yeah, he, that's what he said. He says, I never get to do this part.

And I says, nope, I don't have any idea why you're calling. And he says, do you know what the trifecta is? I says, no, I really don't. He says, do you remember buying a ticket? And I'm like, no. What are you talking about? Yeah. Yeah, I really don't. He says, well, you drew the trifecta tag and he told me what it was. And I was like, holy smokes. And at that time, I was, yeah, I was, I was like unbelievable. And I says, well, I'm going to throw a little ringer in here. I says, man, can I hunt two sheep? Yeah. And he's like, no, you got to pick one of each species. You can't pick two sheep. And I says, no, what if I told you I already have a Wyoming sheep tag? And there was just like a long pause. He's like, you've got to be kidding me. But I've already drawn a Wyoming sheep. I remember when I talked to you, that was my first question.

Because I knew, you know, no, I'd met you when Dan Blankenship had his Utah Rocky tag. You came down. And, you know, I knew you loved sheep. And I knew you were going to want to shoot two. And that was one of the first questions I had was, are they going to let you hunt the regular draw and this? And I don't, you tell us what he said. Did they have to double check? They probably, I'm sure, never had that happen. But he told you immediately? Yeah, he said immediately. He says, absolutely. He said, you'll be like the first to do that. He says, this is great, you know. And so I says, well, I can tell you it's sheep for sure. Yeah, that's one of the three. Yeah, and then how did you go through the, as this starts sinking in, how did you go through the, I mean, I think you just killed a big mountain goat the year before. You'd drawn Oregon, hadn't you? Just like the year before.

So that one was kind of, you know, most people don't need more than maybe one or two, especially if you kill a big one like you did. You're like, I killed a big mountain goat. So that one, how did you go through that process of elimination of all the other species and what you, you know, moose and bison and deer and elk? And how did you come to the other two in your mind? Or how long did it take? Excellent question. A long time. I mean, right away, my second one was decided. It's because it's kind of funny. So then I have to drive back to Health Canyon and I'm like, oh my gosh, here I go again. I got to explain to my wife I'm hunting more. I mean, how am I going to do this? Because the year before I had to drive back to Health Canyon and explain to her that my daughter had drawn an Arizona desert sheep tag at, you know, 12 years of age. I remember that. Yeah, she was young.

Yeah, yeah, young. So I'm thinking, here I go again. I got to explain that I'm going to be gone even more. I have to use that word once in a lifetime again to my wife, you know? Yeah, yeah. That's exactly it. But anyway, I had already taken moose in Wyoming and it was her favorite table fare. Your wife's? She just loved eating it. Yeah. The wife's. So instantly, as soon as I told her I can pick, she says, well, you're shooting another moose. I'm like, oh, there's number two. Okay. All right. Well, that involved her too. You lessened the sting maybe of, I've got to go to Wyoming and kill four great animals, honey. I'll see you in a month or whatever. You know, it's like, well, I'm going to bring you home moose. So that's a concession. So how did you come to the third? That was the hard one, I guess, huh? That was a hard one. It really was.

You know, I'm a sheep hunter at heart, but if there's a second one, it's elk. So finally, I just stayed on the elk and chose it. You know, they have so many species I could choose from. The bison was really intriguing. And I was really looking at it. In my mind, I thought it'd be easy to, because once I figured this out, that logistically this was going to be difficult for a family man with active kids and businesses. And you'd drawn your first sheep tag in a wilderness area in western Wyoming. So I believe you'd had an outfitter already booked for that. I mean, you had to essentially, right? Because you, you know, non-residents have to hire somebody there if you don't have a resident relative or friend or something. So that was already done back in early May. You'd already, you know, done that. And so now you're like, how do I do this just? I've got another sheep.

Do I shoot two in the same unit or do I spread it out or do one with the elk? So, yeah, talk us through. Yeah, your head was spinning. It's a good problem to have. And this was one of those, you know, I remember when we talked, I said, hey, Russ, you're going to, you know, I invited you to do a story and write up. Because I said, this is going to be something people have never read about ever before. You know, killing two sheep in the same state on draw tags the same year, like that can't ever happen in the same state. I mean, it could. I mean, you could draw a California bighorn and a desert bighorn in a state like Nevada. You know, I mean, it could happen. But, man. I don't think it ever has happened. Well, maybe for a resident in Nevada. So I'm sure if somebody's out there listening, don't say I don't know what I'm talking about.

