Fall Days Afield '11/'12

[Phall]

any Utah mags want to take me hunting? Getting my 12ga out here soon, looking to do some upland bird or duck/goose.

[Jer]

Grange - I've got to hand it to you - you are hard-core after tha birds. Most guys don't even bother until most of the leaves have fallen. Way to get after 'em.

I recently spent three days getting soaked, starving and fighting off hypothermia, but I didn't take any pictures.

[philth]

Yo Lads. I'm in the woods this week for grouse in southern VT. A little early but jonesing to get out. No dog but my spot is kinda birdy so may end up with a bird or two. I'm looking for grouse recipe recs if anybody wants to share.

[pepperdawg]

Yo Philth - looking forward to a report..............of course you mean "Partridge" not grouse if you are in VT

Was scouting deer/turkey today in the 80 degrees temps in northern CT...was walking down a logging road/jeep trail thinking to myself - man if this was VT/ME/NH I should be watching for grouse.....

..instead got lots of mosquito bites...man do we need a hard frost.....

Ps - where bouts in Southern?? VT....Native here...(born at Grace Cottage in Townsend many many years ago.)

[Grange]

I have a big trial starting next week and my father has a trial next weekend so we decided to take a weekend off hunting and do some training.

The dogs are ready.


First dog out and it didn't take her long to find the quail.


The point.



My setter's first point. The tail could have been better, but you get what you get I guess.



Next was the male brittany. After he hit point I let me setter out to see if she'd back. Today was a work in progress. This picture was a good back, but other times she was blinking the dog and I had to command a back.


Up next was one of the pups. She is a fall derby that placed in her first Am. Shooting Dog trial a few weeks ago.


After we let the dogs go run,


my setter hit a hard point on a previously released quail and brittany went on a nice back.


The last bird we planted went to a brittany and I released my setter to see if she'd back. This is after the flush and shot.



All in all it was a good morning. I'll hit the woods tomorrow.

[Happy Fun Ball]

Opening day of bow season in Michigan. Upper Peninsula 8-pointer at 5:05 in the afternoon. Intercepted him on his way from afternoon bedding to the field next to our property. Double lung, 30 yards and piled up.

[brice618]

Nice! I need some venison if anyone in Colorado (front range) wants to get rid of it. I make pretty damned good breakfast sausage. If anyone wants to hand over some meat I'll turn it into sausage and split it with you.

[flyandski365]

This thread is pretty much life support for me right now. Work and other commitments have pretty much killed my bow season plans, and are starting to infringe on my falconry plans. Not cool. I did get out to see a buddy's new hybrid falcon slam a planted chukar (for training). The kid did well, here he is with his prize for being in the right spot at the right time.

[wendigo]

Out deer hunting this weekend had some decent Northern Lights


and a beautiful morning heading down the beach


popped up into a meadow that was heavily frosted from the clear cold night, some of the smaller puddles were freezing over


circled back around to an area that would have been more productive with a shotgun than a rifle


no deer, but plenty of beer and good times with friends, not to mention lots of these




we did come home with some fowl

Spotting


and success

[FreakofSnow]

That tops the fucking thread wendingo! Whales in the Fall Afield thread? Yes!

Anyway in boring news, two buddies and I did an early season rifle hunt up in the Bob Marshall wilderness complex. We did the same hunt last year. Hiked in 7.5 miles and put up our camp. We gained a big ridge and scoped 2 nice bulls and had them bugling. Then a the howl of a nearby wolf quickly shut them up for the evening.

The opener (next morning) had us wandering high on the ridge. At treeline another hunter bugled me, sweet. At last light my buddy called in a bull to 40 yards but was unable to get him out to see his rack. The remaining 3 days were not quite as productive. But the weather and whiskey was good. Looking forward to opening rifle season to say the least (October 22).

[Grange]

Hunted this weekend in 80+ degree temps. My dogs found several birds, but I either used my blank pistol or just missed with my shotgun. Even though I came home with no birds I still had a good weekend and it was peak colors last Friday. The wind helped knock down most of the leaves.

