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Author Topic: The Year was 2004........  (Read 11341 times)

Offline Ridgerunner

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The Year was 2004........
« on: March 06, 2008, 08:26:05 AM »
I thought it would be fun to throw out a season and have guys post their stories, memorable moments and pictures from that year.  I just randomly selected 2004 to get things started.  Kind of like sitting around a campfire and telling the good stories of hunts gone by. So lets hear some stories and see some pictures, I'll get a story up here later today.

Offline Ridgerunner

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2008, 08:39:04 AM »
This was the first year that had children when hunting season came around.  With twins at home that were only 5 months old come September time in the hills was going to be limited this fall.  I talked my wife into letting me head to the hills for a quick high hunt with a buddy.  I knew if I got into the country I knew that I would have a chance to be successful.  It was shaping up to be my only hunt of the year.  Long story short, we didn’t make it to the original destination, ended up camping in mouseville, and didn’t kill a buck.  Didn’t even see one.  First time that has happened in that country for me.  We did kill a few mice though, hard not to when they are running around everywhere, within 5 minutes of setting our packs down they were getting into our packs, glaring at us from the tree branches.  It was nuts.  So we had a brief mousehunt that night running around with our flashlights and headlamps killing as many as we could.  Looking back we probably should have picked up the packs and moved on but it was late and time was short. 

After mopping around the house for a few weeks I decided I would at least get out on the opener, we had dinner plans that night with friends and my wife didn’t want me to do any overnight trips.  So opening morning I woke up real early drove over to eastern WA and met up with a buddy who had done some scouting and found some decent bucks.  The weather that morning was wet and foggy with visability extremely limited.  Didn’t see any bucks that morning but had 4-5 does that came within 5 yards of me without knowing I was there.  Pretty amazing.  Finally time came to bail for the day and on the way out we caught a 3x4 with a doe in a small meadow.  Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth I decided that was my buck for the year.  Of course now I was going to be late for the dinner we had plans.  Oh well, nothing like rolling up to the house at the same time as our guests with a buck in the back of the truck and being all bloody. 

Just goes to show get out there, you never know how things are going to work out for you.

 

Offline WAcoyotehunter

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2008, 08:41:18 AM »
I was a senior in college and hunting ALL the time.   I was in Iowa and had loads of Whitetails around.  I was after one in particular that my father in law had seen during harvest.  I hadn't seen this deer yet, but had found loads of sign in a small area.
 My college roomate was a bowhunter also.  He was dating my sister and we spent the night at my house to hunt this deer the next morning.  It was my tenth day straight after this buck, and i still hadn't laid eyes on him.  Randal stayed up too late the night before (  >:(  ) and over slept- I left him and sat in the spot that i had planned to put him.  When i got out of the stand to leave I slipped down a CRP field and saw this buck sparring with a little buck- he was distracted enough to let me sneak into ~30 yards and I arrowed him.   I'm assuming he was the deer i'd been after the whole season- he's 176" with 14 scorable points
I was a good feeling waking Randal up to tell him that story!!  

Offline M_ray

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2008, 08:41:31 AM »
Great idea Ridgerunner, 04 was a good year I'll have to dig out some pics though and get back to you on this one. Believe it or not I didn't own a digital then ... I was definitely behind the curve on that one but I had this waterproof 35 mm pentax that just kept on working so why change!
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed here are not those of HW Management, Admins, Mods or Myself... But they are the opinions of Elvis who has revealed them to me through the medium of my pet hamster, Lee Harvey Oswald...


