# Your most rewarding outdoor adventure!



## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

I don't want to hijack this forum but thought it would make some good reading if we all relived some of our most rewarding,satisfying outdoor adventures.Anybody game?
I'll start!
My most rewarding has to be shooting quail out of the air with a bow! I shoot an old fiberglass 50# recurve and custom made arrows with two flu-flu veins so I can re-knock an arrow by feel and limit it's flight path. I made my own bird heads and a wrist quiver.The heads were made from old,cracked 38 casings.Drill 2 holes all the way through and use a piece of piano wire to loop a cloverleaf and bend the ends to keep it in place. When you get birds up and "snap shoot" on the rise,re-knock and the second shot will come on the horizontal flight path.On occasion a covey will rise in small groups at which time you can actually get three arrows in flight.
In these situations you will still need to limit your shots to hitting one bird 'cause in most cases you have only broken a wing.As soon as the hit is made you need to start trying to retrieve a bird that is probably running on the ground. That's where a good dog would come in handy! You just can't believe the satisfaction of taking a quail out the old way!

Caution: You will go hungry! You'll not get much meat for a day in the field!


Wade


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## Two Tracks (Jul 13, 2013)

Great read 1shotwade! Particularly like Traditional Archery stories...I have so many true "outdoor adventure" stories that it would seem like I'm bragging, so I'll keep quiet and let others tell theirs.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

Twotracks-Just post 'em,one at a time will do fine also. It would be very interesting to hear other peoples experiences!

Wade


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## Snowfan (Nov 6, 2011)

Good idea Wade. Lets hear some Two Tracks. One of my favorites was many years ago when I had a young mans knees and eyes. I was squirrel hunting in late January in northern Indiana with the poorest excuse for a hunting dog you could imagine. Hunting wasn't all that great but it was better than working. We were in the woods all by ourselves in the middle of the week when it began to snow BIG flakes. There was no wind so I could just watch the flakes fall on my dogs face. Total, absolute quiet. Me, my dog and Gods nature. I sat on an old log and took it all in. My dog rested her head on my lap. I petted her head. She looked up at me and belched a belch that shook the snow off the trees. And STINKY!! My word. I never went back to that woods and the dog has long passed, but I still remember.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

The man steps out the door on to the screened in porch to be greeted by the whines from the chocolate lab that sleeps there. He tells her not today girl it&#8217;s a different game we seek. Stepping off the screened in porch his sight is hit by the hoar frost shimmering in the bright moon lite like a hundred thousand diamonds spilled from a diamond peddlers pack. He slowly walks across the lawn to the trail that takes him to the deer blind he has chosen to hunt that day over looking the creek and the old creek bed. It is nestled in a clump of wild dog wood bushes this year loaded with berries.
Soon he settles in the blind and pours a cup of coffee to cool as he watches the day light breaking about him. He hears a flock of turkeys deeper in the woods come off their roost then a rooster pheasant cackles Probably kicked out of its bed by another hunter.
Finally that huge orange orb starts peeking thru the trees and the first of the blue birds arrive to feast on the dog wood berries. Finally the first deer appears coming down the bank of the creek from the picked corn field next door. It is alert using its radar ears to listen to the sounds around it, licking her nose to gather fresh scent in to process for danger. Just seconds behind her is two more does a bit smaller than the first perhaps this springs fawns. They mosey along the creek going farther back in the woods where the pampas grass has a nice stand for the deer to bed in.
With in minutes 6 more does arrive and head for that pampas grass bedding area.
The radio the man carries cackles with the sound of his wife. She says there are two bucks out the living room window across the creek. One she says is a nice 4 point eastern count, the other is huge but she can&#8217;t say just how huge. The 4 point decides to go up stream and cross the road the bigger fellow she says is heading for the corn field.
Soon the man sees the big buck he is at the edge of the corn field private property. He watches it as it slowly travels in the direction the does have went but not on the creek bank. The man knows that soon that buck will be down as he has watched another hunter go to a blind about 200 yards down the fence along the corn field. He waited for the report of the gun as he watched the buck work his way along. By this time he had gotten a good look at the rack, not one with huge long tines but huge beams like the arms of a tackle on a foot ball team with 5 short tines about 2 inches long.
The report never came as expected, did the other hunter fall asleep? Was he texting his buddies or a girl friend perhaps. 
That buck lived to show him self to the man one more time in the 15 day season but once again not allowing the man a shot.
Such is muzzle loader deer hunting in southern Michigan.


