2021-2022 hunting thread

[Publiushorn 113]

43 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

I got extremely close to a trip once, and it got postponed, then cancelled altogether.  Need to get back on that. Argentina is full of great wing shooting, meat, and wine.  This was several years ago and we were told it would be about 5k all in, with some gifts/tips sprinkled in for the bird boys (men).  Glad to see it hasn't gone crazy, especially with the inflation they are fighting (>50%).

We honestly could've done it for $750 cheaper. We paid about $300 extra per person to upgrade our lodge from the package we bought then we each doubled the recommended tip for the bird boys. 

[Teebox 89]

3 hours ago, Publiushorn said:

we used David Denies and stayed at the la Dormice Lodge. 

This was almost exactly my experience with Miles & Miles 

[686 3448]

Colorado Elk draw was today and I was successful again with a bull tag.

[deadshank 24652]

23 minutes ago, 686 said:

Colorado Elk draw was today and I was successful again with a bull tag.

Which section do you hunt?

I used to hunt section 35 on the north side of Eagle.  Beautiful place where we could see Vail, Avon, Beaver Creek, Cordillera and Aspen all to  the south of us.  

[686 3448]

Which section do you hunt?
I used to hunt section 35 on the north side of Eagle.  Beautiful place where we could see Vail, Avon, Beaver Creek, Cordillera and Aspen all to  the south of us.  

77 and 771 around Pagosa Springs. It’s an area managed for access and not for trophy quality, so there are a lot of hunters, but my hunting partner has a family cabin there that puts us in a great spot where we can hunt all day miles off the trail and get a hot shower/cold beer/warm meal/soft mattress every night which makes it more enjoyable and less work. 35 sounds like a beautiful area.




There is so much “point creep” right now for trophy areas - I know I’ll have to go landowner tags at some point if I want to get a really nice bull. Luckily I’m still in the stage where I feel truly thankful for any elk I can put on the ground, so I’m going to enjoy that for as long as possible.

I also drew a mule deer buck tag which I’ll convert into a preference point and I bought a moose preference point as well - maybe in 20 years I’ll have enough points to draw a moose tag.

[686 3448]

@deadshank what elevation is your Idaho hunt at and what terrain?

A factor for me this year - I partially tore my left calf muscle six weeks ago. I was on crutches for 4 weeks. It feels much better now but the Ortho specialist told me nothing athletic for 12 weeks or I’ll risk re-tearing it. 6-12 months for “full” recovery (never really back to 100% probably).

So luckily I have my gear pretty well sorted out as I’ll need to be focusing on rehab and fitness this summer. Definitely don’t want to explode my calf during an elk pack out.

[Kennythetiger 9380]

@deadshank I thought about your wife (that’s what she said!) as I came across almost the entire goddamn state of Wyoming. Heading to Billings, MT tomorrow for a week. Beautiful country up here, no doubt. 

[tx 3 putt 76917]

On 6/2/2022 at 11:52 AM, Publiushorn said:

I've been meaning to post about this for a few weeks but haven't sat down to do it, but here it goes. At the beginning of May, me and three friends went dove hunting in Argentina. We got the trip in August of 2020 almost through happenstance. I live in a Gulf Coast County in Southeast Texas, and my county's Ducks Unlimited chapter held their annual banquet and live auction online because of COVID. It also happened to be the weekend that Hurricane Laura was supposed to hit us so nobody was paying attention to the auction and we bought the trip for the minimum bid. Ultimately, we think it might have saved us $750 at most, but it was definitely the impetus for us to go.

Two of us had some trouble getting down there (United delayed our overnight flight from Houston to Buenos Aires by 12 hours, making it a day flight and turning our 4-hour layover from BA to Cordoba into a 12-hour layover where we had to spend a night in BA and causing us to miss almost a full day of sightseeing in Cordoba), but once our outfitter picked us up at the Cordoba airport, the experience was fantastic.

