I do keep in touch as a good friend of mine is in charge of security there during the hunting seasons. The last years I hunted there the deer herd had really taken a hit and the numbers were really down. They changed their tune when I showed them my tags signed by Hendry. Had there security guy and outfitter stop me and tell me I was trespassing. Orchard had it fenced and posted and I used to climb over the fence and hunt it. There was a school section that was totally surrounded by the 2 ranches that I hunted. I used to hunt the northern part of Clear Creek ocassionaly that bordered Orchard. They leased out hunting to an outfitter for a while and the trespass fees went outa sight. It was pretty easy to get tags then and the Hendrys didn't charge much for trespass fees.Things really started getting out of hand in the late 90's when Rob & Leslie took over. I know the area well as I started hunting there in the the early 80's on Clear Creek Ranch. We took a 5x5 and a nontypical 6x7 along with two cows during the two week season down there this year by hunting every day and knowing the area like the back of our hand. The problem with hunting 48 or 49 is that you need to have hunted the area a long time to know the game movements and be retired or have a lot of vacation time so you can hunt the whole season when sooner or later you can take an animal if you stay at it. We don't even start doing any serious hunting until about 2 miles from the nearest road. We go so far back in that the latter hasn't bothered us since most people don't want to go more than a mile, if that, from their vehicle. I've had no problem with them since then and there are now a lot more people hunting the area after that happened. I contacted Tom, wrote up a complaint against SNS, and he went and warned Sy at their Trout Creek camp that any other complaints of that nature against the company would lead to possible revocation of their license. One time years ago one of their staff tried to harass us and keep us from hunting and he did the same thing to another group from Wisconsin. SNS doesn't like it, but they can't do a thing about it. To pay over $300 for a cow elk tag that is the going rate right now for a NR and then a lot more than that for a trespass fee that doesn't even assure that you'll see an animal is crazy IMHO! SNS is charging over $6K now for a five day bull elk hunt and we are killing them for just the price of the tag on public land that is legally accessible. It's the people that are paying the goofy prices that these ranchers and outfitters are asking that are to blame! If people would realize that and basically boycott those prices they would quickly come down to a reasonable level. Most of the game in that part of the state, like many other areas, is on private land. Tom (DeSomber) is a good guy and I talk to him quite often when I'm out there (was there the whole month of October this year), but he's just like the other Wardens and Biologists that have to maintain a good relationship with the ranchers in their area because most of their biologist work is on private lands where the majority of the game lives. ***Don't kid yourself on your warden statement.
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