Madison store owner takes veterans on annual elk hunting trip in Montana

Elk hunting was on Tyson Hall’s bucket list since he was about 10 years old.

The Middleton native has three decades of hunting experience, going back to the times of shooting pigeons at his grandma and grandpa’s farm. As he got older, he said completing chores meant he could go deer hunting out in Dodgeville — where he still hunts.

After high school, Hall joined the Wisconsin Army National Guard and later the Wisconsin Air National Guard. His service eventually gave him the chance to check that item off his bucket list. 

Hall connected with Jay Barthuly, a disabled veteran who heads Kesslers Diamonds in Madison. Since 2011, Barthuly has been bringing veterans — some of whom also have disabilities — on an elk hunting trip in Montana, where he was born and raised.

He’s done a lot of it on his own dime. 

Sometimes, Barthuly will find interested hunters who happen to come into his store. Barthuly said he started doing this trip after meeting a fellow veteran at the Department of Veterans Affairs and showing him photos from an earlier hunting trip in Montana. That veteran sounded excited but thought the trip was unaffordable. So Barthuly offered to take him, and word has slowly spread about the trip through the years. 

“Oh, it’s a dream,” Hall said of the opportunity to go on the hunt. “I never knew how it was going to happen, but I guess the stars just aligned.”

Over time, Barthuly has connected with businesses who have chosen to donate various camping or hunting supplies, which has taken some of the burden off Barthuly or others to cover expenses.

During a September day in Barneveld at Vortex Optics — one of the businesses that has supported the trip — this year’s group gathered to prepare for the hunt.

Barthuly explained why he puts on the trip.

“To be honest with you, I love the feeling I get,” he said. “It’s more about how it makes me feel. I love nothing more than helping somebody be successful in a hunt, to see that excitement.”

The group went to Montana late last month. Barthuly said the trip was “absolutely amazing” and an overall successful hunt. He said he helped a three-time Purple Heart veteran with limited mobility get a bull elk.

Barthuly said the mountain views in Montana can take your breath away, feeling like you’re on the edge of the world. He appreciates the silence. He said he loves the bonding and friendship that emerges from these trips.

“That and the cooking, right?” Barthuly said with a laugh. “We’ve got a camp cook, which is absolutely amazing, and he makes the trip 10 times better than what it would be if we were eating MREs (meals ready to eat) every day.”

But Barthuly is also drawn to the less-than-glamorous parts of these elk hunting trips. He remembered how on drives home, it feels like something you don’t want to do again. It can be hard work. But months later, the feeling comes back: He can’t wait to get back there.

“For any of us veterans, we push ourselves, and I think that’s what I love out of it,” he said. “It takes me back to my days in (the service), and how hard we had to push ourselves on a day-to-day basis in certain scenarios.”

Hall said the harder something is in the moment, the more memorable it will be when he’s back home. He said he wanted to help other members on the trip as much as possible. He was happy to be a grunt. He was looking forward to seeing others’ excitement.

Hall went on this year’s trip primarily to assist others and to get experience for what he can expect for next year, Barthuly said.

Retired members of law enforcement have also gone on the hunting trip. Frank Bousquet, who lives in East Bristol and spent about three decades with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, met Barthuly at Kesslers. He’s been on the trip one other time before this year.

Bousquet said connecting with other hunters, who often have a lot in common with each other, can lead to lifetime friendships.

Bryce Laemmlen spent more than a decade in the military before an injury during training at Fort Bragg in North Carolina changed his plans.

“My career was kind of cut short earlier than I wanted it to,” he said.

Now, he works at Vortex Optics, where he met Barthuly and expressed that taking care of others was near and dear to his heart, saying, “I’m all in. I’ll help wherever I can.”

To Laemmlen, harvesting an animal is just the bonus from a trip like this.

“Out there in the element and on the mountain, out with like-minded guys, it’s hard to explain without being there in person, but it’s pretty special,” he said. “It’s pretty special.”

When Barthuly put on these trips alone, he could not afford to cover every expense. But he said he could still make it affordable for veterans who otherwise couldn’t go.

The goal of the trip is shifting: Barthuly wants to be able to cover every expense for these veterans. He said he’s started paperwork to create a nonprofit, which could help bring in donations. Perhaps he could find sponsors for the elk hunting tags, which he said can be quite expensive.

Looking back, Barthuly is thrilled with how this year’s hunt went.

“All in all, it was probably the greatest year we’ve ever had so far. Everybody really got along. Everybody just enjoyed it,” he said. “We had some amazing moments.”