The year was 2006......

[Ridgerunner]

Ok, lets pretend we are sitting around the campfire on the night before the opener(one week away).  Go ahead and spill your story and post up some pics from your hunt this particular year.  Might be fun to hear and see how everyone did that particular year. 

[tralam]

I didn't do so well that year, but there was one night that stands out in my memory. It was my first year back from a few years hiatus, and my first year hunting alone. About the third day in the season I lay down to get some sleep and start hearing sticks cracking down the hill from my tent, roughly 50 yards. I tried to ignore it but couldn't sleep with the noise, so I grabbed my flashlight to go check it out. I shined my light down into the trees to see a big black moo cow staring back at me. I chucked a few branches and rocks down to try and spook it off, but she stood her ground, so I went back to bed. The next day I had to head back to Seattle for a midterm (roughly a four hour drive), then high tailed it back up to my camp. I arrived to find my canopy tarp knocked down, and a nice fat juicy cow pie right in the middle of my camp.

[couesbitten]

Great idea for a thread Ridgerunner, can't wait to read what gets posted here.

2006 was Gavin's (my son) second year hunting. Last year we had a couple of chances, but were unable to get him a shot at a buck. He was pretty anxious for this year, and I decided to hunt with my muzzleloader so that I could concentrate on getting him a buck during the rifle season. During the muzzleloader season, I saw a 20" 3-point that I thought would be the perfect buck for an 11 yr. old. Told him about it when I got home, and he said that he wasn't worried about how wide it was, he wanted to shoot something with "like 6 x 7 points on each side".

Well, we went out yesterday (opening morning), and gave it a real good effort. Made a stalk on a buck that we had seen bedded out in a sage flat (the 20" 3-point?) and when we got to where he was supposed to be, nothing but an empty bed.

So this morning we decided to hunt this same sage flat, since we felt that that we ought to be able to find something out there. Woke to rain, and hoped it would keep everyone else inside and dry, leave the hunting to just us, and increase our chances at finding a buck.

We hiked about one mile across sage flat before we started hunting, and I was doing a lot of glassing, hoping to catch something moving, watching us, feeding, etc. Had been hunting about 2 hours and hadn't seen anything, when I glass down across the flat and spot a real good buck about 200 yds. away just slowly feeding along. I immediately get nervous, start sweating bullets and tell Gavin that I've got him a good buck, and to stay low, be quiet and follow me. The wind was perfect, so we started weaving in and out of sage brush slowly closing the distance between us and this buck. We finally get to a point where the buck is about 70 yds. out and feeding straight away from us. We step out from behind the sage and get him set up with his shooting sticks, and I tell him to just wait, and the buck will turn. Buck stops, so I made a kissing sound, and he turns broadside to us and is looking at us. I whisper to shoot him right behind the shoulder. He shoots and misses, so the buck is running to our left, and we grab up all the gear and run about 30 yds and get set up again. Buck runs out to 130 yds. and stops broadside again. At the shot, he jumps and kicks, and I hear the bullet impact. Buck starts running through the sage, goes about 20 yds, stops and tips over backwards.

After waiting 2 minutes to make sure he doesn't get back on his feet, we walked over and I let my son approach the buck first. He says "he's really big dad". No ground shrinkage here, he was even bigger than I thought he was. We're definitely getting him mounted. 23" wide, 6x6, with a "whitetail" type of rack. Really unique buck, and I think I was about ten times more excited than he was. This was definitely the most fun I've had while hunting, and it's become our tradition every fall.

[couesbitten]

I definately thought this would get more interest.

