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LIVE From The Woods 2019 - Lets hear stories and see some pictures!


fasteddie

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I use an old sledgehammer handle , and even with it off and disengaged  which I do every time , once jam is clear auger can still move a bit once pressure of jam is off it . Someday I may share how I know ....
Today I got a wire dog lead wrapped up in mine ..... easy fix and didn’t shear the pin .


I got one of those newspaper ad things jammed in mine once. Fn horrendous experience and you better believe those fxkers never delivered again


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5 hours ago, dinorocks said:

Nothing during my morning sit...did see fresh tracks on my way out.  Heading back in for the PM sit...  in the meantime, and keeping with the “Use all parts”  mantra, I’m preparing these to eat tonight during our butchering secession.  My brother is preparing the heart.

59A52BB2-757D-4833-8FFD-3CFDD1555B55.jpeg

70DE1991-BB03-494F-BA42-262A2132E5AD.jpeg

Olive oil and lots of pepper.  Don't forget to slit them first or they will explode in the frying pan.  "Best" oysters I ever ate this year:

1452032711_oystersandfiletmignon.jpg.990b5de3b16224e9d743adcc2c842ed3.jpg

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Just landed in Phoenix for the next 2 days. It’s 81 and sunny. Stay warm guys 53ce79eb51d8ea6c500014a4317647c1.jpg&key=306e84bc063c16dbce89da26c36e1b51ec93437cf6cf1ce38b996bfd7489ea5e


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Coues Deer tag?
Mule deer tag?
Mt Lion tag?

Where you headed? I love Scottsdale (for non hunting stuff)


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Went out for an hour tonight there were tracks everywhere most of them fresh from daytime today. They must've all moved mid day cause i had a huge scrape pop up.

Checked the cam in that spot and there is a brand new big fat buck that came through at 12:30pm today. Going out in the morning before work!!!!

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2 minutes ago, wolc123 said:

Olive oil and lots of pepper.  Don't forget to slit them first or they will explode in the frying pan.  "Best" oysters I ever ate this year:

1452032711_oystersandfiletmignon.jpg.990b5de3b16224e9d743adcc2c842ed3.jpg

I plan to remove both outer membranes, slice, salt, pepper, searing flour, egg, panko crumbs and fry in my cast iron skillet. Have a few people coming over for the butchering shortly...we’ll see how this goes over...

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So I just stopped at the property owner of one of the spots I hunt to fix a leaking water line for him and figure I'm just going to walk out back and see what the tracks situation is with the fresh snow. Literally 5 yards from my stand is a bunch of kicked up leaves with a big buck track heading towards it and a smaller set going from and then I hear it brep brep breep  and look up to see a legit stud running a doe around. Since my buck tag is filled I'm hoping she holds out for a few days and he hangs with her or a couple more get ready no sooner than Saturday.

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4 minutes ago, dinorocks said:

I plan to remove both outer membranes, slice, salt, pepper, searing flour, egg, panko crumbs and fry in my cast iron skillet. Have a few people coming over for the butchering shortly...we’ll see how this goes over...

I will never leave them in a gut pile again.    The pepper is definitely the key ingredient.   Hopefully, I will be enjoying a couple more for lunch this Sunday.   

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Had a meeting today that I hated to cancel, so I went in to work. Gazed out at the fresh snow and sunny blue sky all day, thinking about all I "could" be missing in the stand. I got out of the meeting at 2:00 and was in my stand by 2:30. Looking out the office window all day, I had NO idea how F'n bitterly cold it was! That wind was brutal!! I was only out for 2 1/2 hrs, but I was freezing!!! Didn't see a thing. 

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My youngest boy did a dark to dark sit today in a tree stand in snowy windy and cold conditions. I couldn’t believe he stayed out all day but he wanted to take advantage of time off from college. At 4:30 pm he had a 4 pt walk under his stand and mill around by him for about 15 minutes. Only deer he saw
all day. I checked a few other spots today and saw very few tracks and one big doe.



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How about the tenderloins?!? Did i miss him removing them?!?


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That was my question also, how are you getting the tenderloins out if you are not gutting it?

The answer is probably fatther down just haven't hot that far yet.

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I plan to remove both outer membranes, slice, salt, pepper, searing flour, egg, panko crumbs and fry in my cast iron skillet. Have a few people coming over for the butchering shortly...we’ll see how this goes over...