But a non-resident drawn two sheep tags in the same state in the same year. I mean, different methods. One a regular draw, one a super raffle. Still unbelievable. So, anyway, how did you, you know, yeah. So you're going to have to have some help. Some of the biggest elk live in wilderness. Obviously, most of the sheep units that you can hunt. Because there are a few exceptions. You can't hunt units, I believe, with less than like eight sheep tags. So you can't go self-guided unit 19 or, you know, 20 or 22, some of those. You can't do some of those, you know, unit 12 and the bighorns. You can't do those. They don't have enough to go there and do those on your own. So, yeah, you're head spinning. And how did you proceed to get all this set up? Well, you know, my first hunt was I'd already booked with Bob Barlow, Barlow Outfitting. You know, I'd loose hunt with Bob.

And he was, I liked his demeanor. And he was easygoing. And he always had good horses and good gear. And so I was pretty comfortable with my first hunt with him, you know. So that was in Unit 7, right out of Jackson. Okay. And anyway, so I went in August. And let me answer your first question. And so the other one, I just thought, I thought moose, I mean, I'm just going to head to Unit 38. That's where it says the moose are. I mean, I'm just going to head down there in Snowys and check it out over Labor Day and shoot me a moose. It's going to be easy. There's going to be no problem with that. But the next sheep and elk, I thought, in my mind, I thought, I'll just do them together. I mean, heck, it can't be that hard. So that's kind of how I thought it. And, you know, I had a lot of people that called me, you know, when I grew, you know, from Wyoming that I didn't know.

But one fellow that I talked to several times was Josh Martolio from Shoshone Lodge Outfitters. And Josh, he was the most calm. I mean, everyone's all, you know, this, this. And Josh was more, he took a little different route, which I was very appreciative. He just said, bottom line, he says, basically, I got your back. He says, you don't need to worry about anything. He says, I'm offering my services. If you need me, call me. He says, I'll accommodate you anywhere I can. But he never pushed or never tried to pin me down. Line up all three guided hunts or anything like that. That was it. No, nothing. He just said, I got your back. You need me for anything, you call. So I thought, wow. Yeah, because I know, I mean, he kills a lot of big rams, you know. But he has a big time outfit. So I thought, all right.

So I went in August bow hunting for my first ram with Bob and his guide was John Riley. And I had a great hunt with them. Killed a ram like on my fifth day. And so, man, I was right on track. Labor Day, I headed to Snowy. September 1st is when the rifle, some of the rifle sheep open up and the moose. Well, moose would be archery on September 1st, I guess, right? Yeah. Right, yeah. Yeah. So, and I just, you know, I mean, I did a lot of due diligence. I mean, it is like I just don't get blind. I mean, you know, I called everyone. I got names and talked to tons of people. Had a plan. Was going to stay in Centennial and hunt out of there. What I wasn't anticipating. I mean, people told me it was kind of crazy Labor Day weekend around there. But it was nothing like I thought. I've never seen the end of my head. Campers and recreators. Not hunters necessarily. Just people. Yeah.

Out, you know, had a three-day weekend. That was the most quads I've ever seen. I don't know. Have you been to Utah on the general deer hunt before? No. I don't know. No. Or maybe Oregon general deer in places is like the same. But it sounds like it's nothing like what you experienced there. But anyway, so yeah, you're raring to go opening weekend. And you're like, holy cow, these moose got stuff buzzing around them everywhere. They did. And there was a lot going on. I mean, it was hard. And, I mean, it was hard to find even a moose. I mean, it was difficult. Finally turned up a bull on my last day and was able to get him stuck. So got him, got that one done. So both with the bow so far. The archery ram in unit seven and the archery moose. And so, all right, two out of the way within the first week of September. So now you got your second sheep and a bull, an elk. Yeah, exactly.

