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!
