Author Topic: Hunting  (Read 42133 times)

Offline Tamer

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Re: Hunting
« Reply #165 on: November 03, 2013, 06:17:40 AM »
Well this has been a pretty good week for me. I thought last night would be a bust as it was so windy and the weather had intermittent rain squalls so it was nasty. I was sitting in a blind so the worse was off of me, but this spot is right besides a travel road with a gate and after hearing that gate crank about a hundred times it seemed the group that was in the field I was watching spooked and ran away (a groud of five bucks and 3 or 4 does) so I thought the hunt was over. I was just about to pack up at evening light when this one walked in. His horns shined a lot! The inside spread was over 17 inches.





If it were not for lighted sight pins I could not have harvested this bad boy. I knew I hit him good (last pic heart shot) and he crashed just out of the field. I was literally able to drive my truck right too him. I also tried out a Havalon Piranta Knife last night and was extremely impressed. I will put the link here:

Amazon Piranta Bolt Link

This thing is really crazy sharp like they advertised. It is not really to heavy to cut through bone (I did go through the tail to skin though) and makes field dressing a snap. I would highly recommend going slow as a slip with this will probably mean an emergency room visit, but when the surgical blade gets dull (mine didn't after field dressing and skinning) you just take some pliers and replace it (comes with 12 blades). I can see it rapidly replacing all my hunting knives.

It was great that my little gal was up when I got home to share in the experience. We finished the night by loading the dehyrdrator which was finally ready to go after having the jerky marinade for two days. It has been a great hunting week in the Tamer household. I am trying to talk my wife into picking up her bow now. Fingers crossed. The rut hasn't hit full tilt yet and I am tagged out!

Offline Tamer

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Re: Hunting
« Reply #166 on: April 20, 2020, 10:59:38 AM »
Wow, it has been over 7 years since I have posted here! Guess time has gotten away from me, but I have still been hunting over those seven years. Got a pretty nice buck this past Fall during Archery Season during the whitetail rut. I saw the brute running full tilt on the trail of a doe at the far end of the field hundreds of yards away. I tried grunting at him and he didn't even look. Figuring I had nothing to loose at that point I hit my rattle bag a couple of times which is really only good for that magic rut time of the year and even then its risky. Still, he was running away from me so I said what the hey.

Well, as it was very cold (November 9th), I had a heck of a time putting the rattle bag away in my pocket with the gloves I had on. I looked back to the field expecting it to be empty, but boy was I wrong. This dude was hard charging and it was all I could do to just grunt at him to get him to stop. He was like a frightened cat, every hair on his body was standing on end. If I had been on the ground he would have mauled me. I have never had a decent one do this me before and man was it pretty cool. It was nice to fill the freezer as the rest of the season was pretty bad. I even bought a new rifle for that season and didn't get to use it. Part of it was as I get older I am getting more selective as man do they feel heavier now than when I was younger! Here is a pic:


Fast forward to today and I went out for the first day of Spring Turkey Hunting today. I had three gobbling birds on the roost, but they didn't gobble once they hit the ground. Thats a bad sign. It either means they are with hens (I didn't hear any though) or they are done for the season. I am gonna try to get a bit closer in the morning between where they fly down and do their morning foraging with some sparse calling. Its risky though, but about the only thing to try.

And on my morning walk I came across about a dozen of these:



They were just breaking through the ground and in a fairly safe area so I am gonna see if they will grow a bit more before I grab em. Morels are one nice find.

Offline JDeck

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Re: Hunting
« Reply #167 on: April 21, 2020, 07:35:01 AM »
Dang that's wild. Those deer don't play, they can mess your day up real fast. Great find on the morels, I don't know enough about wild mushrooms to take a chance on picking them, personally. But it's a great thing to know how to identify them.

Offline Tamer

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Re: Hunting
« Reply #168 on: April 21, 2020, 11:18:01 AM »
Great find on the morels, I don't know enough about wild mushrooms to take a chance on picking them, personally. But it's a great thing to know how to identify them.

