Outdoor Buddies is an all-volunteer non-profit organization. None of our volunteers are paid a dime, and no member has to pay a dime to participate in our programs. We rely on donations from members just like you to keep the Outdoor Buddies mission alive and open the outdoors to all!

We have some incredible prizes lined up for our 2024 annual raffle fundraiser. Thank you for supporting Outdoor Buddies!

We woke up before day break camped in the middle of the four fields that would soon come alive with volunteers and participants of this year’s annual Outdoor Buddies pheasant and chukar hunt!

After a couple cups of coffee with my wife Penny, we started getting everything ready for her and her team to cook breakfast on the flat top grills for an anticipated 200 plus volunteers and participants!

Let me back up a few days from Saturday. On Wednesday at 10AM Volunteers from Outdoor Buddies and CYO sportsman’s group met at our storage building to load everything such as three flattop grills, ten folding picnic tables generators, 20 flats of shotgun shells as well as 20 cases of clays for the folks to practice shooting before they head out in the field along with a lot more equipment!  

We hauled a few trailers out East of Loveland/Ft. Collins Co. about 50 miles to Drake land farms where the owners of Drake land farms have graciously allowed us to hold this event for the past 10 years! THANK YOU!

Thursday, we hauled out the rest of the trailers in readiness for the start of setup on Friday!

After the accessible port-a-potty’s and wash stations were delivered on location Friday morning the volunteers showed up to setup the registration and meeting area where breakfast would be cooked and served as well as lunch!

So, you get the picture that the stage was set for this awesome event for Saturday morning!

Penny and I got all the coffee on and potatoes boiling and the flattops grills heating up in readiness for 20 lbs. of potatoes, 40 lbs. of bacon and a whole lot of pancake batter for pancakes that were about to be cooked for breakfast!

Penny Sanford and May headed up the flattop with the potatoes and peppers/onions and maybe a little butter!

Roger Harris and Mike Leiske lead the cooking of the mountain of bacon and little smokies, yum!

While Brecken Almond and his cousin Axton Sanford mastered cooking all the pancakes (not bad for two 13-year-old young men!) with their helper Mark Almond which is Brecken’s dad!

This whole team worked in concert to make an amazing breakfast that fed the troops for the start of what was turning out to be a day to remember!

After breakfast was finished Larry and Chris let everyone know how the Disabled hunters that could walk a little and the disabled hunters in track chairs would be hunting as well as the over 68 youth and their parents would be split up into hunting groups.

 They all started over on the two trap shooting ranges and firing lines that Don Reid and Dave Boyle ran.

Colorado Youth outdoors participated as well as there parent and youth families that are currently attending the CYO Core classes that teach shooting and fishing skills through traditional outdoor recreation!

Courtney Strouse, director of programing at CYO as well as her awesome staff and families who helped at registration and many other jobs that needed to be done as well. The pro staff who worked with each of the youth groups to learn the skill and fun of pheasant hunting!

Luke Brough, director of facilities at CYO had his crew help us load trailers and pull equipment to and from the event! THANK YOU CYO!

Outdoor Buddies provided 200 pheasants and 100 chukars with the help of Tim Brough and Justin at the Eagles nest!

All of the Outdoor Buddies disabled, youth and women hunted pheasants and Chukars from after breakfast to lunch which was again tremendous by Nordy’s BBQ.

Everyone had a great day in the field and at the event! I saw so many families and folks with big smiles on there face as they learned a new outdoor activity that the family can enjoy!

There were plenty of upland bird dogs and their trainers that I have to say were the best lineup we have had so far! There were pointers, flushing dogs that worked every field we had setup. 

I had ran my son springer spaniel, Stormy, in the field that we had all track chair hunters in. One of the hunters, John and his wife absolutely had a blast in the field. John’s wife was sharing with me that John love these Outdoor Buddies events cause it gets him out of the nursing home that they can make memories and get to live life in the outdoors!

One of the families from CYO had their two youth out on this hunt. They wanted to save the rooster pheasant cape feathers so they could tie flies later. They brought their own borax so I demonstrated how they cape it out. I did half of the skinning and the family did the rest! 

Wow, they were getting as much out of this experience as they could as a family! Great job mom and dad!

I’m sure we will be receiving stories coming in from the participants that we will put in future newsletters.

If any of you that were at this hunt and took pictures please send them to Steve Medberry, editor of our newsletter, at steve.medberry@outdoorbuddies.org.

I want to personally thank all of the hard work Outdoor Buddies volunteers and board members that took the time to make this such a great event! Thank you to CYO for partnering with us to make this event one that will be talked about for some time!

