Opening weekend fun, Buck down, Sheds found and the Safest buck in the county

[Buckmark]

Opening weekend this year was sure to be one to remember, with the hunt being a week later the weather should be perfect i thought. Well that was not the case, the temps were balmy in the NE part of the state, at 3600ft it was close to 70 and sunny, not what i would call great opening weekend weather. Heck it was colder a month ago during the archery season. 

I had a short weekend to hunt for a bear and help out some members of camp find a deer or two, i also had 2 kids with me that where new to deer camp and wanted to have some fun.

Got in Friday afternoon and got camp all setup, checked in with friends for the next days plans, made hobo stews for dinner and relaxed around the fire.

[Rainier10]

Sounds good but where is the rest of the story?

This isn't going to be one of those 13 posts over the next 36 hour threads is it?

[Buckmark]

Opening morning plan was to be out at 6am Bear hunting, well by the time i got everyone up fed and ready it was 9am , we set out and started seeing deer right away on our way to a hill i wanted to watch, seeing the deer got the kids excited even though we could not take one, did see a Moose cow and calf real close which was very exciting, i grunted and got them to stand so we could watch them for a few minutes. The weather was calm, sunny and warmish, not the best for bear hunting but hey had to give it a shot, no luck and by 1pm we decided to head back to camp.

Decided to take the long way back and ran into a few grouse which i used as a conservation lesson as we let them live, we talked about how we still had grouse in the freezer and letting some live was a good thing. It was a good lesson.

Lounging around back at camp the kids started asking me about finding antlers and if i ever found any, i told them about the few i had found on the property and how to look for them, they got real excited about the possibility of finding some and wanted to hike around and look, i said after lunch we could and while they were busy i went to my shed and dug out 2 old 4x4 and a skull from Idaho and pitched them around the woods. 

So after lunch we put on our orange and went for a hike, started in a place i did not stash anything and low and behold the boy found a deer leg bone while following a trail and looking around down logs, that was a bonus that set the stage for them to really look, and guess what they found the 2 4x4 and the old skull, which is all they talked about that evening at the big hunt dinner...

[RB]

That is awesome! 

[CAMPMEAT]

Good for you Frank....

[jamesfromseattle]

It is hunting--not just killing for the sake of killing. Great to see you are teaching your kids those lessons.

[Buckmark]

Rifle camp is always a good sized camp and dinners are done nightly by different people, we took opening day since we were not deer hunting and everyone else could do the evening hunt.
We made venison stew, hard rolls and snicker doodles baked in camp, nothing like a good venison stew to make everyone hungry to fill a tag. 
No tags filled day 1 but we swapped stories about what we saw and where we went and made plans for the next day.

The girls wanted to sleep in so the boy and i decided on a plan, woke up sunday and it was the warmest morning so far but we still headed out. Saw nothing all morning, not a deer, not a grouse and certainly not a bear....it was a warm, calm nothing moving morning.....oh well that's hunting.

We did have some fun sunday afternoon, we brought a bunch of volley ball sized pumpkins from our garden to carve etc in camp, then we took some and learned about what a bullet does.
We took a few and i let the kids shoot them with the .22 to see what happens, then we took a few and cut a hole in them, filled them with water and shot them to see the difference and finally we took the biggest of the bunch, filled it with water and set it out 100yds and i plugged it with the 7mag, the kids thought it was the coolest experiment in a long time.. , me i thought it was just plain fun 

[Buckmark]

Sunday evening everyone wanted to go but the girls wanted to stay in the truck and read since it was lightly sprinkling. So the boy and i hiked into a few year old clear cut to sit on a perch and do some bear calling, i had a few Bearmanric calls with me and had shown the boy how to use the fawn distrss call at camp (best i could, im not very good. Never called in a bear yet just a few yotes)
We got all settled in on a nice rock perch and i let him wail way and wait......and call for a bit and wait.....we saw nothing but had a blast.

Oh, i guess i got ahead of myself and forgot sunday lunch time...Safest buck in the county..

So this trip the kids wanted a burger from the place close to the property, sunday we head down only to find out they are closed...Dangit, well i guess we head the 26 miles to town for burgers, it was starting to rain a little so a good time to go.

[h20hunter]

heading up to the area we hunt....joint on the right....combo eats/gas/post office?

Dang good burgers.

[Buckmark]

heading up to the area we hunt....joint on the right....combo eats/gas/post office?

Dang good burgers.