Our lodge was about an hour and a half from the airport, but they took us straight to the field to start hunting. We all shot 20 gauge Benelli Montefeltros--two of ours being brand new--that we rented from the lodge. The bird boys (men) were all fantastic and reloaded our shotguns for us (I'm still not sure how I feel about that). They built nice blinds each day and had plenty of beer for us while we hunted. Each day we had a 7:00 wakeup call followed by breakfast and a ~30 minute drive to the field. We would usually hunt for about 3-3.5 hours then break for lunch. The would cook lunch for us in the field then serve it to us at a table under a tent with beer and wine. After, they had hammocks and cots set up for us to nap for about an hour before the afternoon hunt. 

After we hunted, they would take us back to the lodge, which was an experience itself. They had a fully stocked bar, a full menu for us to order from, a hot tub. They also had a masseuse available and dry cleaning. We almost wished we had an afternoon off so that we could relax there. 

On the hunting, we had all heard stories about people shooting 1,000 birds a day, but frankly we didn't see those flights. Each of us budgeted to shoot 1,000 shells a day, but we all ended up shooting half that. Having said that, we all agreed that was a nice, steady pace and weren't upset by it at all. Anymore would've been work. The bird boys picked up as many dove as the could after we hunted, which they cleaned and donated to local schools. 

In all, each of us spent about $5,500 on the trip including airfare, with the costs spread out over almost two years. I would recommend doing it once and can see myself doing it again several years from now. I would use the same outfitter but stay at a different lodge, only to get a little different of an experience.  

 

ive done it twice, each time was on the 'down low', through locals. we went around the local hunting mafia (they track shells). 1000+ birds a day, easily. 

it's a great time. cordoba has a ton of universities, great night life. ive been to cordoba 4 times, timed once the weekend before the start of school. i need to figure out that trip timing again 

Edited June 4, 2022 by tx 3 putt

[deadshank 24652]

8 hours ago, 686 said:

@deadshank what elevation is your Idaho hunt at and what terrain?

A factor for me this year - I partially tore my left calf muscle six weeks ago. I was on crutches for 4 weeks. It feels much better now but the Ortho specialist told me nothing athletic for 12 weeks or I’ll risk re-tearing it. 6-12 months for “full” recovery (never really back to 100% probably).

So luckily I have my gear pretty well sorted out as I’ll need to be focusing on rehab and fitness this summer. Definitely don’t want to explode my calf during an elk pack out.

We will be in Idaho unit 17.  It’s in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.  I’ve been told 4000-9000 feet elevation.  
 

I’m hoping the big bulls and bucks will be languishing in the bottoms just off a well maintained two track and not far from the bar. 
 

 

[deadshank 24652]

5 hours ago, Kennythetiger said:

@deadshank I thought about your wife (that’s what she said!) as I came across almost the entire goddamn state of Wyoming. Heading to Billings, MT tomorrow for a week. Beautiful country up here, no doubt. 

Haha.  That’s funny.   It is pretty country, no doubt  

She doesn’t start rodeoing until July when she ships out for 3 months.   She will start in CO and finish up in NE but with stops all over the place.  There is now east one way path or a well organized loop.  Lots of back and forth.  
Arizona to Iowa ain’t easy. 

[BabaYaga 15290]

On 6/4/2022 at 6:31 AM, deadshank said:

Haha.  That’s funny.   It is pretty country, no doubt  

She doesn’t start rodeoing until July when she ships out for 3 months.   She will start in CO and finish up in NE but with stops all over the place.  There is now east one way path or a well organized loop.  Lots of back and forth.  
Arizona to Iowa ain’t easy. 

