If there was a hunting equivalent to winning the lottery, Eddie Hammond bought the winning ticket.
An avid, big-game hunter in the western United States, Hammond participates annually in the tag system in several western states. Some years, his tag gets pulled; sometimes he walks away empty-handed. It’s merely a game of chance.
Due to some states’ big game population, only so many tags or permits allowing a hunter to pursue certain game are pulled each year, with most reserved for hunters local to that state. A very small percentage are open for out-of-state hunters. The system is managed by the institution which oversees wild game for that state. To qualify for the tag system, the participant has to have an active hunting license in the state and have the cost of the tag immediately available at the draw.
This year, Hammond pulled four premium tags, an elk and a mule deer in both Arizona and Nevada. A premium tag is to hunt animals of the highest trophy quality.
“You can go a lifetime without drawing a premium tag,” Hammond said. “It is almost unheard of for someone to pull four premium tags. The chances are between 16 million and 100 million to one.”
In fact, the Nevada elk tag is so sought after, Hammond can’t enter the drawing for another seven years after pulling the one in 2020. For landowners, that are allowed to sell their tags, the Nevada elk tag is worth about $22,000, Hammond explained.
In January 2020, prior to tags being pulled in Arizona and Nevada, Hammond was contacted by a landowner in Utah about the availability of an elk tag due to a cancelation. He accepted the man’s offer and purchased the tag. After pulling the four tags, he gave the Utah hunt to his son, West, and Hammond got to tag along for the adventure.
To top off his remarkable year of hunting, Hammond added one other hunting trip to his 2020 calendar – a family hunt in Texas for black buck antelope, as requested by his four-year-old grandson, Hammond Dyre.
A lifetime outdoors
Hammond, 61, remembers hunting as a boy with his father, Ed Hammond, and grandfather, Arnold Hammond, and killing his first Mississippi whitetail deer in 1971. This is where his education in wildlife and conservation began.
“Hunting is about conservation,” Hammond said. “It is about controlling the population of certain animals.”
His son, West, and his son-in-law, Justin Dyre, are both avid hunters.
“West killed his first deer at seven-years-old, sitting on my lap,” Hammond said. “I admit, I cried.”
Hammond advocates for parents to spend time with their children in the great outdoors, often saying, “If your children are hunting, you won’t be hunting your children.”
Hammond’s grandson Hammond Dyre was bit by the hunting bug early in life and is primed to become the next big-game hunter.
“That boy is eat up with it,” Hammond said.
Over the years, Hammond, often accompanied by West, has hunted in 15 different states. The memories of those hunts can be found hanging on the walls of Hammond’s hunting room in his Winona home. The father and son have collected 83 mounts between the two of them. While many are on display in his home, others are hanging in the Hammond’s hunting cabin, barn, and storage room.
“Don’t kill the animal if you are not going to honor it,” Hammond said. “One way to honor it is having it mounted.”
For those animals he kills in another state, he has them mounted there and shipped back home to Winona, more of a memento of the trip itself and the memories surrounding it.
“It’s about the adventure,” Hammond said. “And all of them are different. You meet such great people, and they are there to make your experience.”
Although wife, Gay Hammond, stays busy running her Winona pharmacy and doesn’t hunt, she is supportive of her family’s favorite pastime. Recently, she helped give the hunting room a makeover, as it now has draperies, throw pillows, and a new fluid display of the trophy mounts.
Preparation
Not long after learning of his good fortune of drawing four tags, Hammond hired hunting outfitters in Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.
“You have to use an outfitter or you wouldn’t know where to go,” Hammond said. “You hire an outfitter in each state.”
In Utah, Hammond used High Country Hunting Company for West’s elk hunt and was thrilled to share the moment with his son.
“Those father/son moments are hard to beat,” Hammond said.
In Arizona, he used A3 Trophy Hunts, and in Nevada, he used Mogollon Rim Outfitters.
Hammond, who is president of Bank of Winona, said as soon as he learned he pulled four tags and purchased another, he began getting his body prepared for long, grueling days traversing difficult terrains.
