Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Great Broadmouth Canyon Elk Massacre 2016

I left Broadmouth Canyon the morning Jorge and his group arrived. I am sure Broadmouth were on best behavior after my hunt, I mean slaughter, it’s not hunting. Long report, please be patient and read the following.

With any group of people, organization, or company you have a few bad apples. For self-preservation and integrity from time to time you have to weed the garden. With modern social media our passion and sport is under severe attack and fighting for its life. We cannot tolerate bad apples.
I am an older very successful retired professional hunter, outfitter, and worldwide hunter. Please excuse me for saying that but it’s just a way to say, “I have been there done that”, and qualified to observe fair chase hunting through a good lens and perspective. Please read the following and act to save our sport. You can imagine what will happen when the antis get a hold of this. This report is not about me, it’s about our future.
I booked a 3 Day elk hunt with Rulon Jones, Sept. 22-24 2016. and his outfit Broadmouth Canyon. I hesitate to call it a hunt as it was more like herding, terrorizing, yelling, screaming and shooting domestic cattle. Broadmouth Canyon is a 5000-acre high fence elk operation owned by Rulon Jones. 5000 acres is pushing it, 10 hunters were on top of each other. I recently booked an elk hunt and little did I know they book 20 hunters every 6 days. Rulon’s son stated they hunt from Aug thru Nov. Folks that’s 320 bulls. They kill so many trucked in elk, they collect the guts after gutting in a barrel, haul them out of the field, later placing them in a large trash bag and haul them off to a dump site so the next group of hunters don’t know of the carnage with all of the gut piles laying around. They tell the naïve hunters they are for bear bait if the truck is discovered. Chase, Rulon’s son, took me to the bear bait, a 55 gallon barrel where table scraps are placed. One of many lies to follow.
I requested their best guide, which turned out to be Rulon’s son Chase, who actually runs the operation. Rulon only rarely shows up and does not even talk to or acknowledges the hunters when he walks by. One day I accompanied a hunter who paid $70,000.00 to shoot a 490 bull. I turned to Chase, and said what’s this guy’s name, and he didn’t even know his name. Each hunter has a guide equipped with a radio. When you book a hunt you pay a base price and pay more on a sliding scale as your checkbook and choice dictate and they try to get you to upgrade. First morning, me and Chase see a bull he says will score 390 in the distance. I said let’s get a closer look and he responds that he does not like that bull and we stay put. You are not given time to examine the bulls but told ballpark of score and hurry up and shoot, as they are hoping for an upgrade. If I am going to pay $14000 to shoot a pet bull, I damn sure want to look at him first. One morning, four of us go out together on the atv. We are on the road and a bull is laying down 75 yards off the road looking right at us. Chase says he will score 420. We watch several minutes with atv running, let 2 people out and turn around and leave. The whole time the bull is still there thru all of the commotion. Upon leaving, I asked Chase how he judged the size with the bull looking right at us. He said, “Oh I know that bull, seen him several times”. I’m sure he has. If you want a bull that scores 396, no problem, they will show the picture of your bull, then tell you to sit right here and they drive him to you. That is what they did to me, and ironically every hunter got the exact size he ordered prior in his contract unless he succumbed to pressure to upgrade. They upload your bull into another pasture and drive him to you. Do the math, where do that many bulls come from. I know that’s hunting, just a coincidence, yeah right. They put hunters on ambush spots, Chase orchestrates all of the other guides from a vantage point.
They surround the elk on ATVs with 10 guides and slaughter commence via constant radio chatter with the other guides harassing and herding the bulls whooping and hollering like a bunch of wild Indians. Chase says the bulls went 50 yards this way, tells guide to go this way or that, wait-stop, no, go the other way with periodic interruptions with the guides saying what do you want me to do now. At first they try to be discreet but by the last day it’s a full scale rodeo with all of the guides whooping, hollering, harassing and chasing the bulls per radio instructions to sitting hunters in ambush locations. Rulon shows up last morning and the word from Chase is “brown is down”. Too much money at stake, they have to complete the slaughter and here comes Rulon walking up the canyons yelling “hey bull, hey bull” over and over, driving the elk to positioned hunters.
Their favorite method is to opposition hunters on the high fence in a pincher point, then drive the bulls to them along the fence. One day they positioned 3 of us together on an ambush point alone along the high fence then all the whooping and hollering begins. I am thinking how is going to work? I ask Chase how we are to decide and who shoots and who is to communicate? Each of us had paid for a different size bull so that’s why us three were together. Chase says this is going to happen fast. He will judge the bull and tell which hunter to shoot. No one shoots. We return to the Lodge early afternoon. One of the hunters says he wants to go back out. Chase says no, no one is available. At dinner that evening one of the hunters not in our group starts retelling his kill which Chase conducted after taking us three back to the lodge. Liars never learn, the truth always comes out.
After Rulon avoided the hunters the whole hunt, Chase tells me his dad has shown up to help glass on the last morning. Actually he is there to deliver the bulls preordered as needed. Chase tells me that morning Rulon has spotted a 490 bull and another hunter is going to shoot it and let’s go see what else is with that bull. So we go to a deep wooded canyon that dead ends into the high fence with only one way is out towards the hunter so they can drive the bull to him. It is so thick with trees the hunter cannot actually see what is happening. You hear a bugle; they say this is the 490 bull. Actually it’s Rulon and Chase signaling each other to begin the circus. A bugle “ok we’re in position” Another bugle “turn him loose”. All the while the naïve hunter is excited. No bull shows up, another bugle to tell Rulon he has stopped, push him on out. Back and forth bugles between Rulon and the guides. Ironically this is the only bugling I hear in 3 days. You figure it out. It was Rulon signaling the guides. Finally, the 490 bull walks out going 90 degrees away. The excited hunter shoots and gets his bull. He is told they called the bull up when in fact he was driven from the thick brush in the corner. Chase turns to me and says there is a 420 bull that was with the 490, do I want to shoot him? You mean this unseen 420 bull just hangs behind for me to shoot throughout all this commotion, shooting and celebrating! Hey, it’s my lucky day. I say no, and Chase says a little girl is going to come shoot him. Let’s go. The girl, her father and the guide come walking up on the side of the mountain where we are sitting, pass us and get ready to shoot the bull as I am leaving. How do they just appear out of nowhere and know exactly where we are sitting like magic (gps and radio communication by guides). Not the first time showing for this movie, I have seen it before. This yet to be seen 420 bull is one patient SOB, hiding during the 490 bull’s slaughter, waiting for me to turn him down and another hunter to make the journey to shoot it. The bugling commences again signaling, turn him loose, the hunter is in position. The little girl gets her 420 bull.
I watch this slaughter and harassment until I am literally sick to my stomach. No I did not shoot a bull. I am a hunter. The last afternoon I try to be a gentlemen and say I am too sick to go out. I tell my wife who accompanied me, I will just keep my mouth shut, take my screwing and leave. Chase really pushes the issue as I am the last hunter not to shot a bull. Chase shows me a picture of a bull on his phone at the lodge, states he scores 396 and says how does this look. He says it’s no problem being sick, all I have to do is sit in one spot, no problem and the guides will drive him to me. Chase really pushes the issue because Rulon wants to make an extra $6000.00 upgrade to shoot the bull. They were so persistent I tell Chase to get Rulon, and we will have a conversation. I am really sick of my stomach by now and cannot take anymore.
We get together and I tell Rulon this is not hunting and more like professional wrestling and herding cattle. Throughout the hunt Chase and Rulon profess to being Christians. Upon my comment Rulon becomes belligerent, gets in my face, curses and all of a sudden he’s no longer a Christian. Not buying his bullying, I step up to the plate and put my face to his face. Boy, the look on his face, he is not used to this being a football player and celebrity. Many of the other hunters were equally disappointed, naive and or too embarrassed that they had made a mistake and conned. Damn, the cook tells my wife the same thing happened on the last hunt. Really nice couple on the hunt, all of a sudden they are irate and the fireworks begin upon discovering the hoax. Hey, money trumps ethics for some folks.
Fellows believe what you want, but it’s time to weed the garden and preserve our sport and passion. It’s not about me. I have already got my screwing. Our sport is under siege. We will not survive conducting ourselves this way. Act now before the antis finish us off!

