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We told him he was crazy.
We told him he could get killed.
These were the words of encouragement my buddies and I offered our comrade, Sam Stoltzfus, 22, of Cochranville, last year when he informed us of his plan to travel out west with his friend, Daniel Beiler, 24, of Groffdale, for five weeks this year to bowhunt for antelope, mule deer and elk without a guide, while camping on the prairie in Wyoming and in the mountains of Colorado.
Our pessimism was born out of concern. We knew Stoltzfus had only ever been out west one time to hunt — and that was with a guide.
What he and Beiler were planning was something only veteran hunters, with training and experience in wilderness survival, carry out.
Stoltzfus and Beiler returned from their expedition in late September and, needless to say, they didn't die.
And as for their hunting success, well, let's just say that if Stoltzfus tells me tomorrow that he plans to swim to Africa and kill an elephant with a spear, I'd say, "Okay, Sam. Be sure to call me when you get back. I'll want to see those tusks."•••
Stoltzfus' and Beiler's adventure physically began Aug. 22, when they started driving west out of Pennsylvania.
But Stoltzfus said he did a lot of homework over the 12 preceding months.
He spent time researching the best areas of Wyoming and Colorado to hunt by surfing the Internet and talking on the phone with game and wildlife officials in both states.
The two also spent hours and hours on the practice range, honing their archery skills to be as sharp as their broadheads.
Stoltzfus had successfully hunted antelope near Kaycee, Wy., in 2007, so he and Beiler began their 2008 hunt there, on a 30,000-acre ranch owned by a man Stoltzfus had met the year before.
The two set up a tent on the prairie ranch Aug. 25, did some scouting and started hunting the next day.
They hunted from pop-up ground blinds set next to water holes.
(394) (214) (139) (103) (47) (44) (16) (5) (3)For three days, Stoltzfus and Beiler manned their blinds from sunup to sundown — with daytime highs reaching into the 80s — without success.
"It takes a lot of patience, but the thing is, there's so many antelope and mule deer on that ranch, you're constantly seeing something," Stoltzfus said.
Each night, the two friends traveled in to Kaycee to take showers before heading back out to their nylon home on the range.
"We did all our own cooking out there," Stoltzfus said. "When I shot my deer, I cut the loins off the back of it and threw them right on the grill."
On the fourth day, Stoltzfus and Beiler each shot an antelope buck about an hour apart.
Stoltzfus figures his 15-incher might qualify for entry into the Pope & Young Club's record book for bow-killed game.
The next day, Aug. 30, the two attended a rodeo in Kaycee and then started scouting for mule deer on Aug. 31 in anticipation of the Sept. 1 opening of the archery deer season.
While scouting, Stoltzfus spotted a nontypical buck, with its antlers still encased in velvet.
"I wasn't going to shoot anything until he came up," he said. "I liked him."
For the mule deer hunt, Stoltzfus and Beiler moved their ground blinds down to brushy areas along a small stream.
On the afternoon of the second day, the nontypical buck Stoltzfus was after showed up in front of his blind.
The buck laid down in some tall grass and Stoltzfus crawled underneath his blind "through cactuses and everything."
He crept 60 yards over the next 45 minutes to get to within 30 yards of the bedded buck.
"I got on my knees and got to full draw and I started yelling," Stoltzfus said. "I yelled at him and all he did was turn his head. I'm at full draw and I'm going crazy."
Eventually, the buck stood up and Stoltzfus released his arrow, scoring a perfect hit.
Minutes later, he knelt beside his 13-point trophy.
The next day, Beiler tried stalking a "giant four-by-four," Stoltzfus said, but the deer spooked before Beiler could get his bowsight on the deer.
On Sept. 4, Beiler stalked a smaller 8-pointer and bagged it with a perfectly-placed arrow.
Tagged out in Wyoming, Stoltzfus and Beiler headed to Colorado Sept. 7 after retrieving their meat and capes from a butcher in Kaycee.
Their destination was a section of the 1.1-million-acre Routt National Forest outside Steamboat Springs, Colo., which Stoltzfus had learned offered a good chance for success for a couple of bowhunters looking for bull elk.
Stoltzfus and Beiler set up a wall tent in the forest to serve as their base camp, with plans to load food, water and a small tent in backpacks and head five miles into the wilderness on foot for two days at a time to hunt.
A hand-held GPS guided them in and out of the backcountry over the next 10 days.
Stoltzfus said the two had many encounters with decent bulls during that time, but they just couldn't close the deal.
On Sept. 17, Stoltzfus and Beiler were hunting an area where they'd located some bugling bulls, when some muzzleloader hunters scared off the herd they were working.
"We just sat down on a log, we were so frustrated," Stoltzfus said.
While the two were sitting, two cows and a five-by-five bull walked up to within 30 yards.
"I was down on the ground and I looked back at Daniel and he was at full draw," Stoltzfus said. "He drilled that bull right behind the front shoulder."
Right after Beiler shot, Stoltzfus heard another bull bugle close by in some aspens.
When the bull wouldn't come out of the woods, Stoltzfus picked up his bow and ran into the thicket with the elk.
"All of a sudden, I see these horns coming over the ridge and he comes out 30 yards broadside," Stoltzfus said. "I drilled him."
It was another five-by-five.
Stoltzfus and Beiler left their elk on the mountain and returned to base camp to call a local wrangler, who rented them four horses to retrieve their bulls the next day.
Ten hours and 17 miles later, riding through a driving rainstorm, Beiler and Stoltzfus loaded their prizes into their truck.
And just like that, their western safari ended with two antelope, two mule deer and two bull elk — all taken with archery gear and without a guide.
"You know what's next?" Stoltzfus said to me last week as he related the details of his adventure. "I want to go after a bull moose with my bow."
All I can say is, moose of the world, beware.
E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com