There are 6 pages here of Hunting fishing and growing up on a farm in the 50's thru the 70's short stories I and my brother have wrote from our many years afield together.

http://thunderbucks.com/tbforum/index.php/board,34.0.html

 Al


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## Highground (Jan 22, 2003)

Mine happened this past June. 
It was during a cloudburst as I had just arrived at the spring to shut it down for cleaning.
A big doe was standing in the logging road and I heard a fawn bleating in the area. I followed the sound and there it was, about ten feet off the road. The fawn had tried to jump a downed pine log and had a hind leg caught in a limb with all it's weight forward. It was caught and I don't think it would have ever got free.
I kept an eye on the doe as I got close enough to help the little guy. I got a firm grip on the leg and put my other hand under it's belly and lifted it free from the log. I set it down and it took a few jumps towards momma and they both walked off into the woods. It was well worth getting soaked to the bone.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

Good ones guys! I really enjoy reading personal experiences like these.Every time I go to the woods I get educated about something.Always something new that you have never seen/heard. Nature sure is grand! Thanks


Wade


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Harvesting a critter isn't always the most rewarding hunt to me. Just so many good memory's live with this hunting partner.

I donât know just how one gets a hunting partner let alone a great one. A great hunting partner is hard to find and a treasure worth more than a ton of gold. Finding one is a matter of great luck.
Iâve had several hunting partners guys from work who decide we are combatable enough to be around each other with guns and sharp objects. Most of these outings are going out for a day of hunting a certain game animal such as rabbits or partridge, some times it is fishing. Most time there is a agreed time and place to meet for these hunts or fishing expeditions.

One of my best hunting partners was a great one. We spent 45 great years hunting and fishing and a few other things together. We helped each other on building projects as well as other project not hunting related. 
I donât have any Idea why we clicked so well, I suppose it was mostly his doing since I am on the hard side of being a nice person. Like at work I was called mister personality by most every one. 
How we met was at some sort of function my Aunt was throwing where family and friends of her family gathered for a day of fun, food and more fun. I had not been home from Viet Nam a long time so was getting the third degree from family about my being there. When Some one finally got the nerve to ask If I had killed any body I got up and left the table going for a walk in the field behind my aunts house. Isnât some thing I feel needs to be talked about even today.

As I was returning this tall drink of water met me about half way across the field. He starts off with did I shoot trap with a shot gun. I tell him NO, I didnât even have a clue how it was done or where. He says to me that if I am not doing any thing the next day to meet him at his brother in laws and we would shoot some informal trap behind the BILâs house.

