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Matt Caldwell

I met Matt Caldwell in August 1985 when he came on a combination hunt in the Wrangell mountains with AAA.  My partner Brent guided him on that hunt.  Matt is a large animal veterinarian from Mt. Carroll, IL.  Mt. Carroll is a small farming community in northwestern Illinois where Matt was born and raised.  After college he was hired by a local veterinary clinic where he later became a partner.  The two elder partners instilled in Matt a true work ethic.  His hard work paid off and afforded him opportunities to hunt all over the world. 

Matt has one of those personalities that you can’t help but like which made for a great start to our longtime friendship.  He has a broad knowledge of horses and being newbies to horse ownership, Brent and I welcomed his advice. 

Matt had a great first hunt with us taking a 36 ½” ram, a 57 ½” moose and a 9 ¾” mountain goat.  He ended up hunting with AAA seven more times.  Tim Orton, who hunted with AAA nine times, was the only hunter who hunted with AAA more than Matt.  Matt’s next hunt was in the spring of ’88 on the Alaska Peninsula where he hunted brown bear and harvested an 8’6” bear.  Dick Koskovich was his guide.  He came back that fall and harvested a 69” moose and a 405 B&C Record Book caribou.  He was on a roll. 

Matt continued to keep in contact with us and always stopped by our booths at numerous hunting shows and conventions.  My wife, daughter Michelle and I sat with him at the banquet on the final night of the FNAWS Convention in Nashville, TN.  Our conversation centered around getting Matt a big bear.  He would be eligible in the spring of ’92 as Alaska law only allows one bear every four regulatory years in Unit 9.  I told him I would guide him in our Cold Bay area if he wanted to come in the spring of ‘92.  He thought that would work so we had a plan.

The spring of ’92 was a record-breaking warm season with no rain which is unheard of in the Cold Bay area.  Matt arrived in Cold Bay on May 7th for his hunt that started on opening day, May 10th.  Dan and I decided to hunt his client Randy Cain of PA and Matt out of the same camp, Barney Creek.  We would hunt the main Barney Creek valley and rotate them using the Zodiac to hunt the shoreline.  Both areas were super for harvesting big bears.

On day two as I cooked breakfast everyone else glassed the hillsides sitting in front of the spike camp tents.  After breakfast, we climbed up to our main spotting hill to glass the rest of the day.  It didn’t take long until I spotted a good bear feeding as he moved in and out of the alder on the lower face of the mountain just outside of the valley itself.  We continued to watch until he disappeared into the alder.  Matt and I kept glassing the area where we had last spotted him while the others watched the main valley.  Around 3 PM I decided Matt and I would take the Zodiac and hunt the shoreline back towards base camp.  Somewhere between 6 PM and 7 PM, I spotted what looked like a boar and a sow on the hillside.  I wasn’t sure since it was still early for mating to take place.  We watched for an hour or so but I never was 100% positive that it was a boar and a sow or just a big sow with a big cub that she would kick out in the next month or so.  If it was a boar, he wasn’t a 10-footer so we passed and headed back toward Barney Creek. 

Around 10 PM when we came around the corner of the mountain entering Barney Creek valley, I spotted a big bear feeding on the beach right below where we had spotted the big bear earlier that morning.  With the wind in our favor, we maneuvered the Zodiac to shore and started our stalk.  We hardly had any cover but the bear was feeding slowly away not looking back very often so we were able to get within 200 yards or so from him.  It was early in the hunt but I knew this was a 10-footer so I told Matt to get set up to take a shot.  Then without any warning he turned, looked at us and started to run.  Matt’s first shot missed but as the bear picked up speed Matt connected twice with his big 416 Remington 700 and I hit him once with a 300 grain Nosler Partition bullet from my 375 H&H Magnum and it was all over.  It was a beautiful bear that squared 10’1”.  Not only was he a super bear but the kill site was only half a mile from camp and only 200 yards from where we kept the Zodiac.  We were losing light fast so we took a few photos and with the help from Dan, Randy and Jeff Hamburg (Jeff was there learning the area and was going to guide our next client), rolled the big bear up above the high tide line and positioned the bear for better photos the following morning.  We headed back to camp for a celebration dinner. 

The following morning, we took more photos and skinned the bear.  We spent the next day and a half fleshing and preparing the skin for shipment.  Jeff and I took Matt to the Cold Bay airport for his trip home.  After seeing Matt off we headed back to Barney Creek to help Dan with his hunter.  When we arrived, we found a note from Dan saying a big bear had come off the mountain and had laid down in the alder about half way back on the left side of the valley.  Jeff and I both started glassing intently and finally spotted Dan and Randy in the alder.  We grabbed our packs and headed their way.  Once we found them, we could see that Randy had killed a big bear.  When I was close enough to actually see the size of bear, I couldn’t believe my eyes.  It was the largest bear that I had ever seen.  It squared 11’3” and had a 30 5/16” skull which was the new SCI World Record until another bear was taken on Kodiak that same spring so they ended up tied for the SCI World Record.  What a super start to our ’92 spring bear season.  We ended up harvesting two 8 ½ footers for our last two clients.  Four for four with two over 10’.