“I lost 60 pounds,” Hammond said. “I had to get in the best physical shape I could. I did a lot of treadmill and I walked our [hunting] camp with a [fully-loaded] back pack.”
He also had to supply himself with the proper equipment for the trips. A few hunting friends Hammond met over the years were proud to outfit him on his hunting trips of a lifetime.
“David Blanton at Real Tree wanted us to try the new EXCAPE pattern, more for the western hunter,” Hammond said. “He outfitted both me and West, and all they wanted were pictures from the hunts.”
A collector of custom-built rifles, Hammond mentioned his good fortune to a friend Derrick Ratliff of Horizon Firearms, and he was presented with a unique opportunity.
In the past, Horizon Firearms had created a custom muzzleloader for Hammond.
“I see rifles as one of the most prized heirlooms you can have,” Hammond said.
Ratliff shared with Hammond that his company was considering building a rifle specifically for big game hunts in the western states – a powerful rifle that was also lightweight to carry.
“[Ratliff] told me about the prototype rifle the company was thinking about building,” Hammond said. “It would be a custom-built rifle, the first one ever made, and it would weigh less than six pounds without the scope. He offered me the gun at less than the component price.”
That Horizon Firearms 7x6.5PRC was used on all four hunts.
“It is really light for a gun, especially one that shoots that caliber ammo,” Hammond said.
It is also a long-distance rifle. Hammond said in West’s practice shots with the weapon, he hit the target at 700 yards.
“It can hit a target at 1,000 yards, and it is powerful enough to kill a 1,000 pound elk,” Hammond said.
Hammond agreed to share his experience with Horizon Firearm’s marketing team.
Elk Hunting in Utah
Hammond and West elected to drive 25-hours to Soldier Summit, Utah, for West’s elk hunt. The two-day drive allowed the two quality time ahead of the hunt.
The hunt started on September 21 in the mountains of Utah, and although West was the one hunting, Hammond was with him the entire time – up to a point.
“West had to scale a 500 foot cliff,” Hammond said. “The guide said he had never seen someone run up a cliff like that. I knew I couldn’t keep up, so I stayed behind at the truck.”
Hammond said the elk was bugling 70 yards from West on the ledge of a neighboring mountain. He successfully downed the bull.
“When you down an animal of that size, you take pictures of where it lay, and it is quartered up and carried out on your back,” Hammond said. “The next morning, it took six people to quarter it up and carry it out.”
Mule deer hunting in Nevada
On October 1, not long after returning from Utah, Hammond packed up and flew to Nevada to hunt mule deer. After landing in Las Vegas, Hammond drove another three-and-a-half hours north to the town of Pioche, Nevada, to where camp had been established.
Hammond did not stay in a luxury lodge for this six-day hunt. He lodged with another hunter in a travel trailer with no running water.
“There was no shower,” Hammond said. “We had to drive into Pioche to the Motherlode Motel and pay $10 to shower.”
Luckily, Hammond killed a big mule deer on the second day of the hunt with a 200-yard shot. With the hunt a success, Hammond headed back to Winona two days early.
Mule deer hunting in Arizona
If Hammond thought the accommodations were tough in Nevada, he hadn’t yet made it to Arizona, where camp was set up on the edge of the Kaibab National Forrest, the largest pine forest in the United States.
“I stayed in a wall tent with a Mr. Buddy heater in the floor,” Hammond said. “It was five degrees outside, and there were four inches of snow.”
Hammond said he was equipped with a cot and a table and slept in a sleeping bag. There was no running water or bathrooms, but the camp did have generators.
On day five of the 10 day hunt, Hammond missed his shot at a mule deer from 650 yards.
“I missed it by one inch,” Hammond said. “I missed a monster on day five.”
However, he stayed his course, and on day 10, he downed a large mule deer at 60 yards.
“You have to enjoy the process,” Hammond said. “It isn’t about the kill. It’s about the people. It’s about the adventure. That’s why it’s called hunting.”