I met him the next day at the appointed time, he had told me to bring several boxes of shells telling me that shot size didnât matter .
Finally they set every thing in place with about 4 boxes of clays. My new friend started explaining how they their rules were and the object of what they were doing.
We had a good time with a lot of ribbing and such. I got an invite to join them several times after that. 
It came on pheasant season and I was invited to do a couple hunts with them. We had a really good time doing those hunts. In return I invited them to go duck hunting with me. We had a real good time doing that in my hunting area. I got invited to hunt ducks where they hunted them, I was told to get some chest waders as they hunted by sneaking thru flooding. I liked doing that even better than hunting from blinds around beaver ponds.
I invited him to deer hunt my dads farm with me. Being as my dad wasnât much of a hunter when it came to deer I only knew what I had read in books about it. My new hunting partner taught me nearly every thing I know about deer hunting today. We hunted deer together for 17 years together both rifle and bow. It was getting crowded what with only 60 acres of wood land. My brother had friends who hunted with him as did my dad there was one of my sisters and my hunting partners son and the second ready to hunt alone too.
He went and found a place for him and his sons to hunt deer.
We still bow hunted together since he his sons and my brother were the only ones who used a bow.
We also fished together a lot.
I kept hunting my dads place for about 5 more years during firearm season. Then my dads friend brought his son to hunt there and he just seemed to always show up where I was at and want to stay. Being the cranky SOB I am I told him he had been assigned a very good area to hunt in so he should get back to that area and leave me in piece.
That evening I told my dad I would find a new place of my own to hunt as I was packing to leave.
Just before the next season My oldest sister called and said her Husband wondered if I would hunt with him since his brother in the Air Force had been sent to Texas. I gun hunted there for two years. I was nearly alone all that time as my BIL didnât hunt on Sundays. 
Finally Kare and I decided we would buy a place to retire too in the UPPER. After many trips to look at property a realtor would call and talk to me about and leave the directions to the property in a place for us to pick up and look at the by owner places we saw we bought 37 acres on Big Bay De Noc surrounded with sever thousands of acres of state and federal land. We closed the Deal Nov 3d 1991. I didnât deer hunt there that fall.
The next year I had two guys from work who I had hunted with say they would go up and hunt that year with me staying in our travel trailer. Three days before we were to leave they backed out saying that was a awful long ways to go and they didnât have doe permits in that area.

Kare went with me for my first time hunting there. She used to laugh because I would be down in a cedar swamp and the deer were laying right behind where I parked the travel trailer.

When I got home I called My friend and asked if he was still hunting with his son, one was in the service stationed in Colorado and the other was married and living a good distance away. He said no he was just hunting some small woodlots near his home. 
When I asked if he wanted to hunt the UPPER with me he asked for directions. He called me back in two weeks and said he had drove up there and looked around and liked what he saw. We both worked second shift but his was finished well before mine was and we were an hour and a half apart me being the most southern. So on November 12th 1992 I called him and said I was finished at work, I was running home for a shower and a change of clothes and would be at his place by 6:00 AM. I got to his place and a fresh cup of coffee was waiting for me as I walked into his house. We loaded his gear up and I told him to drive and I would get some sleep. I never did sleep that day we had so much to catch up on it seemed.
We did some scouting in the afternoon when we got there. We unpacked our gear from the truck and the next day we scouted some more.

ON the forth day I shot a nice 8 point and he shot a nice 4 point about the same time. We got them back to camp and hung them in a big oak tree near the trailer. The next day we were out hunting and got soaked during a rain storm. All our hunting clothes were wet and we just couldnât find a place to hang all of them to dry. I fixed that by the next season.
We hunted for 14 more years together there till he died in May 2005.









Al


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## homemaid (Apr 26, 2011)