This ol' highway's getting longer
Seems there ain't no end in sight
To sleep would be best, but I just can't afford to rest
I've got to ride in Denver tomorrow night

[deadshank 24652]

1 hour ago, BabaYaga said:

This ol' highway's getting longer
Seems there ain't no end in sight
To sleep would be best, but I just can't afford to rest
I've got to ride in Denver tomorrow night

Yep.  She’s found the romance of rodeo road life quickly fades.  Lots of monotony on the road and plenty of unpaid time running slack into the wee hours after the shows.  Little towns 80% boarded up sprinkled along vast stretches of black top.  Keeping it between the mustard and mayonnaise is hard with road hypnosis.  

[baboso 6054]

19 hours ago, deadshank said:

Yep.  She’s found the romance of rodeo road life quickly fades.  Lots of monotony on the road and plenty of unpaid time running slack into the wee hours after the shows.  Little towns 80% boarded up sprinkled along vast stretches of black top.  Keeping it between the mustard and mayonnaise is hard with road hypnosis.  

Steer wrestler focused, but a good book on PRCA life.

[BabaYaga 15290]

20 hours ago, deadshank said:

Yep.  She’s found the romance of rodeo road life quickly fades.  Lots of monotony on the road and plenty of unpaid time running slack into the wee hours after the shows.  Little towns 80% boarded up sprinkled along vast stretches of black top.  Keeping it between the mustard and mayonnaise is hard with road hypnosis.  

Yep.  Cousin studied Animal Sciences @ Tech and went on to get her MBA as well.  Back in April her team @ Tech were the champions of the 2022 Hughes Ranch Trailers Collegiate Ranch & Stock Horse Nat Championship.  115 riders representing 7 different states and 14 total teams.

 

[dbagg 86]

On 6/3/2022 at 9:16 PM, 686 said:

77 and 771 around Pagosa Springs. It’s an area managed for access and not for trophy quality, so there are a lot of hunters, but my hunting partner has a family cabin there that puts us in a great spot where we can hunt all day miles off the trail and get a hot shower/cold beer/warm meal/soft mattress every night which makes it more enjoyable and less work. 35 sounds like a beautiful area.




There is so much “point creep” right now for trophy areas - I know I’ll have to go landowner tags at some point if I want to get a really nice bull. Luckily I’m still in the stage where I feel truly thankful for any elk I can put on the ground, so I’m going to enjoy that for as long as possible.

I also drew a mule deer buck tag which I’ll convert into a preference point and I bought a moose preference point as well - maybe in 20 years I’ll have enough points to draw a moose tag.

I drew a muzzleloader bull tag but will be guiding archery hunters.  I called to see if I can surrender the tag for a preference point and the guy told me that I cant do that and I go back to the original point #.

[Johnny Sack 8397]

On 6/2/2022 at 9:32 AM, CHIEF said:

I bought one of these last year:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073DBLL29/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

CHIEF Jr. gets paid to move the feeder pens and feeders on our lease. We pull down about four or five pens and move them per year. With the T-post puller from Tractor Supply, and this driver, we can move a pen and rebuild it in about 3 hours. It stays at the lease, and anyone can use it. It has already paid for itself twice.

CHIEF

I've always used a front end loader on the tractor to drive posts when there are too many to do by hand.  But we are in that red, sandy soil.  Not sure that would work in rocky terrain.  Probably the post would bend.

[686 3448]

I drew a muzzleloader bull tag but will be guiding archery hunters.  I called to see if I can surrender the tag for a preference point and the guy told me that I cant do that and I go back to the original point #.

I think you are correct. Either the hunt planner I talked to gave me the wrong impression or I got the wrong impression. I surrendered the buck tag today, so we’ll see what happens.

[dbagg 86]

That sucks, I was also under that impression otherwise I would have just applied for the point.  

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

Why not hunt with a muzzleloader?

[Speedtrucker 2071]

Steer wrestler focused, but a good book on PRCA life.

Sound like the name of a gay porno.

Nttiawwt

[CHIEF 5080]

23 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

I've always used a front end loader on the tractor to drive posts when there are too many to do by hand.  But we are in that red, sandy soil.  Not sure that would work in rocky terrain.  Probably the post would bend.