Outdoor Buddies sold raffle tickets which everyone really helped us out by supporting Outdoor Buddies so we can continue to put these types of events on in the future!

There was continuous hunting till 3pm.

-Larry Sanford

Green Mill Sportsman’s Club will host the Outdoor Buddies sight-in at their facility to enable Outdoor Buddies hunters and future hunters to get practice behind their rifle. This is your chance to work on your “shooting system” to set yourself up for success prior to a hunt. Only 30 persons can be accommodated at this event so make your reservations as soon as possible. To reserve your spot at the sight-in please register below. There is no charge for the event and snacks and refreshments will be provided. There are electricity and accessible bathrooms at the range.

Important Things To Know:

Rifle ranges with 50, 100, and 200 yard targets are available. A pistol range is also available. Range qualified personnel will provide assistance. Targets, spotting scopes, shooting benches, and sandbags are provided. Eye and ear protection are required! If you do not have eye and ear protection devices they will be available at the range.

About Green Mill Sportsman Club

The Green Mill Sportsman’s Club is a private club dedicated to providing an educational, safe and enjoyable place for our members to enjoy the shooting sports. They have been wonderful supporters of Outdoor Buddies and enable us a fantastic facility to prepare for the upcoming big game seasons each year.

Location

Green Mill Sportsman’s Club

2490 Co Rd 3, Erie, CO 80516

Directions

If you type “green mill sportsman’s club” into Google Maps, their location will pop up. If your prefer written directions, Go three miles west of I-25 (Exit 232) to Bonanza, take first left at Green Mill Road (dirt road) and continue for ¾ mile to the facility.

While I use pheasant here, any white meat would work, even fish. Obvious alternatives are chicken, grouse, quail, partridges and rabbit.

Ingredients



• 4 to 8 pheasant breasts, with skin
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1 quart water
• 2 tablespoons pheasant fat, lard, clarified butter or olive oil
• 8 to 12 corn or flour tortillas
• Mexican cheese, crumbled
• 1 cup pickled vegetables with jalapenos, escabeche (optional)

Directions

1. Stir the salt in the water to dissolve. Remove the skins from the pheasant breasts and put in a container in the fridge. Submerge the pheasant breasts in the brine and put in a container in the fridge overnight. Note that you can skip the brine, but it leaves you with less wiggle room in cooking the pheasant.
2. The next day, briefly rinse off the pheasant and pat it dry. Salt the skins. Heat a comal or frying pan over medium-high heat and set the skins down on it, fat side first. It's helpful to put a weight over skins so they don't curl up; I use a bacon press. Fry, turning occasionally, until nice and crispy, about 8 minutes. Set aside.
3. Heat your tortillas and keep them warm in a tortilla warmer or wrapped in cloth towels.
4. In the same pan you cooked the skin in, add the pheasant fat or lard or whatever; there should be a little fat in the pan already that came off the skins. When this is hot, sear the pheasant breast hard over high heat for about 4 minutes. Again, it's helpful to put a weight on it while cooking. Flip and repeat, this time keeping an eye on how done it is. I find this second side only needs about 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Move the meat to a cutting board and let it rest. Chop the pickled vegetables so they'll work well in a tortilla. Chop the pheasant breast and the skin and make tacos. Enjoy!

Larry Sanford

President

970-218-5356

popslarrys@gmail.com

Nate Lucht

Vice President

(970) 219-8817

nate.lucht@hotmail.com

Christopher Nowak

Treasurer

303-717-7159

christopher_m_nowak@yahoo.com

Terry Gleason

Secretary

303-868-2579

terryjgleason@gmail.com

Kevin Kassner

Director

(303) 946-2502

kevin@asktechnolink.com 

Matt Camilleri

Director

860-930-2389

mcamilleri7@gmail.com

Tony Hodges

Director

303-523-0583

thodgesre21@aol.com

Steve Medberry

Director

720-255-9453

stevemedberry@gmail.com

Edgar Munoz

Director

720-261-1857

edgar4jec1268@gmail.com

Jim Piper

Director

303-514-8944

geopros@q.com

Frederick Solheim

Director-Warriors on Cataract

303-818-7600

WarriorsOnCataract@gmail.com 

Non-board members are welcome. Please RSVP in advance.

Meetings are held from 6:30pm-8:30pm at the locations and dates below.

April 9 - Thornton Cabela's

May 14 - Lone Tree Cabela's

June 11 - Thornton Cabela's

July 9 - Lone Tree Cabela's

July 30 - Thornton Cabela's

September 10 - Lone Tree Cabela's

October - No Meeting

November 12 - Thornton Sportsman's Warehouse

December 10 - Thornton Sportsman's Warehouse