Hardisty hunting enthusiast honoured

Curtis Brausen of Hardisty is what you might call an avid hunter.

Born and raised in the area, Brausen says he was introduced to the sport by his dad, and plans to carry on the tradition with his children.

“Growing up in rural Alberta offered me the opportunity to experience the outdoors first-hand, and hunting was a rite of passage,” he says.

Brausen participates in all game activities, he enjoys hunting for moose, deer, elk, and waterfowl, but his real passion is varmint hunting, specifically coyotes.

His uncle Rob is his hunting partner, and together they spend hours trying to outsmart these wily pests.

“I think for me it started when they kept eating our chickens,” Brausen says. “It kind of became a personal thing.”

He says often times he and his uncle are called to help when neighbours and friends are having troubles with coyotes, too.

In the pursuit of his prey, Brausen became aware of a US company who makes excellent animal decoy calls, called FoxPro.

Over the years, he’d posted a number of comments and photos on their Facebook page, and one day recently he noticed they were accepting applications for field representatives.

“It’s a huge sport, predator hunting, in the USA,” Brausen says. “The application wanted me to list how many coyote calling competitions I had entered and won.

“I filled it out, and spoke to them about the pastime being a little different here, and they asked me to make a video.

“As we were trying to make the video, my three-year-old son continually walked into the room, and we started again multiple times before I finally decided to just let him be in the shot.

“I sent the video in, and got a call from FoxPro’s Abner Druckenmiller, who said he’d enjoyed the video a lot, especially the part that my son was in. We did an interview on the phone and FoxPro accepted my application.”

Brausen is now one of the FoxPro Field Staff, one of just two Canadians.

Brausen is very dedicated to the sport, over the past few years, he’s actually also started to make his own rifles.

“I spent a week with Gordy Gritters, a gunsmith who runs ‘The Extreme Accuracy Institute.’ He taught me how to build and accurize my rifles.”

Brausen says he’d love to just buy custom rifles, but they are a lot of money.

Making his own has paid for itself already, plus he can increase the accuracy more and more as he hones his skill.

Brausen enjoys long-range target shooting, saying it helps to keep him sharp, and to keep improving his accuracy.

“I also attended the Rob Furlong Marksmanship Academy,” Brausen says, where he had the opportunity to learn target shooting from a former Canadian military sniper, who held the record for the longest kill shot at one time.

When he’s not hunting, he’s building his guns, but the time he is able to spend hunting is what he finds the most rewarding.

“Coyotes are one of the most challenging prey,” Brausen says, “and because it is so challenging, I find it somewhat addicting.”

He says he learned many things by trial and error, “When I first started, I’d go out and wouldn’t see anything all day.

“It could have been the wind or my setup, it’s something many people find so frustrating about this that they don’t stay with it very long.”

Brausen says over the years he and his uncle have established specific stands on their lands, and have been quite successful.

He says that the coyote population is in no danger from being hunted, as when an alpha male is killed the remaining males go into overdrive to pick up the slack.

“Some people say coyotes are harmless, and that we are invading their world, but as I said, most of the time people are coming to me because they already have a problem.”

Brausen says that coyotes are as good at hunting as he is, and says he’s positive there is a certain coyote call that means he’s been seen. Many times he’ll see one park itself out of range and just sit and yip at him.

He’s very excited about becoming one of FoxPro’s field staff.

One great thing about it is the opportunity to field test hunting products for them. The field staff are real people, and the company understands that there are none better to test products before stocking them.

“I’m definitely looking forward to that end of things,” Brausen says, adding that he plans to take it very seriously. “It’s a pretty big responsibility, and I want to be a good representative for them, too.”

Brausen says other perks of being a FoxPro Field Staffer include invitations to trade shows and the like where he may be asked to talk about some of the products he’s demoed.

It’s an opportunity to travel, something both Curtis and wife Carley love to do already, and it includes hunting, his passion.
“It’s all just beginning for me.”

Leslie Cholowsky
Editor