My most rewarding outdoor adventure started when we were at a Whitetails Unlimited Banquet and my husband said I just bought us a trip to Africa. I could not believe what he said. He bought a 2 week hunt then he bought the next pkg. which was a 1-week photo safari. Well my planning began. We had 2- years to use this. The next day I contacted the 2 places to get some dates set up. We took advantage of the 2 years and booked our hunt first then the photo safari next for 1-1/2 years from date of purchase. Time went fast the flights cost more than buying the 2 trips. Oh well we were booked and going to South Africa. We hunted outside of Kimberly South Africa and our photo safari was by Richards Bay South Africa. 
When we arrived at our hunt I told our guide I was not hunting but I would go along with my hubby. We needless to say I'm sure he worked on commission and was very persuasive. I got out with my 270 Weatherby on my shoulder to see a very nice springbuck. I drew him into my scope at 200 yards and pow. Down he went. I thought that wasn't so bad. So I told the guide I'm done I won't hunt any more. If any of you have gone on any hunts like this the $$$ signs are running through my head. I knew that my husband wanted to get a Kudu and they were a bit pricey. After my husband got a springbuck, and 2- blesbucks, our guide said it was my turn again. I told him no I was done. As we drove through the bush he spotted a few Gemsbucks. He said to me come.... I reluctantly got out with my rifle. My heart was pounding this time as we walked into the bush stalking this animal. This was a longer shot about 250 yards. He said shoot the 3rd from the right. I'm thinking I sure hope I take the right one... My heart felt like it was pounding right out of my chest. As I zero in on this big guy he says take him. I shoot and hear a thud. Oh my gosh I just shot this big critter. Well he didn't just fall like the first one. So we had to track him. As we were walking we came up to a rhino coming our way. I was scared he would attack me. The guide put his finger up to his lips to tell my shhhh. We wandered off the path we were following out and around the rhino like he didn't even care we were there. Well we did not find my Gemsbuck. Now my $$$$ were really going through my head. You pay the same if you injure and do not kill the animal. We went back to camp that night and I started to cry thinking I had injured that animal and he was out there suffering. Everyone tried to comfort me but I wasn't listening. Well the next morning our guide came in with a big smile and he found my Gemsbuck on his way out last night. He was a beauty. I felt SOOO much better. But I am not shooting anything else I told him. He laughed and said ok he wouldn't push me. well the last night of our hunt my husband got his trophy Kudu.. It was a trip of a lifetime and I have not hunted since, the trip was in 2007.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

WHOW!! Y'all got some neat stories! Keep'm comin'! i love this!

Wade


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## Two Tracks (Jul 13, 2013)

Ok, as a small kid, I lived in the country and was always in the woods and fields exploring with my dog. We trespassed in all directions... bringing a hook and fishing line in case we found ourselves near a lake or stream, I'd break off a branch dig up a worm and throw my line in, I caught catfish and blue gills mainly. I set up crawfish traps and sometimes caught them by baiting and swooping em' Then I'd bring my bounty to cook up at home. 

I was outside exploring all the time, as a girl, by myself in the 70's... I feel bad for todays kids, everyone's paranoid to let their kids go off and explore, I'm paranoid too... my daughter doesn't go past our property... I'm glad she seems content to stay here on the farm. I would have been miserable growing up in this age.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

Most of my great outdoor stories start with me and the wife jumping on the motorcycle with all our camping gear packed in the trailer we pull behind the bike... 

Beautiful twisty mountain roads, the great outdoors, little traffic, and very primitave camping spots in the middle of nowhere.

Each trip was always a great relaxing adventure... The people, the places, and the wildlife... 

I know it's not hunting or similar, but that's the way we enjoy the outdoors..


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## driftwood (Jun 29, 2013)

hearing my 70ish dad shoot the biggest buck of his life that i ran to him...

hearing my son's shot when he killed a 13pt that i had helped pick out the
stand...........

standing beside my daughter while she shot at and finally hit her first deer.........

feeling my dad's presence when i killed a really hard earned old buck............


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Most rewarding would be tough. Most memorable is easier for me.

There was the time I fell through the ice and went all the way to the bottom in 8-10' of water wearing chest waders and shoulder length gauntlets one sunny spring day.

Or the time my dog alerted me to something and I found a old beaver hole with all the grass flattened around it. Expecting that it might be a trapped animal I tried to stay back as I looked in the hole but the sun was in my eyes so I leaned cautiously forward. I heard a low groan and that's when I saw a tan colored object about 3' from my face. When my eyes focused it turned out to be the muzzle of a denning bear.

Another time I was grouse hunting near a small remote lake. I kept hearing these loud CRACKS! When I looked across the lake I could see a black bear at the very top of a burr oak. It would reach up and bend down a top branch until it broke. Then it would eat the acorns. After a while it climbed down and started swimming across the lake in my direction so I fired into the air a couple of times to warn it to stay away.