And I really, I can't say at that time I had a plan. I mean, I really didn't. I came back and archery hunted Oregon and Idaho for elk. And some commitments I had and got those. And I really, I really didn't have a plan. So there I went and called, called Josh. Just here's where I'm at. And Josh had hunters. And he told me to come later October, you know. And he says, come, you know, on like, I can't remember what the date was. But, you know, definitely October 23rd, 24th, somewhere in there. Come and we'll get it done, you know. And so I headed to Josh and met him there at the lodge. And he still had an elk hunter or two. So I helped him with that for a day, just riding with him and checking things out. And then we started sheep hunting. And, man, we, it was a, it wasn't your normal sheep hunt from the standpoint that usually, like,

I was hunting unit three one day, then I'd hunt unit two the next day. Yeah, you don't really care where you end up or camp. It's just, we're riding in the mountains west of Cody. Yeah, exactly. That's all we're doing is riding. And usually you ride in and he would set up a camp. Well, where we had the flexibility, we were day riding. And so good thing the days were short because, I mean, we put in a lot of miles. And we were climbing a lot. And we were just, we were working pretty hard. Josh was pushing pretty hard, you know. And we finally found a ram in unit two that we talked about a long time and figured we'd kill him. He was not your typical Wyoming ram. He had a lot more flair, a little more mass than normal, but just not the boxy look, you know. It was just a little different for a Wyoming ram. And in hindsight, we probably should have killed him that night.

But we were in pretty sickly invested grizzly country. So we just watched him, put him to bed, backed out, went in the next day and found him a little farther around in the cliff. And put a stalk on him and got close enough to shoot, talked about it for a while. And he moved a couple times. We moved a couple times. And finally, this was it. We're going to shoot him. And we were just talking about it and kind of getting the pack set up and to shoot. And then a grizzly charged us. Oh, I remember that story, yeah. You heard it huffing or what did you first hear? Yeah, he was woofing and huffing and just blur. And here he comes. I mean, and he was coming in a hurry. And so we're scrambling, you know, like crazy.

There were four of us. He had a wrangler, him, and then an assistant guide and me. So we were scrambling like crazy. And I had the rifle in my hand from where I was getting over the packs for the shoot. And they were diving for bear spray. And we were screaming, hey, bear, hey, bear, hey, bear. And like Josh, it was getting, he was 10 yards, 8 yards. And then he just stopped and blew out as quick as he was there. I mean, it was pretty intense. 10 yards? Yeah, yeah. No gunshots, huh? No rams. No, no gunshots. But those rams, they didn't like all that ruckus. Yeah. They didn't like that at all. And they were within, they were 300, 400 yards. I mean, they were fairly close, right? Yeah, 300, 400 yards, you know? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was, it was going to be a poke, you know? Jeez. Yeah, yeah. It was, yeah.

They bust, run in the timber, and then it's dark or whatever that night, and it's done. Yeah, yeah. So he blew those rams pretty high and around. And so we had to drop back out of the rocks and go back down lower and relocate them and make a stock. Conditions were less than ideal with the mountain winds. And man, when he finally, and they were nervous anyway, they winded us. And when they winded us that time, I don't know where they went. They went a long ways. Yeah, it was over. The game was over. Jeez. So you're getting pretty deep. I mean, for the listeners who don't realize, the October 31st is it, right? Yeah. That's when sheep season ends. So you're getting pretty deep, deep late October here. Yeah, we were, you know. But so we went back to Unit 3 the next day and went back up in there and looked all around that right at dark, way, way up in the nosebleeds in some real deep snow.

We saw a group of rams with a ram that Josh had some history with. He suspected it was long ways and got dark. And so we rode out that night and rode back in in the morning. And when I say riding back in, you know, it's a two and a half, three and a half hour ride. It's a pretty good little ride. And so we got back in there just about daylight and couldn't find those rams anywhere. And so we rode a little closer and couldn't find the rams anywhere. And so finally, Josh just said, you know, it's time to hike. And so we'll just go get on their tracks and track them. That's what Josh and I did. And the Wrangler and the other guy stayed with the horses. And we went and hit those tracks and started tracking them through that old burnt timber. And he said in the Box Canyon, he'd never been in there, but he looked at a lot. And the snow was just right at our, over our knees, you know, mid-thigh.