I will not deny your experience but will say we did not experience any of that. When we talked to your group (we overlapped one night) they all seemed pleased, although they admit that the weather I fished through was fog up there that cut their hunting down to two days.

The bulls we saw were skittish and I don't believe in any way anyone could have ridden an ATV or horse up to one.

Sorry you didn't get the same experience we did. What the three of us wrote was very accurate about our hunt and we didn't see that behavior from the guides.

Crazy!

Wow, Not at all. We all knew and reported here when we first booked it was a fenced operation, but I did never see either a cavalcade of bulls paraded. My bull showed up alone and was very wary. I have no reason to shill for Rulon and in our case, Rulon showed up every day and was very gracious to myself and my wife, even offered his own horse for her to ride as she had never done so. Hell. I'm am impressed at just fourteen posts in four years and it shows up right after ours. Like Pugs, not denying your experience, but again very impressed with your timing. I see you posted over on AR as well, where you say you are also a PH. Don't think anyone's going to call you a liar, at least not me, but any particular reason as to why you waited to post this? You finished your hunt three days before we did. Must have been upsetting for you.

For some reason they overlapped two hunters forward one day into the next hunt, one being the gentleman who shot the 490 bull. The remaining others left when I did. Jorge, do not judge a man's expertise by whether he is a internet BS wizard. MAY GOD BLESS we all need a little help, including me.

Question for the OP. So you went to a high fence operation and you expected a real hunt?