Elk hunting in Nevada
Three days after Hammond returned to Winona, he left again for Pioche, Nevada, for a seven-day elk hunt.
“I drew the same unit for elk and mule deer, so I went back to the same place,” Hammond said. “Same little trailer, same guides.”
While he was there, a foot of snow fell, and the only way in and out of the elk wilderness area was on foot or on horseback.
“We spotted an elk on day five,” Hammond said. “We thought we would scale that first mountain, Grafton, [and spot the elk again.] We had no backpacks, no water. We started up about 7 a.m.”
It was 15 degrees with 12 inches of snow on the ground. Hammond said although it was cold, the exertion from scaling five mountains in pursuit of the elk had him sweating beneath his camo.
Finally, at 12:20 p.m., Hammond made the 571 yard shot, but due to the size of the elk, it took two shots to finally down it.
“It took us an hour and 10 minutes to walk to him, scaling a total of six mountains,” Hammond said. “With no water, I was dehydrated by the time I got to the bull, and I had fallen about 15 times. The Good Lord was good to me and let me get to the elk before I started having back spasms.”
It was 4:30 p.m. when Hammond and the guides headed back to camp. Because he was sweating under his clothing, he developed hypothermia.
“I ended up getting back to the truck at 6:30 p.m.,” Hammond said. “I drank eight bottles of water. [Back at camp] I stood over the heater in the trailer to warm up. I did go past my physical limits on that trip. If I hadn’t lost that weight, I never would have made it.”
Family hunt in Texas
The week of Thanksgiving, Hammond, West, Jenny Claire, Justin, and grandson Hammond Dyre left for Winthorst, Texas, 90 miles northwest of Fort Worth. Four-year-old Hammond Dyre was the purpose for the trip, as he had his mind set on getting a trophy of his own, a black buck antelope.
“They are native to India, but they are all over Texas,” Hammond said. “Hammond saw them on “The Lion King.”
Hammond Dyre has been accompanying his father and grandfather hunting since the age of two. On one of these trips with the little boy, Justin Dyre killed a deer, and Hammond Dyre got to experience the joy of hunting first hand. From then on, Hammond Dyre could think of nothing but hunting.
Not long after arriving in Texas, Hammond, who was accompanied by his grandson, shot a whitetail deer. Hammond Dyre “finished him off” with his BB gun.
“You have never see a child so excited,” Hammond said. “[While in Texas], if we weren’t hunting in the blind, we were riding around looking.”
A couple days later, Hammond Dyre got his black buck antelope, with a lot of help from dad, Justin Dyre. But he got a shot in with his BB gun.
Elk hunting in Arizona
Imagine waking up to a view of the Grand Canyon. That is how Hammond started each day while on the seven-day elk hunt in Arizona. However, the view was not from the viewing platform most tourist use. Hammond was camped on the south side of the Grand Canyon with a view not seen by most visitors to the attraction.
“I was back in the tent,” Hammond said. “It snowed the first day. It was 16-17 degrees in the morning.”
Hammond had to climb up to get sight of an elk that was embedded on a cliff. He got into position at 11 a.m. and patiently waited for his shot. Eventually, the elk stood to stretch, giving Hammond a clear shot at 275 yards.
Back home in Winona
On December 4, Hammond returned home to Winona after his dream hunting season.
“I had six successful hunts, which is rare,” Hammond said.
Two freezers are full of meat, and what meat he couldn’t take home, it was given to needy families or given to the employees of the hunting outfitter.
“Nothing goes to waste,” Hammond said. “When we drive, we bring the meat home. West and I came back from Utah with 450 pounds of meat.”
After a busy year of travel and hunting, Hammond said he may take next season off from participating in the tag system, but then again, he said his tag hasn’t been drawn in New Mexico, Wyoming, or Montana. At 61 years old, Hammond said it isn’t realistic to wait until retirement to start hunting big game.
“It is so physically demanding,” He said. “As soon as I got that first tag, I started working on [getting in shape]. I spent six months training.”