I don't know that they are rewarding but I sure remember them.


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## AndrewOSpencer (Jun 18, 2013)

Solid stories yall. Mine is my bear hunt a year ago. I've written about it here: http://wp.me/p3bCKM-4H 

I don't want to take up too much band width so I'll give you a few photos to enjoy. It was a great hunt with my father who'd just had hip surgery. We were successful on the fourth day hunting and it was something I hope I can do with each of my sons sometime. 

Boat ride to camp


It was really heavy. The land I was walking across was boggy. 



Field Dressing



Enjoy the full story here: http://wp.me/p3bCKM-4H


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## am1too (Dec 30, 2009)

Hey some of these posts are neat.

Yesterday I was out walking the dogs (3 of them) on leashes. Gotta have full control these days.

Anyway I came face to face with a large 6 point buck less than 200 feet. He had been hit with an arrow about a half hour prior I learned the next day from my neighbor.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

Anytime I'm in the Wild and the critters take no notice of me.

Best was a blue bird landed on my arrow and bounced all the way to my chest before he knew I was not part of that tree!

I've seen some really neat things being a bump on the proverbial log.

No time to nap well sitting, too much to see!

That is if your eyes are open!


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

I know there are bigger stories than mine, but I remember, as a 14 yr-old, setting out in a cold December morning during Christmas vacation with my beagle, sandwiches, 20 ga shotgun, and pockets full of shells. I would walk up to 2 miles from home, hunting all the way and kicking out rabbits that my dog would bring back to me in a circle. About midday I would have lunch, and give 1/2 to the dog as well. Then we would work our way home. By dark I generally had my limit, strung on a rope type stringer hung around my neck and shoulder. After dinner, I would clean them all up. And sleep came easy on those evenings!


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## littlejoe (Jan 17, 2007)

There have been so many, I can't pick just one. They have involved me singly, or with my boys. Wow... the memories that come to mind! We continuously hunted, as well as trapped and fished in season.

We were exposed to a lot since we lived in it. The best of the best involved my kids though! One of the later of the good ones...wish I had pictures of them all. Two of the boys and I went a few miles south of here, to where I grew up. We made camp at a little single room rock homesteader shack, while we hunted some elk. A pic of #2 sons score.

They were both using knives I had made them, for the task at hand. I have another pic or two of hunts, just not on photobucket yet. Many many moments are just pics in my mind, and theirs as well!


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## oth47 (Jan 11, 2008)

One experience that stands out in my memory is one that involved a red fox and a milk jug.I was wandering the woods with a .410 shotgun in the fall and worked my way to the top of the knob.I heard a noise off to my left and worked my way in that direction.There was a red fox doing battle with a milk jug.I sat there a long time,the fox would carry the jug to the top of the little clearing he was in,then let the jug roll off down the slope.After it got 10-12 feet away,he'd run down and tackle it.The jug would put up a heck of a battle,but the fox always prevailed.This went on for probably 45 minutes to an hour,carrying,chasing and fighting the jug.The fox finally quit and walked off out the knob and I sat there marveling at what I'd seen.What I'd have given for a video camera..


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## Two Tracks (Jul 13, 2013)

Ok, most of my stories are sadly from the past...and an awful camera which never caught it all... I spend most my days now filled with homeschooling, raising natural colored sheep for wool and lamb production. The wool I use to make wool felt camo hunting wear, mainly for traditional bowhunters (my husband is a longbow/recurve bowyer) we blend our home based business to suit our kind of people, outdoorsmen.

I've learned tremendous respect for nature over the years spent practicing survival skills, I learned that good ol' wool will save your life! and that's why I set out to make what isn't being made commercially with wool and that's felt...strong, dense, repels wind & water due to sheer mass of fibers, it amazes me still! 

