king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated April/May 2008 - Index

BY SANDI FRUCHEY
With a Wyoming moose permit
in hand, I met with Ken
Metzler, outfi tter and owner
of Wyoming Trophy Hunts in Riverton,
Wyoming, and scheduled a week of
hunting in early October of 2007. When
the week of my scheduled hunt arrived,
my husband and I blew into southwest
Wyoming along with an early winter
weather system. The storm brought
rain to the valleys and a few inches of
snow to the mountains. This system
cleared out a day later and left the
willow bottoms in beautiful fall color.
Temperatures ranged from the high 20’s
at night to the low 70’s during the day.
We met up with my guide,
Don Martinez, and my look-out, Randy
Duran, at their nicely-located camp.
The camp included a very nice camper
trailer for the clients and an outfi tters
tent for the staff. It was obvious from
the start that Don and Randy were not
only keen hunters, but they would be
entertaining companions as well.
Over the next several days,
we hunted in the National Forest,
through aspen-covered hills and
sagebrush fl ats, hay meadows and
willow creek bottoms. We saw lots
of deer and a good number of elk,
but moose were somewhat elusive.
The moose that we did see were
cows, calves and small bulls.
The fourth hunting day
dawned with a beautiful sunrise and
I felt that the dozens of migrating
bluebirds were a good omen.
Sure enough, I bagged a nice 4x4
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