I mean, we were post hole digging going through there. Wearing you out, too, walking and that stuff. Oh, I was. I mean, I was wore out from 60 days of hunting. But it was, I thought, holy smokes, we're committed. I mean, Josh was confident. Yeah. He was like, we'll track them. And we just stayed on those tracks. And we'd gone a long ways and went around into a little draw. And all of a sudden, I don't know what made Josh look up. But he looked up and those rams were bedded 50 yards above us just staring at us. Really? I couldn't believe it. Yeah. All, he picked out the big one, that real dark chocolate ram, and shot him at 50 yards. Wow. You know. Well, that was it. That's pretty awesome. I remember the pictures there. I mean, it was, you guys were bundled up. Of course, it was late, late October, late in the hunt, snow.

I mean, it just kind of, it reeked of backcountry Wyoming sheep hunting right there. It wasn't the green grass, the sunshine, and all that. It didn't reek of that. But it was, you knew, you had, you know, the story you just told. It pretty much told that story when we ran it and whatnot. So, that's awesome. So, you got him out that day. Another great ram. Really heavy, heavy ram. Classic, you know, look at least, as far as I'm concerned, as far as Wyoming ram goes. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, beautiful. And so, then you get out of there. And did you immediately say, all right, let's switch gears now. Did you go home? You had an elk tag left. And what was your plan then? No, Josh, we went back to the lodge there on the river and packed our gear and headed to his home in Cody. And got in late and said, well, cut in the morning.

He says, we'll go to a place that, you know, typically the bulls, it's more of a winter deal where they come in there out of Cody. And so, we drove in a pickup this time, no horses. And went up in there and he was talking. As we're going in there, it was a long old drive. He was saying how, you know, when you come back, we'll go with snowmobiles. And sometimes you got to off the road to try to get in here, you know. And it's a walk. I mean, a walk. And I'm like, holy smokes. He was showing me there and I'm thinking to myself, man, when I come back next time, I thought these other hunts were tough. This next one's going to be really tough. Yeah. I thought, wow. So, we pulled up there and like he said, he says, I don't really know what to expect. He says, I've really never been in here quite this early. Well, it was kind of funny. It was just three of us today.

And so, we got out of the truck and gathered our gear and hiked up the mountain. And kind of went around. And first bull Josh spotted was the bull I ended up shooting. Really? We talked about it for a long time. Yeah. Holy cow. Yeah. And it was a long ways away. It was a long ways away. A long ways. I mean, I'm mostly an archery hunter. I haven't shot a bull with a rifle for years. And man, this bull was a long ways away. And Josh was like, we're just going to shoot him right here. And he was confident as to be. And he laid his gun down there, whipped a couple things on that scope out, put this level down, and just aim right on him. And one shot, the bull rolled down the mountain. I was pretty impressed. Like, oh, this rifle hunting's not that bad. Yeah. No. I thought that's pretty good. So, anyway, we ended up getting that bull and brought horses in and got them out that day.

And I was headed back to Oregon the next day. Wow. Well, that's pretty awesome for, I don't know, roughly a week or maybe slightly less than a week, right, on that return sheep hunt, elk hunt combo? I mean, geez. Yeah. It was like seven days. I mean, yeah, it was pretty impressive. And a great bull. I mean, tell us a little bit about the bull. It was a really wide bull. Yeah. You know, really wide, impressive beams and wide inside spread and all that. I mean, just a great bull. It's not like you just shot a bull to say, hey, let's be done with this. It was an awesome bull, too. No, yeah. No, it was a big old bull. Old and just thick neck and a heck of a really nice bull. He might have even been down on his down. He was a touch over 370 and just had a lot of character. And it's a bull that, you know, you couldn't, not that I'd pass him up anyway, but he didn't have to do it very much.

Even though it was the first bull you saw elk hunting, so to speak, you know, you've, that's, you've seen enough elk, you know, that's a bull you better kill. So. Yeah, exactly. Pretty dang awesome. So what, what else about, I mean, this is a whirlwind two months, I mean, more or less, a little over from the start of August, what, 15th? Is that opening day on your first sheep hunt, I believe? Or is it, yeah, August 15th? No, it might have even been, I can't remember if that was August 1st or not. Yeah, I went like, I went real early in August, you know. Yeah. The weather was warm and it was neat that I got to see different country. Unit 7 was really big mountains that were not as rocky, but more timbered up with, with real nice, just nice, beautiful country. Tons of mule deer, just, just really neat to see it, and then getting to go see Unit 2 and Unit 3 was fun for the sheep, you know.

