Fall 22/23 Days Afield Thread

[Phall]

In my book any sheep is truly the accomplishment! Great work.

Grabbed the teeth for aging, should have an idea in March. Taxidermist estimated 8-10.

[The Reverend Floater]

No sheep or elk over here, but the blue grouse hunting has been stupid this year.

Sam with a feather over her eyes.

[Phall]

What's everyone's take on the duck forecast? From reports here in UT, the youth hunt was pretty slow, not a lot of residents around as there have been in past years.

[The Reverend Floater]

In my opinion, duck hunting is so dependent upon localized variables, that the aggregate forecast doesn't always tie to a given season. I've had bonkers seasons when the forecast was low and vice versa. Too many variables to put too much into those predictions, but that's just like my opinion, man.

[Adski]

In Utah, shrinking Great Salt Lake likely affecting water fowl in many ways. Attended a presentation the other day from a DWR bio. She said trends are noticeable where birds of all kinds don’t spend as much time at GSL wetlands due to reduced brine fly and brine shrimp numbers resulting from increased salinity concentrations at the lake. That, combined with increasing distance from wetland habitat to waterline means birds aren’t getting as much energy recharge in their stopover at GSL so they move on sooner. Lots of variables in that scenario, and sheer numbers are not noticeably down, but length of stay by locatable and tracked birds is noticeably shorter than in years past.

[Hopeless Sinner]

Congrats on the trophies!

Very slow year as far as numbers of elk spotted for me, although there're plenty around.


Few pics from Tuesday.



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[The Reverend Floater]

Congrats on the trophies!

Very slow year as far as numbers of elk spotted for me, although there're plenty around.


Few pics from Tuesday.



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It doesn’t get much tastier than that…just sayin’!

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

I'd love to go back to my roots a bit and get some treestand action going. Just to switch it up a bit. Those cows looks tasty.

[Hopeless Sinner]

I'd love to go back to my roots a bit and get some treestand action going. Just to switch it up a bit. Those cows looks tasty.

Yeah it's pretty fun. I love watching the animals movement and behaviors while they're undistributed.

[Grange]

Ruffed grouse hunting has been better this year for me than the last 5 years. I've had some great dog work from my brittany and have found more grouse in the first three weeks of the season than I had all last season. We haven't found a woodcock yet. We also didn't find a woodcock this spring during our training sessions.

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

Swamp to Table at it's finest

[Hopeless Sinner]

Swamp to Table at it's finest

Sweet!!!

[Phall]

Awesome!

[teleee]

Nice work!! Jealous of your future meals!


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[hatchgreenchile]

Score ! Congrats Joey , how many points did that take you ?

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

Score ! Congrats Joey , how many points did that take you ?

The tag gods have blessed me. I drew this one with 3 + 9 and there were plenty of guys that put in with way more points. But this is only the second year these units have had a moose season so that may have helped the total numbers of applicants.

[highangle]

Swamp to Table at it's finest

Swamp>Table?

[2FUNKY]

Nice Shiras Joey!!


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[Phall]

Took the girl out for a quick jump shoot today. Wasn’t expecting anything but had two down and missed 2 more in groups within 200 yards and a good number of birds around. My lab hasn’t had much (any) real training but she was way into the birds today and retrieved 4 of these for me!



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[Grange]

Fun afternoon pheasant hunting. My brittany was working the rooster when it pushed it to me where it flushed for the shot. I was too lazy to turn on the camera much to my dismay. He also pointed two other hens with one of them being recorded.

[zion zig zag]

Cold sit. Watched two 3 point mulees cruise through this morning. Waiting out the fog now.

[zion zig zag]

^^^ So I decided to try and stalk one of those three points I saw first thing in the morning yesterday. Dropped off the other side of the ridge and beat my way through gamble oak for about a quarter mile up the ridge. Popped up at a clear-ish spot and saw him right away at 320 yards. I had a good spot to prone out and shoot off bipods so I started getting set up. I notice that he starts wandering up the hill, not grazing, but not running, but moving too quick to have a chance. I look around to see why he may be moving and spot a huge mountain lion a couple hundred vertical feet below him. I don't think the lion was stalking him but he wasn't sticking around to find out. Super cool to sit and watch the lion after that.

[Grange]

I had a great weekend hunting. Friday I went pheasant hunting with my brother-in-law and had several good points, but was unable to get any good shots. Then Saturday I went grouse hunting and it felt like it was 6 years ago when grouse numbers were good. We had over 20 bird contacts including several productive points. I got some video of the points including the point that put the grouse in my game bag. Unfortunately my camera was angled a little too low so the video isn't that good.

My brittany normally has a significant head crank with his points.


This is one of his last points. He was pretty tired considering how warm it was, but his eyes told me he had the grouse pinned. The bird flushed at him and really low so I never got a shot for fear of being too close to my dog.


It was in the mid 70's so I made sure he had plenty of opportunity to cool off.


I should have had more birds in the bag, but we had so much fun I wasn't disappointed.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Man you guys are killing it. I'm a terrible excuse for a hunter these days. Buddy and I made a trip to a spot we love about 3 hours away. So much snow. So much wall tent/side by side/out of state/opening week zoo. Way she goes. Someday I'm gonna buy a couple mules. Gonna take a break from the elk and hope they move back into the alpine once this snow settles. I wish our rifle season started as early as CO and UT. Gonna head east and try to fill my antelope tags.

[crashidy]

Good season with the bow so far. Muley doe in September and then a whitetail doe last week. Hunting buddy has a muley doe and a color phase black bear down too. Went down for rifle opener in southern Alberta yesterday. 3 feet of snow. As a spot and stock hunter that is tough for chasing elk. Especially as WG noted. Similar to here it's all side by sides and 4 guys per truck running around. That being said saw at leat 3 big elk in the back of trucks.
A couple grouse early season. Now to chase elk locally and help friends out for the month.
Grim reaper mechanicals are not letting me down.