took a walk tonight ...

[ncboman]

:rolleyes:

was up at 4am Sat and had intended on killin a big buck ... but things did not go according to plan today.

Started off kinda helping a young fella get acquainted with a new (to him)place and it wound up being 8:30 before I got up my tree. Came down at 2 and walked out for a bite to eat. Back in, moved a little deeper and was in another tree at 3:30 over some smokin hot buck sign.

All day long and not a single deer sighted. :(

I was hunting over 1/2mile back in a swamp and already know walkin out in the dark can be tricky.

... and I got tricked repeated, even knowing that last turn is deceiving. I figure I toted my stand and bow well over 3 miles back and forth thru that swamp tonight before I got out. :o

If I hadn't had a compass I might still be in there. :D

The thing that really makes me feel brilliant is I was within 50yds of my truck when I decided to go back in and check a spot out before I pulled out. The spot is only about 200yds back in there in a different direction but not a problem for a woodsman like me. I walked straight to it. :)

I'm not sure what happened after that but I am one sore and tired puppy right now. :rolleyes:

[Bill Gunn]

I did something like that before.
I was hunting alone & bow-shot a buck right at sundown. By the time I gutted the deer, walked back to the truck to get the 4-wheeler, and got back to the deer, it was WAY after dark.
I knew that woods like the back of my hand (I thought) but man, do things change when you got 4-wheeler lights on deep in a woods at night, so many reflections & shadows from all the trees, it changes everything you use to recognize.
I could not find the path out, so I had to shut down the wheeler, get out my flashlight, walk back to my tree stand, and start all over looking for the way out. My 4-wheeler was parked less than 8 feet from the path :o

Then I got stuck on a stump down in a creek bed....

Great Night that was :p :p


Kinda like a friend of mine that camouflaged his 4-wheeler with that tape you can buy, so it wouldn't spook the deer.
He lost the wheeler in the dark woods, couldn't find it with his small flash light, and had to go back the next day to find it :D :D :D
Even he laughed about that one.

[LampLighter]

Yep. Been there and done that. I used to bright eye a trail with clothes pins and pic em up on the way out. Those days are over now. My Lowrance iFinder Hunt C takes care of all that. I make a trail anywhere I walk automatically on the map as long as I have it on when going in. Don't have to hold it, just on in a pocket. When it's time to come out, I walk in the dark and see myself move on the screen. Simply follow the purple trail on the green map back out.

Yeah, I still use woods marks, like when I get to that drainage gully, I know I have to walk the gully uphill then veer off left.

[DaveHawk]

Good for you Alan. I took Jonathan down to the Va farm for the day to whack Dove. We had a great day.

[GF.]

Still sounds better than mine....:rolleyes:

Got kind of a late start this morning because.....

When I got in at the airport, my folks picked me up. Small wrinkle in the plans, it seems. Little bro's wife's Grandma is 99 and went into the hospital Friday afternoon. And right now nobody expects her to see tomorrow. She's had a terrific life up 'til the last few years and when she went in she asked for a Do Not Resuscitate admissions tag.

Then I got to the house and as soon as we were in the driveway, the neighbor's wife rode up on her bike with word that my brother's tent had been steamrolled by the local bear. Picked up a BIIIIIIG can of pepperspray when I bought my tag.

So rather than hiking up and sleeping by myself in a 2-pound, 1-man tent/bivvy, I decided to use a bunk bed and get a hot breakfast and a shower in the morning. :D

But I missed getting out early, so I kinda slow-hunted up towards the camp, hauling everything on a big external frame pack in case I needed to bring some stuff down. Good call...

Anyway, everything is totally different. The beetles have killed most of the pines in the past 10 years, and what used to be broad expanses of virtually sterile forest floor - nothin' but needles and dust - is now lush, grassy, & plant-covered, with tons of hip-high to head-high aspens thrown in. Talk about not recognizing the place:eek:

And after a couple of hours, as I got close to the camp, I found the Boss bull's rub - a 4-5" (at the base) lodgepole barked off to about 7 feet or so, and snapped off right at ground level.:eek: About then I started to smell Elk, so I unstrapped the bow and daypack from the big frame so I could get sneaky, and reached for my release which was......:confused:

Oh, yeah, right where I'd left it. At the house.:rolleyes:

So I backed away from the Elk smell, headed up to camp, and inspected the damage... Tent's done for. Brand new, 90-dollar sleeping pad may be reparable.Sleeping bags looked OK. So I figured I'd re-hang my brother's food bag, and after a whole lot of fiddly-farting around, managed to lay the tip of my left index finger open pretty well on a broadhead, courtesy of that catquiver I like so much.:mad:

At that point, I just strapped everything onto the pack frame and headed off the hill...Through rapidly dropping temps and a heavy drizzle. My finger was still bleeding when I got down to the house, but I finally got the right kind of bandage on it and it looks like it'll hold without stitches.

As I said, it looks like Grandma won't make the night, so chances are pretty good that Little Bro will be attending a service next weekend. I may get to hunt one full day with him out of this deal, though, and I think I can squeeze in some mornings and evenings during the week, plus a pretty full day Friday, Sat & Sunday.

But apart from not getting charged up the wa-zoo for the bow case by the airline and the fact that the new arrows are fantastic, this trip is starting off looking cursed.:eek:


:(

Still great to go for a hike, though.....:cool:

[ncboman]

I went back to the place I got turned around and had a beautiful walk under the oaks today. Setup a hanger and sticks while I was back there. ;)

hope your finger doan rot off. :D

[Twanger]

Man I miss hunting the big woods!
Sounds nice.

Jeeze GF - sorry to hear your trip started so rough. You should start a travelblog here on HA so we can follow your adventures.

[dave-t.]

Bill- I hate flashlights just for the reasons you state. The shadows and perspectives are thrown around, and I can't tell what looks like what. In the dark, atleast I know I have to go slow, and can take time to work out where I'm going better. It sounds stupid, but I like moving through the woods in the dark better, just so I don't get turned around.

That place I used to hunt 3-4yrs ago was 80+ acres of thicket, and I got turned around in there a few times when I first started hunting it. Honeysuckle, osage orange, cedar, and honey locust all packed in and jumbled together. If you had 20yrd visibility it seemed like a clearing. Every bit of it looked just like the rest of it. Without the sun shining there was nothing to go on to get your bearings.

After I hunted it a few year and really got to know it, I'd still end up off in nooks I didn't intend to go to.:o



Great areas for the deer though..

[GF.]

Well, Twang, it looks like I'll be doing all of my hunting on a day-trip basis, so I'll check in as time & energy allow:D

I hate cloud cover for the same reason that Dave & Bill don't care for artificial light:o

But I guess that's for that travelog post... :D