I cut in rounds and just cook with salt and a ton of butte they are great


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2 minutes ago, BigVal said:

Wow that's the post of the year buckmaster you're the real deal!

I was gonna say that exact thing. Best read about a hunt I can remember. Wow.  Great story and great ending. @Buckmaster7600that is an amazing day . You are one hardcore tracker!  Congrats and thanks for sharing.  Get a well deserved good night of rest. 

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Mistakes/Lessons of the Day

1. Do not shoot at running deer

2. Try to stop a running deer with some sort of vocalization/call. If it doesn't stop, don't shoot

3. If you see a running doe in mid-November, consider the possibility it's running away from a nice buck

4. If you shoot your bolt/arrow into 6+ inches of snow, don't plan on recovering it

OK, so I went out for an afternoon sit in 9A. 23 degrees out, 17 windchill, winds out of NE, but switched to NW later. I walk through the snow to the North facing stand at the back of the property, passing numerous tracks along the way, but none in the back. At 4:20, I see two doe cross West to East about 300 yards to the North, near the stand I sat in the last three times I was out. "Oh well", I tell myself, "it's happy hour and there are more deer out". Sure enough, 10 minutes later, a does comes running 30 yards in front of me from East to West. I forget to try and stop it, instead taking a shot at it while it's on the run. Clean miss. About 15 seconds later a very nice looking buck comes bounding by in pursuit of the doe. I sit there helpless holding an unloaded crossbow. At least he didn't see me; neither did the doe. I did reload in case they came back. After a few minutes I went to see if there was any blood. There was none. Interestingly, right when I shot at the doe it made a hard right turn away from me. That gave me some hope that maybe I had hit it, but no, no blood at all in the snow. I checked for 30 yards. Maybe it reacted to the noise of the crossbow? I went back to retrieve my bolt and couldn't find it in the snow. Painful lessons learned. Newer hunters, don't be like me!

On a positive note, toe warmers are way worth it for less than a $1 a pair when you buy in bulk at Wal-Mart.

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Coues Deer tag?
Mule deer tag?
Mt Lion tag?

Where you headed? I love Scottsdale (for non hunting stuff)


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I wish. Looking out the window at all those mountains all I could think about was a sweet mountain hunt, but unfortunately will be stuck in conference rooms...


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Throwing in the towel. Grid searched an area for about 4 hours. Kept my search lines close, almost over lapping. 2 to 10 inches of powder on everything. Saw plenty of tracks, but none that would have indicated a badly injured deer. This sucks. 
IMG_20191112_143352747_HDR.thumb.jpg.3c2d086a7bd8182a585667046e61ddc1.jpg


Sorry to hear that man. We’ve all been there and it fn sucks. No other way to put it.


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30 minutes ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

Today started at 3am this morning. It snowed all day yesterday and we had 4-5”s of perfect tracking snow last night when I went to bed. Checking the weather last night showed cold and windy- the absolute dream conditions for a tracker. My plan for the day was drive about 15 miles around to a mountain I’ve been wanting to hunt but haven’t made it to yet.

On the drive out I cut a track on the dirt road. I figured the track couldn’t be more than a few hours old. The track wasn’t huge but the buck had a pretty wide stagger, a very long stride and was dragging his toes. I’ve always called a buck track that really drags his toes as a cross county skier. His feet were long but the lacked the width I usually am looking for. I don’t know why but the track intrigued me and it was heading toward a mountain I’ve never hunted. I waited in the truck for a little over an hour waiting for some light then started on his track at about 530am by mostly moonlight but I wanted to get started because I knew I had some ground to make up . This was by far the hardest track I’ve had. At 11oclock I stopped for the first time. Got a baggy of water from a stream had 2 little candy bars and pulled out my gps to see where in the hell I was. At that time I felt I was farther from him than I was when I started on his track. We had went 9.9 miles over some very rugged terrain, over 2 mountains 2 rivers one of them twice. He showed no signs of slowing down so I knew I was going to have to kick it in high gear if I was going to catch him today. I could tell he was making a big loop but what I couldn’t understand was he cut 10-15 doe tracks and would follow them for 10-30yds then he would leave them and head off on his own direction. One thing I kept noticing was that he wouldn’t go between any trees that didn’t have at least a 30” gap, this usually means he has a wide rack. 0cd01b04c827aabda2ee55d7c5b93bb4.jpgc900602b792cf7a231d3a6da6e1432cc.jpg2d654a12a7f883c08c53b2e2e4eab5ac.jpg

This buck kept doing something I’ve never seen one do before in my life he would do little tear drop shaped loops “10ft-20yds” then cross his own track and head off in a different direction “usually 90degrees”. He did make one big loop “about a mile” and he cut back over his own track. I studied those tracks for a couple minutes and was almost positive it was the same buck but I really hate leaving a track so I kept going at a good hustle and only wasted 15-20 minutes confirming my beliefs that it was his track. 08cb177cca26c0bfe9f743ca97edd2bd.jpga3062f8397fbf2b11a989ea85151a173.jpg



At about 12:30 he went down into a spruce swamp, my most dreaded place for a buck to head. If I think I’m close to a buck ill leave the track and do a loop around to see if he came out but I still knew I was far enough behind him that I figured even if he had bedded in there he wouldn’t still be in his bed. I am glad I just barged through there because I found his bed with tracks walking out that were noticeably fresher but still a long ways from fresh “I figured a couple hours.”
e7bd4001ba2747d54be2fd1678586561.jpg

After another mile or so he was following a ridge around a small mountain. He did one of his funny little loops and headed in another direction straight up hill. Usually a direction change is a good sign that he’s going to bed down but by this time he had done it 20 or 25 times which was totally throwing me off. I don’t know why but something was different about this turn, it just didn’t make any sense why he would do it when he was following a nice open ridge unless he was going to bed down. I knew I was still a ways behind him but I slowed down at this point, not to a crawl but much slower than my mall walker pace I’d been doing since 6am. I got up almost to the top and slowed to a crawl. Taking 1 step every 3-4 minutes as I crested the peak. His track kept going the same direction heading into the saddle between the two peaks. I stood there for probably 10 minutes I’m not sure why but something kept telling me to hold still. Finally just when I was about to start heading into the saddle I saw him stand up out of his bed about 100yds away 3/4’s the way up the hill, he was completely in the open except for his ears up. I knew it was the buck I was after but I wasn’t going to shoot until I saw his rack, we had a stair off for what felt like forever but probably no more than 5 minutes it felt way longer holding the bead on his white patch just waiting to see antlers. The wind was blowing directly at him so I don’t think he saw me he stood up when he couldn’t see what he smelled. He finally turned and started walking at a good clip broadside but it was too thick for a shot. Finally I had what looked like a basketball sized hole that he walked into and I shot. He buckled and I sent 3 more his way as he was running quartering away hard. I knew he was hit so I put in a fresh magazine in and slowly made my way over to where he was when I fired my first shot, my basketball hole I thought I was shooting through had about a 4” branch that was cut in half in the middle of it from my first shot, But I could see where he stumbled so I knew the 35 caliber 200ish grain customized Barnes bullet made it to him. I started getting more blood that confirmed I hit him as he was running. After a 50ish yard tracking job I saw him get up at about 25yds broadside and put one behind his shoulder. He went down after 2 bounds.
78824a0e187d528e42d298dbc457be1f.jpg81d82c28b0572ed7b8e0656e07b929ca.jpg324bb54f8c76ab8da030edcfbee9dc59.jpgb2f4c2e728d3b9054efb3810cc120bbd.jpg

I gave him a few minutes to make sure he was dead and made my way up to him, I knew he had a decent rack and I confirmed my suspension that he wasn’t a big bodied deer.

I hadn’t looked at my compass or GPS since my 11 o’clock water break so I pulled out my gps and realized I was only just under 2 miles from a road. But I also realized I was 6.5 miles as a crow flies from my truck. After a few pictures I gutted him and started dragging. The drag wasn’t terrible just had to go through a swamp over a stream and over a mountain and a big hill then up a very steep hill that was littered with blow downs to where the road was. I got him to the road by 4 o’clock but knew I had a long long walk by road back to the truck. I got to the truck at a little before 6pm. Pretty easy loading job because he didn’t weigh much and. Was able to back into the ditch making the tailgate about a foot off the ground.

Back to camp around 6:45 and put him on the scale, he weighs 173 I was guessing 160 so I was a little surprised he is as heavy as he is.

He’s a main frame 10 but both of his brow tines are broke off ones about 2”s the other I don’t think is an inch, he also has a broken G4 that looks like it happened in velvet. I don’t know if he’s technically a 8 or a 9 but I don’t care, he’ll look good on the wall with the other Adirondack bucks.

Grand total of 23 miles of walking on the gps, I forgot to check when I killed him but I’m guessing it was around an 11 or 12 mile track. I sure am glad I took this track this morning he’s not my biggest buck but he was by far one of the hardest I’ve killed, he sure did make me earn him.

I’m really looking forward to butchering him and hoping to find a bullet still in him. The bullets I’m shooting are 225gn Barnes tsx that I drilled the hollow point out to make them expand at the slower 35rem velocities. The bullets performed very well in my testing but I’m very curious how the perform on an animal.


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I just told my wife to wait like 5 times I was so into that post.

Congrats!

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29 minutes ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

Today started at 3am this morning . . . .
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I am in awe of this post, and that you did it all from your iphone. You need to submit this story to a deer hunting magazine! It's that good of a story. Oh, and I got tired just reading about the ground you covered. Congratulations!

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Today started at 3am this morning. It snowed all day yesterday and we had 4-5”s of perfect tracking snow last night when I went to bed. Checking the weather last night showed cold and windy- the absolute dream conditions for a tracker. My plan for the day was drive about 15 miles around to a mountain I’ve been wanting to hunt but haven’t made it to yet.

On the drive out I cut a track on the dirt road. I figured the track couldn’t be more than a few hours old. The track wasn’t huge but the buck had a pretty wide stagger, a very long stride and was dragging his toes. I’ve always called a buck track that really drags his toes as a cross county skier. His feet were long but the lacked the width I usually am looking for. I don’t know why but the track intrigued me and it was heading toward a mountain I’ve never hunted. I waited in the truck for a little over an hour waiting for some light then started on his track at about 530am by mostly moonlight but I wanted to get started because I knew I had some ground to make up . This was by far the hardest track I’ve had. At 11oclock I stopped for the first time. Got a baggy of water from a stream had 2 little candy bars and pulled out my gps to see where in the hell I was. At that time I felt I was farther from him than I was when I started on his track. We had went 9.9 miles over some very rugged terrain, over 2 mountains 2 rivers one of them twice. He showed no signs of slowing down so I knew I was going to have to kick it in high gear if I was going to catch him today. I could tell he was making a big loop but what I couldn’t understand was he cut 10-15 doe tracks and would follow them for 10-30yds then he would leave them and head off on his own direction. One thing I kept noticing was that he wouldn’t go between any trees that didn’t have at least a 30” gap, this usually means he has a wide rack. 0cd01b04c827aabda2ee55d7c5b93bb4.jpg&key=0e21f7960a823229b500e3054ad56f40b03dcde7ed6b44456bab9ffa00dd7b57c900602b792cf7a231d3a6da6e1432cc.jpg&key=2197c98df28b8d8c4c747a417a6a968bbd95bc416260336c9c2b2af8441252002d654a12a7f883c08c53b2e2e4eab5ac.jpg&key=853de5fd71145a5a1542ac70dc942b86380bc23769ec48edd4012ce4550764c3

This buck kept doing something I’ve never seen one do before in my life he would do little tear drop shaped loops “10ft-20yds” then cross his own track and head off in a different direction “usually 90degrees”. He did make one big loop “about a mile” and he cut back over his own track. I studied those tracks for a couple minutes and was almost positive it was the same buck but I really hate leaving a track so I kept going at a good hustle and only wasted 15-20 minutes confirming my beliefs that it was his track. 08cb177cca26c0bfe9f743ca97edd2bd.jpg&key=486f3bb90d870c8b8c87c063dd63d2bc6be51a1cf7727aa3b668e6cc053c8a13a3062f8397fbf2b11a989ea85151a173.jpg&key=246de38e61ac70347b55d2fb4b053f07420aae9a90ae967dd766b9a946d741b9



At about 12:30 he went down into a spruce swamp, my most dreaded place for a buck to head. If I think I’m close to a buck ill leave the track and do a loop around to see if he came out but I still knew I was far enough behind him that I figured even if he had bedded in there he wouldn’t still be in his bed. I am glad I just barged through there because I found his bed with tracks walking out that were noticeably fresher but still a long ways from fresh “I figured a couple hours.”
e7bd4001ba2747d54be2fd1678586561.jpg&key=ccb42792be2acefe255ff2b7fb581d61df7884f097952af3ac2869129deaa46f

After another mile or so he was following a ridge around a small mountain. He did one of his funny little loops and headed in another direction straight up hill. Usually a direction change is a good sign that he’s going to bed down but by this time he had done it 20 or 25 times which was totally throwing me off. I don’t know why but something was different about this turn, it just didn’t make any sense why he would do it when he was following a nice open ridge unless he was going to bed down. I knew I was still a ways behind him but I slowed down at this point, not to a crawl but much slower than my mall walker pace I’d been doing since 6am. I got up almost to the top and slowed to a crawl. Taking 1 step every 3-4 minutes as I crested the peak. His track kept going the same direction heading into the saddle between the two peaks. I stood there for probably 10 minutes I’m not sure why but something kept telling me to hold still. Finally just when I was about to start heading into the saddle I saw him stand up out of his bed about 100yds away 3/4’s the way up the hill, he was completely in the open except for his ears up. I knew it was the buck I was after but I wasn’t going to shoot until I saw his rack, we had a stair off for what felt like forever but probably no more than 5 minutes it felt way longer holding the bead on his white patch just waiting to see antlers. The wind was blowing directly at him so I don’t think he saw me he stood up when he couldn’t see what he smelled. He finally turned and started walking at a good clip broadside but it was too thick for a shot. Finally I had what looked like a basketball sized hole that he walked into and I shot. He buckled and I sent 3 more his way as he was running quartering away hard. I knew he was hit so I put in a fresh magazine in and slowly made my way over to where he was when I fired my first shot, my basketball hole I thought I was shooting through had about a 4” branch that was cut in half in the middle of it from my first shot, But I could see where he stumbled so I knew the 35 caliber 200ish grain customized Barnes bullet made it to him. I started getting more blood that confirmed I hit him as he was running. After a 50ish yard tracking job I saw him get up at about 25yds broadside and put one behind his shoulder. He went down after 2 bounds.
78824a0e187d528e42d298dbc457be1f.jpg&key=ab7179323504178a8dd7f3d3d909d330be819f5b0e479cf123e0385a7b688b4e81d82c28b0572ed7b8e0656e07b929ca.jpg&key=43f8dce377e3e613c69259d65be99edbf2e4fc8249c4f434bdd52a96f70dd7ff324bb54f8c76ab8da030edcfbee9dc59.jpg&key=12b53e32bdd92db600cf3b03ba129c60c1e1a6845b414bcce3ff891058fc94c2b2f4c2e728d3b9054efb3810cc120bbd.jpg&key=5c258e7cdf7e825826b75ade7761bf57247b3b28dabbef4df99d32978c4f9239

I gave him a few minutes to make sure he was dead and made my way up to him, I knew he had a decent rack and I confirmed my suspension that he wasn’t a big bodied deer.

I hadn’t looked at my compass or GPS since my 11 o’clock water break so I pulled out my gps and realized I was only just under 2 miles from a road. But I also realized I was 6.5 miles as a crow flies from my truck. After a few pictures I gutted him and started dragging. The drag wasn’t terrible just had to go through a swamp over a stream and over a mountain and a big hill then up a very steep hill that was littered with blow downs to where the road was. I got him to the road by 4 o’clock but knew I had a long long walk by road back to the truck. I got to the truck at a little before 6pm. Pretty easy loading job because he didn’t weigh much and. Was able to back into the ditch making the tailgate about a foot off the ground.

Back to camp around 6:45 and put him on the scale, he weighs 173 I was guessing 160 so I was a little surprised he is as heavy as he is.

He’s a main frame 10 but both of his brow tines are broke off ones about 2”s the other I don’t think is an inch, he also has a broken G4 that looks like it happened in velvet. I don’t know if he’s technically a 8 or a 9 but I don’t care, he’ll look good on the wall with the other Adirondack bucks.

Grand total of 23 miles of walking on the gps, I forgot to check when I killed him but I’m guessing it was around an 11 or 12 mile track. I sure am glad I took this track this morning he’s not my biggest buck but he was by far one of the hardest I’ve killed, he sure did make me earn him.

I’m really looking forward to butchering him and hoping to find a bullet still in him. The bullets I’m shooting are 225gn Barnes tsx that I drilled the hollow point out to make them expand at the slower 35rem velocities. The bullets performed very well in my testing but I’m very curious how the perform on an animal.


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Bro, you are amazing!

Serious kudos for that tracking/hunting adventure.

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