2015/16 Fall Days Afield Thread

[LightRanger]

Awesome. I likewise am not a hunter, but love this thread.

[thebirdhunter]

Nice work Conundrum!

What part of the state are you in? I'm on the east side. Don't have any big game tags this year, bird hunting is my passion anyway. Will be doing lots of that. Anyway, haven't seen much wolf sign around here but the damn Grizzlies are thick this year. Between the bow hunter who got mauled and the one who got in my boat one night and tore things up and the sow and 2 Cubs I saw above Quake lake and the 25 Year old 500 lb male with bad teeth who had to be euthanized not to mention the fatal attack in YNP, it makes tromping around in the woods around here a little sketchy.

[thebirdhunter]

No deer. 80 degrees at 7500-8000 feet pushed them higher than i was expecting. buddy bailed to get back to the missus, and I bailed later that afternoon. must train and scout harder next year.

Yea the heat and hunting don't mix. You'll get'm next year. Went to Strawberry last week and couldn't believe how hot it was.

[Phall]

Yea the heat and hunting don't mix. You'll get'm next year. Went to Strawberry last week and couldn't believe how hot it was.

I'd love to pick your brain about bird hunting around SLC. I've bee heading up East Canyon mostly, shot another grouse today. You getting out for the duck opener Saturday?

[Conundrum]

I'm out of Boise but hunting a couple hours north. Wolves have been really thick in my area but I've found they want less to do with me than I want to with them. Ranchers down in the flats trapped and killed seven to square up on some livestock losses. Not sure it was an even trade head for head. Have only seen bear sign but never any bear. I guess the east side of the state is running into a lot of grizzlies. Ours are black bears over here.

[The Reverend Floater]

Threw a Hail Mary yesterday morning...hiked way deep into my zone, then up a little mountain I've always referred to as their "fortress." It's a small mountain/foothill about 800' high with sage sides and a timber patch on top. The elk can see you coming so I never wanted to but right into it, despite seeing them going in and out every time I've hunted that zone. Seeing that it was closing day, I figured WTF, might as well bump them. So I hiked up behind it and found the secret entrance--an aspen saddle that had more elk sign than I'd ever seen in one 100' by 200' zone. There were no elk, though I bumped one that was in my wind cone below me. Never saw him/her, though. Hike through the timber with no action but it was just enough for me to stop hating archery hunting and get me excited about next year.

Overall, a pretty lackluster archery season with very little time to hunt, but I did get into them a few times and learned some new zones. Now a few weeks of solid-bird action followed by mule deer.

Trips this season:
Fly into the middle fork of the Salmon October 15 for three days of bird and bear hunting and fishing...
Eastern MT/NoDak bird trip for a week in November
Possible whitetail rifle trip with the Vortex boys in Wisconsin in January
Pigs and possibly audad in Texas in December and February
Pigs in NorCal in April
Lots of guide trips for waterfowl and roosters

Should be a good season!

[flyandski365]

This thread is off to a roaring start! Awesome work guys... That elk steak looks amazing.

[Phall]

Couple shots my buddy took when I wasn't looking of our deer hunt. Getting excited for duck season opening Saturday. Pic's and Video to come.

[2FUNKY]

Super stoked on the opener of waterfowl up here too phall! Going out for the first 3 days of Elk rifle around here, first time hunting the B tag, then it's waterfowl with a week long trip to Oregon hunting pheasant,duck and chukar. Then deer in Nov. then back to ducks until the slopes get enough snow.

[thebirdhunter]

I'd love to pick your brain about bird hunting around SLC. I've bee heading up East Canyon mostly, shot another grouse today. You getting out for the duck opener Saturday?

Haven't hunted the waterfowl opener in years. I usually don't start chasing waterfowl until November. I'll be chasing Sharptails and fishing the Henrys Fork this weekend. Don't really know any bird spots around SLC. I know quit a few Chukar spots and a few grouse spots in Utah none are real close to SLC. I use to know a Blue grouse honey hole a couple hours from SLC but haven't been there in a few years. Use to hunt BRBR a lot, not so much anymore. Do about 99% of my hunting in Id.

[Johnny P]

Waiting for October goose. Hopefully sitting for deer tonight. With the bow.

[Phall]

Well, the rain woke me up at 2AM, said fuck it and we sent it anyways. A very soggy bike ride, and a hellacious push through the phrag led to our opening day honey hole, and we were in teal town. Shot 22 between the 4 of us. Here's 17 of the little fighter jets. As much as we were hoping for big birds, we had maybe 3 mallards work in all day with no good shots on them. Felt good to fold a few birds today! Stoked for our long season. January closer is a far ways off!

