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Goin' hunting with friends, a 5-pound bag of peanuts and the Obermeister By
Kari Gray When you shoot, you shoot to kill. When you kill, you must always track down the body and make sure it's dead, said Fred Baker. Then, if the body is heavy, you drag it back to your car. Sometimes you chop all the parts up first and pack them in ice on a toboggan. It's important to preserve the meat. It's best to eat when it's as fresh as possible, he said. Animal meat, guns and getting lost in the wilderness comprise one of Baker's favorite past-times. As a professor of fisheries and wildlife at Utah State University, he straps on a pair of heavy brown leather shoes, his electric socks, a plaid wool shirt, waders to stand four feet or so in freezing water, and especially his bright orange vest. Orange is the designated color for hunting season. Without it, anyone runs the risk of being shot, Baker said. When going rifle hunting or waterfall hunting, Baker always remembers his old companion, Obie. An obsessive-compulsive black lab with a child's curious eyes. If a stick is thrown, he will never stop looking for it. Often he is fondly called by Baker the Obermeister, Dufus or Bozo. Obie is trained to identify arm movements and signals when hunting. After an animal is shot, especially fowl, Baker lifts his arm above his head and whips it down through the air pointing at where the dead animal came down, Obie runs to it and brings it back in his mouth to Baker's feet. Baker said black labs already have a "retrieval instinct" that is shaped and developed with hand signals and whistling. Baker has many other friends he takes hunting. He says hunting is "first and foremost about the friends you do it with. It isn't about killing." Baker treasures the memories and the pictures hunting brings. Once a year he goes to an undisclosed hunting ground in Idaho with about 15 friends and colleagues and their dogs. Baker explains the area remains undisclosed so many other hunters don't crowd the refuge and kill all the game. The men, and sometimes their wives, drink wine and eat steak cooked on the open fire for dinner the first night. The second night is a small feast on their kills, which are usually mallards and various ducks. And of course, there is always a 5-pound bag of Hoody's peanuts to munch on. Sitting around the campfire, Baker and the others see a car approach the site. "It's Dr. Wurtsbaugh!" says Russ Mason, who works in the National Wildlife Research Center in Ft. Collins. He"s a smart looking man with a black cowboy hat, camouflage jacket, mustache and wire frame glasses. His legs crossed and his hands resting upon his head. Dr. Wurtsbaugh, or Wayne, comes closer to the campfire with his two high school boys. He has short, gray hair, a kind, clean-shaven appearance, and has on brown, faded tennis shoe loafers. "What is that thing!" Baker says as Wurtsbaugh approaches with some kind of white, Russian looking hat on. "Maybe he rolled in that dead sheep over there," Mason says. "Well, my kids packed, so this is what I got," Wurtsbaugh replies as everyone chuckles. However, Baker also keeps with him the memories of hunting alone. He remembers when a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep tried to outsmart him. He had been out in the wilderness all day trying to hunt sheep and elk. He had floated a river and tracked back on foot for eight miles. His partner was trying to push over some sheep in Baker's direction using his dog and hand signals, but nothing was working. So Baker decided to go climb up a near by mountain. He reached the top and sat to watch the sun go down. Then, unexpectedly the Big Horn cames strolling up to him only a few feet away. "He was going to fight me or mount me. I'm not sure which," Baker said. But Baker got the best of him, and a good dinner. He also recounts a similar experience that won him a pair of elk antlers that now hang in his office at USU, right next to a giant plastic green fish. Baker was shooting in Montana with a friend on opening day of the season. He had been chasing elk to his friend all day, who was always ahead of him and waiting. So Baker had to run constantly to keep up. Then, when running, he accidentally ran too far and hiked off the map by four miles. Tired from running all day and having no luck hunting, he decided to just sit down and rest for a while. Surprisingly, Baker looked up, and a big elk wandered out in front of him. When rifle hunting with friends, or at any time, hunters have to be cautious, and safety is most important, Baker said. He said there are only two kinds of people, "people who've had accidents, and people who haven't had them yet." To help keep down the number of hunters and ensure against accidents and the survival of different species, permits are usually obtained by entering a drawing for a license to hunt certain animals. Yet this year the Utah Wildlife Board has increased the number of permits allowed in the Big Game Draw, according to Amazing Outdoors magazine in the April 2001 issue. Buck deer permits have increased to 532 this season compared to 368 last season. Baker recounts a near accident situation that almost cost a friend of his serious harm or even his life. He was hunting elk and had one in the aim of his rifle. But Baker says unless you know what part of the animal you are shooting at, you shouldn't shoot at all. So he waited until he was certain of his view and the animal. Then, right when he was about to pull the trigger an orange vest walked right into the view of the rifle. A friend of Baker's had not been watching where he was going and put himself in a serious and dangerous situation. Though Baker hesitantly says he also remembers a time when someone was shot and killed by accident. Not wanting to talk about the details, Baker simply says those instances are very rare and usually result from unsafe practices. "Firearm safety is something people don't hear enough about," Baker said. He keeps all his firearm unloaded and under lock and key. A lesson on safety and memories isn't all you get out of hunting. Baker said when you"re out in the wilderness with just you, your senses and a gun it's "the challenge of being able to get close to animals, to outsmart them. "Animals have better hearing, better sight, better smell, and their skills to detect each other and humans are far beyond that of any person," Baker said. The skills you learn are invaluable. It's great to be able to go outside and do things "going on an animal's terms." Then again, sitting around a fire, beer cans and peanut shells burning in the pit, with old friends, and the sapphire moon sitting like a king atop the shadowed mountains is "worth the price of admission," Baker said.
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