[buckmaster_wa]

The Year was 2006. I was taking along a new hunting partner, (BLRman) aka Karl. Opening Morning Karl and myself split up and travel to separate ends of the property we are hunting. We both seen three bucks and I would guess that two of them were legal but neither Karl or myself could confirm they were legal or get a shot off if they were. That night it rained off and on and when we were headed to the property it stopped raining (Perfect). We get out of the truck grab our gear and start over the first hill on the property. I look down into (buck canyon) and there is a nice tall buck feeding in the bottom of the canyon. I back out and catch Karl as he is heading in the opposite direction to the other side of the property. I tell him there is a legal buck in the canyon and he should follow me to see if there are others. We sneak down the far side of the canyon with wind in our favor. We approach where I last seen the buck and he is not there. I look to the right and there is a buck bedded down at about 125 yards staring at us. I get set up on the shooting sticks and I see he is tall and has at Least three on both sides. I steady myself and I shoot. The buck gets up and runs about 60 yards and piles up. We start hooting and hollering and giving high fives and then all of a sudden another buck jumps up out of the bottom of the canyon and stops at about 150 yards and is just standing there. I confirm he is legal and Karl smokes him. He folds in place. So we killed two bucks within about 30 seconds and they are about 200 yards apart. My buck ends up being a tall 3pt with eye guards. Karls buck ends up being a tall 4pt.

The following weekend we take our ladies over hunting with us. Sat morning Karl and Katie go to the top end of (Buck canyon) and Me and Nichole go to the lower end of buck canyon. I spot a really wide/heavy/tall 3 pt with eyeguards and tell Karl he is feeding just over the hill from him and Katie. They sneak up on the buck and Katie takes a 125 yard shot. I watch through my binos as the buck just stands there. She shot just over top of him. I am waiting for a follow up shot and nothing is happening. The buck slowly just feeds over the hill to the neighbors property. I call Karl on the radio and he informs me that after Katie missed the first shot the gun jammed and he couldn't get it unjammed in time for a second shot.  . We dont see any legal bucks the rest of the day.

Sunday morning we find ourselves in the same canyon and this time Nichole and myself have a 27-29 inch 3pt about 200 yards from us but he is on the neighboring property. We watch as he slowly keeps making his way further and further onto the neighbors property.  We head to the west end of the property we are hunting and we look to the north as a hunter on the neighboring property jumps a really big whitetail buck. He shoots multiple time (missing every shot) and the buck is heading right towards Karl and Katie. The buck jumps the fence that separates our property from the neighbor and Katie waits till the buck is just below her in the canyon and takes the buck at about 50 yards. He ends up being a really wide 4x5 whitetail.
 
2006 was a pretty good year. I will try to post pictures later today.  

[buckmaster_wa]

This was hard remembering what happened that year. I need to start writing things down in a journal.

[hogsniper]

Crazy year for me.   I had returned from Iraq on the 20th of october and my dad and uncles had drawn Valle Vidal, elk tags.  I put in for an early leave request and to my surprise they let me go.  So on Oct. 20th im sitting in Iraq and the morning of the 22nd we are hunting elk out of Taos, New Mexico.   Great trip where in 3 days they killed 4 bulls and got to see over 100 legal bulls and massive bucks along with some great country!   Also that year my uncle had a Missouri breaks elk tag. Tagged out and got to Montana to hit a massive rain storm. It was abnormally warm and we couldnt get into the area where we wanted to hunt. We got back on the road and went to western Montana where we hunted deer and elk. The first day I jumped a herd of bucks and killed a 24 inch 3x4 muley.  Well the weather was crazy. It was T-shirt weather but that changed in a hurry! A foot of snow fell during the next couple days. 2 days later we headed up an old grade and here was a snowed in elk track. I didnt have a deer tag so off I went on these old looking tracks. My uncle decided to come with me and tag along.  We followed them into a meadow where the elk zig zagged back and forth feeding on the brush that was sticking above the snow.  The tracks continued up a timbered ridge that had a huge meadow on the other side. The bull had fed but you could tell didnt want to get in the open. I found the first bed and could stepped on the urine to see how old it was but it was rock hard.  Kept going and about 30yds away was another one. Then a bit further another one!   But this time it was still kind of slushy!   My uncle looked at me and whispered  "he's close"  I took about ten steps on his tracks and looked up as the bull stood up out of his bed!  I pulled up and "boom"  the bull wheeled and took off around the hill side hilling below us.  I cut him off and shot again.   Down he went and started sliding down the hill.   He started cartwheeling over the hill and out of sight.   I went back and got my uncle and with him was my dad.  He had taken the ridge and had cut our tracks just in time to see we were now on very very fresh tracks and then heard the shots!       It took 2 days to get that bull out but was a great ten days spent in the hills!    Well thats my 2006 season!!!   Ive wrote a detailed story some wheres ill have to find it!!!!   

