cupo
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cookin' reels and killin' wading boots
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Thanks guys. I was sidehilling through the timber and popped over a small ridge to find him bedded down with a spike and a doe less than 20 yards away.
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This can't be healthy. All this fishing is really messing with my head.
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Musicman
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Thick Tail
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What were the winds/thermals doing at the time? Which way way were they facing? Nice hunt!
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JD
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cupo
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The wind actually was not in my favor most of the morning, though it shifted around a couple of times. I was making a loop and working along a bench before going back down hill. The spike was facing me and he was the first one I saw when I crested the ridge. We locked eyes for a few seconds until the voice in my head told me there might be others. Ten feet to the downhill side I saw a buck with branched antlers, body facing away but turning his head to look at me. There was a tree right next to me so I leaned on it for a rest and ended my season. The doe was somewhere off to the side but I didn't see her until she was up and running. Now, if she would have been a monster buck I'd be pissed!
I paced off the shot distance afterwards and it was 25 steps. It was a pretty intense feeling getting that close.
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This can't be healthy. All this fishing is really messing with my head.
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Musicman
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Thick Tail
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Nice, know what you mean by getting close....i've been in butt slapping distance on a spike one year...a nice yell sent him scurrying off wondering what the ??? To bad I was elk hunting..had a few others I was watching come feeding right up to my back trail about 15 feet from me crouched in some buck brush...two spikes and a doe, too bad that was branched area.....i'll be heading out in the am. Should be a decent morning to intercept something. Thanks for the details, you have your area dialed in...cya next year!
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JD
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Rocket Red
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Wow, really nice pictorial. The stair training must have helped a lot for your pack out.
I do lots of varied training in a "General Physical Preparedness" type program, I find that staying in shape all the time makes life easier for everything.
I had a long drag myself this hunting season already, I dragged the "Tender" boat full of decoys, guns, and other random [**whoops**] across the Grays Harbor mud-flats at low tide. That was a great early AM workout.
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"Painter of light, my a$$!"
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cupo
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cookin' reels and killin' wading boots
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The spike and I just stared at each other, then the wheels started turning in my head, "look........around.........for........more........" Without tunnel vision the two point was easily visible nearby.
One interesting point, I thought he was a 2x3 from our trail cam when I shot him. When his head fell, one side of his rack got burried in dirt and leaves. I pulled it up expecting three points on that side.
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This can't be healthy. All this fishing is really messing with my head.
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gemstatejake
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Sweet! Nice job man!
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buxndux
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Very nice!
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Team JACE
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cupo
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cookin' reels and killin' wading boots
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Quote:
Rocket Red said:I had a long drag myself this hunting season already, I dragged the "Tender" boat full of decoys, guns, and other random [**whoops**] across the Grays Harbor mud-flats at low tide. That was a great early AM workout.
Nothing like sweating in neoprene to start a morning. You fell down in the mud too, didn't you? I think that's a requirement.
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This can't be healthy. All this fishing is really messing with my head.
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Rocket Red
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I fell once or twice during the drag. Every now and then you hit a spot where the boat goes smoothly and you just fall down due to the decrease in resistance.
We had to kneel in the mud flats all morning. My cousin tried to sit on his heels for a while, (we were in about 6" of water, over squishy mud), and his legs froze up. We had a flock come in and when he sat up to shoot, he just fell over sideways into the bay. It was pretty good.
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"Painter of light, my a$$!"
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Gooose
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Rocket it's been nearly 2 decades for me hunting the tideflats of Grays Harbor. Thanks for the posts as they brought back fond memories of dragging a 14 foot john boat across the mud in Elk River at Markham Island. I especially liked the reference for crouching with your arse nearly in the mud for hours as various singles and flocks kept you pinned. My favorite was my 6 foot 4 inch 320 pound cousin who lost hold of the boat as we slid it across the mud of Markham. "Hey Bob you remember reading about the La Brea tarpits?" was my comment to him as we continued dragging the boat away from him.  Worth it though for the kind of hunting you can get in to with the extra effort. 
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Independent Advocate For The Fish
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Simple Solutions to Simple Problems
Simple Solutions to Complex Problems
There's lies, damned lies and then there are statistics......Mark Twain
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cupo
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cookin' reels and killin' wading boots
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Quote:
workin4fishin said:I don't have a problem hiking over hill and dale to find, track, and shoot the critter, but the idea of hauling it out on my back, over successive trips... Wonder if you can you hire an illegal alien to do the hauling (Kidding)
Cabela's deer sleigher in action Monday morning. Makes it pretty easy, just gotta be careful on the downhill sections.