Ok, I say this for telling the reasons I do what I do now (my plate is full and when I catch a breath I'll go to the woods like an old faithful friend) 

My awakening came about by almost spending the night lost on a North Western Montana mountain while hunting a bobcat with our 4 hounds, this was suppose to be an easy kill ~ha, the cat had other idea's. We saw the big cat cross right in front of the truck hauling hounds on a logging road, easy we thought when he treed about 200 yds, we grabbed our guns and all I threw on was my cotton carhardt coat and bibs, I left my pack in the truck (this was gonna be a cake walk, I didn't need the pack!) Well the cat bailed when we got close and the dogs hot after it, we followed. then again and again for 5 times total, it's getting dark we've been thru awful blow down and it's snowing and I'm wet, cold, thirsty, hungry, worried. No dogs, we're getting farther in territory we have no idea about, no gps. My husband asks if I'm prepared to stay the night on the mtn. or try to find our tracks back with a dimming flashlight and all the rest I mentioned. My thought was I'll get Hypothermia if we stay here in my wet cotton carhardt's so, we tracked back not without difficulty especially when we reached the dreaded blow down but we prayed and my husband found our way through, when we got closer to the truck we could hear the dogs whimpering, well all but one, "Yarrow" our awesome no quit, sweet girl. 

We loaded up the dogs went home to feed the dogs change ourselves "put on my woolies" and eat, then headed back with "Yarrows" dog house and a bowl of food to where we were originally parked, we stayed and called for a few hrs and left the dog house to come back in the morning without "Yarrow" making it back so we geared up and climed the mtn. calling then in a short while we hear whimpering and here comes Yarrow with a pile of snow on her head. That sweet girl layed on our couch for 2 days, we had to drag her off to go potty. I miss her that was 16 years ago. 

Just thought I'd tell this story, I'll post some photo's of some past that got taken from my then lousy camera... I'm a farmer now but the wilderness made me want to outfit others in wool. Thanks for reading this ~Chris www.twotracksbow.com


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## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

I have about 50 years of experience with hunting and fishing. All kinds of mishaps and funny memmories to share. But what stands out most out of all of them, is my 3 daughters fishing with me when they were little girls. My best memory is one time on our way to the fishin hole we stopped at burger king for breakfast and they gave my girls a gold crown to wear. By this time the oldest girl was too mature to wear hers but the two younger ones were very proud of wearing theirs. So we went to a popular place to fish for sandbass during the spawn. You could practically throw out a bare hook and catch a fish that day. Lots of people there that were getting a kick out of watching our two younger daughters wearing those goofy looking crowns and just catching fish left and right. They were so dorky looking, but they were having a blast. I took a picture of them and have to get it out every once in a while to tease them with it. They can't believe how dorky they looked!


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

I have a ton. But one of the most unique was bagging a moose 9 miles back in the BWCA. Took us 3 days to get it out.


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## littlejoe (Jan 17, 2007)

bowdonkey said:


> I have a ton. But one of the most unique was bagging a moose 9 miles back in the BWCA. Took us 3 days to get it out.


 Aye! Sounds like a heck of lot of work!

The hunt the boys and I were on in the pic above. I told them not to be making any down in the canyon shots that would be extra hard to retrieve. #2 son fired 4 shots and connected good with 3 of them, and I thought sure as heck he was taking shots that would take us mucho work to get them in the wagon?

Turned out he had downed the bull within 100 yards of a two track road. I was a happy pa! hehe! I'da still been happy if it was in the bottom of canyon as well!


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## mdharris68 (Sep 28, 2006)

While not my most rewarding adventures, two times have I had birds try to land on me or real close to me. First time I was standing in a cow lot waiting for the turkeys to meander away so I could circle them and set up on them. A robin thought I was a tree and flared to land on my head, which made me flinch when I realized his intent, but it made me realize my camo was spot on. The other time while bowhunting was when a chickadee was within a foot of my face on a branch looking me eye to eye trying to figure me out. Some of the best experiences are just collateral to you're intended focus.