Interesting how we had two completely different experiences. Sorry yours wasn't as pleasant as ours.

Our write ups are accurate accounts from our perspective, as I'm sure you feel yours is. We knew it was a high fence area before we got there. I can say I rode, I glassed, I hiked all to my hearts desire. The first two days the only massacre I experienced were my lungs and thighs. I enjoyed the horses, and I enjoyed the stalking.

Did I see Rulon and Chase run a drive? Sure did. Did I find that alarming. No, we do it for deer in Georgia and Alabama all the time. In Alabama, it is legal to run deer with dogs. Not everybody is going to like that. In South Alabama, it is a tradition.

We had an older gent in camp, and I found him interesting to talk to. Old Skip is 78, and he has hunted all over North America in his time. He has the Grand Slam of North American Sheep. He has caribou, brown and black bear. He's been to New Zealand for Red Stag and Greenland for Musk Ox. He has a wonderful, supportive wife that shares his love of hunting.

I saw Rulon set up a drive for Skip. Old Skip hunted hard the first two days, but Skip doesn't get around as well as I do. Skip shoots his Sako .300 WSM quite well, I noted from the bench. Did I mention that Old Skip is suffering from early stages of Parkinson's? That makes hunting a little tougher. So yes, I did see Rulon set Skip up in an advantageous position, and organize a drive. Some elk were pushed toward Skip, some doubled back. Some that went toward Skip hauled ass and never presented a shot. I said many, well let's be fair. They pushed 5 elk his way I saw. 2 stayed in the thick stuff and offered no shot, 2 were in full sprint and never within comfortable shooting range, and Skip got the one that presented himself at about 250 yards. Some people don't consider a drive sporting, I have no problem with the concept.

As far as overall lodge satisfaction, all I can do is tell you this. There were 3 other couples at the lodge with us. Only the men hunted. One was from northern Idaho, and he comes every year. Seems the wolves killed off the herd in his area, once 20,000 strong. One couple was up from Denver. Skip and his wife from Pittsburg. Then our group.

To sum it up, our collective group enjoyed it so much that we have an email circulating around so that everyone can exchange photos and keep in touch. The couple from Denver rebooked for next year before they left, as did the couple from northern Idaho. That makes our bunch 7 for 7 on satisfaction.

Face it. I knew going in that this wasn't a 10 day pack in wilderness experience. I love those, but that was not in the cards this time. A good one in BC cost two weeks and about $15k the last time I looked.

I'm not crazy about paying a premium for the bigger bulls, but that's been the norm in Europe for a long time. The difference between a CIC Gold, Silver, or Bronze level trophy in Spain, Scotland or Romania, for example is extraordinary.

Again, sorry your experience was negative. I wish you had come with our group and perhaps it would have been a better time.

Let me second that.

No way any elk I saw was going to let me approach on foot much less noisy ATV if they could hear me, see me, or scent me. I know, I tried.

I don't exactly follow these kinds of things, but it seems Rulon runs an operation that makes no secret about it's fence. If the operation was really as shady as the OP says, with that many disappointed clients, then I find it difficult to believe word hadn't been splattered all over the net on the various forums and blogs.

Wow.

Yes.

Excellent post, Jeff (Hatari). So it begs the question(s); A gent with as much experience as the OP (and over on AR he's posted he's a PH in Africa), why not do the research? Why only 14 posts in four years and all of a sudden he posts here and on AR specifically about this hunt AFTER we post ours (you had a four day head start on us, sir so why not post immediately?). We all went into this with our eyes wide open about it being a high fence operation, you sir, experience notwithstanding apparently went in with your eyes wide shut.

Well, reading between the lines (sorry, no sarcasm font) I'd say he has a thing against high-fenced hunts.

Then WHY go in the first place?

Good question. Did someone really kill a 490 bull2 there?

And a 518 typical, a new world record. The mount is in a taxidermy shop downtown Firth. I'll see if I can find the picture and post.

HEre you go:

Well, what I know is that I trust jorge and hatari's accounts of what happened, and their experience 100%.

The timing from the other party is, well, a little fishy to put it nicely.

A world record from a high fence operation?

Anyway, if you guys enjoyed yourselves why worry about what someone else has to say?

I'll admit that I am a high fence bigot. I call them petting zoos and similar descriptive terms. My impression is that South Africa has some fenced areas so large, over 30,000 acres that you couldn't count on being successful without diligent efforts- but I have no firsthand knowledge of them. The opportunity to fail has to be there for it to be a "real" hunt in my opinion. There are unfenced private ranches loaded with elk that realistically offer that same almost failure proof hunt but the animals can leave when they want and that makes a difference to me.

If you sign up to go to the petting zoo you shouldn't complain that the game was too easy to take.

When I am too old and infirm to hunt elk on foot in the mountains my perspective may change but I'm guessing I'll just park at the base of the hill and try and cover the lower escape routes. My have younger hunting partners who will likely be willing to help an old codger.