Outdoors: Hunting tales to span generations of sportsmen

Being new to Mineral County, I was interested in learning what the locals did in their free time. The prevailing interest was definitely hunting, with people of all ages going out with guns and bows. Having never gone hunting, and knowing very little about it beyond what an uncle had told me, I decided to learn more and went in search of people’s stories.

In my search, I came across Bill Sansom.

As a third generation native and hunter of Mineral County, Sansom is full of stories; he has been hunting with rifles and bows for almost 60 years.

Sansom believes that each hunt is an adventure and the hunter always finds something new, learning new things about the area.

“[The emotions and memories] always make it a successful adventure, even if you don’t see anything,” said Sansom.

Sansom told one story of a hunting trip in the winter, after his job at a construction firm had closed for the season.

Sansom said he had to take his four year old son to his grandmother’s, so he decided to go hunting. According to Sansom, his mother-in-law warned him about not being gone too long, since it was supposed to snow harder that night.

Late in the afternoon, Sansom found an elk track and began to follow it. With it getting later and later, he said he kept following the tracks, even though the snow was not stopping.

Finally, Sansom came across the bull. When it saw him, it jumped up to run and Sansom fired. The bull fell back down, dead. Moving in, Sansom went over and gutted the kill.

By now Sansom was soaked, hungry and tired. He decided to take a short nap before heading back and snuggled into the hole the elk had been sleeping in to rest. Sansom said he fell into a deep sleep and began dreaming that he was already back at home.

He must have bumped his rifle in his sleep, because Sansom said it hit him in the head and woke him up. He quickly became aware of how dangerous a situation he was in, soaking wet and after dark.

Using wood and undergrowth from a nearby windfall, Sansom quickly got a fire going and began drying his clothes. He cut out some meat from the elk and began roasting it on the fire.

Once everything was dry, he finished his work on the elk and headed back out. Sansom considers himself fortunate with how the trip turned out.

“Could have just went the other way,” he said.

Sansom told another story of an encounter with a bear while he was out hunting with a friend.

He said they were out on a three day hunting trip and had seen some success. Sansom said they stopped for the night and set up their camp. Their tents were only a few feet apart with all of their food in a tub between them.

That night, Sansom was sleeping when he was woken up by something nuzzling around his tent. At first, he thought it was the wind blowing around his friend’s tent. Sansom recalls that it was like daylight in his tent from the moon and he had trouble falling back asleep.

He hears the nuzzling sound again, and a shadow falls over the side of Sansoms tent. When the tent lurches, he realizes it is a bear that just stepped on one of his tent’s rain ties.

As the bear continues to nuzzle around the tent, it eventually reaches Sansom’s head and is sniffing around the back of his neck. Slowly reaching over to his boots, Sansom removed the pistol he kept there and cocked it.

“I thought when he grabs me, I’ll shoot him,” he said.

The next thing he knew, it was full daylight and Sansom’s friend is calling him out to come see the evidence of the bear’s visit. His hand was still on the cocked pistol.

As Sansom was wondering where the bear might have gone, and if it had carried anything off, his friend points to the side.

“He says, ‘no, it ain’t carrying anything, it’s standing right over there,’ and there [the bear] was,” Sansom said. “That was probably the most thrilling thing I’ve had with anything trying to get in [to camp].”

I figured, in a hunting community, sportsmans stores would be a good place to find some good stories. I was right. In the Superior Sportsmans store, I came across a couple people with stories to tell.

A man, who would only be identified as Jay, recently went bear hunting with his wife. Jay said he was using a 405 Winchester and 300 grain bullets.

Out at their hunting spot, they found their bear. Across a ridge about 250 yards away. A long distance, especially for Jay, who said he is legally blind.

Jay took aim and fired, nailing the bear with one shot.

Showing just how wide spread hunting was, there was also a young woman with a first time story at the sportsman’s store.

When she was about 16 or 17, Bobbi Haxby went hunting with her father. As they were driving to their hunting spot, she said they spotted two deer, both does, on a nearby ridge.

Haxby and her father both shot one of the does. When they went up the ridge, her father showed her how to clean the kills. Haxby had to keep her hands clean and dry as she would be dropped off further up the trail.

Once she was dropped off, Haxby said she walked for about 20 minutes when she came around a corner and saw some doe. According to Haxby, seeing them made her laugh.

“I had shot a doe uphill and it had come right down to the car,” she said. “I was happy that I had shot those instead of these ones, because then I’d have to drag them a lot further.”

Haxby heard a sound nearby and, when she looked with her binoculars, saw a whitetail buck; and it was legal. Haxby raised her gun and fired. The buck jumped and she fired again. Marking the ground at her feet, about 100 yards up the ridge, she approached the animal.

According to Haxby, the terrain was miserable. The ground was steep and there were log falls blocking any paths through the rough hillside.

Once she found her kill, Haxby put an orange marker from her jacket on a tree and, for the first time, gutted her buck. As she worked, Haxby said she was laughing to herself.

“I had just shot my buck and my doe,” Haxby said. “In 20 minutes, I’m officially … a hunter.”

Looking at her kill, Haxby realized that the bullet holes were only about an inch apart and both were fatal. When the elk moved, it was already dead. The motion had been a nervous reaction.

Haxby said she never shot twice. This was the first time the animal had moved again. She saw more signs of deer and elk, but chose not to pursue them.

By this time, the group had lost track of Haxby and went looking for her. Six hours later, she was found with her buck. Once they got in touch with search and rescue and called off the search. With the search and rescue leader’s help, it took several people to move the buck the mile back to the car.

By the time they made it back to the car, it was too dark for any pictures of the kills to be taken.

Talking to Sansom, Jay and Haxby, I’ve learned a lot I didn’t know before about hunting, and gained a new appreciation of the sport.

It is a sport for people passionate about the outdoors and who like to honor the animals and their role in life as predators.

I don’t know if I will ever go hunting myself, but if I do, it will likely be an experience I will never forget.