So far we have only used it in the river bottom. The owner of Beltec is on the lease, so we have his skid steer and any attachment that his company makes. He has a t-post sized rock drill, but no one has built feeder pens where it is rocky. The only place we have considered that was rocky, is up on an oil pipeline in the southeast corner of the lease. I don't think my posthole driver could get it done.

CHIEF

[BabaYaga 15290]

3 hours ago, CHIEF said:

we have his skid steer and any attachment that his company makes.

Dammit.  I need to find cooler hunters with cooler toys to lease to.  Mine are all boring bankers.....;)  That's great

[CHIEF 5080]

I'm Jonesing to hunt so bad hunt, I started on page one, and read the entirety of this thread over the last eight to ten hours today. A lot of good memories were made, and a lot of great advice given.

CHIEF

[deadshank 24652]

7 hours ago, CHIEF said:

I'm Jonesing to hunt so bad hunt, I started on page one, and read the entirety of this thread over the last eight to ten hours today. A lot of good memories were made, and a lot of great advice given.

CHIEF

3 months away.  

[BabaYaga 15290]

1 hour ago, deadshank said:

3 months away.  

[dbagg 86]

On 6/6/2022 at 6:08 PM, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Why not hunt with a muzzleloader?

Dates don't line up.  ML is sept 10-18 and I'm taking hunters 20th-30th.  Can't swing a full 3 weeks out there.  

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

Oh, OK. Sounds like you need to get your priorities in order.

[deadshank 24652]

[Spaulding Smails 1552]

On 6/7/2022 at 11:00 PM, CHIEF said:

I'm Jonesing to hunt so bad hunt, I started on page one, and read the entirety of this thread over the last eight to ten hours today. A lot of good memories were made, and a lot of great advice given.

CHIEF

I'm in the exact same boat.  Planning on a quick trip to the ranch in the next few weeks to night hunt piggies and sight in the new rifle.  110* temps be damned.

[dbagg 86]

On 6/8/2022 at 11:26 AM, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Oh, OK. Sounds like you need to get your priorities in order.

I shot my biggest bull last year and still sitting on a pile of meat.  I am going to shoot a bear while I'm out there so there's that.  

[Herbie Hancock 7346]

Never understood the allure of shooting a bear/lion/elephant/etc. Not at all knocking those that do, I just never got it. Kinda like basketball. I recognize MJ was the greatest ever, but I couldn’t tell you how many innings in a match to save my life. But I won’t hold it against those that do. I’ll stick to my whitetail (and split tail), and the occasional dove or grouse.

[crimsonlonghorn 2306]

Tried out the new tank blind and feeder last week in Scurry County and got this hog. We had been watching him and his cutters on the game cam for a while before I finally got out there. I let both of my sons have shots at him the first two nights - one missed and the other couldn't find him in scope the next night and scared him off talking about it - so I got the third shot a few nights later and didn't miss.

Front quartering shot in the shoulder on the right hand side (on the bottom side in the pic). He ran into the creek and I didn't want to chase him down there in the dark so I waited until the next morning. By then the coyotes had found him and tore him up pretty good... but the head was untouched so I cut it off with the chainsaw and took it to the taxidermist to do a Euro mount. 

Funny thing, before I shot this one, we had multiple lone pigs and a sounder of babies coming every night. After I got this one 10 days ago we haven't see a single pig since. 

 

 

[Mdhorn 5948]

That pigs head on your tailgate sure gives it some size perspective.  That thing was pretty big.  

[crimsonlonghorn 2306]

1 hour ago, Mdhorn said:

That pigs head on your tailgate sure gives it some size perspective.  That thing was pretty big.  

One night earlier in the week (when my oldest son missed), he came to the feeder in the daylight and looked about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle walking around down there in the pen just below the blind.

Here is another picture of him from the week before:

 

 

This is what he did to the cow panel when he missed the door running out in his panic from that first missed shot from my son.

