2014 Season Review – Part III

2014 Hunting Season Review

Part III – Final

This will be our final entry in the Guide Blog for the 2014 Season Review. It will be a long one, so please stay with us here. This entry will highlight the final 5 Bull Elk harvested on the Cross C, as well as 3 more Mule Deer and an awesome Wyoming Whitetail. We wrote about Dennis’ Antelope in Part I, so now its time to share his awesome Elk. Dennis overcame a lot of physical hurdles to go on a big time Elk/Antelope hunt in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, and he didn’t go home empty handed for sure!   Dennis took this 7×7 Bull at 318 yards, and he had an entire crew along with him to watch! Thanks to Jason Gebhart; the video of the shot in slow motion can be seen below (click on the link after this paragraph.) The Bull bounded down the hillside and expired in an extremely awkward position. The bull had his entire left antler side up underneath him. It took a team of guys to re-situate the bull to field dress him and then get him off the mountain. With all that being said, it was quite an adventure!

Watch Video Here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yev9qGVUjYI&feature=youtu.be

Our next group of Elk Hunters also hailed from Ohio, and have been long time friends of the Cross C. Bob & Randy had a hard and windy week of Elk Hunting. Randy had a close encounter with his Squaw Mountain Bull (bottom pic), and Bob (top pic) harvested what appeared to be one of the toughest bulls on the ranch!

    Peter & Paul are brothers from the Chicago area that came to the Cross C for an early November hunt. We saw lots of Elk with Peter & Paul including a very close encounter with a herd of around 75 Elk the first day. We were able to get behind Paul’s Bull for a very close shot at about 40 yds! The second pic below is just before Paul’s Bull stood up. (The Bull’s body is to the left with the tip of his nose looking downhill on the right side.)

Peter thankfully found his Bull just as the year’s first major snow storm and cold front moved into Wyoming! Peter chose from several Bulls that had moved down to the lower elevations by the snow and extreme cold.

The final Deer Hunters at the Cross C Ranch went out with a bang. Lets start out with Ryan’s first Western Whitetail, and a beauty at that. Ryan made a long range shot on a cruising buck that we had never even seen before his harvest.

Photo by Trent Swanson

Photo by Trent Swanson

This buck was very typical, and had very neat browtines. We have a very healthy Wyoming Whitetail heard on our beautiful cottonwood river bottoms. Ryan took an excellent example of one of these Whitetail! Thanks to the master photographer Trent Swanson for these great photos!

Photo by Trent Swanson

Speaking of the extremely talented Trent Swanson, we had the pleasure of seeing him take a great Mule Deer on an epic hunt in some of our beautiful back country! Our guides confirmed that Trent actually made one of the best spots on a Mule Deer that they had ever seen. The buck and a few other deer had literally made a home out of the shade of a group of trees. Thank you Trent for an awesome time this fall!

Photo by Trent Swanson

Photo by Trent Swanson

Travis had his Mule Deer hunt with one of our most experienced guides Jay Sweet. They had a blast of a time and Travis’ deer was shocking to all of us of how deep forked it was. This pair was destined for success and this is the proof!

Colby, from Utah, is probably the most fun guy we have ever had at the ranch. He is also a hell of a hunter and a long range shooter! His hunt was one of the most memorable hunts on the Cross C, because it was actually a bow hunt that ended in a rifle hunt. Tom Clum, legendary bowhunter and owner of Rocky Mountain Specialty was working his magic on stalking this buck (see second pic) when it appeared he needed to be invisible to get any closer. The buck stood and decided to move along when Colby had the bead on him all along, waiting for the word from Tom, and his time to strike at 345 yards away.

Awesome pic by Trent Swanson

Photo by Trent Swanson

Photo by Trent Swanson

In conclusion, we have to thank all of our amazing hunters in 2014. This group of hunters is the most skilled and experienced hunters that we have every had at the Cross C Ranch in over 35 years of Outfitting. It was absolutely an honor. Thank you to all the guides and cooks and everyone that helped make this year the best the Cross C has seen yet!

Photo by Trent Swanson