Smoke signals., July 01, 2007, Page 5, Image 5

Smoke Signals 5
JULY 1,2007
AirchQErs Shoot TCuraaaglh) Kaomidliroips
Second annual "Fun Shoot" offered an array of targets and hunting strategies.
By Ron Karten
Fighting a soft steady rain all
morning on Saturday, June 9, ar
chers from across the Northwest
took aim at forty foam targets,
shaped like deer and elk, bear and
wild pigs, just for the fun of it.
"There's no trophy," said Tribal
member Shonn Leno, Special Proj
ects Coordinator for the Natural
Resources Department, who helped
organize the second annual event, "so
people come to challenge themselves.
They keep their own scores and shoot
as much or as little as they like."
By the time the weekend event
had ended, around 50 had signed
up, compared with some 150 and
an uncounted number of kids last
year. Other competitions in the
state, including a paying competi
tion in central Oregon, along with
the rain conspired to keep atten
dance down, said Leno.
Still, a hardy bunch took off
through both new growth and old
growth woodlands around Fort
Yamhill Park to participate.
In addition, others enjoyed tar
gets set up by Hunting Simulation
Organization (HSO), a company
that also hosts archery shoots.
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Grand Ronde resident Daniel Revis, 6, takes aim during the Tribal Fun Shoot.
HSO set up its targets in the open
field. While hunters could take all
the time they wanted shooting at
the Grand Rondes' targets in the
woods, with HSO, the idea was to
shoot fast.
"In three seconds," said Leno,
"the target disappears."
The woodlands shoots took a
week to set up, said Leno, with the
foam targets spread out into two
courses. Staffers, including Tribal
members Matthew Thomas, Bryan
Langley, Tyson Mercier and Tribal
Elder Dale Langley limbed trees
along the way to make an easy-to-follow
trail. Targets were set up at
different distances, and required
hunters to shoot through branches
and tree trunks.
Under the canopy of trees, the rain
softened and the hardest part about
it, for many archers, was pulling
their arrows from the target.
"I have an arrow puller," said one
participant, "and I still couldn't get
a grip."
Grand Ronde residents Chris
Revis and his son, Daniel, 6, along
with their friend, Jacob Mills, were
out in the woods killing everything
that didn't move. None had yet
been out for a real hunt, though
they seemed more than ready.
Every time the adults took a shot,
you heard a thwack at the other
end, where you just knew that the
arrow had hit home.
Daniel, who is getting better
all the time, won first place in a
McMinnville archery shoot last
month.
Mills came back from Iraq last
year. He liked this experience more.
"Compared with Iraq," he said, "this
is a walk in the woods." D
The CaDI OffTDieWoDcO
Hunter Jim Horn shows how to bring down an elk.
By Ron Karten
The thrill of the hunt played
on the screen at the front of
the Rogue Room at the Spirit
Mountain Casino. The evening
was Saturday, June 9, and
the video accompanied the
audience's entrance.
Many came with the Archery
Fun Shoot held in the woods by
Fort Yamhill Park still fresh
in their minds and on their
boots. Some were just drying
off from the soft, steady rain
of the day.
On every chair was a green
product catalogue from Primos
Hunting Calls, the company
for which award-winning elk
hunter Jim Horn works as
Western Promotions man
ager. He also hosts a TV show
through his own Winter Choice
Productions, "Always Hunting
with Jim Horn."
On tables at the front were
samples of virtually anything
an elk hunter might think of to
lure these ruminants and carry
the tools of their trade.
On the screen, the camera
whirred from behind a hunt
er. In front of the hunter, a
six-point elk was edging in
from off-screen to answer the
hunter's Primos call. It didn't
like what it saw, however
(camera-shy maybe?), and it
turned almost in place before
sauntering back out of range
the same way it had come in.
There may have been a little
bit of Wylie Coyote in it's attempt
to look casual. Other times, said
Horn, "it's butts and dust as they
clear out."
"Do you know how bad he wanted
that bull?" Horn asked the crowd.
"It would have been his biggest
bull."
But as the video, filmed in Mon
tana, continued, there were plenty
of bulls that came in, felt the sting
of the arrow, and went down, or
struggled, dying in a wash of bro
ken tree branches.
Jim Horn was there to show every
body how to make that happen.
"You can kill elk year after year
after year," he said. "But you have
to think like an elk. You have to
learn the animal. You have to know
the biology of the animal."
He talked about the "rut phase"
when the bulls "start looking for
the company of cows. They don't
have calendars," said Horn, "but
there's a biological change in the
bulls. As their hormones increase,
you hear the yelling and scream
ing. They're stimulated by smell,
taste and hearing," he said. "And
we have calls that can mimic the
exact sounds."
With his call, he let the room have
an example. I turned to the Rogue
Room's open doors and awaited the
arrival of the "bachelor herd."
Nothing, so I turned back to
listen.
"You never hear them answer
you," said Horn, getting to the nub
of his teaching. "Don't expect them
to call back. They just show up." I
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Award-Winning Elk Hunter Jim Horn
looked back at the door.
"I know they're going to come
to my calling," he went on. "The
key is to give them time to come.
Make the sound every five min
utes. And sit still for 45 minutes.
Just be patient."
"The cows go through changes,
too," said Horn. "Her body de
mands that she be bred. And she
releases a scent."
On the first page of certain of
the Primos catalogues sitting on
the seats in the audience, Horn
had written his name. "Check out
your catalogue and those around
you," he said. "All those with
my name written in them are
winners. And I have some
great prizes."
He gave away strings and
cables for a compound bow
and a WC label cap. He gave
away the popular Hoochie
Momma call.
"The next prize," he said,
"is this bottle of cow pee. Put
this on and you'll smell just
like an old cow. And it really
is good stuff."
The gift that keeps on giv
ing. B