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Post by USCGME2 on Sept 19, 2012 11:01:13 GMT -7
Thought I'd open a topic up for discussion on some of your more memorable hunts. Was it the time shared with a good friend or family, that BIG buck you missed clean, killing a limit of dove in under a box of shells, or just that one time when you got lost and had to pull out your survival skills for two days? One of my most memorable hunts was at Otter Slough WMA in SE Missouri. My buddy Mike and I we hunting a pool that had not done well in the last couple days but, we thought there might be some duckies back there anyway. That morning we set up and had our limit in an hour! All good ducks too, Mallards, Pintails and Bluebills and Teal to fill out. The weather was a perfect blue-bird that day with a gorgeous sunrise and just having big groups of birds one after the other working and lighting into the 'coys was a sight only waterfowlers get to see. It was just one of those days when all cylinders were firing and it was so worth it to get up that morning! Of course, there are about 10 dozen other good ones but today that is the one that stands out. Look forward to hearing some of ya'll good stories.  |
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Post by olebama on Sept 19, 2012 18:19:55 GMT -7
There was the time that my brother and I went quail hunting. The only one we got was the one we hit with the truck driving up to his place to hunt....
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Post by woodscustom on Sept 19, 2012 18:37:53 GMT -7
I've been fortunate to have killed quite a few Boone & Crockett Bucks, and have been on Many hunts with friends and family. BUT THIS ONE TAKES THE CAKE.  Packed in and lived in the mountains for 8 days, just me and WoodsCustom-Reloaded. We hunted hard, passed quite a few bears until this wopper stepped out. I was proud to be there for every second of it. WC |
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Post by woodscustom on Sept 19, 2012 18:42:01 GMT -7
Then There's WoodsCustom-REVOLUTIONS and the buck he shot last year. I rattled him up and he charged into like...4 steps from us and WCR2 SMOKED him.  WC |
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Post by woodscustom on Sept 19, 2012 18:49:42 GMT -7
Then, there's my bro, UNCLE WoodsCustom, all hunts with him are "Memorable". Like the time he did a "KUNG-FOO FLIP" off of the 4-wheeler and shot a doe running full tilt, with a M1 Garand, before his feet hit the ground. I'll never forget that one.  WC |
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Post by mud on Sept 19, 2012 20:26:42 GMT -7
One of the last times hunting with my Dad, he took a shotgun due to failing eyes. He shot a squirrel but couldn't find it. I was able to look up a hole in the base and see the critter hanging on inside. I climbed the tree so I could look down the hole, had my brother climb halfway up to pass me a 22 that was passed to him from my Dad. Stuck the barrel down, BANG! then all he!! broke loose as the critter ran UP MY GUN BARREL, MY ARM AND LAUNCHED HIMSELF OFF MY HEAD to escape certain death..as I fell out of the damn tree. Dad was laughing so hard he was crying. I was nearly crying from the fall but the only thing that was hurt that day was my pride.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2012 22:08:49 GMT -7
Hunting with fmaily & friends in Colorado for elk
My first time EVER hunting alone and got my very first buck...an 8 pointer.
Setting a stand in an area where I was told there was nothing and coming out of the woods and hour later with a nice 11 pointer!! ;D ;D ;D
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Post by wtrfwlr on Sept 22, 2012 0:27:00 GMT -7
I had to think about this one for a while, there are just so many memorable hunts. I can't think of any that aren't in some way or another. Of course there is the first deer, which was a 7 point. Or the first time to go with Dad and carry my own gun and all of that. And if I started in on the Duck hunts well......
Instead I'll start with this one.
When I was young and just starting out I shot and lost a deer. It was a Doe and I made the shot much too late in the day and there wasn't nearly enough light to take a shot even through a scope but I was young and confident. We looked all around with flashlights for any speck of blood but there was nothing. I was crushed. The ride back to camp in the old truck we used I cannot remember, I was in total shock about what I had done. When I arrived back at camp I could not face anyone and went straight to our old trailer we had there and cried my eyes out for what seemed like hours. I couldn't eat anything and I sure didn't want to face any of the other men who were all "Real Hunters" in my eyes, and I wanted so desperately to be one of them and I had failed.
We were hunting in South Texas back then and I knew that by the time I did get to the deer it would either be spoiled or devoured by coyotes. The next morning after a fitful night with very little sleep I went back to look again.
I looked and looked even on my hands and knees and walked around for the better part of the day, there was nothing. No blood, no hair, not even the bare carcass that I expected the wild dogs had left behind.
Once again back to the camp dejected. This time though was worse. I was done for, finished. Washed up as a hunter. I would never carry a gun afield again! I wouldn't think of going back out and sit a stand, I couldn't think of anything but that poor deer that I had wounded. Now my Dad, in all his wisdom let this self imposed punishment go on for a day or so but then he asked me to go sit a stand with him. Of course, I did, how could I not? I was 14 at the time but I told him I wouldn't think of carrying my rifle!
In those day's we hunted out of ground blinds that were nothing more that plywood outhouses. That afternoon he and I sat in that blind and had a long talk about what had happened. He explained to me about how everything dies at some point. And he told me about the role that I, as a hunter, played. We talked about the responsibilities of being a hunter and how every decision I made had a consequence. Now all of this had already been drilled into my head since the first day I had a BB gun but it never really held the weight as it did after shooting that Doe. That was one of the most meaningful talks I ever had with my Father and I remember almost every word of it today now 37 years later. There was one thing he said to me though that I think of almost every day and certainly any time I'm out in the field. He said " Nothing ever goes to waste in nature" And I do think of that every time I see even a dead animal on the side of the road or in the ditch, nothing goes to waste in nature.
Now please don't take this as any sort of excuse for taking a risky shot or not making the most ethical decision to make a clean kill. And certainly every effort possible has to be made to retrieve a kill or humanely dispatch a wounded animal, but if you hunt and if you hunt long enough, this is going to happen. And when it does just remember what my Father taught me, nothing in nature goes to waste.
Thanks to him I learned this lesson and yes, I learned it the hard way. But I have carried a gun and had the joys of hunting ethically ever since. Have I ever lost another deer? Yes, sadly I have. But I have never lost one to making a stupid mistake or taking a marginal shot! And I ALWAYS take every pain to follow up on each pull of the trigger even if it's a squirrel!
Oh, and just so you know. I never even came close to hitting that Doe that I shot at on that evening hunt so many years ago.
That was a memorable hunt.
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Post by woodscustom on Sept 28, 2012 5:26:37 GMT -7
There's only two types of hunters that Miss.
Those that have, and those that will.
WC
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