STARTING WITH WHITETAIL

Doug started hunting with his Dad and Uncles at a camp they had near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. They hunted Whitetails; not Groundhogs! The Whitetail season was (is) a big deal in PA with the schools closed for the first day of the season. Doug hunted Whitetails through his high school years and then went to college at Washington and Jefferson in Washington, PA followed by Tuft’s University School of Medicine in Boston. He interned at Denver General Hospital (“a real knife and gun club”) so, naturally, he became a surgeon. He “practiced” for 50 years in Glenwood Springs, Colorado before recently retiring.  

FINDING “A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF HUNTING”

Dr. Doug Yajko started the Glenwood Springs Chapter of Ducks Unlimited and became the Colorado State Chairman of that conservation organization. When he decided to take a hunting vacation outside of Colorado, he fortuitously booked an Elk hunt with Gary Powell, the founder of Big Nine Outfitters in Northern British Columbia (billed as “the Serengeti of the North” because of all the North American species available). It was there that Doug found “a whole new world of hunting.”  He shot a 348 Elk on that trip and went back several times for other species (Western Canada Moose, Mountain Caribou, Stone Sheep, Rocky Mountain Goat).   

SAFARI CLUB INTERNATIONAL

Gary Powell was involved with C.J. McElroy and the newly formed Safari Club International. So Doug joined SCI in 1976 and started attending the conventions. Before long, he started and became the President of the Upper Colorado River Chapter of SCI for 8 years. Over time, he got so involved and contributed so much effort to SCI that he eventually became the national president for the 1993-94 term. That was back when the convention was held at the Reno Hilton, which is now the Grand Sierra Resort. Doug’s major accomplishments as president were the organization of the SCI staff and the greater involvement of the European hunting community in SCI. After his presidency, Doug was the Record Book Chairman for 10 years. During that time he also steadily worked his way through all of SCI’s awards programs. 

HUNTING AWARDS

The ultimate earned award with SCI is the World Hunting and Conservation Award which Doug qualified for in its first year (2006). He is also the recipient of SCI’s International Hunting Award and has been voted into the SCI Hall of Fame. And to give you an idea of how long Doug has been successfully hunting, Grand Slam Club Ovis recognizes him for the 374^th Grand Slam of North American Wild Sheep (there are now 2,280 recipients), Super Slam #51 (aka “The North American 29”), and Slam Quest Pinnacle #14 (for the four slams recognized by GSCO). Maybe most significantly, Dr. Doug Yajko has been nominated for the Weatherby Award more than any other hunter. And he is still hunting, so there is still hope! Last year he shot his 31^st Capra species, a Vercors Chamois in France.  

NEXT QUARTER, ANOTHER ELITE HUNTER WILL BE PROFILED. WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT OUR SELECTION COMMITTEE IS COMPOSED OF RENOWNED HUNTERS: ED YATES, REX BAKER, and RENEE SNIDER.

For the second half of 2021 and all of 2022, 18 consecutive monthly Elite Hunter selections were made and profiled. Beginning in January, 2023, selections are being made quarterly and are published the first month of each quarter (January, April, July, and October).