Post by: rudedawg1085 on October 16, 2012, 10:12:04 AM
So opening day, I wake up at 4am, drive up the mountain and get to my spot at about 6am. I put on all my gear, chamber a round in the Winchester, and off into the woods I go. Going up and down those step canyons, through streams, down cliff sides with hundred foot drops, until eventually I am miles from any road or people. Well as every hunter’s nightmare is, the only thing I saw were the tail end does, the only thing I put my scope on was a stump that you always pretend is a deer, (come on we have all done it). Well long story short. I make the long trek back to the truck, so I can regroup for the evening hunt and when I arrive I hear a vehicle driving up the hill, clanking the bottom of his vehicle on every rock and boulder in the road. Thinking it’s a real low truck it turns the corner and it’s a little Honda Civic! I don’t think it moved more then 5 feet with out bottoming out on a rock or ditch or etc. So they pull over and park next to me and I tell him that I worked the area pretty hard north of this spot and he might have better luck if he starts going south. So the young kids hope out the civic, (ha-ha it had a spoiler) and start heading sorth. No more then 2 minutes later I look up at them going up hill side about 200yards out, and I see them ducking down pointing at something. I couldn’t see what they were looking up at, but I still the kid raise his gun and BANG!! First thing im thinking is you have to be kidding me! Did he really just drop a buck!?!?! So I walk up the hill listening to them hooten and hollering with screams of joy, and sure as *censored* he has a buck dead on the ground!! A nice little 3x3. Congrats for the young hunters, I guess if it had to happen like that im happy it was with a group of young kids downing their first buck. So I help drag it back down the hill and load it up in the civic!!! Haha try and picture a deer with its legs sticking up out of the trunk of the car! But go figure, you walk all morning long putting miles on your boots only to have someone shoot a buck 200 yards from the truck. That’s hunting. Anyone els been a victim of this?!
Post by: quadrafire on October 16, 2012, 10:18:04 AM
Post by: boneaddict on October 16, 2012, 10:20:01 AM
Post by: brokehunter on October 16, 2012, 10:22:40 AM
Post by: kramman on October 16, 2012, 10:25:27 AM
Post by: MadHatter on October 16, 2012, 10:25:45 AM
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk 2
Post by: Bullets_n_Octane on October 16, 2012, 10:26:09 AM
Weird thing is, I haven't heard a SINGLE SHOT this year...
Post by: JohnVH on October 16, 2012, 10:26:51 AM
Have you ever worked your butt off on opening day or hunting trip, only to have no success? I mean walked miles and miles up and down step canyons and hills, blisters on your feet, out of water, sweat dipping down your head, see no deer while others are dropping bucks left and right?!?! And then to see someone drop a buck with little or no work at all?!?!
every effin year.
Although, I will add, this year, (first time ever), I shot a bear and wasnt even really hunting, only luck Ive had!
Post by: Kowsrule30 on October 16, 2012, 10:32:04 AM
The third day of the season I heard elk crossing below me... Trying to quietly make my way down to intercept them 3 shots go off in about a 5 minute period.... I get down there and a kid has a spike down... 2 1/2' spikes mind you... Bases the size of Coors cans... He drove up that am late.... Parked at an emty camp.... Walked out not 400 yards from the camp and was in a herd of 30+/- elk crossing single file in front of him.... He hit that thing on almost every angle.... But he got it.... Lucky sob...
Post by: KFhunter on October 16, 2012, 10:40:05 AM
When I hike in, there is no sweat, and it might take me all day to go 1/2 a mile.
If your sweating and busting out 10 miles, racing to get past all other humans thinking if you're the first one back there then the granddaddy buck will bow down to your effort and give you a free-be shot your on crack.
All your doing is moving the game. They hear you coming a mile away and duck into the thick stuff and you walk right past them.