[pepperdawg]

Got out for opening day (I typically try not to hunt/ski/fish) on weekends let alone opening day.....but its been a long summer And actually wasn't that bad after all..



Shot a his and hers double with my brand new Citori in 16ga...





Back out on Thursday - hope to have some more-betterer pics then......maybe some pics of the above pair turning into something tasty tonight....

[flatlander#2]

Made the trip back to my parents middle of South Dakota ranch for opening weekend. All the reports pointed to "lowered bird counts". Eh. My parents have been managing 4 60 acre food plots on their place going on 12 years. We have a less than 10k native grassland place with about 10k acres of farm to the west side. In the food plots we planted tall native grasses, three to four tree belts running through. All wild birds, nothing released ever.

Opening day we walked the plots closest to the house. Last year we hit this with about a dozen guys total and filled long in two hours. This year we had about similar success, definitely not as many birds, but still lots. Quite a few hens an late hatchers. Wicked wet and cool spring affected the early hatch like I've never seen. We let more late hatchers go than ever. This year we had about same number of guys, half of them shooters. I got caught in one of the best classic tricks ever. End of one of the strips I was hot, handed my gun to lifelong pal while I pulled a layer off. Hands gun back, walk down strip a ways, bump a rooster, click, what the. Open my auto and no shells. While I look at it I'm pelted by shells from walkers on both sides and laughs. Slick. Road hunting that night was as expected, great bird counts, great beer counts.

Day two we went to one of an old place on the south end of the property. Last few years bird numbers had been way way down here. Wheat ground to the south, surrounded by alfalfa fields. Two tree belts, one all thickly planted 20ft tall juniper/cedar trees. Usually more bunnies than pheasants. This year birds just busting out of there in flocks. That tree belt ends in a half mile long to the west by half mile to south tree belt. Lots of plum cranberry thickets, very thick, eight to ten years ago it was the shit for birds, last few just tough walking on everyone. I took the north side just outside of the plum thickets, 400 acres of alfala to the right of me. I had a reliable 10yr old champ bloodline pointing lab with me, 10k pheasants in his mouth through his life. He bumped 4 rooster for me, one shot PRAIRIE STORM pops in each one. We hit the end of the half and 8 people total, limited out for the day.

Day three Monday we went to a tree strip that has always been the money day. It is on the far west end of our property. Five rows wide south to north for a mile, back to the east for a mile ending in a sleugh surrounded by cottonwoods. The west side has three weird shaped quarters of farmland, this year wheat stubble. The east side is a pasture two sections hudge. The last ten years I have only made it to the sleugh once before we limited out. That year I popped two teal, bacon wrapped appetizer goodness. Last year five us made it a half mile before we realized we were three over. In around 30 minutes 18 roosters in the vest. This year we walked all the way to the sleugh which this year was about ten acres all of them covered with lazy native greenheads and gads. We only had 10 roosters in the bag. Only explanation is this is the first year it has been wheat to west in forever. Usually flowers or corn. We made up for it with grand SD style road hunting. One of my buddies shot a triple from the backseat of a 4dr pickup, two out of the air, with his Thompson Contender .410.

All in all for us bird counts on the now usual high end side. Great weather and everything opening weekend in SD should be.

[flatlander#2]

Also this year I picked up a Ruger Red Label in 12. Have always wanted to shoot an over/under for whatever reason. My little brother and I buy stuff and fill one of six now thinking about seven safes on the ranch. I used it once. For us it is like Cordoba, two is hard. There are far too many more than one rooster bumps. And if you're a blocker, forget it, unpossible. I went back to my Benelli Cordoba, or my 14th bday Wingmaster 20, or 16th bday vintage Belg Light Auto 5 round knobber. The two rounds work as well as a pointer, too many boids.