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Offline archery288

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2008, 08:42:57 AM »
I had glassed a big 3 point blacktail buck up under a rock clif on the edge of a berry field on september 3rd... I was about 3/4 of a mile away and began to close in and sneak up the backside of the ridge the buck was on.  Now I was in the main part of the berry field and hiking up the edge of a rock bluff towards the buck.  I was about 100 to 150 yards from the buck and glanced over into the berry field and spotted a bear!  I quickly sat down as I was in the open and dropped my pack and crawled out to the edge of the bluff to watch the bear.  It began feeding towards me and after 2 hours it was finally within shooting range.  I figured it would walk right under the bluff about 30 yards below and that would be my shot.  All of a sudden I lost sight of the bear and peaked over the edge and he was no where to be seen!?  :dunno: I stepped back and looked down a little schute and I could see his ear.  Within about 10 seconds the bear was at the top of the schute and only 7 yards from me where I double lunged him! He turned and ran down the schute some 20 yards or so, and that was it! The country was so steep he rolled about 200 yards down the hill before he came to a stop in some trees.  (On september 1st, I had taken my first bear in the same berry field with a rifle, and then my dad took on about a mile away in another berry field on the 2nd, and then I took this one on the 3rd.)  that was a good year for bear!

Offline archery288

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2008, 08:45:52 AM »
Congrats ridgerunner and WAcoyotehunter - those r nice animals!!!  :tup:

Offline WAcoyotehunter

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2008, 08:46:09 AM »
What the heck did you do with all those bears?  I killed my first this year and i don't know if i'll take another...just don;t know what to do with one?  :dunno:

Offline M_ray

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #7 on: March 06, 2008, 08:48:50 AM »
WOW WAcoyotehunter I was typing while you posted that is a pig of a whitetail congrats! And BTW Jon nice job on those bear, I love Bear meat!
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed here are not those of HW Management, Admins, Mods or Myself... But they are the opinions of Elvis who has revealed them to me through the medium of my pet hamster, Lee Harvey Oswald...


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Growing old is mandatory ... Growing up is optional!

Offline archery288

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #8 on: March 06, 2008, 08:49:21 AM »
I had my one with the bow mounted 3/4 body and put it on the wall because it was a big bear, and bleached the skulls on all of them.  As for the meat, we had saugsage, steaks, and hamburger made out of them and ate them all.  Wasn't bad meat by any means, and tasted like berrys to be honest.  But, I haven't seriously hunted them since for the reason you just asked! haha

Offline wastickslinger

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #9 on: March 06, 2008, 09:07:17 AM »
2004 was the shortest hunting season i ever had in my life I think, but very memorable. My wife was 4 months pregnant, I had a good friends wedding on opening day of muzzleload, and I had not even had time to scout. After the wedding my wife and I went for a quick evening drive. I was going to pop the first legal buck we found. Spotted a dinky 3 about 400 yards off and we decided to put the sneak on. My wife was up for a little hike so she snuck along with the video camera. As we closed in, to my suprise there was a better buck with the small 3 point. My wife behind the camera, I asked if she was on him? "Ya I can see him, go ahead". Kaboom, buck humps up and trots over the hill. I knew it was a good hit. It was about 30 min before dark so we decided to watch the video back real quick to see how good the shot was. She was right on him, until the kaboom, she flinched. No kill shot. Oh well I knew it was a good shot. Just before it was too dark to see we snuck over the hill. My wife spotted him about 70 yards out. Still had his head up and I didnt want to be tracking a buck in the dark if he got up and decided to move. I aimed for his throat,as you can see it hit him a little higher. Right in the eye. Needless to say it was over. Wife went and got the truck while I took the buck down to the road. Great memory. Not a bad buck for 2 hours of deer hunting for the year.

Sorry for the pictures. We had the video camera but no digital camers.

Offline Muleyslyr

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #10 on: March 06, 2008, 09:47:47 AM »
Good idea ridge.....we even got a rare ridge photo!  ;)  Kinda neat to see what everyone was doing that year.

M_Ray....I'm with ya.....I didn't have the digital yet either.  These were scanned awile ago.  Almost as bad as the old Polaroids.

For me I had a pretty good year.  Started out going to Wyoming for deer and Antelope.  I shot this buck on October 4th....which happened to be my wedding anniversary.  I considered myself pretty damn lucky to be there doing that and have my wife still at home when I got back. :)  (I did send her some flowers to her work while I was there. ;))



I also took this Antelope the day before.  The picture obviously sucks and doesn't do the buck any justice, but he is incredibly heavy and has an 18" spread.  My best Antelope to date.



