2010 HUNT REPORTS
January 2010
Well this year started off cold and snowy, not just here in Barrow. Martha and I drew a muzzleloader permit down in Iowa. We went down to see Chris at Southern Iowa Trophy Hunts. It was just like home, wind blowing 20+ mph, snow and temps below 0. We spent several days in blinds on bean and corn fields. We saw lots of deers and quite a few bucks, just not the buck we wanted to bring home. We did see a 155" 5x5, but he was only a 3 year old and we elected to pass.
After we thawed out, Chris, Martha and I headed to Arizona for a desert hunt with our friends Troy and Travis Scott at Souhtwest Hunting Adventures. We spent a week chasing muley bucks and javelina around the desert out of Travis' tent camp. Man it was a blast. I missed a 165-170 muley that was a beauty, I was on him three times over a 6 hour stalk and got one shot. It was a great hunt. Chris and I both blew opportunities on javelina, they are a hoot to chase around. Martha and I love hunting pigs, we'll be looking for tags again next year.
February 2010
Jeff and Ische got some Musk Ox permits here in Alaska and elected to go in February. Knowing it was going to be cold they got their First Lite base layers and Sitka insulating layers and arctic outerwear and headed to Nome. Jeff shooting his self bow and Ish shooting his cable gun. Both were successful on record book bulls and had the hunt of their life. Congrats to Jeff and Ische on the book bulls. Nice work. You can see pics of both bulls on the IN THE FIELD pages here on the website.
March/April 2010
The whole CaptivateM Outdoors Team took March off to tend to chores, work and applying for tags so we could put our gear to work. We are hitting the gym, rounding up gear and attending shows to see what's new.
May 2010
Martha & Mike headed to Sitka on a little fishing safari. We got lucky and got into some great king salmon, halibut and rockfish. Weather was good and times were great. Thanks Jim R. for the great outings. Freezer is full. We'll spend the rest of the month packing for Africa and hitting the gym, sheep season will be here before you know it.
June 2010
Well June finally got here and it was time for several CaptivateM Outdoors Team members to head to the Dark Continent. We severely underestimated the power of soccer(football). Boy is the world crazy about soccer, it was absolutely nuts. The atmosphere was incredible from the minute we got on the plane in Atlanta until the time we got off the plane in Atlanta.
Martha & Mike, Caleb & Kaitlin all went to Africa through the services of Bowhunting Safari Consultants. This was Martha & Mike's second trip to hunt. Caleb & Kaitlin had been previously doing mission work. We hunted seperate concessions and both had wonderful hunts. The veld was wet and green and the bowhunting was very tough. That, however, didn't slow Caleb and Kaitlin down. They whacked 'em and stacked 'em. Between the two of them they took 15 animals and some real trophies along the way. Pics on the way of those two. Martha & Mike had a little tougher time. We saw lots of quality animals and passed some great ones, waiting on those once in a lifetime chances. Mike shot an ancient old Waterbuck that pulled a page from the whitetail books and found a place to hole up just before he expired. Subsequently he wasn't found until later, as a matter of fact we just got an email that Huibert found the Waterbuck. Martha waited paitently for the species she was targeting and got a chance at most of them. Martha took an Nyala ewe, Red Hartebeest, Impala and Zebra.
Martha & Mike also spent a few days in Kruger National Park prior to the hunt. AWESOME! The park was fantastic. We saw more critters than we could count including Leopards, Lions, Elephants, Rhinos, Hippos and on and on. One pride of lions killed a giraffe right along the road. It was incredible to see and hear the lions at work. We could hear the lions crunching bones and growling at each other, pretty intense.
July & August 2010
Well this is the start of our Fall and the mad rush has begun. Everybody is needing gear, inventory is coming in(some isn't) and we're scrambling to fill orders, make it to the gym and make our arrangements to hunt. On August 19, Mike flew south to Anchorage to go on a sheep hunt. We had a little mishap on the airstrip and my Hoyt went to pieces, literally. So with other arrangements made we set out for the sheep mountains. If you looked at the Home page you saw the ram, I was very fortunate in taking a great ram, 41 x 13 1/4. Couldn't have done it without good friends and family.
September 2010
WOW! It was a great fall for our customers, it seems everyone is in the sheep. Lots of Dall's being taken, one Bighorn and friends of ours guiding Deserts. Lots of pic's coming on the website. Our friends in Montana say the elk rut started slow, but it sounds like it's coming on. Our Wyoming connection has hammered some nice bulls and the deer are doing great. We rolled from our sheep hunt right into a moose/caribou hunt and had a blast. The whole global warming thing created quite the moose camp this year. It was 60+ degrees almost the whole time and we were far north of the Arctic Circle. We got lucky again and caught up with two good bulls. Pics coming. We sincerely hope everyone is having a great fall!
