FALL 23/24 DAYS AFIELD THREAD

[MiddleOfNight]

Caught a few glimpses of this buck from my deer stand the past few weeks but he never presented me with a shot until this morning. Thirty yards with the slug gun. Thanks buddy, I'm grateful to have some meat for the freezer.

Congrats YM!!

[crashidy]

dang! nice one!

[zion zig zag]

Strong work, Yeahman!


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[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Nice Yeahman!!!!! I'm about to just start picking off the whitetail in my yard here soon.

[The Reverend Floater]

Hank and his rooster.

The pointers were in their crates and a rooster ran across the road. I jumped out with my 20g but forgot to close the door. Hank (my wife's shitsu) was suddenly in front of me and flushed the rooster. I whacked it and Hank was stoked.

The second photo is Judy at work, actually doing hunting dog things. We got our limit despite pretty stagnant conditions).

[snapt]

Shitsu's are the new cockers!

[The Reverend Floater]

More upland today. Here the ladies are pointing a small covey of huns.

[yeahman]

^^Nice photo. I miss bird hunting.

[crashidy]

Well so It turns out you CAN actually call, rattle in deer. Never seen it done before until today. Buddy saw a big 3 x4 and he is already tagged out. So we sat gruntz light rattle ,rake stomp, bleat and a young buck came running in. Literally running.

Got down wind of us 40 yards to our 6 then back toward nine and into a lane and boom at 55 yards. Couldn't believe it. Wasn't the big big one I was hoping but couldn't pass it up. Stoked. Will be delicious

[wendigo]

Went on a cabin hunt two weeks ago, was just pre-rut, but the bucks were being dumb (but not coming to calls).
Dropped a blacktail the first day while bushwacking through the blueberries



Realized I forgot to grab my game bags in the haste to get out before the sun set. Oh well.
Poured rain the next day or so, happy to have a cabin to dry things out



The weather got nicer and the snow came down a bit





Saw 5 or 6 of these chicken of the woods farms



Mrs was bumming that she hadn't connected with a deer and was starting to question her skills, so we headed off to untrodden grounds
Through some swamps


Then up into the devil's club forest


Which got steeper


Finally topped out


Some cool old growth


And some less cool blowdown/new growth


She stopped at one point and brought her rifle up. Flipped the scope covers and I started looking around for what she was seeing.
Walked over to her which got the deer that was 10' from her to stand up.
It sat there for 2 min chewing, had a fern dangling from an antler - looking like the prince of the forest.
Eventually, I took a step sideways and she took a step toward it, no response, just kept looking at us.
Finally he turned sideways so she could get a clean shot.



Downclimbing the last step to get to the beach right at dark.


We processed the deer, before I headed out of town for a work trip.
Got back and made stock. Mmmmm good.

[MakersTeleMark]

Great double!

[The Reverend Floater]

A few shots from the blind this AM. Sam on the retrieve and my buddy making some decoy adjustments.

[crashidy]

Coming to the for the hunting Stoke. I love it. Congrats to your Mrs.

[The Reverend Floater]

Pile of ludes.

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[Phall]

Duck season has been slow, and I’ve been kind of lacking effort to get to the WMA’s since I sold the boat and the ebike is in pieces. Been skunked a bunch so I’m embracing ski season and may get back out in Jan when we’re back from ATX. Here’s ~12 lbs of duck that was in the freezer mixed with ~10 lbs of pork. Summer sausage and snack sticks made with hi-mountain’s mandarin teriyaki which is bomb with the duck. Most on the smoker but some had to be done in the oven due to space.


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[yeahman]

I found this old Robert Ruark movie about going on safari in Africa in the 1950s pretty fascinating. I've read a couple of his books, which is how I ended up finding this on YouTube. Old and grainy film but about as authentic as you can get in regard to the experience.