[khakis]

Speedgoat hunting with a doe tag after the rut is hard work. Talk about a jealous boyfriend, the bucks have their harems on lockdown, and will let you get within about 350yds if you're careful but any closer and they round them up and move a mile away. I was watching one small herd at about 500 yards when a buck and 2 does ran straight past me about 80yds. Full run, I'm not good enough to take that shot. Half hour or so later I sat by a tank and watched 4 curious does come up to within 230yds, was lying prone and using my pack as a rest, but had a hard time getting a range reading since there was a fence between us, then just couldn't get solid enough to confidently take the shot before the buck saw that 4 of his does had gone astray and, he came back and rounded them up. Fast forward a couple of hours, the wind's blowing hard, I lost all the animals for about 2 hours and finally got a location on 2 small herds, but I think the wind was getting them even more skittish. Spent an hour or so working the topography to get within 300 yards of one of the herds without getting busted, then tried to figure out a way to close in to shooting distance. The herd was kind of hunkered down in a draw, so my plan was to creep across the ridge until I could get a visual on one without getting busted again. I dropped my pack and spent the next 45 minutes closing in about 70 yards, crouching lower and lower, the last 10 yards crawling on my belly. There were fishook cactus everywhere so I'm still pulling spines out of my legs. Just as I'm about to get a view of the herd, something else busts them out of the ravine and they run up the other side, but don't go far, just get up on the rim where they could get a view. They ran around in circles for a minute and then settle down a bit, I'm still not busted. I ranged them again at 250 and waited for one of the does to wander out to where I could get a clean shot. The wind is probably blowing 30 at this point, direct crosswind from my left, she's facing left broadside to me, so I aim for the front of her shoulder to compensate for wind, and about 3 inches high to compensate for drop, get comfortable and squeeze. I see the dust go up behind her ass (like 3 feet to the right, downwind!), the whole herd jumps and starts running, and I watch them run for about 5 minutes and nobody looks injured. Went over to look for blood and got nothing, so it was a clean miss at least. That was the last chance I got at a shot, as the weather continued to get worse, started raining and then snowing and it got dark before I could find another herd.

The nice thing was I got to see a lot of animals, it was a totally different type of hunting than I've done before, and now I've got another hunting vendetta to settle! Next time: short bipod, and more range time with wind. I think you just have to be able to confidently take a 300 yard shot with wind to hunt pronghorn doe, also knee pads for the final stalk.

[flatlander#2]

Nice man, that is what it is all about. That damn wind thing is there so many times. We shoot pdogs at plus 300 all the time thinking well if I can hit a pop bottle size at that distance with my 700 223, the same rifle in a bigger round and same glass should be cool right?

Four years ago little brother and I are out on Tuesday opening week., hadn't seen one decent deer since open Saturday morning. We glass some deer running sort of through the CRP tall grass, range them at 190. We are both on quads, just after light. At the back of the ack only one is running head down. ROSHAMBO, little brother has first shot with his 700 22.250 52 grains of VMAX, stupid stupid accurate, but small round right? Pop, ass end over tea kettle. We go rushing down there. Get where we thought he fell and buck jumps up, like 20 ft away, full of piss and vinegar. All we see is horns, big big horns AHHHH. I instantly think 22.250 little brother. He pulls up and drills it, down like sack of dirty laundry. Holy crap we look at each other, I go running up there like a wild man and trip ass end over tea kettle with rifle in hand. Turns out I trip over first buck dead as a stone. We raced down there and bumped buck two, 185 class 6x6 classic whitetail, just perfect. We had been watching that field hard and had 3 game cams all year all over it and had never seen either one. First buck turned out to be a cool non-typ, base the size of a beer can, 13 points all on the one side. We hunted for our Dad's tag rest of week, never saw another shooter over a four point waster.

[brice618]

Heh, my dad and I have been damn near run over several times while rattling in west texas mesquite. The bucks will literally run around a tree and be 10 ft from you. It's hard to scope them when they're that close, easier to hunt with a 30/30.

[MakersTeleMark]

LB acclimatizing yesterday:

[The Reverend Floater]

I'm in North Dakota crushing roosters...TR when I get back but this place is for real.

[Grange]

I wish I had my camera this weekend. Got out bird hunting this weekend and ended up taking only one grouse, but holy shit did the woodcock provide a lot of fun. I worked an area with my brother-in-law and his GWP and my setter had 4 points on woodcock and one on a grouse. On one point I walked up on a point and could see the woodcock sitting on a fallen log. It would have make a perfect picture. I called my brother-in-law's GWP over and she ended up bumping the bird, but my setter stood tall and proud.