[Pathfinder101]

cool idea for a thread.  I'll add mine when I get to a computer again..

[saylean]

I got my first bear during the 2006 modern deer season (it was the first bear I had seen in the wilds)...a nice cinamon bear with awesome underwool....she was eating maggots off of an old cougar kill, and she was covered in maggots...needless to say, she reaked...(you can see the deer leg in the background of the pic)

Later in the season, I heard two bucks fighting in the woods and my brother went in to flush them out, while I stayed put hoping to ambush them...

They quit fighting shortly after my bro went into the brush and you could hear one of the bucks go the opposite direction...while the other white tail came straight for me...you could hear him coming in the brush and then all of a sudden he appeared...only about 9 ft away...all I saw was his rack, as he came out of the brush slowly, looking back toward where my brother was...I had him dead to rights...but my gun was held low on my body and I had a scope on it...I couldnt move...the deer turned a bit and we made the "OH *censored*E!" look at one another....he slowly tightened up, paused, and bounced away like a flash...no shot as it would have been from the hip...it was a cool experience...

We didnt get any deer that year, but had a blast!

[Pathfinder101]

So, in 2006 my mother decided to visit us on opening weekend.  My mom and my wife weren't exactly best buds at that time, so there was no way she was going to let me leave them both alone.  PathfinderJR was too young to hunt, so couldn't use that as an excuse.  FInally got out there on Monday after the weekend carnage.  At the time, I was hunting with a buddy that had access to a ranch North of Walla Walla (since then he went through a divorce so....there went that sweet spot ).  I met him out there and we hunted hard for two days, not seeing a single antler.  It was a very dry year, and most of the deer had evacuated down to the river, so the ranch was almost vacant.  On Wednesday I called CoryTDF to see if he had any ideas.
He and his dad had both tagged deer on a nice feel free to hunt spot not too far from where I had been hunting, and he said that he knew there was at least one more legal buck in there, so Wednesday evening, off we went.
We got to his spot and after a short hike spotted a herd with a buck bedded on a hill about 3/4 of a mile off.  Trying to beat the waning daylight, we took off in a big circle around them, coming in from above them, with the wind in our faces.  At about 100 yards, they started standing up, and lo and behold, a forky with an eyeguard pops up and takes off down the draw in front of us.  I sit down and flip out the bipod legs, and ask, which one.  Cory (who had the video camera running), tells me the buck is the last one in the group.  They come out of the draw, 230 yards away and trotting up the hill away from us.  I hold at the middle of his neck and squeeze off a round.
We saw the deer hit the ground, legs splayed in 4 directions before we actually heard the bullet hit.
"Wow"!  Cory said. "Nice shot!"
"Thanks" I said  "Did you get it on tape?"

We both looked at Cory's right hand, the one holding the camera.  It was pointed at the ground.

"Uh.  I think I forgot." He said sheepishly.

He did.  We went to his house and watched the tape, and he had recorded the whole thing, at least he got all the sound.  All you could see on the tape though was wheat stubble though...

Oh well, it was meat in the freezer, and better than skunking out...  Sorry for the pic quality; low light+disposable camera+scanner = well, you know...

[skynyr]

I didn't drop one that year but my brother's father-in-law did. He got a cow in the Collockum in early archery season. It was standing right next to a spike bull that was legal also and he opted for the cow because it was a couple yards closer.   He emptied his quiver of about 8 arrows into this poor thing cause he was lazy and didn't want to track it. He was actually grabbing arrows off of the ground that had passed through and proceeded refiring them a second time. That cow was hamburger by the time we got to it. It's not fun trying to field clean an elk that is loaded with broadheads. To this day I refer to it as "Hamburger Hill"  To top it off he left the heart and the liver in the gutpile for the yotes. Then the following year I got a cow (using one arrow btw) and the same guy that left all his tasty entrails out in the gutpile the previous year had the odacity to go into my cooler at camp while I was sleeping and nab the liver I got from my cow. Had my brother not noticed he may have gotten away with it. I no longer hunt with that guy anymore.    