Then came back home and had the late tag for the Chiwawa.  That pretty much sucked.  It was cool because my Dad had a tag also and we spent a lot of time hittin' it hard but the weather totally sucked that year.  We spent 6 days up there first trip, came back home for a couple days and spent the last 5 up there.  Foggy nearly everyday....unbelievable!  I ended up taking this buck on the last afternoon of the last day....(for all you hunter orange guys.....yes I had it on.  I also had a day pack, binoculars, etc....  :))






Offline DeKuma

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #11 on: March 06, 2008, 10:29:12 AM »
For me 2004 was bittersweet, to say the least.

My brother was battling alcoholism since I can remember.  He used to hunt with us all the time, but stopped many years ago.
Opening weekend we were in the mountains and seeing lots of deer, but no shot opportunities.  As my step-mom and my daughter had to get back for work and school on Monday, we came back to camp long before dark.  We said our goodbyes, then my dad and I grabbed a bite to eat and were just getting ready to leave camp.  As I was strapping on my pack, our good friend showed up in his truck.  We had been teasing him about coming out and being our camp cook.  He got out of his truck and we knew something was wrong.  He then told us that my brother was found dead the night before.  My dad fell to the ground adn it was all I could do to take care of him.  We decided to rush home and just leave the camp right where it was and home no one messed with it. 
We spent the next week doing funeral prep and the likes.  Then he was cremated.  Once that was all done, we realized that we still had to go back and pack camp!  Immediately after the memorial where we spread some of his ashes, we jumped in my truck and headed east.  Driving over we decided to take some of his ashes to the top of the ridge and spread them. 
Next morning found us at the ridge.  We each took some time to be alone and deal with our issues.  I was talking to my brother, sort of praying and the likes.  Asking where he wanted his ashes.  There was deer track all over in the snow, but I kep getting pulled towards a rock outcropping away from the trail.  I decided to go where I thought my brother must want me to go.  Just as I stepped on the outcropping, there below me was a bachelor group of 5 bucks.  I took a quick scan and picked the first legal on I could and fired.
Spent the next day and a half getting the deer out, and my dad out.  Old codger followed me down the 1500 feet I had to go to get the deer out.  Talk about steep!  :o  I almost left the deer several times, just to get the old man out.  It was the biggest deer up to that point for either one of us, so we were excited, but sad that Johnny was not there with us........

Sorry it is so long....
- Scott

Offline M_ray

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #12 on: March 06, 2008, 10:32:44 AM »
 Well my first hunt of 04 was the Wa muzzleloader opener, this was defiantly one of my most memorable hunts not that I killed a monster but the hunt was great and the shot was one of my best.
Tmike and I were able to secure about 5 or 6 sections of mostly sage to hunt in Eastern Wa. on the first night in there we found a group of 4 bucks together all were leagal 3 and 4 point with one being a real nice and heavy 4 point. the next couple of days found ourselves with quite a few close calls on nice bucks but nothing to show for our efforts.

About the third morning we sat a bit apart on the highest points we could find when I spotted a 4 point all alone feeding at about a mile out and I watch where he beds. So off I go making a big huge circle around him to get the wind right and when I get to about 220 yards I realize he has picked a spot with knee high sage all around him except the clump he is in! So I can either wait him out and hope he comes my way or try to slip in because about 30 yards from him is a piece of sage that I can keep between us for cover and if I can get there I'll have all day and I know I'll get a great shot at him. So when I call tmike on the radio he Say's he'll keep an eye on him to see which direction he goes when I fuzz him ... Thanks man my partner has allot of faith in me!  :chuckle: but about 2 1/2 hrs later and crawling on my hands and knees I make it to the bush 30 yards away only to get a 20 minute reprive before tmike's comment turns into reality. I got a little anxious being that close and moved a bit to see if I could slip one in and up he comes and blows out  :DOH:. So off I go running the same direction parallel to him not right on his back track and everytime he stopped he I would too and he looked back the way he came not towards me. Well this goes on for a mile and a half until he meets up with a Doe, Fawn and a 1x2 buck which I think settled him right down and finally gave me an opportunity to get a range on him(124 yards) and get on my stixx and just as if I planned it he stops perfectly broadside and looks at me I touch it off and I know it's good right away cause he bucks and runs with his nose is about 2" from the ground and he's going down hard! When I get up to him I find out I heart shot him! I was so stoked I call tmike and said did you see which way he was heading " no I took a nap! did ya get something?" yeah ... yeah I got something!