I'll be up north all next week for vacation and since I have my 4 loads of firewood cut it should be a week of solid hunting.

[khakis]

My elk hunt this year went better, but first a little background. About a year and a half ago my father in law tells me about this rifle he had won in a raffle, and asks if I think it might help me get an elk that year. He brought this up knowing that I had been hunting (unsuccessfully) for the previous 3 years with either a 100 year old mosin-nagant (7.62x54R being a fine caliber, and the 91-30 being the finest rifle $75 can buy…but heavy, and open sights) or a 20 year old bow. Of course I say yes and he ends up giving me a beautiful new Remington 700.

Fast forward to application time this year, I ask if he’d be interested in coming out for an elk hunt. We decide on a dates, I researched units and preference point requirements and we drew a group hunt for an area I was familiar (but so far unsuccessful) with. A couple of short scouting trips later, I pick him up from the airport, am pleasantly surprised to find the he had done “a little shakedown trip” of 110 miles of the Appalachian Trail a week earlier and is in great hiking shape, and we hit the trailhead.

Now my scouting of this area involved more talking with people and miles on the truck than actually looking for elk sign. It’s an area where I knew there were elk, but hunter success rates are pretty low, and my previous hunts in this area had been foiled by showing up opening day and the trailheads (and woods) are packed with outfitter camps and makeshift corrals where I had not seen a single person in the weeks prior. So this year I was fortunate (?) enough to find a trail that was absolutely nasty, in a pretty rugged area overall, and for which the next nearest horse-friendly trail and trailhead were many many miles (and several fine hunting areas) away. The hike in ended up being only 4-ish miles, but with a weeks worth of gear (and later, full loads of venison) it was a haul.

My scouting paid off, and the day before open there was only one other car at the trailhead. Without much time to acclimate, and crushing pack weights, we took the hike slowly and made camp a little before dark. The area is beautiful, the weather was beautiful (I worried that combined with a nearly full moon it might be a little too nice), and we settled in for a week of relaxation in the high country, if nothing else. Saturday morning we woke in the dark, dressed, grabbed our rifles and head up the trail to see what we could see. We found some fresh tracks in snow left over from the previous Wednesday, we split off for a half hour or so to cover more ground, but didn’t do a lot of real hunting. We regrouped at camp for breakfast and decide to each go our own way for the day, with Bob following tracks through the dark timber and myself walking ridges to glass. I started up an avy chute behind camp and immediately got on game trails with fresh (day-old) piles of “milk duds.” So rather than cruising up to the ridge per my previous plan, I spent a couple hours sneaking up as quietly as I could, but no elk.