One rewarding adventure that comes to mind happened during rifle deer season one year. I was set up in a great spot, hunting from the ground and I had a nice ten point buck come within about ten-fifteen yards of me. I was looking watching him for what seemed an hour. He gave me two or three shots, which were way off, due to lack of practice with grandpa's gun and tremendous buck fever. Well he finally got scared from the noise and walked away. The reward in this story is that a couple months later, I found both of his sheds within a few feet of each other and I had been able to look at him close enough and long enough that there was no mistake these were his horns. Just a reminder to hang on the wall that I totally blew it, but what a great time. Buck fever; I hope I never loose it.


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## billfosburgh (May 20, 2009)

everytime i`m out is a rewarding adventure or memory and i`m outdoors almost everyday, summer winter i dont care. i run my dogs year round.
But the most memorable was a few years ago. my daughter always hunted with me & we always rabbit hunted every Thanksgiving Day, kind of a tradtion we had. well that Thanksgiving she was in her 1st year at BYU & i was at work thae night before the holiday thinking "well i guess i`m on my own in the morning"
well i called home to talk to my wife & darned if my daughter answered the phone!!
she saved her money for the plane ticket & flew home & my wife picked her up at the airport after i went to work. it was the best kept secret ever in our family.
i`m not much of an emotional feller but when she answered that phone i almost lost it. well i`d like to say we had this huge hunt & killed alot of rabbits but we didnt. we hunted 3 or 4 hours & had a great time with each other. only killed 2 rabbit & did alot of missing but that hunt was my best ever.
she now lives in Arizona(yuk) so we dont get to hunt on Thanksgiving much. i`m on my way out now with my 8 year old son with my squirrel dog, then we are checking traps so i guess we are still "livin the dream"


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## Nathan (Jun 8, 2006)

My most rewarding is Ohios deergun season which starts Monday, and I have the week off


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

Two Tracks ,for the life of me... I cant make out whats your holding in that last pic?


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

I'm guessing prairie dog!

Wade


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## Two Tracks (Jul 13, 2013)

||Downhome|| said:


> Two Tracks ,for the life of me... I cant make out whats your holding in that last pic?


We call those Ground Hogs, Wood Chucks, Whistle Pigs, Varmint's....


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

Yah,They are 2 different things. I thought you we from out west plus that's a mighty small hog. Don't know if you have ever tried this but we always ate the nice young ones like that.Been a long time since I've seen one. The coyote have wiped them out around here since the 70's.


Wade


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## Two Tracks (Jul 13, 2013)

1shotwade said:


> Yah,They are 2 different things. I thought you we from out west plus that's a mighty small hog. Don't know if you have ever tried this but we always ate the nice young ones like that.Been a long time since I've seen one. The coyote have wiped them out around here since the 70's.
> 
> 
> Wade


We used to live in Northwestern Montana, it was Great!! I miss it terribly...adventure every day in those mtns. We are from Michigan and came back a few years ago to pick up work and then our daughter was born and we bought a farm house, been here since but I never thought we would be here this long... dreams and plans of going back to North Western Montana still loom, need to be totally self sufficient and hope our business can do it, the local economy there is very much non existent! Was built on Logging /mining industry years ago and has suffered since the 90's. We took any odd job available and we're competing with any other strong back in the valley! We did well with guiding lion hunters and my Husband was a big game guide but that is a short season and a long Winter before any other work to happen, we did this for years and it wasn't going to get better so Chuck's bro called and said he had jobs for us in MI and we left... boo hoo Yes, that was a small hog, nice head shot thou don't ya think? ~hee hee


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

I read a story one time where a guy was hog hunting 250yd out. He set up a front and rear rest for his 700bdl 308. Had a hole scoped out and was on target with the rests. Sitting in the morning sun enjoying the day,having a smoke when the hog came out.He went to get on the scope and bumped the gun and the hair trigger went off.Boom,dead hog. 250 yd. accident! I thought it was funny,and too weird to not be true.