Tell you what, get you some walkers game ears and crank them up to the max, then stalk forward slowly with the goal of not being able to hear your own movements even amplified through the game ears - once you can do that then perhaps you can hunt whitetail foot hunting. Until then sit your butt down at the base of a big tree and watch the trails to and from feed, water, or bedding areas. I thought I was quiet until I did this :yike: turned out I was just deaf, but I am a lot quieter now 8)
We are talking about whitetail, if your talking Elk or mulies - disregard :chuckle:
Post by: JimmyHoffa on October 16, 2012, 10:57:14 AM
Tell you what, get you some walkers game ears and crank them up to the max, then stalk forward slowly with the goal of not being able to hear your own movements even amplified through the game ears - once you can do that then perhaps you can hunt whitetail foot hunting. Until then sit your butt down at the base of a big tree and watch the trails to and from feed, water, or bedding areas. I thought I was quiet until I did this :yike: turned out I was just deaf, but I am a lot quieter now 8)Or get a horse. They make a ton more noise than a person, and you can ride around and see game like deer and bear completely unworried. :dunno: The scent? The big strange looking animal? Haven't figured it out, but so weird how critters will let a rider get so close making all that clompy noise.
Post by: coachcw on October 16, 2012, 11:09:19 AM
I took my roomate hunting when we where like 20 years old . loaned him a shotgun and headed for whidbey . I sent him down a trail and figured he'd push the area for me. great idea right? I get to the top get out and hear a bang . hear him yelling got him hike down to see the fricking biggest deer on the Island shot dead through the eye . my buddy says he sat down waited for it to get light and in about five minutes mr big walked up and put his face in the barrell so he pulled the trigger ! aleast he was only ten yards from the road .
Post by: ELKBURGER on October 16, 2012, 11:12:27 AM
guys like you, sweating and working your tails off make it easier for guys like me.Boyd Iverson goes into great detail about still hunting in his Blacktail trophy tactics books. He is a master at it...over the top...I've always heard it is not the quantity of distance, its the quality of time glassing.
When I hike in, there is no sweat, and it might take me all day to go 1/2 a mile.
If your sweating and busting out 10 miles, racing to get past all other humans thinking if you're the first one back there then the granddaddy buck will bow down to your effort and give you a free-be shot your on crack.
All your doing is moving the game. They hear you coming a mile away and duck into the thick stuff and you walk right past them.
Tell you what, get you some walkers game ears and crank them up to the max, then stalk forward slowly with the goal of not being able to hear your own movements even amplified through the game ears - once you can do that then perhaps you can hunt whitetail foot hunting. Until then sit your butt down at the base of a big tree and watch the trails to and from feed, water, or bedding areas. I thought I was quiet until I did this :yike: turned out I was just deaf, but I am a lot quieter now 8)
We are talking about whitetail, if your talking Elk or mulies - disregard :chuckle:
Most deer will freeze and watch you walk on by
Post by: NWBREW on October 16, 2012, 11:12:58 AM
Do you think I just walk out the door and find these bucks to take pics of?
Yes.......Yes we do bone. :chuckle: :chuckle:
Post by: NWBREW on October 16, 2012, 11:14:32 AM
Have you ever worked your butt off on opening day or hunting trip, only to have no success? I mean walked miles and miles up and down step canyons and hills, blisters on your feet, out of water, sweat dipping down your head, see no deer while others are dropping bucks left and right?!?! And then to see someone drop a buck with little or no work at all?!?!
More times then not....but that's ok with me.
Post by: runamuk on October 16, 2012, 11:16:25 AM
try again next weekend....
Post by: coachcw on October 16, 2012, 11:19:21 AM
Post by: runamuk on October 16, 2012, 11:27:59 AM
may be you need to hunt the least likley spot to hold a buck Run ? don't put to much thaught into it . thats my new plan .
I dont know.....I just keep trying... :dunno: at least since I started hunting muleys I see deer just not the ones I can shoot :bash: :bash:
Post by: Doc Sauce on October 16, 2012, 11:43:41 AM
Boyd Iverson goes into great detail about still hunting in his Blacktail trophy tactics books. He is a master at it...over the top...I've always heard it is not the quantity of distance, its the quality of time glassing.
