Pretty self-explanatory. I fish, I hunt. I figure I can't be the only one around here who does. This is NOT a place to let your PETA side show (unless it's People Eating Tasty Animals), so just ignore it if you have issues with those of us that don't just buy our food pre-wrapped in cellophane. And what the hell, post pics as well. If they're a bit gruesome, wrap them up in "NSFW" tags.
This past week I planned out a hunting excursion with my brother for the first firearms season here in MN (weekend of Nov. 7th). It's a managed harvest area, meaning we can get either-sex tags over the counter and a bonus tag too. He's never been deer hunting before so I hope he whacks one (and I get two). Those damn zone maps are hard to figure out after several beers.
Pretty excited, as I'm about to head back to Ontario for a couple of weeks to do the yearly week-long hunting trip with my Dad. 15 of us own 600 acres of land that backs onto 1200 acres of Crown land, and this is my 21 straight year of doing this. And I'm still the "new guy". Great times, awesome food, and total relaxation. It's got a nice cabin that can sleep about 20 that started out life as a broom handle factory, of all things. Over the years we've built it up to have propane appliances, hot running water for the shower, and all the amenities of home. Looking forward to a week of quiet contemplation in the woods, well away from all things internet. Hell, we have to drive 30 minutes to the top of a hill just to get cel service. It's the one week out of the year that let's me regroup and recharge. Dad was up there with the other guys last week for Moose season. They snuck up on this sleeping moose:
The one thing that pisses me off is that I've only hunted in Ontario my entire life, and yet every year they make me purchase a "non-resident" deer license (buck only), for outrageous amounts of money. Why the hell can't they make a national hunting/fishing license?
I'm pretty disappointed that I don't get to go deer hunting this year. I just got married, and used my vacation days for a honeymoon. Now I don't have any left to go back up to WI for deer season. About 6 years ago my Grandpa decided he wanted to start doing a real deer camp again, and went out and bought a nice outfitter's tent from Cabela's. Since then we've set up our camp every year except last year, my dad had a bad accident and couldn't do it. We don't take it too seriously, and spend most of our time playing cards and drinking beer and whiskey. It's a lot more about just getting Grandpa, Dad, my brothers and me together for a week than anything else. I keep trying to convince my dad to do a summer fishing camp instead, so that I don't have to sleep in a tent in November in WI.
Exactly! In the past couple of years we've been skunked because of some logging that was going on beside us right before our hunt that seemed to push all the wildlife out of the area. We didn't care in the least. Being the "young" technically inclined guy in the group, I brought up a cheap flat-screen TV and a bunch of stuff on my video iPod. Last year we spent the entire week laughing our asses of watching Deadwood, drinking scotch/whisky, smoking cigars, calling each other "cocksuckers", and eating like kings. (One of our guys is a chef at a major hotel in Toronto, and can cook up a motherfucking storm). Between that and impromptu Euchre tournaments, we had a blast.
Jesus Nett... your dad must have some balls. The last time I saw a moose was while fishing in the Boundary Waters and we did not feel like messing with a cow that had a calf with it. I was surprised at how big (and ugly) they are.
That's a small, young one. Probably 2 years old. And it was moose season, and no, it wasn't sleeping. (Just didn't want to get anyone all riled up). Most people are very surprised at how big they are in real life. They're big enough that in Ontario, you're not allowed to hunt for one alone... minimum two people. Too many people shoot one, get up to it, and then realize (too late) that they have a solid day's work ahead of them butchering it and getting it out of the bush. As a result, they take some of the choice meet, maybe the rack, and leave the rest. Pisses me off. Mind you, one of the funniest things I've ever seen was a guy that was new to our group, out on his first moose hunt. He was keen, excited, a great shot, and had a good head about him, so we were happy to have him along. About 2 hours into the hunt, he sees a BIG fucking bull moose off in the distance... probably 400 yards. He sights in, takes the shot, and it drops like a rock. What he forgot to take into account was the fact that moose have REALLY long legs, and love swamps. The bastard shot the thing and dropped it in a swamp, 400 yards from shore. The swamp was up to our chests when we tried to get out to it. It took 6 of us 10 hours, 3 of which were in the dark, to haul that fucking thing to the shore, and then another 2 hours to get it back to camp. Usually after a moose has been bagged there's a bit of a celebration, and a few bottles come out, and their caps thrown into the fireplace. That night we all shuffled into the cabin, scowled at "the new guy", and promptly fell asleep. We were still sore the next day, and ended up just staying in the cabin recuperating. The next year we brought him a shitty inflatable boat and tied it to the tree at his stand. He was not amused. We, of course, thought it was fucking hilarious. As luck would have it, that year he nailed a cow, and close to the same place. This time, though, he was smart enough to let it walk itself to shore first.