[fattyflattie 4639]

5 hours ago, crimsonlonghorn said:

but the head was untouched so I cut it off with the chainsaw and took it to the taxidermist to do a Euro mount. 

Late in my high school years, me and a buddy were hunting on some creek bottom and walked up on a massive boar. It did the whole “I want to charge, but only in spurts” thing, and I shot it in the face with some buckshot. Anyhow, he was working for a taxidermist at the time, and did a euro on it.  It had 2-3 of the 00 stuck in its skull, and made a killer euro, with the exposed lead.  I think he ended up with it, I sure didn’t.  Was the coolest euro I’ve ever had, and the boar had a crazy set of cutters to boot.  

[deadshank 24652]

16 hours ago, crimsonlonghorn said:

 

We have low openings in our protein feeder pens, as well.   Shot a boar a few weeks ago and he did the same thing.  Those guys can deliver a lot of force. 
 

Spent 5 hours yesterday closing the low openings with cattle panel patches.  
 

Just got back from checking if they held and they did but it was evident the pigs came back and were unhappy with change in terms included with the new customer agreement.  

[dbagg 86]

On 6/9/2022 at 5:46 PM, Herbie Hancock said:

Never understood the allure of shooting a bear/lion/elephant/etc. Not at all knocking those that do, I just never got it. Kinda like basketball. I recognize MJ was the greatest ever, but I couldn’t tell you how many innings in a match to save my life. But I won’t hold it against those that do. I’ll stick to my whitetail (and split tail), and the occasional dove or grouse.

I've got a buddy that makes sausage out of it and loves to cook with bear grease.  Plus I want a bear rug to go with my wolf rug in the bar.  

Edited June 15, 2022 by dbagg

[Ragde 244]

On 6/9/2022 at 5:46 PM, Herbie Hancock said:

Never understood the allure of shooting a bear/lion/elephant/etc. Not at all knocking those that do, I just never got it. Kinda like basketball. I recognize MJ was the greatest ever, but I couldn’t tell you how many innings in a match to save my life. But I won’t hold it against those that do. I’ll stick to my whitetail (and split tail), and the occasional dove or grouse.

I am on a lease in Arkansas this year where bear hunting is legal. I want to shoot 1 to have the meat, the lard, and the trophy. If i do not like the meat / lard i wont shoot a second. I don't see them the same as a lion or elephant.

[BabaYaga 15290]

20 hours ago, Ragde said:

I am on a lease in Arkansas this year where bear hunting is legal. I want to shoot 1 to have the meat, the lard, and the trophy. If i do not like the meat / lard i wont shoot a second. I don't see them the same as a lion or elephant.

According to the original trappers and mountaineer men settling the west, bear meat was a delicacy and prized above almost all others.  Venison was like eating rabbit.  A backup option when others were exhausted.  

Mountain lion is supposedly insanely delicious.  Like a refined pork.  

As for "true" game animals from the dark continent.  Work with a guy from S.Africa.  I'd entertain hunts for older, sterile animals that must be culled.  Old bulls/lions that are dangerous to younger, more viable breeding males and have to be removed.  The money and the meat goes to local conservation efforts who have almost no other funding options.  Most of the poachers were former rangers and wardens that had no other options for income.  Keep those guys in business and on the right side of conservation and support.  

[Herbie Hancock 7346]

I am on a lease in Arkansas this year where bear hunting is legal. I want to shoot 1 to have the meat, the lard, and the trophy. If i do not like the meat / lard i wont shoot a second. I don't see them the same as a lion or elephant.

Please understand I don’t think any more or leas of someone for wanting to bag one, I’ve just never understood it. Kinda like duck hunting or fishing; it’s never moved the needle for me especially since by all accounts bear is nasty and greasy.

On an unrelated note, dad got notification today that our application to the MLD program for Milam county was accepted. Almost 3 years of studies and other hoops to jump through and it’s finally happening. Very happy to be able to put a hurt on the doe population more than one weekend a year.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

It's crazy to me that there are still counties in Texas with such limited doe days. We get sixteen at the beginning of the season, plus muzzleloader season, and that still isn't enough.