[Dmanmastertracker]

 That was my first hunting season as a married guy and I took my wife to Blewett Pass for the opener on a bluebird day, as it would turn out it would be my only hunting trip of the year. We hiked up the steepest *censored*e anywhere, saw some rubs up top and ended up sliding down an ash covered slope on our butts, pretty hairy situation. We were getting towards the bottom and I picked up some fresh sign in the bottom of the rivine, but the wife was still sliding down on her butt, sighing the whole way and I was trying to get her attention to be quiet as I heard a twig snap in the brush right below me and a bedded deer stood up, head out of sight but it was huge. She didn't hear me and crashed down the slope, the (big muley buck) then scrambles up over the ridge, having pegged us and keeping tree's between me and it, never got a shot.

 It was still fun, I was glad I got her to go.

[Sneaky]

Shot my first MD buck in '06 at age 16. Hiked up into the hills before light. Just as the sun was coming up, I spotted movement on the skyline and immediately sat down. I watched this buck along with a comparable 4point making their way towards me. As the deer made their way closer, they started to angle up and away back towards the skyline. At this point I figured they were close to 300 yards away and thought it would be my only opportunity.

As I steadied my rifle and took the safety off, both deer stopped and looked right at me. the CLICK of my safety was so loud on that still morning I think they heard it from way off! The way they stopped offered no shot. I really started to get nervous until the deer changed their path and started to come towards me! As they angled down the little finger across the small draw I was perched on they went into a patch of really tall sagebrush about 125 yards out. When the first buck which I decided was slightly larger ambled out of the other side I let him have it. The buck stopped and started to stumble, but was still up so I let him have it again. All I could see in my scope was dust and 4 hooves sticking up in the air.

I practically ran up to where I saw the buck and jumped the other 4 point up out of the tall sage! He took off over the hill where they were headed originally. I walked up on my buck and then the work began. Dad came over from the next ridge as I began dressing him and we drug him 3 miles out together. One of my fondest memories with my dad and best opening day yet.

[elkslare]

 Awe love the these campfires,  Wow In the year 2006 A college buddy from Alaska and I went on a Brown Bear hunt down SE of king Salmon. We would meat in king Salmon and take a float plane from there to are hunting spot that we had researched. When we flew into the lake it was frozen over, except for a tiny little spot that the pilot was able to touch down and let us off. He let us off and there is where we called home for the next 2 weeks. What a awesome experience. We set up 2 tents sleeping and a gear tent. And set up a place away from are camp for cooking and to store our food. Are first day of the hunt we found a pretty nice bear looked to be a good boar with a good hide. We went back and forth on this but ended up letting him walk as it was the first bear we seen.
   Threw out our hunt we saw on average 2 bears a day not always shooter bears. We had snow, and we had rain coming down at 50 60 mile an hour, It actually grounded us for 1 1/2 day. In the tent it felt like we were going to go rolling down the beach in our tent. after about a week the weather started to change.and it started to get real nice like 60 to 70 and sunny days. Then we started to see more bears.
   On about day 10 we had a helicopter fly up to our camp fly around it about 6 or 7 times then landed.  It was a game warden. WOW He came in to see how we were doing and to check out are license and tags. Real nice guy. WOW here you are in the middle of no where and you get checked by a game warden. Nice to see that they are doing a good job.
  Anyway we had about 4 days left in the hunt when we spotted  a bear that deserved a closer look.So we made the 2 mile hike to him where we could get a better  look at this bear. It took us about another hour before we realized he was a good bear. He had popped his head up and it was huge, hardly could see his ears and they were on the side of his head instead of the top. So we decided to put the sneak on him when we were 100 yards away the bear was still bedded and all we could see is the top of his back. So we decided to inch are way up closer.
   Just second need to get another beer . you want one  we need to put another log on the fir too.
   Because of the angle of the land we found ourselves just 35 yards away from the bear before we saw him again. Then the wind shifted I could feel it on the back of my neck and the bear took off.Down this ravine  and back up on the other side. When he popped out we were able to anchor him to the ground. first two shots in the boiler and it did not even phase this bear. after the 3rd shot he went down and tumbled down the hill.Awesome hunt
  Big bear.
 With hide off he was 11 feet from front paw to front paw and 9 1/2 feet head to tail. Squaring 10 1/4 feet.With big long claws and very nice hide. Looked like he had just come out of his den.
  sorry this got kinda long. Picture of the lake is where camp was right where the river starts.
   