Yeah. It was fun to see different areas, but no, I tell you, that Glenn, Paulie, that I dealt with, he was, he was just so instrumental in everything. He was always, always would answer my call, help with everything, give me contacts, you know, the wildlife biologist that he would work with. Yeah. In the different regions. Yeah. And anything I needed. I mean, they were very good. QU provided me my gear that I had to wear for the hunt, and, and, and I can't say enough about the gear because, man, I was wearing it. Anyway, you just got more of it. August, yeah. August, I was wearing it, and then I'd be wearing it in the end of October, and when the wind was beating me up up there in the snow, you know. So, I was real, real appreciative of them there at QU.

Well, yeah, that's, that's great, and we, we love the gear for the same reason, the versatility and the wide range, you know, from early season stuff, the lighter weight, lighter weight stuff to the, you know, it's, you know, lightweight, but layered system that's hard to beat, rain gear, top to bottom, everything. So, they've been a great sponsor here for us as well, and I know, I think, since the year you drew and every year since, they've had a QU gear package for the winter of a few of the super tags, the trifecta, and then I think the sheep and elk and goat, you know, more of the, maybe more of the mountain hunts. I don't think they do it for the antelope and whatnot. Not that I guess you can't wear a QU and hunt antelope, but you know what I'm saying.

It's more designed for the mountain hunter, and they can't, you know, can't make, you know, gear like they do that isn't versatile for all hunts, but I think those are the ones that they give away. So, appreciate them being a sponsorship of this podcast as well, and that's awesome they give you that stuff. So, what, what, tell about some of the, did you have to even pay permit fees after you won the trifecta? For people that maybe have a question, you still had to buy those, just as if you drew out, essentially. So, um, you had to buy another sheep tag and, uh, I guess an elk tag, maybe just the standard price one. They didn't probably make you buy the special, so 600 and something for that. And then a moose tag at the time, probably 1400, but still, I mean, for, you know, a $30 chance, she said you only did once.

She had three incredible species for, you know, roughly 4,000 bucks in permit fees after that in terms of, um, you know, and, you know, like I said, equivalent of 20 years waiting on a sheep tag and, well, 30, unit 38 moose, the same thing. It's, uh, you know, a long, long wait. So, pretty awesome. What would you, have you ever won another raffle type hunt? I mean, you described, you've been playing the draws a lot, you know, for 20, 25 years. Is this the only extracurricular raffle type hunt you've ever won? It is. Yeah. It is. I, I assume though it's not the first time you ever put one in, nor the last, right? For whether it be Wyoming or other states. So. Yeah, no, I, I always, especially when they pop up on the screen like that, I always seem to put my name in the hat. Yeah, it's, it's hard. They, they're getting good at it too.

You know, this, this day and age with whether it be their Facebook or Instagram or whether it be print in a magazine like Epic Outdoors or the emails, like you said, it's, it's hard not to, especially this time of year as we're getting, you know, for the most part, a lot more unsuccessful notices in our office here than we are successful. We're getting a few good, a few good things, but, uh, you're kind of running out of options. And so not that these are things you plan your fall around, but you apply for them and forget about it. Like, like you did. You didn't even know what a trifecta was after, after you won it. So until you won it again. So, well, and tell us, I mean, we might as well bring up, um, I know last year your dad had some great luck, um, as well. And I, you too, but I mean, your dad kind of flip-flopped the roles in your family as far as the, the good fortune.

Tell us a little bit about a couple of awesome hunts he had last year. Yeah. Yeah, he did. No, it was his turn last year. He, uh, drew a Colorado moose tag, uh, in unit six and we had a tremendous hunt there. Uh, and then he drew an Arizona, uh, desert bighorn sheep tag, uh, in the unit right next to the one that, that Avery had had, uh, a couple of years previous. So, uh, we got to go back and basically camp almost in the same location we camped before. And, uh, I got to see that country again. And, and dad was able to, uh, complete his grand slam with that, that desert ram too. So that made it. We had, yeah, we had a great, great year. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. No, I killed an awesome ram with, uh, Eric Hunt and, uh, the Scott brothers and the guys there at Arizona desert outfitters. Took care of you guys down there. And yeah, your dad killed a great moose too in Colorado. Big bull.

