11-19 SS Dave Coke

 David Holbrook is a professional  hunting guide and owns the Rocking H Outfitting service about 46 miles northwest of Cortez Colorado.  On one of his hunts, he took a giant brown bear up in Alaska. He said it was the hunt of a lifetime and this bear was magnificent. At the time, Dave was living in Arizona. Needless to say, with a beautiful trophy animal, he wanted to preserve the memory in perpetuity. All he and a bunch of his friends, who were also hunters, had used the services of a very talented taxidermist… And you can make the talented a term in the past tense. Dave was not prepared for what his buddy, at the time, was going to create. “This taxidermist at the time was in Phoenix Arizona.I took it into him, paid him up front, and he called a few months later, and I wanted a life size mount with a closed mouth, just standing up like he was looking at something and when I went down to pick it up I was so upset with this gentleman, I dare not say what I would’ve liked to have done to him. He was using a small form instead of the large form that I purchased to put the 10 foot bear on a standup amount. He cut the pads about 3 1/2 inches to make it fit the form. He cut the hide to  fit the smaller form and it doesn’t look like the same bear that I stalked and hunted and possibly could have killed me and mauled me. It was very upsetting and he had not only done it to me, but to several of my buddies. This gentleman finally overdosed and passed away. So what you are saying is that he was doing a pretty hard drug. Yes absolutely, putting stuff up his nose. It’s a shame. He lost his life over that and many many friends over that.