[Herbie Hancock 7346]

Yes it’s very frustrating. I’ve got pics and video of a group of 73 doe in one field and 50+ in the next field over. Gonna change that this year

[RMac5 1551]

I wish they would implement something that requires that you have to take a doe before you can take a buck. We are covered up with them in Mills County too.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

Just allowing doe harvest all season would do wonders. For the vast majority of areas in the state, there is no valid scientific reason not to. I've never heard of someone getting on the MLD program and being told they need to shoot fewer does.

[Herbie Hancock 7346]

I’ll have to revisit the rulebook, but I think with these MLD tags we can take does from October 1 to February 1. That will be very convenient

[deadshank 24652]

20 minutes ago, Herbie Hancock said:

I’ll have to revisit the rulebook, but I think with these MLD tags we can take does from October 1 to February 1. That will be very convenient

Shoot them early.  No bucks taken before X amount of does are on the rocks in the box. 

[fattyflattie 4639]

We had a tough year with does last year.  We got our allotment but they were not as plentiful.  Plenty of shit bucks that need to be taken, I know that.  

[Scheiss Meister 8407]

Not my hunt, but a hunt, nonetheless.  Yesterday morning we were at my in-law's farm in Henderson County, and I had to step out on the front porch to send a text.  (Extraordinarily shitty cell service there.)  As I was sitting on the porch waiting for the text to send, I suddenly heard a fawn making a lot of distress calls in a wood line about 50 yards across a pasture.  I looked along the tree line to see what I could see, and saw a doe running left to right along the edge of the trees, toward the calls.   She dodged into the trees, and a second later a fawn came out of the trees further to the right, hauling ass to my left along the tree line.  About a yard behind the fawn was a big coyote, and about a yard behind the coyote was the doe. 

After running about 50 yards in the clear, the fawn dodged back into the trees in a particularly thick spot.  The coyote followed, but the doe couldn't because of the thick brush.  A second later, the distress calls started again, then stopped suddenly.  About that same time the doe made it into the woods, so it seemed that she may have run the coyote off.  However, three or four times yesterday evening and a couple of times this morning she was back searching up and down the tree line, with no fawn in tow.  I think the coyote got fed.  Sucks for the fawn, but coyote's gotta eat, too.

It was amazingly cool and a privilege to get to watch that in person and so close up.

[deadshank 24652]

7 hours ago, Scheiss Meister said:

Not my hunt, but a hunt, nonetheless.  Yesterday morning we were at my in-law's farm in Henderson County, and I had to step out on the front porch to send a text.  (Extraordinarily shitty cell service there.)  As I was sitting on the porch waiting for the text to send, I suddenly heard a fawn making a lot of distress calls in a wood line about 50 yards across a pasture.  I looked along the tree line to see what I could see, and saw a doe running left to right along the edge of the trees, toward the calls.   She dodged into the trees, and a second later a fawn came out of the trees further to the right, hauling ass to my left along the tree line.  About a yard behind the fawn was a big coyote, and about a yard behind the coyote was the doe. 

After running about 50 yards in the clear, the fawn dodged back into the trees in a particularly thick spot.  The coyote followed, but the doe couldn't because of the thick brush.  A second later, the distress calls started again, then stopped suddenly.  About that same time the doe made it into the woods, so it seemed that she may have run the coyote off.  However, three or four times yesterday evening and a couple of times this morning she was back searching up and down the tree line, with no fawn in tow.  I think the coyote got fed.  Sucks for the fawn, but coyote's gotta eat, too.

It was amazingly cool and a privilege to get to watch that in person and so close up.

It is difficult at times watching nature take place.   Seems our natural inclination is to protect the fawn and sizzle one down range for the dog.  

[Alex Karev 1030]