I just got took my hunter's safety certification class and I'm going down to Eastern Shore, MD on Thanksgiving night to hunt with my dad, uncle, and a bunch of their friends. I'll hunt goose on Friday and then deer season starts on Saturday. Since it's the first Sunday of deer season, I'll be able to hunt then, as well. I can only take two days off of work, so I'll deer hunt Saturday through Monday and do a morning hunt on Tuesday. Then I'll pack up and come home. The bag limit in MD is pretty gracious, too. I can get 10 does and 1 buck, so my freezer will almost absolutely have a good amount of meat in it when all is said and done. I can't fucking wait.
I'm looking forward to antelope hunting this year. Last year, we got two feet of snow on opening day. We couldn't even get off of the main roads. The previous year, Blue Tongue had culled over 60% of the heard -- had never seen it that bad. We hunt on a private ranch who's owner considers the antelopes pests so she asked us to come and clear them (as long as we have the correct ticket)
Water, water, everywhere. I hunt ducks in the Mississippi Delta and East Arkansas, mostly. I've spent the last couple of weekends working on a camp house and doing quite a bit of prep work for the upcoming watefowl season. I can say this with certainty- there is enough food and water in the Mississippi delta for every duck on the flyway. Flooding has caused an estimated 200-220 million dollars in lost crops, mostly corn and beans. The crops came to bear, but they could not get any equipment in the fields in order to harvest it. There is also a giant acorn yeild this year. This means that there are fields all over the Mississippi Delta that are completely covered with soybeans that will be flooded for waterfowl. This positively sucks for the farmers. This isn't so bad for the ducks. We have already heard a bunch of Woodies, saw a few Teal, and caught a few groups of big ducks, snow geese, and Specklebellies in the air. I have a very strong feeling that these ducks will hold in the area a lot longer than they have in the past. The only other fact that we need is a bitter-cold winter in North Arkansas and Missouri. As soon as the AR rice freezes up, the ducks funnel down hard. Most of our hunting will be done in layout blinds and against trees in Cypress Brakes and flooded green timber.
We hunt on county land, and there are usually a lot of hunters around us. We are lucky enough that we claimed one of the prime camping areas, and share it with another family every year. My grandpa heads up there on Wednesday or Thursday before opening day with his camper, and claims it for everyone. Due to having so many hunters in the area, a decent wolf population, and a huge coyote problem, we haven't gotten a deer for the last 3 years. We've talked about moving, but there aren't a lot of choice spots to set up a big-ass outfitters tent. So instead, we just keep going back to the same place. We have a setup with a few deep-cycle marine batteries and a power inverter, a DC powered TV, and I always bring my laptop and external hard drive full of movies and TV shows. The only reason my grandpa wanted to start deer camp is so he could get away from my grandma for a week and a half. He goes up earlier every year.
Fuck yes! I saw one of the fuckers this morning, but it ran into the corn before I could do anything about it. I'm looking forward to having the corn out and some snow on the ground so I can hunt some dogs. That new no case law is gonna come in handy.
wh wh wh WHAT? Where in this fine state are you? I do my calling west of Mankato. Lots of good open farmland.
I hunt deer and turkey, a little north of VanillaGorilla, on about 1000 acres that my father in law owns. We've taken a few good ones on the place. One was in the 160" range, a couple in the 150" range and several 140" bucks... except for last year. Last year sucked. Only one buck was killed and it was shot for a doe.
I live in Georgia and I only hunt from my porch. Usually we're watching TV when we spot them outside. I just step out on the porch and then we have meat for dinner. I've taken 5 deer this way in the past two years. Fortunately we live deep in the woods on top of a hill with no other houses nearby. The deer destroyed our garden this summer so my wife is hell-bent on taking our limit this year. She moved the rifle from the basement to the coat closet.
New Mexico Elk This is from October in Chama New Mexico. I hunted on a ranch, which I had never done before and saw one elk that I could shoot at 221 yards. I did not miss with a 300wsm. He had some genetic problems or had an accident as one of his horns was coming out at a funny angle. Yes there is a lot of blood on my hands but I eat all the stuff I shoot so I got him cutted before I sat still for the camera, he was quartered and on ice in 2 hours and is delicious
And one more that is NSFW I enjoy the butchering, and I don't like a bunch of people I don't know handling my stuff so I do it myself. Sharpen your knife every 3 minutes and it is relatively easy to do. NSFW
Re: And one more that is NSFW Nice elk. Sounds like you need a new knife. I can go an entire season and only sharpen my knife maybe twice. I usually put three whitetails in the freezer, every year, and help clean numerous others. And yes, I do realize that a elk is a lot larger than a whitetail.