Yeah, those are the only ones I will mess with as I know they are safe, but more importantly man are they tasty! I mean so much better than any other mushroom you can buy.

Now on to Turkey Season Day 2. It started off with some gorgeous weather but then the rain and the wind rolled in. I didn't hear any of those birds off the roost, but I did get closer like I wanted to and found a dandy of a set up spot. They sure didn't gobble though, but man I was right beside a roaring creek and it could have muffled the sound a bit, but still figured I would hear something. Oh well, thats hunting.

So it started raining and blowing it upside down into my face (not kidding) so I decided I was too old to deal with weather like that and walked back to the truck. When I got back it cleared off a bit so I decided to just walk an old logging road to look for some turkey sign. After a small walk I started seeing some scratching, but I wasn't sure if it was deer or turkey. I called sporadically a bit and nothing so I decided to go around one more small corner and try one last call before I went home and bingo a gobble!

It got crazy there for a few minutes as it was close. I figured they (by this time I heard another close gobble) were coming in and were on the same logging road I was. So I wait and nothing. A little bit later another gobble a bit further away so I decide to sneak up a little (I was up above the logging road just a bit now trying to hide) and found a deadfall to sorta hide behind (it wasn't much, but better than nothing). So when I call again one answers right below me and I mean right below me (below the logging road) on a steep hill and I know I am close close. Then another one gobbles a little further out but pretty much on the same level (below the logging road). Fast forward another half hour of me calling and them answering and finally this one popped back up on the logging road about twenty yards. I was able to swing the red dot right ahead of him and boom!



I never did see the one right below me, but know it was there. I figured I would see it soaring as man it was a really, really steep hill. I know that because this one rolled all the way to the bottom of it and I had to carry it back up. I didn't mind too much as this was a great burden to bear! Turkey nuggets on Friday! Gonna crock pot the rest. I will try to put some pics in here when I do both.

As if the day couldn't get any better, my buddy who taught me to turkey hunt (who I haven't seen in many, many years) called my wife right as I texted her the images. She asked me what Jason (my friend) thought of my bird and I said I haven't seen him for years. She said well he just called the house. She texted me the number and he was literally only a half mile from where I shot my bird. I mean crazy, crazy coincidence. We met up and admired this ole boy (at a safe social distance) and it felt great as I do consider him my hunting mentor (he taught me everything I know about hunting). We both agree we are getting older to do a lot of the stuff we used to do when younger, but we can still hang.

To make it even crazier he said he gave up turkey hunting that morning as he was really hunting some Morels and we were not even a hundred yards from where I spotted those from the day before. The look on his face when I said follow me and I will show you some was priceless. I think he thought I was joking. He got over that pretty quick though. He said the one was bigger than any he has found in years (he is an avid shroom hunter as he calls it). So, it was one pretty rewarding day. Oh yeah, I love my red dot sight. Love it!
« Last Edit: April 21, 2020, 11:29:26 AM by Tamer »

Offline Tamer

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Re: Hunting
« Reply #169 on: April 23, 2020, 01:16:11 PM »
I went hunting again this morning and had a great experience. It was two and a half hours of gobbling birds. I made so many good choices on what to do and then one bad one; I shot at one too far out of range, but saw him clearly and he was not hurt.

I got to see two gobblers fight over me (the hen). It was cool. If I had had a rifle I could have easily harvested either one, but using a shotgun means you have to bring em close. Having played tag with one of the two for over two and a half hours I managed to corner him on a logging road. He was jus sitting there strutting for the longest time. I was in an awkward postion basically laying wide open on the logging road as there were no other options and I kept getting worried he would see me and spook. I rushed the shot. Its hunting not grocery shopping, but man was it fun. It was probably the most fun turkey hunt I have ever had without harvesting the bird.

And on that note the turkey nugget supplies are being picked up curbside tomorrow. Nuggets on Saturday, Barbacue on Sunday.

I think I might go back out for a bit Saturday morning. I am just glad to be able to go somewhere and get out of the house a bit.