[huntinkid20]

That is a giant bear Elkslare. Congrats!

[bridgeman]

Was elk hunting with a couple of my buddies that year in the Lewis River unit. If most remember it was a very wet year and rained like a SOB! By the fourth day the rain had taken its toll on us. I decided to make one last go of it and do an afternoon hunt.I hiked down a road to the edge of some timbers about a few hundred yards from camp.BTW it was still raining down like a cow pissing on a flat rock! I followed a game trail that took me deeper into the timbers. As I was looking into the timbers I could barely see some movement not sure what it was. By now it was getting dark fast and raining so hard that I was ready to turn back when this bull lifted his 4 pt rack. All I could see was the bleached tips of his rack. He never heard me walk up on him. I drew down my .270 and dumped him where he stood. I quickly marked the area and started back to get my buddies. By this time,it was so dark that I lost my trail and didn't bring my map or compass. I just thought how it was going to be a very long dark and wet night! I walked in circles for the next fifteen minutes until I just looked up in the direction of where I thought camp was. All I could see was a very faint reflection of my buddies white truck. Turns out all the walking around brought me about 40 yards away from camp! My buddies never even heard the shot. Happy ending..got my elk out and won't leave camp next time without my flashlight,compass, map or gps...

[jjhunter]

I had just gotten back from a six month deployment in late August and I was ready to do some hunting!   I started the season off by killing a 23" 3-point mule deer with my bow on September 2nd.   It was a smoking hot day and the buck had bedded alone under a 5-foot bluff.   The wind was perfect and I was able to sneak around on top of him and stick him in his bed from just a few feet (literally).  In fact, I was so close, I couldn't figure out whether to use my pins or not.     I decided to use my pins, but apparently it didn't matter.

September 9th, I was back at home for a little archery elk hunting in the breaks.   We had a few bulls around and with only a day and half to hunt, the first bull I had a chance at was going down.  First thing in the morning, we spot a raghorn 5-point bull crossing the CRP down into a draw.   I worked around and was led in by hand signals from my brother.  I got about 14 yards from the bull who was laying in a deep hole.   It was straight up and down and not a comfortable shooting stance......to make matters worse, the bull would not stand!   I tried forever to get the bugger to stand and finally had to really let him see me - when he stood, I had to shoot thru some jim hill mustard and it actually deflected my arrow - which, hit the bull directly in the arse!  Instinctively, I grab another arrow, knock, draw, and wait for the bull to cross the bottom of the draw and start up the other side, he pauses for a second at 45 yards and I release, double lunging him.  He runs about 15 yards and tumbles.   I look up at my brother, who, when he saw the ass shot, ran to his bow and was getting into position to get another arrow in the bull.   He did not see my second shot and thought I was a dumbarse for holding my arms in the air in victory.  He yelled something like "you didn't kill him with an arse shot"!  He didn't believe me until I showed him the bull...

The third hunt was in Montana.   It was Thanksgiving week and the deer were really rutting.   I had paid a trespass fee on the most beautiful ranch I have ever had the pleasure to hunt - it was amazing.   I passed a really good 28-30" 3x4 that grossed right around 180".   I messed up on a great 28" high 180's 4-point and ended up shooting a "last day" 160" buck.   

2006 was a great year!