I don't remember. Did he have the rifle or did he, did he go muzzle it or did he, or did he get the rifle hunt? He, he did a rifle. Yep. He did a rifle. Yeah. Well, those are two, two awesome animals and killed an awesome sheep. Of course, you know, we all heard about that one too, when he got it. And it's always a little bit extra special when, you know, in this case it's your dad, but even, you know, myself, when I get to accompany other hunters, um, when you hear of somebody drawing and it's that fourth and final ram of their, you know, long awaited quest. It's pretty, it's extra special. So that was, that was awesome. You got to go down there with him. He took an awesome, legendary ram down there, you know, so killed an awesome sheep. How about, how about this year? You got, you guys done any, any mate, anything major this year in the draws been good to you so far? Nope. Nope.

We have not, not drawn a tag. So, yeah, well, there's pretty quiet. There's still a few things remaining, but, uh, yeah, we are kind of, we're running out of options. You got, I guess, Oregon up there. Of course, you've drawn your goat and your sheep. So, I mean, it's going to, you know, I don't know. There's not, as far as the big stuff, um, maybe you got some elk and deer stuff in the running in other states as well. Some sheep draws, but. Well, I appreciate you taking time with us today, Russ. I mean, more than anything, it's just a really cool, feel-good story. We appreciated you back at the time, you know, documenting it and taking a bunch of cool photos and doing a story for us. And one of our, I guess, our inaugural January issue where we started back in our magazine business for ourselves, opening up Epic Outdoors. You did a great article there, and we appreciate you doing that.

We put you on the cover with your Wyoming, your rifle ram. And so, appreciate you doing that for us. This is just too good of a story not to tell. We wanted to, you know, uh, thank the folks at Wyoming, the Game and Fish. If you're interested in buying Super Hunt tickets for Wyoming, you can go online to wgfd.wyo.gov and then backslash Epic Outdoors. Again, Super Tag tickets are $10 per ticket for the individual species or $30 for the Trig Factor. The deadline to apply is July 2nd. Russ is proof. It happens. Good things happen. And, uh, just an epic story of two sheep in one state. I'm waiting to hear the next story of that, how that might happen somewhere, but I don't know if it ever will. That was pretty cool. Well, hey, Russ, since we're talking about sheep, let's talk about our stone sheep hunt giveaway real quick.

You have a unique connection there, um, in that you've hunted with, with, uh, outfitter Luke Vince, who, uh, we're giving away a stone sheep hunt right now. Uh, through June 19th, you can buy tickets. So, let's dive into that. Let's talk about, uh, some of your experiences up there with Luke. I went with Luke twice. I went, like, the very second year. He got it. They ever had it. Yeah, and, uh. Was he still getting to know him? I had the best hunt of my life. No, did you? Yeah. Did you, you said you went twice. Did it take twice to kill your ram, or? It did. Oh, did it? It did. They had the darndest thing going when they first started, when they got that from the 80s. Yeah. And Tom, you know, you know Tom, his dad? Yeah, I've met him at the, uh, one of the shows or something once, but anyway. So, he was with you on the hunt? No, Luke was my guide, yeah.

And that first time, I went from October 1st to October 15th. Oh, jeez. 15 days, and we just kept looking for the Holy Grail ram. We saw like a, I don't even want to throw a number out there, but we saw over a hundred rams. I mean, we, and we were in snow, and just unbelievable what we weathered. And we would move, and he was young, and he's still young, but I mean, he was young, and he could climb, and I mean, we just kept looking for a ram that would just knock your socks off. You know what I mean? And, uh, we never found a ram. And so, the way Tom had set that hunt up was, was you had a mountain goat, a moose, and a ram hunt. Okay? If you did not get a ram, you could cut, he'd bring you back. Yeah. I mean, it was a hell of a deal. And he kind of, kind of does that still. He only takes three hunters a year, and the first hunt, he'll more or less guarantee you a sheep.

