Tradition brings hunters to Wyo. event
By BEN NEARY
Associated Press Writer


LANDER, Wyo. --If hunting has a Super Bowl, this is it.

At dawn on a September day, as the sky in the east was turning from slate gray to pale orange, 27 invited hunters from around the world set out on the rolling plains of central Wyoming for the One Shot Antelope Hunt, a unique tradition that dates back to 1940.

Each carried a single bullet, blessed by a chief of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, to fire at an animal that can be maddeningly difficult to hunt, with keen eyesight, a nervous nature and a top speed of better than 50 mph.

"The One Shot Antelope Hunt is probably the most well-known hunt in the world. Everybody knows about it," said one of the hunters, Dan Duncan of Houston.

Among the men in the Sept. 15 hunt were three governors, various captains of industry and some of the world's leading big-game hunters, from as far away as Argentina and South Africa.

These jet-setters don't come all the way to Wyoming for the meat of the antelope, which look like a cross between deer and goats. Many donate it to local charities. Instead, they vie for the rare invitations to the weekend-long event so they can enjoy the camaraderie and prestige, and take part in an increasingly beleaguered sport in a state where hunting makes no apologies.

"To participate in the One Shot Antelope Hunt is really a tremendous deal for us in hunting, but also for the state of Wyoming," said Duncan, who ranks 85th on Forbes' billionaires, worth more than $8 billion. On some 60 safaris in Africa, he has killed 18 elephants, 20 lions and more than 50 cape buffalo. He holds top hunting awards from groups such as Safari Club International.

Participants say the event underscores the positive elements of hunting and argue that hunters deserve more credit for their support of wildlife. Auctions and other events surrounding the antelope hunt raise money for Water for Wildlife. The program, started by the One Shot Hunt Foundation, has spent nearly $1.2 million over the last 30 years installing more than 350 wildlife water supply projects around the West.

"It goes for a great cause, and conservation is what helps animals everywhere in the world," Duncan said.

By tradition, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal was captain of his state's team. The popular Democrat has taken an antelope with a single shot in the hunt in four of the last five years.

This year, Freudenthal took his antelope at about 200 yards. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin also succeeded with a single shot. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter had to use a second bullet, so his kill didn't count under the rules of the hunt.

Freudenthal acknowledges that interest in hunting is declining.

"Part of that has to do with, frankly, the urbanization of the rest of the country. There are fewer (hunting) areas for people to get to in close proximity to their homes," he said.

Hunting in the U.S. has declining for several years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently said the number of hunters 16 and older fell by 10 percent from 1996 to 2006 - from 14 million to about 12.5 million.

Wyoming has the fifth highest percentage of hunters in the nation, said Eric Keszler, spokesman for the state Game and Fish Department.

The Lander hunt started in 1940 as a competition between teams from Wyoming and Colorado. Aside from a few years off for World War II, it has been held every year since then. This was its 64th year.

A hunt museum on Main Street features actors, politicians and other celebrities who have been in the hunt, including actor-singer Roy Rogers, the "King of the Cowboys," and Air Force Gen. Chuck Yeager, the test pilot who first broke the sound barrier in 1947.

Hotels in the town of some 7,000 people were jammed for last weekend's event, and hundreds of people turned out for hunt banquets.

The night before the hunt, elders of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, dressed in buckskins and beadwork, inducted the hunters as blood brothers of the tribe. A chief blessed the single bullets the hunters were to use.

"From the infancy of the old One Shot, the Shoshone Tribe have been here from the beginning," said Willie LeClair, a member of the tribe who served as medicine man at a Friday night pageant. He was a team member in 2002, but missed his antelope.

Freudenthal was outspoken about Wyoming's support of hunting.

"I don't think there's anything we have to apologize for," the governor said. "Hunting's great."