Glad to be a member of RMEF again

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Uncle Lou
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Glad to be a member of RMEF again

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:54 pm

I was up at the Total Archery Challenge with the Tethrd Group in early June in Boyne Mountain, Michigan and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation had a booth. So it was time I rejoin. I used to love getting there magazines. There photography alone is awesome. I kinda suck at photos, but still appreciate theirs.

The conservation that they do, and the way they promote public land hunting out west and elk hunting is a very good thing.
Image

Here is a recent project that they did :clap: :clap:

I love there motto - Hunting is Conservation.

Hold your head high everyone because we are conservation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-LNvX8Wf54

If you are looking for a good organization to support, consider this one.


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Re: Glad to be a member of RMEF again

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Sun Aug 01, 2021 1:56 pm

I grew up in a non hunting family. My moms family were farmers in Minnesota, and my dads family were immigrants from communist Yugoslavia. I grew up outside St. Louis on the Illinois side of the river, and I spent my summers as a youth on the farm visiting (if that is what you call bailing hay and milking cows) my moms family in MN. I suspect the time around the farm is what got me interested in the outdoors, but you never know how ones DNA is formed.

My dad's family never hunted, but there was some hunting on my moms side (arrowbender is my cousin, and he is definitely a hunter, and there were other cousins and uncles up there that hunted), but I was never up there during hunting season. I subscribed to Field & Stream as a kid and always dreamed of elk hunting. In my senior year in college I decided to bowhunt in Illinois, that was 1989. I killed a deer that first year, a button buck. Had no idea what I was doing, my gear was horrible, I took way too long a shot, but I was hooked.

I graduated in the spring of 1990, I met a girl in Michigan between my junior and senior year, out west of all places, and moved to Michigan in June 1990. Thought I was going to be a BA bowhunter. That never quite happened, but I was called to elk hunt, or so I thought. By the time I was in my late 20s I bought a 7 Rem mag and started going out west, inspired completely by F&S and the RMEF, and maybe my DNA.

Because I was a young budding geologist, I thought it only fitting to go west to try my hand at elk. Completely skunked on my first two trips to Colorado in 1997 and 1998, I was undettered. In September 2000, I went to Wyoming with another cousin - Louie (arrowbenders older brother). He shot a huge cow elk on that trip and I was finally baptized with hauling an elk out of the mountains. What a trip. We stayed at another cousins place in Lander -Wamp was his name. A huge man 6'-08" or so and he was also on my moms side. Wamp was also born in MN, became a pretty good whitetail hunter in Ohio and moved out west (his definite calling) in about 1993.

Louie and I went back out west together in 2006, in Idaho with a good friend of his from MN that moved to Idaho. That is finally when I shot my first elk, a 5x5 bull that still hangs in my garage. I thought I would be going back out west nearly every, or at least every other. But life has a way of getting in the way. I did make a trip to southwest Nebraska in the fall of 08. Wamp moved there from Lander, and Louie and I met there for a Mule Deer hunt. Another rushed hunt for me, that has defined my hunt travels the last many years. But I did manage to shoot a 250 lb (180 dressed) mule deer doe with my muzzle loader. Wamp ranged it after I dropped it at 220 yds, probably lucky shot.

I managed only two other trips out west since then. One to Idaho in 2012 for a wolf/mountain lion hunt (that was my only guided hunt), and then I got back out to Colorado in 2018 for a DIY solo muzzleloader elk hunt where I missed a cow.

I say all this mostly to flash back, but also because the RMEF and there magazine inspired me to do all this. I wish I did way more. Now sitting here at 52 I don't think I went nearly enough, but I can't turn back the clock. I will try to do more trips, I have plenty left in the tank. For anyone even thinking that they want to go out west. Just do it. Don't be afraid of any unfilled tags, don't be afraid of the mountains and the weather (although you do need to respect them), and don't be afraid that you don't have the experience, or the knowledge. You will never get it just thinking about it.

Pick up an issue of the BUGLE, and maybe even subscribe to this great organization, AND just go.

Thanks for reading my ramble on this. Honestly just getting that copy in the mail today brought back the fire.
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Re: Glad to be a member of RMEF again

Unread postby justdirtyfun » Mon Aug 02, 2021 5:49 am

Thanks for putting this out there. They are a group that is DEFINITELY INSPIRING. I am a volunteer with them but have never hunted elk or West.
Here is a picture from a work day near Van Buren MO where some Missouri elk live. We have a 200+ herd and a small group of tags to hunt them here.
IMG_20210728_204429.jpg
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Re: Glad to be a member of RMEF again

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:50 am

justdirtyfun wrote:Thanks for putting this out there. They are a group that is DEFINITELY INSPIRING. I am a volunteer with them but have never hunted elk or West.
Here is a picture from a work day near Van Buren MO where some Missouri elk live. We have a 200+ herd and a small group of tags to hunt them here.
IMG_20210728_204429.jpg


That is awesome, thanks for posting. If you ever get the chance just go. It doesn't matter the results. You have to be willing to fail to go out there by yourself. Glad you agree that the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is a great organization. Love there motto - Hunting is Conservation. Wish the wolf lovers knew how good hunters are. Once we put a season on something we will never hunt it to extinction. We just generate interest to manage for long term survival.
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Re: Glad to be a member of RMEF again

Unread postby justdirtyfun » Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:12 pm

Uncle Lou wrote:
justdirtyfun wrote:Thanks for putting this out there. They are a group that is DEFINITELY INSPIRING. I am a volunteer with them but have never hunted elk or West.
Here is a picture from a work day near Van Buren MO where some Missouri elk live. We have a 200+ herd and a small group of tags to hunt them here.
IMG_20210728_204429.jpg


That is awesome, thanks for posting. If you ever get the chance just go. It doesn't matter the results. You have to be willing to fail to go out there by yourself. Glad you agree that the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is a great organization. Love there motto - Hunting is Conservation. Wish the wolf lovers knew how good hunters are. Once we put a season on something we will never hunt it to extinction. We just generate interest to manage for long term survival.


Our sport/hobby/obsession is classified as consumptive use. We take an animal from the landscape. But I disagree with that judgement, WE ADD MORE THAN WE TAKE. Period.
The dollars, man hours, habitat purchase and improvement done by hunting groups have created a wealth of wildlife and natural habitat that EVERYONE can enjoy and benefit from.
You don't have to be the best, just do your best.


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