You know, I mean, or he'll have you back. I mean, he's, I mean, that's pretty much what he's been doing here in Turnagin. He has that other Indian concession, like Kodachi or something. I mean, he only hunts every, like, three or four years. He says, that's a butt kicker. It's rougher. Uh-huh. Um, yeah. You know, that's right. I'm looking at it closer now. That bottom, that side profile, Luke's got the cool shades on and the blue shirt. I mean, there you are. Yeah. So, what year would that have been? That was 2014.

Like, 2014. Okay. Like, the first time I went, the first time I went with Luke, I mean, he was like 18. That's the hunt I'm telling you about. Oh, okay. Anyway, if you killed a moose or a goat, his deal was, before you killed your ram, the deal was null and void, right? I mean, it was, it was, it was a bad deal. You couldn't, you couldn't shoot one, okay? You didn't want to shoot one. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm a sheep hunter. I mean, I don't care about the others. Yeah. And, and, and they're so far north, their moose are big. Oh, yeah. I mean. They are. They're right south of the Yukon border. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're big. So, anyway. Those territories, I guess, or whatever, right, right there. But, uh, on the hunt, we lost, the ponies got away one night. Yeah. You know, and I mean, I, and so he, and they went clear back. I mean, like 20 miles.

I mean, and Luke went, and he says, you know, I don't expect you not to hunt today. But he, he's like, uh, just don't shoot an illegal ram. You know? I mean, because, because we got to know each other after that long. So, so I climbed the mountain and hunted all day and had a great day. Got back, it was snowing, and I was taking care of, starting a fire in the tent. And I heard grunting, and I walked outside. And the biggest moose, because I, I mean, I, I was seeing like 195, 200-inch moose all the time. I mean, I was seeing big moose, right? Yeah. I mean, book moose. And, and this moose, though, I can't even tell you. He was like five brow times on each one. Oh. Like 16 by 17. I mean, he was so big. And he was, I mean, he's 30 yards from me with a cow. Out of your tent. You know? Yeah. Did you pound him? Did you pound him? Oh, this is funny. No, I get it.

But in my mind, I can, you know, I, I've killed a Wyoming, and I'm like, this moose doesn't look much bigger. I could have that thing worked all the way over by the time he gets home. I mean, there's no way I can have that done, but I'm not. Yeah. I don't want to. So, I, I didn't. Go ahead. Yeah, I didn't want to, yeah, you didn't want to alter your, the structure of your sheep hunt contract and pricing. No. And how, what's it going to do? And, hey, well, now it's easier to just go home and, hey, you killed a giant moose, and we're not hunting sheep anymore. But, anyway, so he didn't do it. So, he, no, so Luke rolls in that night, late. And, man, I'm, I'm fixing him dinner. You know, I mean, he is beat up. And, take, you know, do him what I can, you know. You know, like I say, he's an 18-year-old kid, so he's kind of, kind of sultry a little bit.

A little, yeah, yeah, I mean, kind of, can get chippy. How's that? Especially when he's fatigued. Yeah. And so, I'm like, hey, man, you know, and I see, you see this moose I saw today. I mean, Luke, it's way bigger than the one we saw the other day. I said, Luke, it's the biggest thing I saw. I said, this is a giant. And, he, you know, he's not even listening to me. Yeah. So, the next day, we go hunt and come back. At the same time, we're tying the horses up. And I told Luke, I said, there's that moose I was telling you about, Luke, right there. Luke, look, he goes, and he says, kill him. I says, what? He says, kill him. I says, okay. So, I'm like, I'm like, I said, I want to make sure. Can we still hunt sheep? We're hunting sheep still, right? Yeah. Yeah, right. And he says, you know, I can't promise that. Russ, that's with you and Dad. I'm like, I'm not killing that moose.

And he's like, Russ, you don't know what you're doing. He says, you've got to kill that moose. And I says, I'm not killing that moose if I can't sheep on it. Oh, yeah. I told Luke, he's like, you don't know what you're doing. And come find out, he was right. I should have pounded that damn moose. Because I probably, you know, I mean, we can't even put a number on it. Canadian, yeah. It's a Canadian, technically. But it's right up on the, you know, northern BC line. Oh, yeah. 65. I mean, he's a 240 plus moose. Canadian. And he'll probably, probably world record, you know. He's like, that's a world record moose. He said, you could sell that to Cabela's. You could sell it and get replicas made. And he said, you'll pay for another. You know. You're like, I want a stone sheep. That's what I'm here for. Yeah. That's all I'm here for is that ram. So, anyway, I did not shoot him.