Wade


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

Two Tracks said:


> We used to live in Northwestern Montana, it was Great!! I miss it terribly...adventure every day in those mtns. We are from Michigan and came back a few years ago to pick up work and then our daughter was born and we bought a farm house, been here since but I never thought we would be here this long... dreams and plans of going back to North Western Montana still loom, need to be totally self sufficient and hope our business can do it, the local economy there is very much non existent! Was built on Logging /mining industry years ago and has suffered since the 90's. We took any odd job available and we're competing with any other strong back in the valley! We did well with guiding lion hunters and my Husband was a big game guide but that is a short season and a long Winter before any other work to happen, we did this for years and it wasn't going to get better so Chuck's bro called and said he had jobs for us in MI and we left... boo hoo Yes, that was a small hog, nice head shot thou don't ya think? ~hee hee


thinking the head shots why I had some trouble figuring it out, you must of blew the critters head off and two county's over...


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

When I was a younger fella I was a Rambo type hunter. I would go hunting 3 to 4 times a week during season. I have lots of memories that today's generation will never experience because they don't get out.

One afternoon I went chasing pheasants. I had my experienced golden and my brother's year old black lab. We stopped by a wildlife management area that had a little two track road going part way into it. Most hunters would drive down that road, park, and start hunting. I like to switch things up after the season has been open for a while so I parked on the gravel road and we walked down the two track one. Now that road parelled a farm field so there was about a 25 foot wide strip of grass between the two. The farmer had just harvested the corn in that field the day before. We got a ways down the road and the lab went nose down, tail up, and started coursing back and forth in that grass strip. My golden ran about 50 yards down that road, cut into the grass, and started working back towards us. That poor pheasant had no where to go, open field on one side, road on the other and dogs coming at it from the other two directions. We got that bird and it was a willy old rooster that had seen several seasons. I am sure his escape tactics were to run into the field or down the strip of grass into the bigger wild area. I am still amazed that the golden was able to reason the problem out and act on it.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Couple years ago I had 45Cal. Muzzleloader I wanted to try out. Thought I'll go Hog hunting. Go by the house wait by a trail, looking one way waiting on them to come out of the brush.

Setting next to a down Cedar. Catch sight of something out corner of my eye coming from the other direction. Looked it was a Big Boar, I pull up and shoot, he drops.

Call my wife told her I had a Big Boar down. You need help? Can I have him mounted? No. I don't need no  help! Hung up on her. Field dressed him, found I couldn't move him :facepalm: called my wife back. :kissy: Dear I'm going to have to have some help. It's on its way, Son is coming.

I go back meet him at the house. Its good and dark by then, he asked about getting it out, well we could try the river but I don't know if we can get Boat there. Son says well lets use Deer cart. Get down there Son says how far back is it? Oh just little ways. Yea Dad I know your little ways. Get to the Hog, get it strapped on Deer Cart. Pull it through the brush to first hill. Tried to pull it up :umno: Son looks at me. Dad did you think this through? No not really. Well what are we going to do? Well we could quarter it. No that would take too many trips, we need to get it out in one piece. Well I have a Block and Tackle and Come Along. Ok. So we go back to the house and get this.

Get back down there, 5 foot at a time getting it up this hill. Stop take breaks, pants freezing, look at Giggers on the river, full Moon and talking over life. Finally 2AM we get it to the house.

Next morning my Son told his Mom there is no way this Hog isn't getting mounted. And showing his concern for me says Mom do you realize what Dad is doing? He is going to get killed and no body is going to find him. Out there shooting Hogs with Muzzleloader, on the ground and he can't run.

It sure was fun with my Son, never a complaint having fun.





big rockpile


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

Nice post! Nice p-i-g , hog!

Wade


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## montysky (Aug 21, 2006)

This past October (youth hunt) my 13 year old son got his First Buck, .257 Roberts 100 yards. Told him it is our deer for this year. I think that made him just about as proud as I was with him. I got a Elk this year but I know that deer is going to taste a lot better.


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