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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 2019)
MyEagleNews.com // Grant County Hunting Journal 2019 // 27 Madden Continued from Page C26 “It was three-eighths away from a Boone and Crock- ett record and made the Idaho rankings,” he said. Trevor worked as a bear hunting guide and had some ideas about where to go, Madden said. But it wasn’t easy. They were in thick terrain for about four days, toughing it out through a couple storms and even snow. On top of that, his friends’ truck broke down when the battery died. “It cost about $800 for a tow truck,” he said. On their third day of hunting, they spotted the big black bear standing about 100 yards away, and Madden made the shot with a Kimber .300 short mag WSM. “It was so big we couldn’t roll it over,” he said. Fortunately there were logging roads nearby, so packing out the skull, hide and meat was less of a chore. But the summer heat damaged the fur on the long drive back to John Day. The skull is mounted now in a case, he said. Madden said he’s been bowhunting since he was 12, when he shot an elk calf. He said he practices every day in the weeks before the season begins. About two months after hunting in Idaho, Mad- den shot a bull elk on the second day of hunting sea- son back in Grant County. He and his father had spotted some elk one day earlier and knew where they had bed- ded down. Early the next morning, they moved in from below through a draw and bugled the elk with a mouth reed. It was early in the season and they didn’t expect the bull to be in full rut and respond like it did. Madden initially figured his father would shoot him as the bull moved closer, but there was some wind and then Madden heard the bull coming toward him. He took the shot at about 65 yards. “It was a double-lung shot,” Madden said. They were able to get a four-wheeler within 100 yards of the kill, which made packing out the meat, hide and skull easier. The bull was a raghorn with an undeveloped rack, but it had a 30-inch burst. Madden had a European mount made. Two days later, Madden was bowhunting the same general area with a friend and shot a mule deer buck. They spotted the buck from about 100 yards and moved within 65 yards. It was an average-sized buck, but the rack mea- sured 144 inches across, he said. Then in October, Madden was hunting after school with a friend’s rifle and bagged a white- tail doe. It was an area he was familiar with, so he wasn’t surprised to find deer there. Madden will be a senior next year at Prai- rie City High School. In addition to hunting, he plays guitar and sings “red dirt” genre com- positions that he writes himself. He also is a videographer for real estate projects. He filmed his parents when they hunted in Utah. Madden’s advice for people who want to get into hunting is simple: “Get out there and do it.” People who want to learn wildlife behavior need to be out there to experience it, he said. Contributed photos ABOVE: Kaden Madden, right, shot this big black bear in northern Idaho. With him are, left to right, Trevor and Morgan Bennett. LEFT: Kaden Madden, shot this bull elk on the second day of hunting season last year.