Matt gave me a call that fall after the Illinois whitetail deer season and said I should plan to come down his way to hunt whitetails with him.  I told him I would pass for now but thanks anyway.  He saw Brent at the Dallas SCI Convention and booked a 2x1 caribou hunt for that fall for himself and a friend, Tom Clinton.  Tom was at Matt’s house when he saw Matt’s B&C Record Book caribou and told Matt he wanted “one of those.”

They showed up at camp that fall and both killed B&C Record Book caribou.  Matt’s was 412 B&C and Tom’s was 406 B&C.  So, I guess he did get one just like Matt’s.  That was the year that AAA harvested 11 record book caribou.  What an amazing season.  It just doesn’t get any better than that.

While Matt was there, we talked about him coming back to the Wrangell’s to try to get a bigger sheep.  I told him I thought we could if we hunted on the Canyon Creek glacier.  When he got home, he gave me a call and booked the first sheep hunt in August of ’94.

1994 was an unusual sheep season for AAA as we couldn’t find many rams.  When Dan left the previous season, we had our normal 20+ rams.  We ended up taking only four rams for eight hunters which was our worst season ever.  I hunted Matt out of swamp camp in the Canyon Creek valley.  Not seeing any good rams there, we headed up to the glacier where I had spotted a good ram during our early season survey.  The glacier was really rough where I had landed in the past so I had Paul Claus land us in another area further up the glacier in the hard snow.  I had never landed there before but Paul had many times.

There were only two rams that far back on the glacier and one was a nice one that looked close to 40”.  They were in a very small rugged side glacier which was going to be difficult to access.  I studied the mountain for a safe way to get above the rams and the next morning we started our climb.  It was kind of dicey but we slowly made our way up and around most of the steep cliffs.  Luck was with us as the sheep fed around the mountain below us.  Matt made a great shot on the largest ram and it disappeared over the cliff.  We had to go back down to get around where the sheep had fallen.  When we made it to the ram, we found that one of his horns had popped off the core.  It takes quite a blow for that to happen and doesn’t happen very often.  I was able to find the horn about 50 foot above him at the bottom of the cliff that he had fallen over.  We placed it back on for photos.  The ram was a super heavy based 39 incher.  That was the largest ram AAA took that year.  Mission accomplished.

Once we were back in swamp camp, I flew Matt back into the hard core Park that bordered our area to see if that was where all of our rams had gone.  Rams were everywhere including two giants, one close to 46” and another at least 44” inches.  What a flight!  Dan has always said that our area was a great place to grow big rams and then they migrated into the Park when they get big and old.

Over the next fourteen years Matt turned from Alaska to Africa to hunt.  He hunted Africa ten times where he ended up taking fifteen cape buffalo, three elephants, three leopards, two lions and numerous other African trophies.  When we saw him at a few of the trade shows, he would always share his African experiences with us.  He would call me occasionally with more stories and always invited me to come to Illinois to hunt whitetails with him.

Somewhere around the summer of 2010 Matt, his wife Heather and Heather’s sister Karen, came to Alaska for a sightseeing adventure and gave me a call inviting me to have dinner with them in Anchorage.  That was my first time meeting Heather.  We had a very enjoyable visit.  Matt again invited me to come down to his place and hunt whitetails. 

Matt has hunted whitetail deer for over 50 years in his area and has taken a least two B&C and numerous deer in the 150-160 class.  I thanked him and I told him I would think about it.  Fast forward to July 2017 when my wife asked me what she could get me for my birthday.  At my age I always say nothing, I have everything I need.  She said, “Why don’t you give Matt a call and see if you can go down and hunt whitetail deer with him.”  I said, “I hate to just call him out of the blue and ask to hunt deer!  That would be weird.  Besides I would need a crossbow since I don’t shoot my compound anymore.”  She said, “That’s it, I will get you a crossbow for your birthday!  You need to call Matt.”  I gave Matt a call during the 2017 deer season and asked if the invitation was still open to come down and hunt deer.  He said of course it would be great if I came down for the 2018 bow season.  So, I started making plans. 

It was funny that in the spring of ’18, Brent texted me to see if I still had my guide license and said Matt had come by his booth in WI and said he would come back on a brown bear hunt if I could guide him.  I told Brent I had let my license expire but that I would come down and tag along on the hunt.  See the post “The Big Bear.”  You can also read about my deer hunt with Matt in the post “Hunting Whitetail Deer.”

Matt killed another big bear with AAA and I had the pleasure of being with him and that fall I killed a beautiful 150 class whitetail.  I went back again this past season and saw over 25 bucks with at least 10 in the 130 to 140 class but I didn’t see any larger than the one I had taken the year before so I passed.  I had a wonderful time and the hospitality showed by both Heather and Matt was amazing.

I never would have experienced my last two fall hunts if it wasn’t for our friendship.  I have so many fond memories hunting with Matt.  The guide business has afforded me the opportunity to meet and become friends with so many special people.  Matt is one of those that I am proud to call my friend.