Closed also, and the place near me was closed sunday afternoon, sign said due to circumstance beyond there control?
Not sure what happend but the cabins were all full and 1/3 of the camp ground, hope everyone brought food etc..

[Bango skank]

You had a fire on opening weekend huh??

[Buckmark]

You had a fire on opening weekend huh??

Yep, friday night (made smores) saturday night, sunday night (kids cooked a few hotdogs) and im sure the rest in camp had one monday  etc, so did the camps in the nat forest camp ground and the other camp ground, the neighbor and i even took down a bunch of standing dead sunday with a chainsaw?
All ok and allowed where my property is.

[h20hunter]

Place close to you also didn't have gas....maybe you told me that......

[Buckmark]

Ok so back to the Safest buck..

I know people on this site know this buck and may have better pics than me, if so post them up.

But after lunch the kids said lets go and look at the town deer, see whats hanging around and see what bucks are taking refuge...

We saw a bunch of does and a few bucks, made a loop and on the way back down i kid you not we spot a deer, a buck, a large based trashy (my pic's suck) buck standing inside a garage!

I about died laughing, see there are quite a few deer in town and its funny to see where they bed/eat etc, always fun with the kids, but this was a first for me....He found the safest place to hang out during modern rifle and even backed in.. 

[h20hunter]

That's pretty sweet. May be off limits but fun to see.

[wannabhntr]

Great story Buckmark. Way to get the kiddos out and involved. Great buck too. He's a smart one.

[Buckmark]

Sunday night it rained a little, good the weather was starting to change.

Woke up Monday morning to a light mist, low cloud ceiling and some light fog, hunted with one of the guys in camp and he put down a good 4x4 buck , no field pics as the camera was back at camp 
Kids got to help at the skinning pole and enjoyed it alot, i had to head back home and hopefully camp will get a few more this week..

So it was a fun and productive but short opening weekend for me...now back over in a few weekends to try and fill that bear tag again...

[Curly]

I am so glad I opened this thread!   

Great stories. 

[CAMPMEAT]

Frank,
How come the burger place was closed ? We were going to go there for breakfast Sunday ?

[C-Money]

Nice story!! Good buck your camp got, tell the hunter congrats!!

[luvmystang67]

You're cleaning your deer upside down.   

[Bigluke1981]

Great story. That is a weekend those kids will remember forever!

[Buckmark]

You're cleaning your deer upside down.   

Actually if he was hung by the back legs he would be hanging upside down 

I always hang by the back legs, some guys by the head, different strokes for different folks....but by the back legs is correct..

[Rainier10]

Great story, good job getting the kids involved and that garage buck is awesome.

Thanks for sharing all the details.

[DoubleJ]

See Frank!  I'm not the only one who wants to hang their deer by the neck to cut it up

[fishnfur]

Great job!  Nice buck.  Love the smart buck in the garage.  We've got a doe that beds under a pier supported porch up on Marrostone Island.  This guy is way smarter than she is.

[kramman]

Sounds like great fun Frank....looked for ya during muzzle... Took a 4x4 whitey not far from your place. And I might have seen that muley your camp took.... Exact dark horns and coat... Ton of grouse up there this year. Wonder what's up next door if u ever find out let us know... Sounds like u are having a great season. Kram

[jkthomps]

Great story and photos. That buck in the garage is epic lol. Good luck on the bear!

[coachcw]

sounds like some good times 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Crazy ...Garage buck knows where to hide ..haha  Nice one on your part !!!   

[ldjbuff]

That buck was hanging out in that garage thingy during archery season too.

There was one bigger than him at the next house but he took off before I could snap a picture.

[Buckmark]

That buck was hanging out in that garage thingy during archery season too.

There was one bigger than him at the next house but he took off before I could snap a picture.

Hard to tell from your pic but it almost looks like a different buck? The one i took pics of has a big corkscrew drop tine on the right side near his base..
Have seen some nice bucks living the good life in town though..

[ldjbuff]

Yeah it could be a different buck but same garage lol.

[Curly]

Makes me think that if a guy were to setup a ground blind somewhere, the next time he goes back to the blind he might want to check inside the blind for bucks before he gets too close. 

[timberghost72]

  It was good seeing/talking with you. I got home yesterday and had a successful week  . Alot of deer were dropping toward the end of the week and hanging in camp up there. Weather stayed the same but a bit colder at night. Good luck at tagging yogi. I'm hoping to get out around here for one.

Oh and the resturant had a grease fire which is why it was closed. Not much damage but had to have profesionals come out to clean up all the fire extinguisher residue. They opened back up just in time for us to eat a meal there.