Excerpt from letter to Idaho Fish and Game Director Cal Groen from Super Hunt Combo winner Ray Croswell.

Dear Cal Groen,

"Thanks for the opportunity to participate in and win one of your Super Hunt tags. I first hunted Idaho in 1965 and have hunted an average of every other year up until about 1990 and then every year after that just for deer. I have really enjoyed my times in the Idaho back country. I had eye surgery two days before Karen called me to say that I had won the tags. My surgeon would not let me go out in the woods until about the first of October, so when I started I was out of shape with no hiking or scouting done. My vision in my left eye could not be corrected until it completely healed. So I was a fat, slow, blind guy with a lot of really good tags in my pocket. I did fill three of the tags and by my choice did not fill the deer tag."

Deer: "Having taken some nice mule deer in Idaho I save the deer for last and tried to go for a 195 net. From the day after Thanksgiving until the end of November I hunted unit 67 alone. I did see and watch on two different days a buck that would go 195, maybe 200 net. It was two canyons over within an upper basic with eight bucks. The snow condition was enough I did not feel I could get in and out. Twenty years ago I would not have given it a second thought. Having hunted in the unit back in the late 60's when it was a general season it was good for me to experience it again. It is not what is was then but I believe a hunter in good shape can take a great buck."

Elk: "My son was able to hunt with me for this unit. We hunted the Lemhi area south of Salmon in mid-November. Lots of elk moving out of Montana and the mountains of Idaho, but not a lot of six point bulls. In fact we looked at over 500 elk and this was the only one that we could tell for sure was a six on both sides. With the heavy snows just starting, the other hunters we saw were just watching and waiting for the big bulls to arrive . . ."

Moose: "Tom and I hunted unit 62-A. We could have and should have taken a larger bull. We did see a lot of bull moose. We hunted less than 4 days for the moose and most of that was learning the area."

Pronghorn: "I spent more time than I should have. I hunted for 6 days or more in unit 54, spent a couple of days in unit 37 and finally moved to unit 46 to take one next to the last day of the season. I have one from Oregon that net scores 78 and I was trying to do better. I did see a lot of antelope and unit 46 seems to have the most."

Thanks again,
Charles (Ray) Croswell