We have lost a dear friend and wonderful archer

[HARL]

Sad news for sure !!!

[2ndxarnd]

       

[Plumber]

god bless,love to the family sorry for your loss.

[Jim Boettcher]

Prayers for the family. And rest in peace my brother of the bow.

[bowhunterfrompast]

Prayers for his family and friends.

[Sixby]

My prayers go to his family and friends. Brian and I had some very interesting conversations He definately gave thought to eternal life.   God bless you all, Steve

[owlbait]

Brian kept many discussions here balanced. He will be missed. God Bless and much peace to his family and friends.
Mike Gerard  owlbait

[sou-pawbowhunter]

Prayers sent up for all who loved him.

[tim roberts]

For the most part I agreed with Brian;s posts and always looked forward to reading them.  Will really miss seeing his post.  Rest peacefully Brian.

[SS Snuffer]

Have peace in the happy huntin grounds.
God Bless

[Ringneck]

Prayers for the family.

[bornagainbowhunter]

I pray for peace and comfort for his family and friends.  You have my sympathies.

God Bless,
Nathan

[recurve3]

Prayers for the family

[waknstak IL]

Prayers for the family. His posts here will be missed.

[Friend]

What a wonderful friendship you shared.

What wonderful memories you continue to have.

May God's love and peace be with him.

[Mike Orton]

Well we've let this post run a few days and have a fair representation of the good friends and aquaintances  who's life was touched by Brian Krebs.  Thank you all for the kind words on Brian's behalf.  I plan to direct Brian's extended family to these posts so that they will understand this man's life mattered.  That he was more than just a poor recluse living alone in the mountains.  His life touched people outside of his immediate family and that he had a "Trad Gang" family  also.

In going through my old emails with Brian I found many photos he had sent me over the years.  I'll not bore everyone with those photos but there is one photo that is worthy of sharing with you all.  It's been said the measure of a man can be made in examining the "Fruit of his Loins".  Brian had several children, grown adults now with their own families.  He told me how proud he was of them all. He enjoyed being a Grandfather and looked forward to spending time with the grand kids, teaching them what he knew of the outdoors.  But his eye really glissened when he spoke of his son Mike.  The sportsman bug that Brian instilled in Mike really took hold in a big way.  This is a photo that Brian sent me of his son's 2009 accomplishments as a trapper.  Not a bad season by any measure.....

 


Mike Krebs shot elk with his dad a fairly regular annual basis in North Fork, ID.  Some of the stories Brian relayed were colorful.  It's good to see that Brian passed the torch down to his children before leaving us.

If we can learn one final lesson from Brian, Ladies and Gentleman ask yourself when was the last physical examination with blood analysis that was performed on you?  Brian was 59 years old....that's too damn young.  Go get yourselves a physical examination by a competent doctor....

[BigCnyn]

BRIAN KREBS POST fitting to re-read

RIP Brian


     Ethical depends on the time in history.
I was once told by a really famous bowhunter that the way to get a big buck is to find a high spot where the deer cross and they are back lighted by the moon.
He said if you can see the rack- it has to be a good one.
Hunting by natural light was then considered OK; and really - its natural light...but it is illegal to do so now.

I got into bowhunting because I liked to see the arrow fly. I started with literally a stick and string- and some two fletch arrows and an Indian headdress- and my brother got the Roy Rogers guns.

But I started hunting things- anything. As a city kid it was bugs and chipmunks and squirrels; although no mammals were killed or injured in the process.

My mentor was a man that was into conservation; he was a hunter; and a speaker for hunting. He hunted with a gun; although once after an unsuccessful hunt for deer with a bow; he shot all his arrows at some grouse... and then the deer walked right up. But I could see how it was possible to take a deer with a bow.

Then came movie trailers. My first movie seen without my parents taking me to the movies was 'the house on haunted hill' and ' the tingler'.
In those days they showed one reel; then showed trailers of news and other interests while they got the second reel ready.

I got to see Howard Hill and Fred Bear in action.

But - there was something missing; not in them; but in me. I was not perceiving what I was seeing.

It took years of hunting with a gun; and great frustrations over hearing deer make noises; which I was ridiculed for suggesting; as the 'buck snort' was something related to eating beans.

Then I saw on TV -Fred Bear shoot a grizzly bear over a dead caribou. He screwed up the first shot; and really acted like a country bumpkin.

But then he shot the grizzly; and that flight of the arrow - I saw it connect him and the grizzly in a way that was like the brush of an artists stroke.

I saw the connection for the first real time between man and nature.

It was an artists action- I cannot draw a recognizable stick man- I can't throw a baseball; or toss a basketball or any feat of 'sport'.