I gained the ridge and walked it for a while, glassing meadows and treelines on both sides frequently, but still no elk, I continue walking up the ridge and see some movement below me…it’s a nanny mountain goat with a kid (the cutest thing you’ve ever seen, like a cotton ball on toothpicks in his full winter coat), but it occurs to me that if I am walking around on talus, and looking down to see mountain goats, I am probably not in good elk habitat, so I started working my way down a different slide path. Again, tons of elk sign, and this time it seems to be this morning’s! The chute is beautiful, one bench stacked on top of another and I sneak to the edge of each lower bench, hoping to find a herd bedded down in one, but alas, I reach the valley and still no elk (I did run across a cool old miner’s camp and entrance though). I decided to get down in the dark timber and start following the creek back to camp, and not ten minutes later I glass up an avy chute and see what appears to be something elk-colored. I’ll be damned…I watch it for a minute and sure enough, it moves and disappears behind some trees. Well at this point I’m pretty exhausted from the day’s walk, but I range the spot I had seen the critter at and its 600-ish yards straight up a slide path. Luckily, there’s a small ridge down the middle of the chute and it looks to be a pretty easy stalk if I can cover 3 or 400 yards then sneak over that ridge. I decide to go for it, as it’s the only elk I’ve seen today, and may be the only one I see all week! I gain the elevation quickly and am soon creeping over the edge of the ridge. The wind is in my favor and as I get a look at the spot where I had seen the elk color, I see what appears to be a huge elk-colored boulder. Damn. I got excited about a rock. Damn…but that sure is a weird looking rock…and then it picked its head up. Antlers everywhere. This is in a point restricted unit (must be 4 points on one side or one brow tine 6” or longer) but I didn’t even count…I just knew this was a nice bull. I rested my gun on a dead tree and tried to get steady but just couldn’t get confident enough to take the shot. I’ve got the jitters bad and my rest is too high, so I pull the rangefinder out to get a reading on him just to make sure it’s a shot I should be taking in less than ideal position. He’s about 150yds out so I can feel like I can shake a bit and still put one in the boiler room, but as I’m putting the rangefinder away he walks up the hill a little more and behind some more trees. I ducked back below the ridge and crept up another 20 or 30 yards, popped back up behind a row of small firs and there he is, much closer than before. I rest the gun on a branch that was just the perfect level, think of every diagram I’ve ever seen of elk shot placement, exhale, and…pow! His right shoulder collapses and he digs those antlers in the dirt. Tries to get up one time and again falls right back down and he’s out. Clean shot, he’s dead within about ten feet and 15 seconds. I’m so excited I can hardly stand it. I drop my pack and pull out the radio (we planned to turn on the radios and wait for contact if we heard the other person shoot). ‘Bob, I’ve got a big bull elk down’ he responds ‘well we’ve got a lot of meat then’ it turns out he shot a cow at about 1 pm but I hadn’t heard the shot due to wind on the ridge (his shot spooked 3 bulls that ran into his view just as his cow went down!) and it was now 5pm. We were pretty close to camp, so he came up and helped me dress it, and we finally made it back to the tent at 10pm.



We spent the next 3 days packing out. Sunday to get both animals boned out, in bags and down to camp (then it snowed 8 inches so we were glad to have gotten all the cross-country travel done by then)



1 day to move the meat about 2 1/2 miles down the hill to our next staging spot, then another full day to pack up camp and get the packs emptied at the car, then ferry all the meat down to the trailhead anywhere from 200yds to 1mi at a time. Each leg took us each 3 trips for the meat and then another trip for the camping gear...45-65 lbs on each load. Freakin hard work!









Then most of a day of processing and vacuum sealing, and we still had 100lbs left to take to the butcher! (Brice if I’d have read this earlier I would have brought you 50lbs. I may try and get a doe later this week…I’ll let you know if I can make that happen.)

Anyway, that’s the story of my first elk, putting in the miles really paid off and we only saw 3 other people the whole time we were up there, until we got close to the trailhead, and we were the only hunters. Also, nice animals guys, really glad to see so many people out there getting after it!

[wendigo]

nice! that sounds like a great trip.

[FreakofSnow]

Congratulations khakis on your first bull, a very nice one! Excellent write up too, thanks for sharing your success story. All elk hunters need to hear those positive stories.



Big game opener was yesterday in Montana. My hunting partner and I put in a full day, hitting the timber at 0630 and we didnt' get back to the truck until 730pm. With some big loops covering high and low we stumbled across 3 bulls, but were unable to put one in the bag. Towards the end of the day we split up for an hour. We meet back up, he walks up to me as I'm glassing some elk (on private), bullshit for a minute or 2. I see his bloody hands......WTF? Oh I shot a bear, lets go check it out, its back at my pack.



Feeling quite bushed after yesterday's 10 miles and 13 hour hunting day I didn't hit the hunt until 230. Figuring I would head into the area I seen the bulls the day before and at least get a plan for another day. About a mile from the truck, I found this guy 150 yards from my rifle.



He wasn't a giant, but I finally knocked the skunk off. In my short hunting career of 6 seasons I had bagged 4 elk, 1 muley but no whitetails. Now the playing field is even.

[MakersTeleMark]

Congrats guys.

[khakis]

FOS thanks dude, nice buck and bear! And Lord knows I had plenty of doubts as to whether I should make another drive up the hill to look for elk after so many fruitless efforts. Guess elk hunting epitomizes the definition of insanity...