Exclusive Interview with Jack Cassidy, Colorado Big Game Hunts, LLC Image

Exclusive Interview with Jack Cassidy, Colorado Big Game Hunts, LLC


Dream Sporting Trips

Updated: April 19th 2016 @ 3:05pm

After hours of tracking a wounded bear, Jack discovered the irate animal in a cave. "If they had an Olympic contest for going backwards on all fours, I would have won it!"

 

Jack-Cassidy.jpgInterviewing Jack Cassidy of Colorado Big Game Hunts is the next best thing to going on a hunt with him. Stories? Some of the best... and he tells them in a way that keeps you entertained.

Jack Cassidy, longtime Colorado outfitter, owner and manager of Jack Cassidy Colorado Big Game Hunts has been in the big game outfitting business for 36 years. He is the former president and director of the Colorado Outfitters Association, winner of the North American Professional Hunter of the Year Program, founder of Colorado's first state-certified guide school, and has served on numerous Colorado Division of Wildlife task forces and steering committees.

He took time out of his busy schedule to share a few stories with Dream Sporting Trips.

Dream Sporting Trips

We appreciate your taking the time to talk to us today. How did you get started in this business? What made you decide to become a hunting guide?

Jack Cassidy

About 40 years ago, we were working on the ranch--putting up hay--when four guys from Wisconsin came up and asked to archery hunt. We told them no, but they came back a couple more times. We realized they weren't going to give up easy and thought maybe we could charge them for the privilege of hunting on our property. So we charged them $50 and took them hunting... and they got their deer.

Hmmm, we though, maybe we should do this again! So we decided to provide everything guest hunters would need. My wife cooked, I was the guide, and we charged $250 for five days' hunting. We started out part-time (archery) and it evolved into rifle hunting. Now we do it all and have been doing it full-time for 36 years. 

Dream Sporting Trips

Where do you take your clients to hunt?

Jack Cassidy 

We hunt on all private property, in Colorado. We have over 25 miles of great river bottom land throughout Eastern Colorado near the Kansas border to hunt for Whitetails and Mule Deer and a total of over 350,000 acres of private property exclusively for our hunters. We offer hunts on the western border of Colorado between Montrose and the rim of Black Canyon of Gunnison just east of Black Canyon National Park. We also hunt near the New Mexico border for trophy Elk, next to Vermejo Park, Ted Turner’s playground (north of Trinidad).

Dream Sporting Trips

What is your personal favorite game to hunt?

Jack Cassidy

Big Horn Sheep, definitely. Here in Colorado, it's a highly sought after tag, as it's on a strict draw and takes years of waiting. Everyone in my family has killed a Big Horn--myself, my wife, and both of my sons. In fact, one son has a 'grand slam' of sheep, meaning he has killed at least one of each of the North American sheep.

Dream Sporting Trips

What do your clients primarily request to hunt?

Jack Cassidy

Colorado is famous for its Mule Deer. There are more Colorado Mule Deer in the Boone-Crockett Record Book than any other state or providence. We have the top line, best of species Mule Deer every year, so it's definitely what most of our guests are looking to hunt.

Dream Sporting Trips

Please tell us about a particularly exciting hunting adventure.

Jack Cassidy

I've had so many exciting hunts, it's hard to know where to start. I'd say the lion and bear hunts are the most exciting. There was one bear hunt in particular I recall. Back in those days, you could bait and run bear with hounds. I was hunting with an archery hunter. It was getting late, and he was sitting on a tree stand over bear bait, when a bear came within distance. He stuck it badly in the rear-end and boy, did it take off.

We put hounds on its track the next morning. After a 4-hour chase, I was all wore out and was sitting down with hunter when I noticed a hole in back of a pile of rocks. Wondering if the bear might be inside, I crawled in, but there was nothing there. I crawled back out and we took off again. About an hour later, we had circled back to that same area and we sat down to rest. I thought I'd look in that hole one more time to see if there bear was there, though I really didn't expect to find it. But there it was! If they had an Olympic contest for going backwards on all fours, I would have won!

The hunter came in, but the ceiling was too low to draw a bow. We got a Quakey stick 8 feet long, the boy went back in, but that stick became 6 feet long, then 4 feet, and even shorter as the bear tried to eat it up. Finally, the hunter went in and shot it. It was a 450 lb. bear with about a 20 inch skull. 

Dream Sporting Trips

What is the most commonly asked question you get from your clients?

Jack Cassidy

"What rifle caliber should I use?" I tell them, "Here’s the plan. A 100 grade bullet through the lungs is much better than 300 grade bullet somewhere else. You figure out what grade you want to use."

Dream Sporting Trips

Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?

Jack Cassidy

We're a family operation. We hunt very hard, so if you’re willing to hunt hard, you’ll do good. Our clients become friends. Obey game laws, come with us, hunt hard, you’ll go home happy!

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For more information about Jack Cassidy's Colorado Private Land Big Game Hunts--Deer, Bear, Elk, Coyotes, Antelope, Bison, Turkeys, Sheep, and Goats--click on this link:

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