Most deer will freeze and watch you walk on by
[/quote]
I am reading Mr. Iverson's book now... I am amazed. I have not seen a deer yet (still learning, new hunter and all that), but I decided about a week ago to put some of his ideas to the test. Got out of my jeep, stood there for about 10 minutes after putting on my gear. A group of hikers comes rolling up, so I wait another 10 minutes or so. Then I start creeping out of the parking area. I saw a little trail dropping down of the trail I was on, and I took it. I covered maybe 300 yards in about 2 and a half hours. Ended up in some thick stuff... so thick I was on my hands and knees and couldn't even slither through, much less be quiet. After about 10 minutes of trying to crawl/low crawl/slither super slowly for a few feet, stop and listen, slither again, I hear what sounds like a hiker crashing through the brush. I pop up and take a few steps to a more open area and pop out the binos. Then I realize the noise is not coming from a hiker. One of Boyd's things is the notion that every sound has a source and a purpose. Do not move or disregard a noise until you ascertain the source. So I sat there and realized quickly that it is a big animal... get a little creeped out thinking its a bear. It starts moving away, I figure i'm never gonna see it in this thick crap, so I go crashing forward really fast to see if I can at least catch a glimpse... I pop into a bed, looked like a cave in that brush, big buck tracks and, soft, brown deer terds... I learned a lesson...
Don't be afraid to hunt where the road hunters and rifle hikers/mountain runners are hunting because the animals aren't so scared of them.
Move super SUPER slow and quiet.
Maybe carry a heavy pistol in order to engage deer in such crazy thick underbrush.
Either way... I'm trying to break my already developing habit of trying to get far and high as fast as possible and then start hunting, and replace it with getting slow and quiet and hunt from the door of the jeep out, and back to the door of the jeep.
Let me be another one to plug Boyd Iverson's books. Now I just need to actually connect with a deer... (or a bear)...
Post by: ELKBURGER on October 16, 2012, 11:51:50 AM
Post by: bassquatch on October 16, 2012, 11:57:15 AM
Left that area alone until yesterday. Went back up and was the only one around. At 9:09am here came the deer! Doe's, and 3 bucks, a pickle fork, a huge 2x2 and a legal but very small 3x3 walking with the 2x2...the 2x2 dwarfed the 3x3! Took a 330 yard downhill shot as they were walking away from me and not slowing or stopping...clean miss :bash:. they didn't hang around to give me a second shot, up and over a saddle I wasn't following them through. As was said, it's hunting and it always seems to me to be nothing, nothing, nothing and then all hell breaks loose!
Post by: jackmaster on October 16, 2012, 12:07:40 PM
Post by: Bigbuckoholic on October 16, 2012, 12:10:51 PM
Post by: lazydrifter on October 16, 2012, 12:12:18 PM
Brant
Post by: Dustin07 on October 16, 2012, 12:50:07 PM
Do you think I just walk out the door and find these bucks to take pics of? Its called hunting for a reason. Sometimes the luck is on your side, sometimes it isn't. The harder you work, sometimes increases that luck. Something about a blind squirrel finding a nut that always makes you mad though. :)
exactly. I love the story, but I relate hunting often times to lottery. The more you play, the better your odds. This year I went three grueling days of blistered feet and exhaustion without seeing a single LIVING buck, much worse than ever before. On day 4 I not only sat down on a heard of 12 does, but for five hours I watched 2 bucks walk in and fight. it was awesome. one fantastic day like that makes up for days of zero. (my buddy took one of the bucks too!)
Post by: bone collector 12 on October 16, 2012, 12:55:39 PM
Post by: runamuk on October 16, 2012, 12:59:13 PM
Did a 6 mile loop only to shoot the buck 200 yards from being back at my truck :bash:
at least you shot a buck..... :dunno:
Post by: Dustin07 on October 16, 2012, 03:09:37 PM
Did a 6 mile loop only to shoot the buck 200 yards from being back at my truck :bash:
sounds like the best of both worlds lol. You got to put the feet to the ground, "earn" your buck, then only haul it 200 yards to the truck?? LOL :tup: