Campfire stories...

[The Hill Boys]

How about some stories about your first hunt, favorite hunt, or special memories during a hunt....

Let's try and keep it to just that. If you have a gripe about something, take it off line.


I'll start it off with a post I made in another thread....

This one is about the first elk I ever saw when I was a kid... Was out on my first deer hunt with my dad. I kept asking him "What if I shoot an elk by mistake" ...thinking that a "really large deer" and a young elk would look similar. Anyway, we were back in Ashurst Canyon. We are walking along a juniper tree line, and we start to hear some rustling from within. Next thing I hear, it sounds like 50 baseball bats being hit against each other (elks horns hitting the tree limbs)...then out the back side comes a HUGE bull elk. He has is nose up in the air, and the top tines extended past his hind quarters. My dad looks to me and says...."that's an elk!" Ok dad, I think I got it now. Grand dad was sitting in the truck (he couldn't walk very much)...and saw it also. He said it was the largest one he had ever seen. Needless to say, the memory of that day is etched in my mind forever.

[V10man]

Not really a woohoo fun story but one that sticks in my head... :)

From my last Elk hunt, 5 yrs ago. It was the last day of the hunt for me(wife wanted me home for Thanksgiving) I like to walk the Jeep trails, figure less likely to get lost. I had been walking, stopping, listening on a trail for about a 1/2 hour. I was standing smack dab in the middle of the trail, wearing an orange jacket you could see from outer space. After about a minute I heard some noises to my left. I looked out into the forest and see 2 Bulls just standing there. They could be twins! Good healthy 5x5's. Roughly down about 6 feet, 70 yards away. Why they didn't run off when I was walking is beyond me. One was broadside facing me, the other was facing the other way with his butt in my direction. Well every shooting tip, rule, lie is racing through my head. BE QUITE, DON'T MOVE. Figure out a shot... Excitement, panic.... Holly S!!! Ya know the drill. [:p] They seemed to not know I was there or didn't care... I first thought get the heck down on the ground to shoot prone. I slowly lower myself and soon realize the grass is taller than I am and they are lower than the trail... Not gonna work... OK, next idea... There is a tree about 3 feet from me... I'll take a step or two and shoot leaning against the tree. One step... two... CRUNCH!!! Dam! Pinecones all around the tree!! They didn't hear me... Well, last resort.. shoot off hand. I wrap the sling around my arm, pull the .270 tight against my shoulder... aim.... Got a good aim at the broad side Elk.. Heart is pounding... breathe... I can do this.... breathe.... BANG!!! Both Elk trot off like on a Sunday stroll. Here is where the dumbness starts... I run out into the wood looking for the Elk I surely shot.. .. It should be lying here.. somewhere here... No Elk.. I walk around.. looking.. no Elk. I go back to where they were standing.. Foot prints, no blood... I follow where they entered the woods.. Look some more.. No Elk... No Blood. I walk back down the trail and up another one to get my Father... We return and spend 2 hours looking... No Elk. Dam!

For the next year I was in a funk. Seriously, I can't even describe it. Replaying that day again and again. What could I have done differently. What did I do wrong. I never should have run after it. I should have just waited.. . If I did hit it I pushed it farther into the forest.. it running from me.. I should have made sure I had a good, solid shot. I'm lucky to hit the target at 100yds free hand... I should have looked longer... What could have been a proud moment turned into a failing moment for me as a hunter. Like I said, it took a year to work though this. I have since taken the Hunter Safety course with my son(my 3rd time in 25 yrs) and will forever remember that day.

[The Hill Boys]

Ok, heres is another one:

High school buddy decides he want to start hunting. So we both get a deer tag in unit 7. I go to pick him up that morning (at like 3:30 am) and as I'm pulling into his neighborhood, I hear a gun shot! I'm think, what the crap??? I get to his house, and sure enough, there he his, on the front porch, gun pointing in the air and smoking... I yell out at him, "What in the hell...". Anyway, he says he can't figure out how the "safety" works!!! And I'm about to go into the woods with this guy??? Anyway, we get going (late of course) and as we are driving into the area that I wanted to hunt, there goes a small buck (2 pt) running across the road. It's just about to be legal shooting (daylight wise) (nevermind the fact that I'm sitting on the road in my truck....come on this was 20 years ago!!!)...but we decide to pass. It's just the first day of the season...we'll surely see more (and bigger) deer, right??;). We finally get to the area that I wanted to be, hiked over to a small canyon. I put my buddy behind a log, then I climbed up on the ridge where I could see him clearly. I didn't care if I could see anything else... Anyway, morning sun is just coming over the rise. Suddenly, I hear rustling of to the left. I look down, and my buddy had heard it too. A few minutes later, out pops a cow elk. Then another...then another... Finally, after about 10, out comes pimp daddy himself. A very nice 7x6. Right into the one beam of sunlight hitting the ground, shakes himself off...lets out a bugle, then proceeds to escort the ladies up the canyon. I look down at my buddy, and his jaw is hitting the ground. What a sight, first thing in the morning. Anyway, we didn't see anything else the rest of the day, weekend, season. That damn little two point was it. But the 15-20 minutes watching those elk (and my friends expression) made it all worth while. Years later, he ended up getting a trophy buck up on the Kiabab...archery though!!

[azgolfer]

How about this one....I had a cow tag in 7E a few years ago. Right at sunrise, at group of 10 cows came from the side of me, stood right in front of me and started feeding about 15 yards in front of me. I raised up on the biggest and fired. Down she went. I started walking towards her and she got up and started staggering. I thought, ok she is mortally wounded and ready to fall at any moment. Wrong! She bolted like a Cardinals fan heading for the exits. She took off at a dead run over a hill. I could not believe it. To shorten the story...

We found hair and hoof tracks, where she went down and the direction she ran. Never found a drop of blood. I got my friends from camp. We searched for about 4 hours. Not a f'ing clue of where she went. You can only imagine the sick feeling I had. We gave up looking at about noon. It did not go out hunting the afternoon, because I felt like s**t, knowing I had a elk down, wounded pretty good and could not find her.

I went out the next day in the same area. I could hear alot of coyotes howling alot over the hill/canyon where the elk ran. I can only wonder what happened?????

My heart wasn't in it the rest of the hunt. Not all Cow elk hunt are gimmies.

[FLAGSTAFF_2]

If I every get a tag, I'll have a story too!!!!!!! :(:(

[Arizona Griz]

quote:Originally posted by FLAGSTAFF_2

If I every get a tag, I'll have a story too!!!!!!! :(:(

Keith, I told you that you have to play the odds. ;)

[The Hill Boys]

quote:Originally posted by FLAGSTAFF_2

If I every get a tag, I'll have a story too!!!!!!! :(:(


Shoot Keith, I figured you would probably hit one with your truck every now and then! I don't enevy your drive home, especially at night!

[waterman]

Going to Wisconsen Nov18th for a whitetail hunt. I'm sure to have a good story from that trip and hopefully a nice deer.

[FLAGSTAFF_2]

quote:Originally posted by The Hill Boys

quote:Originally posted by FLAGSTAFF_2

If I every get a tag, I'll have a story too!!!!!!! :(:(


Shoot Keith, I figured you would probably hit one with your truck every now and then! I don't enevy your drive home, especially at night!


Hit one with the car coming home from PHX on I-17 with the family.

[autonoz]

I was up in the Dudleyville area years ago and came across a couple of guys who had just killed a deer out of season and they ran me off with a gun. Other than that I have no stories.

[The Hill Boys]

OK, that reminds me of another one. Walking back to the truck mid morning of a deer hunt. Guy in an S-10 Blazer is driving down the road and stops. He is beaming. "Man, I'm going to win the big buck contest for sure" he says. (There used to be a place here in town, Ruff's, that would sponser a "big buck contest"). I proceed to the back of the Blazer, and there stuffed inside is a 3X3 bull elk. I look back at the guy and he says "Huge, uh?". I informed him of the situation and he explained that this ain't the mule deer you are used to seeing, but instead was a rare breed of whitetail. On, this, I thought I had better give a second look. "It's still looks like an elk to me" I said. He shook his head like I was crazy, climbed back in the trcuk and headed off. I took down his plate number. That night, I swung by Ruff's. Several people in there and they were all in tears laughing...(I looked down to check my zipper..). "What's so funny?" I asked. They started to explain. You can guess what it was about. Anyway, the guy turned himself into Game and Fish and got off with a warning.

[The Hill Boys]

Pass, me a beer. I'm on a roll here.

Rifle deer season. I'm sitting up on a ridge. I can see our truck down in the valley. About 9:00am, this "Range Rover" pulls up and parks next to our truck. We are in a pretty secluded area, so I thought this was a little strange. After about an hour and a half, curiosity has got the best of me. No one ever got out of it. I start down the ridge, slowing walking (still hunting) but at the same time, still keeping an eye on the truck. Finally get down there (45 minutes later). There is a guy sitting in the drivers seat camo'd out (face paint and all). He rolls down his window and cigar smoke pours out. "Any luck" he asked? "Not really" I told him. He then comments about my blaze orange jacket. "That's your problem right there!" he says. "I've been sitting here watching you come down the hill side for the last hour!" My eyes rolled back in my head.

[Desert Hawk]

A Meeting with Mr.Muskie;

I spent most of my summers growing up on Lake of the Woods between Ontario and Minnesota I was 14 and only allowed to use the 14ft wooden boat so after the usual day of hunting walleye's instead of going for crappies a buddy and I thought we would try for some muskies we had always noticed them just up the channel from our crappie spot,It was late August around 7pm calm waters and temps in the mid 80's As we started casting and casting I was getting very board and my buddy said that it take lots of casts and to have some patience, well he hooked a 10lb as it was comming up to the boat and you could hear our screams echo of thee rock walls of the channel.

All of the sudden I'm not board anymore and keep casting my buddy released his back and also kept casting after about a half hour of this my buddy gets another one and say's reel in as I 'm doing so I was so busy watching him that I did not notice that Mr.Muskie was hot on the trail of my lure and as he got closer it was easy to see by the wake of the water this thing was huge we both started freaking out and when I started doing figure 8's on the side of the boat this thing look like JAWS as he jumped at the lure I jerked it to quick and he ended up biting my brand new Ugly stick in half I was shaking so bad as I thought he was comming in the boat we looked into each other's eyes then he dove down with half my pole dangeling from his mouth we must have sat ther for a good half hour wondering how big that thing was.

On our way back to the cabin we stopped by the resort to pick up more bait for early morning run as we were telling the bait guy about what had happend one of the local guides overheard us and then told us about that same fish who had eluded many before us and damaged lots of equipment had been lurking in that channel for the better part of 15yrs he had seen him a coulpe of times and thought is was in the mid to upper 20lb range.

When I got back to the States I took what was left of my ugly stick back to my favorite bait store and was given a new one the owner of the store also gave me my 1st real muskie lure at no cost and told me to try again, Being fall and having to go back to school,For Christmas that year I got a Real Muskie Rod & Reel the following spring we went back to that channel and never saw Mr.Muskie again
but the stories kept comming in to the resort about him.

[The Hill Boys]

quote:Originally posted by Northwoodsdon

A Meeting with Mr.Muskie;


Thanks Don! We are going to Northern Minnesota next summer to go fishing. A place called Big Balsam Camp in Bovey. My wife used to go there every summer as a kid. I keep telling my boys about the pike and walleyes that we will catch there. Hadn't even thought about muskies!

[Desert Hawk]

quote:Originally posted by The Hill Boys

quote:Originally posted by Northwoodsdon

A Meeting with Mr.Muskie;


Thanks Don! We are going to Northern Minnesota next summer to go fishing. A place called Big Balsam Camp in Bovey. My wife used to go there every summer as a kid. I keep telling my boys about the pike and walleyes that we will catch there. Hadn't even thought about muskies!


Don't forget Sunfish,Bass large & small,whitefish,Lake Trout You'll have a blast :D

Have flashlights for the boys and send them to the shore at night with a hot dog grabber and look for crawfish they make great bait and mighty tasty also ;)

[azotto]

Kyle was 8 I think and it was the first time I brought him along on a deer hunt. We left camp before dark and reached the bottom of the canyon at sun up. We were working our way down a very old fire road and I noticed movement about 200 yards ahead of us in the brush. Just as I got my bino's to my eyes, he spoke out DAD...DEER!!. Just a little louder than he needed to be.[}:)]
We heard his voice echo through the canyon and needless to say, the deer didn't hang around for introductions. I saw 3 deer butts (one was at least a 3 point) disappear into the trees. I looked down at him and he knew what he had done and I just started laughing. There was no way I could get mad at him with the look on his face. The rest of the hunt, we saw only 2 doe.

[Moose]

quote:Originally posted by Northwoodsdon

quote:Originally posted by The Hill Boys

quote:Originally posted by Northwoodsdon

A Meeting with Mr.Muskie;


Thanks Don! We are going to Northern Minnesota next summer to go fishing. A place called Big Balsam Camp in Bovey. My wife used to go there every summer as a kid. I keep telling my boys about the pike and walleyes that we will catch there. Hadn't even thought about muskies!


Don't forget Sunfish,Bass large & small,whitefish,Lake Trout You'll have a blast :D

Have flashlights for the boys and send them to the shore at night with a hot dog grabber and look for crawfish they make great bait and mighty tasty also ;)


You may want to try baiting with leeches while you're in MN. The fish seem to have developed an appetite for them up in that area. Kinda gross while they are sucking on your thumb, but they're a heck of a lot easier to bait on the hook than worms. [^] If they're stuck on you, they can't squiggle around. It's really kinda neat to see how many "leech hickeys" you can get after a week of fishing! :D[:p][^]


http://www.ridingarizona.com/forum/uploaded/moose/20051088372_leech.jpg

[lcombs57]

i will have a story for you in two weeks after im done with my cow elk hunt

[The Hill Boys]

quote:Originally posted by Moose

quote:Originally posted by Northwoodsdon

quote:Originally posted by The Hill Boys

quote:Originally posted by Northwoodsdon

A Meeting with Mr.Muskie;


Thanks Don! We are going to Northern Minnesota next summer to go fishing. A place called Big Balsam Camp in Bovey. My wife used to go there every summer as a kid. I keep telling my boys about the pike and walleyes that we will catch there. Hadn't even thought about muskies!


Don't forget Sunfish,Bass large & small,whitefish,Lake Trout You'll have a blast :D

Have flashlights for the boys and send them to the shore at night with a hot dog grabber and look for crawfish they make great bait and mighty tasty also ;)


You may want to try baiting with leeches while you're in MN. The fish seem to have developed an appetite for them up in that area. Kinda gross while they are sucking on your thumb, but they're a heck of a lot easier to bait on the hook than worms. [^] If they're stuck on you, they can't squiggle around. It's really kinda neat to see how many "leech hickeys" you can get after a week of fishing! :D[:p][^]


http://www.ridingarizona.com/forum/uploaded/moose/20051088372_leech.jpg








Yeah, I've heard about the leeches, and chiggers(sp?) and skeeters, and biting flies...I just hope the fishing is as good as they say!

[Just Ride It]

Here's one -- Cow Elk in unit 6A a few years ago. I was following the sound of the Bulls bugling and got to the edge of a canyon. Right as I reach the side a nice 6X6 bull walks up the trail and proceeds to walk straight at me (I was in Camo). It came about 5 feet from me before it even noticed that I was standing there. When it saw me it stopped and bugled right at me, which was pretty cool to see. The bull slowly walked away and then I noticed that a Cow was coming up right behind it. I stayed still and hoped that it would walk right to me like the Bull did. The Cow decided to take a lower trail so I step one step and do a standing shot at about 25 yards or so. Bang the Cow goes right down to the ground. I think cool I got a nice Cow and it is only about 25 yards down the hill. Well it starts to roll and slide, first pretty slow then alittle faster, all the way down to the bottom of the hill. The hill had lots of trees, but the Cow did not hit any of them to stop. Needless to say what was going to be a pretty easy recovery ended up taking about 3 hours and a lot of rope and winching.

[azgolfer]

Heading out for Jeff Jr's elk hunt. Hope I have a great story to tell on Monday!!!!

[AZMtnThumper]

Ok, here’s one.

I was on about the fifth or sixth day of an archery bull hunt in 5B N about 6-7 years ago. I got to my hunting area about 4:00 and rolled down the truck window and listened. I didn’t hear anything so I decided to have a granola bar and some coffee before I left the truck for the morning. As I was finishing my snack I heard a bugle that sounded like it was about a mile and a half or so east of where I had parked. I took off at a brisk walk as the bugling continued. It sounded like only one bull so I figured (hoped) it would be the dominant herd bull,a meduim sized 6x6, I had seen while scouting this area.

A couple of days previous I had lost an opportunity at a group of 4 smaller bulls when I was watching a trick tank from a tree stand in this same area. Three 5x5’s and a rag horn approached to about 50 yards when some cows on a nearby ridge made there presence known to these four guys. The tree I was situated in didn’t have much cover in that direction so I didn’t want to risk these bulls seeing me draw my bow and wanted to wait till they were closer (and less likely to see me above them due to the steeper angle). I guess these fellas decided to get a drink later and followed the honeys instead. I guess I can relate to that.:D

Since I had been hunting this area for several days, I knew that by about 6:30 these elk would head into a deep, brushy canyon and would be pretty much unhuntable for the rest of the day. As it became more and more light I could hear the position of the bugles changing. I ran for about ¾ of a mile until I guessed I was about 150-200 yards from the herd. I caught my breath for a minute and started cow calling. The was a lot of “talk” between the cows as the herd bull had all but stopped bugling but was still grunting and pushing his slow moving cows and generally working himself ragged. Since the cows were moving pretty slow I was able to kinda keep up and dog the herd. I got pretty close to the bull a couple of times. The first time I was spotted by an inquisitive cow just as I was reaching for an arrow, but I remained motionless behind a small ponderosa and she eventually lost interest in me and moved on with the herd. The second time I had just started to draw my bow on the bulls chest at about 35 yards quartering away when a cow slipped in between the bull and myself. Damnit!! By now it was about 6 and the herd was approaching the canyon rim. I looked through the timber with my binocs in the direction the herd was heading and saw that the timber was thinning out and my last opportunity of the day rested on a small patch of timber just east of where they were headed. I dropped back off the herd just a bit to the north and ran around to the east through a small draw and circled around to the small patch of timber just in time to see the last two cows go over the rim of the canyon. I cow called one last time as sweet as I could but it had no effect, they kept moving.

Before I could mutter any four letter words, all the sudden these two does came busting out from behind some brush just off to my right; about 15-20 yards away. They started me so much I nearly dropped my bow. Since I had just passed by this bush less than a minute before I thought, “where did they come from?” and “what the heck spooked them?” I looked at the dental floss on my bowstring to check the wind, and it was blowing right in my face. I figured another hunter was to blame but i hadn't seen anyone or any vehicles that morning (hunting during the week is great). I turned to my right and began to stand up when I saw a blur coming towards me a few yards away. The next thing I saw was a mountain lion with his front legs fully extended and all his weight on his back legs sliding to a stop. Well he stopped...about 4 feet from me. His ears were back and his eyes were the size of dinner plates ( I’m sure mine were too). We stood there for what seemed liked forever, I guess it was really 20-30 seco

[The Hill Boys]

I would have had to change my underware on that. Lived here all my life, and I've yet to see a cougar. Lots of scat and tracks though.

[javelina]

Here go's mine.This year, we were in unit-9 Archery deer first weekend, we did not see any Deer first day, lot's of Elk though. The next day at camp about 2pm, right in front of us comes a beautiful 4x4 about 80yds away, I jump up get, my bow, off I go around the ridge, in the meantime my 13yr old gets his bow and slowly follows the Buck, he gets within about 50yds and is ready to pull back and then all of a sudden my 7yr old comes running and talking loud, boy was my older boy upset! Later that night while we were sitting by the campfire my 7yr old tells me "Dad do you know why I scared that Deer off"
I said "no why", he says "because it is one of GODS creatures and I did not want anyone to shoot it" Hmmm what do you say about that?
So then I go to tell him about food and sport and that sort of stuff, but man did my older son miss out on his first shot at a Deer.
PRICELESS moment!

[azgolfer]

quote:Originally posted by javelina

Here go's mine.This year, we were in unit-9 Archery deer first weekend, we did not see any Deer first day, lot's of Elk though. The next day at camp about 2pm, right in front of us comes a beautiful 4x4 about 80yds away, I jump up get, my bow, off I go around the ridge, in the meantime my 13yr old gets his bow and slowly follows the Buck, he gets within about 50yds and is ready to pull back and then all of a sudden my 7yr old comes running and talking loud, boy was my older boy upset! Later that night while we were sitting by the campfire my 7yr old tells me "Dad do you know why I scared that Deer off"
I said "no why", he says "because it is one of GODS creatures and I did not want anyone to shoot it" Hmmm what do you say about that?
So then I go to tell him about food and sport and that sort of stuff, but man did my older son miss out on his first shot at a Deer.
PRICELESS moment!

Is your seven year old still grounded to his room?:D