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Ready, Frame, fire

by BILL BULEY
Staff Writer | September 23, 2010 9:00 PM

Well, that was easy.

First day. First hour. First arrow.

Kevin Frame got his bull perhaps a little sooner than he might have liked. Such as on Labor Day, which was opening day. One shot with an arrow right through the lungs of his prey from about 10 yards away.

But as a result, the Liberty Lake resident and former North Idaho College wrestler faces a dilemma: What to do for the rest of the hunting season.

"I don't know what I'll do," he said, laughing. "I'll have to do bear or deer or something like that."

Frame, whose dad Gary lives in Coeur d'Alene and is also an avid hunter and fisherman, didn't want to say where he got the 600-700 pound elk, other than in the Coeur d'Alene mountains.

As usual, he rose at dawn, couldn't get his hunting motorcycle to start, so he jumped on his motocross bike and headed out.

The 45-year-old was walking, "the wind was perfect, it was nice and quiet," when he came upon a herd of elk. They bolted.

"I don't know how they heard me," he said.

A cow elk ran out, looked at Frame as he was changing in to his camouflage clothing, and ran back into the woods.

"I heard the whole herd running," he said, then adding that he thought he had scared them away for the day.

"That's great," he thought at the time. "I did it once again."

Not quite.

It was then he heard a bull elk bulging above him, so Frame disappeared into the timber, got ready and bugled once. He didn't have to wait long.

"This bull comes trotting right down into me," he said.

When it was within about 10 yards, it stopped and lumbered slowly behind some trees.

Frame drew his bow, pulled the arrow, aimed and looked for his opening.

"He looked at me," he said. "For about two seconds, he just stood there staring at me."

Frame didn't want to take a front shot, so he waited for the elk to turn.

It did.

"All I could see was the hair in my sight," Frame said. "He decided I wasn't anything to be alarmed at and went a few yards downhill."

He let the shot fly.

The arrow struck home, and the elk ran into the brush.

Frame followed.

About 100 yards away, he found it. Fallen. Dying.

"It was a quick death," he said.

Frame estimates he came into contact with the elk herd about 5:30 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, his mission was complete - sooner than he anticipated.

"Hunting season is over for me," he said.

The meat and bone from the 5-by-5 elk weighed in at 412 pounds.

"He was probably the biggest one I've gotten," Frame said.

Frame wrestled at North Idaho College in 1985 and 1986, and won championships both years, first in the 150 weight class, then 158. He recalled that NIC wrestling coach Pat Whitcomb was on that team as well.

He went on to wrestle at Liberty University in Virginia and was a two-time All-American there.

Today, Frame owns and operates Living Stone, headquartered about a mile east of Cabela's. The 6-year-old company does granite countertops, fireplaces, hearths, bars, vanities and outdoor kitchens. It's doing well, with five employees and hiring more.

The former physical education teacher at West Valley High School in Spokane said the discipline that it took to be a top wrestler paid off in his business and hunting ventures.

"Any kind of hunting is a lot more difficult than you think it would be. There's a lot of skill involved," he said.

He credits his father with instilling in him a love for the outdoors, especially hunting.

"He's the reason I do it," Kevin said. "He was always taking us out as kids, taking us on adventures that were extremely fun or way more challenging than a 10-year-old should be doing."

Gary Frame said his son, Kevin, developed a love for the wilds at an early age.

"He learned that the world just "didn't happen" but was in fact marvelously created and he was loaded with questions from the get-go," Gary wrote in an e-mail. "Although we have always enjoyed our hunting and fishing, these activities were always much more than filling the game bag; they really just gave us a good reason and excuse to head for the hills."

Gary said the mountains, lakes and streams "were not only a playground for us but also a classroom."

The trials and tribulations experienced in the Idaho wilderness built character, perseverance and patience that not only made his son a better hunter or fisherman but also prepared him for the storms of life, Gary said.

"Discussions at night around the campfire would often turn to the wonder of the canopy of the heavens above and to deep theological questions about its Creator," he wrote. "What we now remember most were those times that made the deepest grooves in our brains, and often those were the times of greatest stress, both good and bad."

Their motto was "the tougher the better" and they had to use it quite often as they're both Type A personalities and prone to push to the limits, Gary said.

"The masculine competition, cooperation and companionship that we enjoyed were priceless, lasting a lifetime," he wrote.

In the past few years, Kevin said he has come to understand just what it takes to do well when tracking prey in Idaho's outdoors.

"Animals out there are so far superior to us. It takes a lot of learning and a lot of patience," said Frame, who plays drums in the worship team at His Place church in Post Falls.

When he got his bull last year on opening morning of rifle season, he called his wife to report the good news, - and of course, his father.

"My goal in life is to get a set of antlers as big as his," Kevin said, chuckling. "He has gotten antlers that make mine look pretty pathetic."