olderandwiser

I am the elder half of the team that was hunting the Cobb ranch that night. There were times when the wind was blowing hard enough that a 20 yard shot was not ethical; there were also times when it was not blowing hard enough to bother a 50 yard shot. I was not with Mr. Antila and my son that night; but my son told me he passed up a shot at that same bull earlier because he felt the wind was blowing too hard, but at the time in dispute the wind was not an issue. To Notre Dame: My son and I have obviously discussed this for hours and hours. We both wrote Cal and explained our concerns, which I stand by. His response was uncompromising and unapologetic; his only "rebuttal" was that my son was unethical. My son and I have also discussed the likelihood that if we had hunted on his ranch (as had Tom Nelson, who recommended the hunt to us) we may have had a wonderful trip. But the miscommunications and non-communications were very real and very bothersome (also addressing the comments by Turkeyward -my son and Iagree that the wounded game policy is fine; what bothered me was that I did not know about it until after the deposit, which was one of the things I explained to Cal when I called him before the trip. When my son spoke with Cal after the hunt, Cal told him he remembered that I was 'upset' about the policy and that he had offered me our deposit back, which was untrue, because what he said was "maybe we can work something out." I wasn't interested in getting my money back; my point was the after-the-deposit notification was a problem.).And if they have a "you can't shoot beyond 40 yard policy," then they should make that clear as well. I don't blame Cal (or the cook, either) for the drunk boyfriend... the food was great, and I don'tbelieve thatthe boyfriendshowing up and being drunk was under her control. But there were a number of issues as explained in the initial post that taken together, and most of all in conjunction with Mr. Antila's refusal to let my son shoot the bull of a lifetime, aresimply unacceptable. I believe to a degree of essential certainty that the reason for Mr. Antila telling my son not to shoot had nothing to do with ethics; I believe thathe did not want an out of state under-30 year old shooting a bull bigger than he had ever taken, and he wanted that bull to stay alive.