Not a monster but a memorable hunt nonetheless!

Muleyslyr what I did here which I think works better for me is I took a digital picture of my original picture then uploaded it seems to have come out pretty good.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2008, 11:11:08 AM by M_ray »
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed here are not those of HW Management, Admins, Mods or Myself... But they are the opinions of Elvis who has revealed them to me through the medium of my pet hamster, Lee Harvey Oswald...


MB

Growing old is mandatory ... Growing up is optional!

Offline M_ray

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #13 on: March 06, 2008, 11:03:30 AM »
Also in 04 tmike and I were drawn for a Union County Oregon whitetail muzzleloader hunt in the rut. We stayed with a friend in Elgin as base camp and hunted hard for 8 days. We even passed on Thankgiving dinner and went out to hunt instead! Well we saw some good bucks and on the opener tmike passed a decent 8 pointer wanting something better. Throughout the week we kept running into this buck in an area and we just couldn't get a shot off on him on separate occasions we both had him at like 15 yards but he was hauling a$$! As we are driving in on the 7th morning to try a spot higher up we see him again following a doe ... I bail out of the truck and get set up but all I have is an a$$ shot going up through the trees so I pass. tmike informs me it's time for his morning duties so I grab my stuff and tell him to do it down the road and I'll just go up and sit inside the tree line at least until he gets back ... great choice BTW!  ;)

I get up the hill and slip into some dark timber and figure I'll just find a thick spot and sit there ... well I get board with this pretty quickly and decide to sidehill in the direction the buck had gone. I stop again and remember I had bought that Primos can before this hunt and thought what the hell! I turn it over a couple of times thinking to myself I cant believe these things would come into this thing ... it sounds like a baby crying! well just then I get HUFFED at but it's directly below me, crap! how did they knob me that quickly? Just then out of the left corner of my eye in the direction the buck and doe had gone I catch movement. It's the doe! and she's bringing him right back to me they disappear into a little gully that was between us and this gives me a chance to get my gun on my knee. When they appear she walks on the trail 10 yards from me and he comes right behind her with his nose on the floor I give him the cheesy little midwest treestand mouth grunt and he stops BOOM I drop him right there! Again not a hog like some of you show off on here but I had been on 2 permit hunts before this ... one in Sled Springs Oregon and one in the Desert (archery) in Wa, and this was my first permit success I had so I decided to mount him so I will allways remember this hunt!


« Last Edit: March 06, 2008, 08:49:00 PM by M_ray »
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed here are not those of HW Management, Admins, Mods or Myself... But they are the opinions of Elvis who has revealed them to me through the medium of my pet hamster, Lee Harvey Oswald...


MB

Growing old is mandatory ... Growing up is optional!

Offline M_ray

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Re: The Year was 2004........
« Reply #14 on: March 06, 2008, 11:08:55 AM »
BTW Muleyslyr you had a great 04 nice job!

and DeKuma that is a great buck I'm sorry for your loss ... you have something on your wall that will remind you everyday of all the good times you had with your brother!
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed here are not those of HW Management, Admins, Mods or Myself... But they are the opinions of Elvis who has revealed them to me through the medium of my pet hamster, Lee Harvey Oswald...


MB

Growing old is mandatory ... Growing up is optional!

 


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