I could swim; but I would not compete. I could play football; but backed out when the coach insisted we learn how to break the knee of the apposing quarterback. I refused.
I was chosen in high school gym class to be the goalie - two posts - no net.
And this guy from the other team made a great shot that was in.
The coach asked if it was in or out; and I said 'in' and both sides and the coach berated me.
I quit 'sports' that day.

I hunted with my bow for food when I left home. I learned the value of the reusable arrow.
In college I met a guy that asked me to go bowhunting for deer.
I had gotten out of the service; lost my Ben Pearson recurve in that time.

I did have a 1930s longbow my father used in military school as a child. I got good with it at ten yards; and was ready to take that shot.

I had taken many deer with a rifle and shotgun; and practiced with my bow for months; and got good at ten yards; although my arrows were mismatched and my broadheads were sharp by my standard at the time; and dull by my standards now- and I am glad I did not connect with a deer that first trip.

But I did get a shot at a deer; and it was very much slow motion; and I hit a tree the deer was standing behind.

But I saw something I had never seen before- I saw in that shot just as artistic a shot as Fred Bear had ever made. The arc of the arrow; the way it stopped right at the deer ( although in a sapling) - but it was a connection that I could not get out of my mind.

I still can't.

And I started mingling with Fred Bear; and other bowhunters.

And I read about Ishi.

His people all killed for their scalps; and his connection to the earth with his bow. He was the last 'wild indian' ; and he finally gave up; he turned himself into white mans world expecting to die: and did that in a way that really defined his understanding of white society- he turned himself into a slaughter house- naked.

Pope and Young learned about his villages as he made reproductions in their museum. They gave him relics taken from slain members of his own tribe; including the basket his sister had made; and that he last seen her with.

And through all that horror; for it had to be; he taught Pope and Young to hunt. He showed them respect for the wild beyond killing things.

And in his last living statement; he said " we will meet again in the flight of the arrow".

We have hunted as humans with bows that were not bent over saplings; but made from billets- for thousands upon thousands of years.

And in its purest form- the concept that Ishi passed on was not to kill; but to be a part of nature. It took practice and observation and skill.

Crossbow were ALWAYS a short cut to shooting arrows accurately. That was their point- that you did not have to practice to get good. It was a shortcut to hitting a target; and so are modern tech bows.

And now a few of these tech hunters are saying that Ishi; and Fred Bear and Ben Pearson; and Howard Hill were merely " experimenters in bowhunting" and that they are the result of all that experimenting.

I think: not.

Fred Bear talked about the 'spirit of the wild' and he was talking about the connection passed down with his hand shake with Young; and Youngs handshake with Ishi.

It was not about how many animals you could kill; it was about the adventure and the thrill of the hunt; and the thrill of the shot.

It has always taken a longer to do that with a bow than with a gun. Where the hunt ends with a rifle; the hunt begins with a bow. I remember the average shot distance with a rifle for deer with a gun; and it was 55 yards.
Now I see the bows of the tech world shooting way past that with confirmed confidence.

And cross'bows' take no skill beyond what you need with a bow- other than what to expect once you hit something.
The 'professionals' use more and more modern equipment; and Pete Shepley says the best thing you can do as a bowhunter: is to keep up with the technology.

You now can attach a range finder to you bow; and once the distance is determined you can pick your pin.

That I argue is NOT bowhunting. It is bastardized bowhunting. It is taking a woman you love and replacing her with a whore. It works; but it lacks communication and a real connection with another person on a mental level. It is money taking the place of skill; and wisdom and understanding and compassion.

I am opposed to the crossbows in archery season; and the use of the new high tech bows in archery season too -- for they admit and brag; they have taken the 'arch' out of 'archery'.

Our weakness didn't help; but we were up against numbers of people that like money and shortcuts to 'success'.

I don't want to share the woods making cow calls and elk bugles while rifle hunters are in the woods with me.

And I don't want people that do not understand bowhunting to take over bowhunting; and saying that we trad bowhunters are just the past; the experimenters; the ill equipped for bowhunting as the 'pros' think we ought to be.

Let them hunt in the rifle - as we call it the 'any weapon season'; and let them follow their horn porn to its conclusion.

Just lets make sure we don't get pushed out in the process.

Because we really run that risk...

--------------------
THE VOICES HAVEN'T BOTHERED ME SINCE I STARTED POKING THEM WITH A Q-TIP.
Posts: 2556 | From: North Fork , Idaho | Registered: Feb 2004

[Bill Turner]

What a shame. I've always heard the good die young. Sorry for your loss and prayers for his family and many friends. Thank God for the time you had to spend with him.  

[Corvus]

My sincere condolences to Brian's family and friends. Peace be with you.