I reckon ya aint got no doubt bout me tellin ya one more time bout the muley hunt of ’94.

Seems most of the Willow Creekers done had a full cache ‘o fresh meat cept the Fat Duck, No Grimace ‘an me.  So the three of us done headed fer the hills.

We base camped in a purdy spot round 8,000 feet ‘an rode in on 4 inches of snow.  Five long, hard huntin days later we broke camp in 18 inches of snow ‘an proceeded ta work our hosses ‘an wagon on down the trail.  Sudden as a litnin bolt one ‘o the hosses done come up lame.  Weren’t bad nuff ta shoot her, so we sort ‘o dragged er down ta the flat land and tied er up.  We’d hafta come back soon ‘an git her; specially since the snow was a comin hard.

Headin now fer the home lodges we wuz talkin bout the last five days.  Didn’t see nothing with horn ‘an couldn’t believe it.  Good game country too.  Whilst we wuz there a feller we know as “Anderson” stopped in ‘an perceeds to tell us bout a big ‘ol muley he done “hit”, but it raned off.  “ I couldn’t of missed, standin there broadside ‘an all, at bout 10 yards.  Biggest buck in all the land”!

Alls we could say wuz some folks got hosses what are more quiet then others.

Early next morning me ‘an No Grimace done got a sick hoss kinda wagon hooked up ‘an is goin back ta  git the lame one.

We wuz pert near there when I spots a deer.  Woha! Woha!   Lookee there No Grimace ain’t that a purdy one!  Holey Moley he are a big’un.  Does ya reckon ya kin plunk ‘im with one of yer conicals?  Heck ya—easy at that range—400 yards aint nothing fer a “Great Plains Conical” ‘an Ol Missouri.

Well when the smoke done cleared, ‘an No grimace doin most ‘o the draggin I done bagged that same big ‘ol buck “Anderson” had hit some three days afore.  Cept there weren’t no other holes or missin hair.

Bears Butt

May-Aug 1995