[2FUNKY]

Nice work!

[Phall]

Had another good shoot this morning, 6 mallards between the 2 of us up on a river in N UT. We called it because we questioned our ability to ID greenheads and we had 4 hens in the bag already (2/person/day limit). The eclipse drakes were out in force and it was near impossible to determine the difference in flight in the fog. It was night and day with big ducks today and so wild to have so many big groups of mallards working our spread.

[warthog]

Nothing from this year yet, but here is the past 2 years.

My first hunting trip- got an invite from my FIL to go on this trip.

The location:
http://www.pinehillplantation.com/?g...FUKRHwodBKUDmw

Lots of action, first class accommodations, and top shelf liquor. I was spoiled forever.

Our lodging:







My transport for the day. This is the other guy on horseback, not me.



The other transport for the guys and the dogs-







The hunting grounds-





Some action- normal covey was about 60 birds, mix of raised and wild-

https://adaps.smugmug.com/Hunting/i-jFSbXPM/A

It was a really fun trip. Pretty pricey, but I would totally do it again. We must have shot 70-80 birds between the 8 of us.

[warthog]

Second trip from this past March.

Hog hunting in Arcadia FL.

The crew-



The target-





9 hogs, 8 guys.

I took out 2 in one shot. They were standing side by side in the thick palmettos. My Mossberg Tri Rail 12 Ga with a slug is nasty.

Going again in November or December.

The pulled pork was really good. Even got the thumbs up from the wife.

[Grange]

Got back last night from a weekend of ruffed grouse hunting and cutting wood. Both the dogs and I are tired. My forearms are jello from cutting that much wood. Now I have to split (with splitting maul) and stack the load I brought home. The wood left at the cottage will probably be split with a log splitter. I must be getting lazy.

The bird hunting was slow this past weekend. We only found 10 grouse and 4 woodcock. I only had one shot and took advantage of it. It's grouse for dinner tonight. The foliage is still holding strong in most areas though a lot of the popple have dropped their leaves.

Tico taking off to hunt. She is just a blur at this point of the day as we had just worked a woodcock so she was amped up to go.


Tico's first grouse of the day. It was thick and I couldn't get a shot so I grabbed my blank pistol instead. Her perfect bird manners made up for the lack of a shot.


On this point my setter had that grouse pinned tight, but again the grouse knew exactly just where to fly and never gave me a clear shot. I wasn't disappointed because not only did I get perfect bird manners from Tico, my lab, Summit, was also steady through the flush and shot and I used my shotgun shooting into the ground rather than use my blank pistol. My dogs prefer the shotgun to the pistol for obvious reasons.


Here's Summit after flushing a woodcock. For 11 years old she can still hunt hard though I have to make sure she doesn't over do it. My setter then had a great stop to flush when she saw the bird flush as she was coming into the area.


After a good day hunting we ended up with a grouse. My lab is in the truck resting so she isn't in the picture.


Safety story for the day:

As I was walking back to the truck my setter was out hunting while my lab was working a clump of balsam fir. My lab, Summit, flushed two grouse and I put the shotgun up, but really only caught a glimpse of one grouse. I could have shot, but decided against it because one it was low and my lab was in the area and two I really couldn't see what was behind it. Turned out it was the right decision because seconds after the flush I heard two shots. There was another hunter coming down the logging road behind the clump of balsam fir and had I shot I could have easily shot him.

[ncskier]

Swanky bird trip. Damn

[wendigo]

Looking around for goats/moose/deer, but mostly exploring some new areas (I.e., horrendous bushwack up and down a mountain)







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[Phall]

Another day, more mallards down, fun birthday hunt, shooting was done within half hour of shooting hours, 2 drakes/2 hens for the 3 of us.

[2FUNKY]

You're killing me Phall! Waterfowl doesn't open here until the 17th. I'm ok with it though since they pushed the season deeper into Jan.

[Conundrum]

Wendigo-pretty country where you are. I'd like to take a hike up there someday.

[Phall]

3 more down today, poked a mallard hen at 35 (I'm shooting an Improved choke), then dropped my first, and 2nd ever wood ducks (Both hens, and a rarity here in Utah)

First full pluck/gut of the season too!

[2FUNKY]

Love shooting and even better, eating wood ducks! Our season opens Saturday! Cannot wait!

[Phall]

Does anyone have any hearing protection recomendations? thinking of the Howard Leight ones from Cabelas. I need something I can hear well in the blind/for calling but cant have another muzzle blast near my ear like today (didn't have my foam one in as we were talking as 2 worked in).
Thanks!