As an experienced elk hunter, Russel Rogers knows numerous events can spoil a hunt, but one thing he never expected was a huge helicopter appearing practically out of nowhere and dumping plumes of water almost on top of him.
“I could feel the fine mist. I could feel the air cooling down around me,” the Sheridan man told Cowboy State Daily, describing a Sept. 15 encounter in the Bighorn Mountains.
“You could definitely feel the blast coming off of it,” he added.
Rogers said he tried to get the pilot’s attention, to no avail. And after the second drop, he decided enough was enough.
“Once it was clear that he was going to keep dropping there, I just vacated,” he said. “I figured the hunting was over, with all the noise and commotion.
Because there wasn’t a fire anywhere nearby, he surmised it must have been a training flight.
Bighorn National Forest spokeswoman Sara Evans Kirol confirmed in an email to Cowboy State Daily that “it was an approved training flight,” although no further information was available Wednesday afternoon.
‘Getting Closer’
Rogers said he’d already taken extra trouble to get to one of his favorite hunting spots for an archery hunt that day.
Red Grade Road, the main route into the Bighorns, was closed for construction, so he had to take another road “that added about an hour to the drive time,” he said.
After that, he rode an ATV after the road became too rough for his truck. And then he hiked into an area with thick timber, broken up here and there by meadows, just the sort of place elk love.
Though the hunting wasn’t all that great, it was a nice quiet day in the mountains.
He started hearing a helicopter off in the distance and didn’t think much of it. Forest Service contractors and others frequently fly choppers up there.
Late afternoon was slipping into evening. The elk would be getting active soon.
Then, “I could hear the thing (chopper) getting closer. The next thing I know, the thing is right above me, hovering around,” Rogers said.
“He was coming in pretty low and slow, and at the time I didn’t know what his intentions were,” Rogers added.
“I went out from under the trees and started waving at this guy,” he said. “He brings it almost to a hover, then drops water on a tree, and then off he goes.”
Thinking that was the end of it, he settled back in, still holding out hope elk might start moving through.
“He came in again from a different direction. And I didn’t want water dumped on me,” he said.
“I’m waving at the guy; I would clearly see his head in that bubble window (on the helicopter),” Rogers said. “And he drops water again. And this time, it’s really close.”
“I thought, 'What in the world? There's no way this guy can’t see me,’” he added.
Rogers left after that, his hunt ruined.
A Polite Conversation
Rogers said he went to the Forest Service Office in Sheridan the next day and inquired about the incident at the front desk.
He said an employee, whose name he couldn’t recall, came out to speak with him.
“I was polite, and he was polite,” he said.
“The employee told me, ‘I guarantee that they didn’t see you,’ and apologized that my hunt was ruined,” he said.
Having had some time to think about it, Rogers said he could see how it might have been possible the chopper crew never knew he was there.
Although he wasn’t wearing camouflage, as archery hunters frequently do, “I was wearing brown and might have blended into the background,” he said.
“I’m not sure what the takeaway is,” he said.
Perhaps the Forest Service could make more of an effort to announce to the public when and where training flights are scheduled, and crews should be told to be alert for hunters during elk season, Rogers said.
Easy To Miss People On The Ground
Retired Forest Service helicopter firefighter Kevin Brown of Emigrant, Montana, told Cowboy State Daily that training flights with water drops are standard procedure.
“They’ll want to have the pilot go out and demonstrate proficiency by dumping water,” he said. “They have to learn somehow. And they must have a certain set of skills before being carded (certified) by the federal agencies.”
Brown said that when pilots and trainers are focused on the task, it might be easy to miss somebody on the ground, particularly somebody dressed in earth tones.
“If the pilot was unaware of people being in the area at the time, it could very well have been that the pilot didn’t see him (Rogers),” Brown said.
Rogers said he’s glad the incident is behind him and that he didn’t get directly hammered by the water.
“The whole thing was a chance meeting," he said. "I’m not accusing the Forest Service of seeking out hunters to harass or doing anything nefarious. They’ve got a job to do, and I think they do it well.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
