“It was just after daylight Nov.20th 2007, the second day of my 6-day hunt with Tyson Mackin of Happy Valley Outfitters. We had been glassing the foothills outside of Claresholm, Alberta for about 30 minutes looking for a big mulie buck, when we saw what looked to be a good one about a mile away. Hold on, I have gotten ahead of myself, which is easy to do with the excitement of a hunt I had been looking forward to my whole life. I was looking forward to my first guided hunt, which came to be because Tyson had a hunter cancel at the last minute. I had two weeks to get ready. Talk about trying to pull it all together on short notice, not only the hunting gear, but also to deal with all the legalities of crossing into Canada. Oh, and then there was getting permission from my Wife Vonnie. In the end it came together quite well with 100% support from my wife. Tyson was recommended to me by another outfitter that I had contacted for a possible 2008 hunt, I am very happy to say that I made the right choice in choosing Happy Valley Outfitters for a November rut hunt. I couldn’t have asked for a better hunting companion and guide. I arrived in Claresholm a couple of days before my scheduled hunt from my home in Basalt, Idaho. The accommodations at Bluebird Hotel that Tyson booked me in were first rate and Tyson’s wife Angie is an excellent cook and a first rate hunter in her own right. They make you feel as welcome as if you were family. Back to the hunt, on the first morning of the hunt we were scouting a deep draw and found a nice heavy four point with 3” brow tines, he had a harem of 53 does. I chose to let this one go because his forks were a little shorter than what I was looking for. We decided that he would make a good last day deer if we didn’t come across something better. All in all, we spotted twelve bucks on the first day with two of them being worth a second look. As I said earlier we had been glassing for about thirty minutes on the second day and saw what looked like a good buck and we decided to try for him. It didn’t take us long to get ready and head out. The buck was on the far hillside with a steep drop off and a creek in between and a long climb up to where this buck and three does where feeding. When we got to the drop off with the creek about forty feet below we stopped to glass and make sure that the buck hadn’t moved when Tyson said, ‘He’s got bone’, I had been looking at the buck on the hillside and Tyson was checking out the creek bottom and had spotted a what looked like a nice four point with good forks and brow tines. While the buck was working a doe back and forth through a small stand of quakies, Tyson quickly set up his Swarovski spotting scope and after a long look I decided that this was the deer I was looking for. Tyson ranged him 380 yards and with the buck being on the down side of that steep drop it would be easy to sneak in closer and have a lot shorter and surer shot. Well…..we did our sneak and shaved off two hundred yards and when we peeked over the edge the buck was gone, imagine that! Shortly after we looked, I was busted by three does, two went down to the creek and the other came out over the top twenty-five yards in front of us and I figured, well that’s that. The doe ran out about 100 yards and slowed to a walk and then stopped to watch us. She looked off to her left and I glanced over to see what she was watching and I could see horn! The buck had walked into a little finger draw and was about fifty yards away watching the doe that had run in front of us. That deer came out of that little draw at a trot and never once looked in our direction, all he was interested in was that doe. Well I hit the dirt and popped out the legs on my Harris bipod, slipped the safety on my browning .300wsm and got a good solid bead on that buck. Tyson whispered, ‘Take him,’ by that time, that buck had traveled out to 150 yards. I squeezed off the shot and he went another 20 yards down into some buck brush and tipped over. Needless to say there was some big smiles and high-fives as we hurried over to my buck. As we drug him back on top for pictures, I commented to Tyson that I had never shot such a big-bodied deer. My wife Vonnie and I are planning to book a hunt together for 2009. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better hunt and I look forward to hunting with my wife and with Happy Valley Outfitters.”

Basalt, Idaho