That's a cool story. So, on your trip, I guess a year or two later, you came back and did a hunt with Luke. But this time, was it earlier? Yeah. Earlier in the hunt? Same area, but earlier? Yeah. Earlier. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Earlier. And it was, I mean, it's just, it's not physically difficult country. A lot mellow or like a lot of, you know, British Columbia is. Yeah. But, yeah, a lot of rams. The bugs that year were intense. Was that 2014? That's when I was up there. Oh, I've never seen mosquitoes in my life like BC. And maybe they're always like that, but it was unbelievable. You'd cook your mountain house outside your tent and you couldn't eat it. You had to dive in your tent and first kill every mosquito that got inside your tent while your zipper and you were climbing in. And before you could just enjoy your meal.

And there's, if you had any in there, you better kill them before you went to bed because it annihilated you during the night. So, it was nuts. Yeah. No, it was, it was unbelievable. Like nothing I've ever encountered before or after. Yep. That was the same year. Interesting. Maybe you had a weird hat. So, you killed, I don't know, on that hunt, fast forward, tell us just a few of the highlights on that. Might as well pry that out of you too. Yeah. Yeah, no, I killed them on day five. But, man, we were climbing and looking and getting to see not as many rams as I saw late, you know, in October. Were you in August? In August. In August this year? Yeah, I was in August. Yeah. First time. First time, yeah. And finally found this ram. We were actually riding into a place to climb. And I was on the pony and happened to look over. I was tall enough I could see over stuff.

And I told Luke, I says, there's a band of rams up on that mountain. I says, there's a good one in there. And he's like, are you sure? I'm like, yeah, he's a good one, I'm telling you. And so we got in a little spot where we could look up there. And we had no place. We actually had to bottom stock him. We had to come in from the bottom on him and shot him at 60 yards. There was like 11 rams, you know. Awesome. He was a big, heavy, heavy base ram, like over 14, not quite 15, but like 14 and a half and 39 long. I mean, he was like 160, three, 164 ram. I mean, just a nice, real nice ram. That's an awesome ram. Absolutely. Well, that's the exact hunt we're giving away. I mean, it's the second hunt this year. That's the same exact area you've been. So for any of you listeners that are interested, you've got until June 19th to buy tickets for that stone sheep hunt,

British Columbia, Luke Vint, same place for us here has been. So, you know, either $25 gets you in or five tickets for 100 or 10 tickets for 200 bucks and you get an Outdoor Edge Epic Series knife. So appreciate you adding that to us. That's awesome. Yeah, that's where it's at. So this August can't be extended. So as you can attest, somebody's going to have an awesome hunt on their hands. Well, appreciate you spending a little bit more time talking to us about that. And that's awesome. So we've had some other close friends of ours hunt there in 15, 16, kill some great rams. Like I said, it only takes three hunters a year there. Each of them get a 14-day hunt, first to the 14th. And then ours is like the 16th to the 29th, I believe, of August, this August. So got a chance to win, just like you did in the trifecta. So anyway, somebody's going to get a great hunt. Well, we appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Thanks for your time. And good luck with the remaining draws this year. And tell your dad hi. And hopefully, I'm sure you'll get out with your daughters or him on something else if you don't draw something incredible. But wish you luck in the draws from here on out. Appreciate your time today. Thanks a lot, Russ. I'll talk to you later. Okay, sounds good. Take care. You bet. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. If any of you are looking to pick up a new long-range rifle, you've got a great tag coming up this fall, we encourage you to give the guys at Red Rock Precision a call. They're great guns. I've shot these guns for five or seven years, six or seven years, I guess it's probably been.

Awesome shooters. Never feel like I can't make a shot that I need to make. So give Kurt or Todd a call, 801-391-7840. They can kind of work up the caliber that you're interested in, scope combination, all that. They know what they're talking about. Or you can visit them online at redrockprecision.com.