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This can't be healthy. All this fishing is really messing with my head.
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Marty
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redneck yachter
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thats a nice one too
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Marty
Got Your Steelheader.net stickers?
Pay it forward
Steelhead dues paid one cast at a time repeated a 1000 times a day...one more cast looking for a fix
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Pinch_of_Snuff
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Well, I thought I was in pretty good condition coming into elk season this year, but I learned a new lesson.
Normally we only hunt in two to three day blocks to give some of the areas rest, but we had so many elk running around that we hunted the whole week. I was prepared for miles of walking, hiking, and dragging - but the side hills took the toll on me. Not the distance, but the angles.
Every canyon and draw that I was in, I ended up with my left leg on the uphill. By the end of the week my knee felt like I had Icy Hot running through my veins. My LCL took some serious strain. Next year, not just hiking up and down, side hills will be getting most of my attention preseason.
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Take It Easy. If It's Too Easy, Take It Twice..
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firedog
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Nice buck and good story.
My conditioning paid off also on my Montana hunt. We hiked anywhere from 5 to 12 miles a day. Averaging 8 and none of it flat. Legs felt great all 8 days we hunted, only thing that was a little tough was the altitude, going form home (Vancouver) to hunting anywhere from 7000 to 9000' was a little tough early in the week. Not to bad though.
We killed one real nice Muley in the last 5 minutes of shooting light on our last day. After hiking all day I spotted him from the road on our way back to camp, Let my buddy take the shot. Nice 4x4 with a cheater point for a fifth on one side. Weighed 155 at the butcher with no hide, just bones in him. We saw a ton of game just no legal bulls and only small deer. Saw moose, buffalo (Ted Turners ranch we drove through) Big horn sheep, Were in the elk everyday but like I said no legal bulls, antelope, whitetails, muleys and the list goes on. Heres a pic of his buck.
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IAFF Local 43 
Edited by firedog (10/31/07 09:57 AM)
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Musicman
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Thick Tail
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Pinch, I know what you mean...traversing steep hillside indeed strain the joints in the lower legs...my last two years hunting above Lk Chelan(manson unit) for muleys was even worse....after the 3rd day one knee would start, then the ankle, the the other knee and ankle...after 7 to 8 days....I was a hobbling, sore, inflamed mess. Side hilling is tough work.
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JD
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BobK
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Hey, guys with bad and hurting knees,
I suffered from this, so bad I could barely walk, and was going to see the doctor, but first talked to a buddy who is a VERY GOOD Phys. Therapist.
He suggested riding a bike on the LEVEL, NO HILLS, and taking it very relaxed and easy while pedalling. No more than 20 minutes a day. He said it should start feeling much better after two weeks at most.
I followed his instructions, and after the first session felt a lot better. By the end of the first week, I was pretty much back to normal. By two weeks, NO PROBLEMS!
Just passing it on for your info. It worked for ME!
BobK 
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Pinch_of_Snuff
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 I'll start tonight at the gym. I need to loosen it up, but didn't wanna tweak it again. That's low impact enough it should work perfect.
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Take It Easy. If It's Too Easy, Take It Twice..
CCA Member
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scud
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sockeye
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Nice deer cupo.
It looks by the pics you didnt gut it. I would like to learn how to do that. Ive heard of many people boning game this way but have never seen it done.
Do you skin all the way up the back and turn over or do both quaters first?
thanks
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cupo
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I don't know if there is a "right" way to do it, but it's pretty easy to feel your way through as you go. I just skin each part that I'm getting at. The skin comes off very easy because the animal is still very warm. Peel the skin off a leg and feel where the bone is closest to the surface. Slice all the way down the leg there along the bone. From there, just work around the bone and to the hip until you have all the meat off in one big hunk.
Remove the skin along the back to expose the straps. Work your knife along each side of the spine, then under the backstraps.
The front quarters are done just like the back. Remove the skin, cut along the bone then around the shoulder. From there you can get at the neck meat very easily.
I don't carry a saw any more. For removing the head, or cutting an animal in half, it's just as easy to cut through the skin and meat where you want to sever the spine, then twist.
This was the third deer I've boned out but the first I did alone. The last one was a couple years ago and took 45 minutes with two of us. This one took me just over an hour.
If you have butchered your own deer it should be easy.
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This can't be healthy. All this fishing is really messing with my head.
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Pinch_of_Snuff
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2nd the no saw move if you're not splitting. Most any bone cut can be done with a strategic poke or some good leverage on a break. A buddy of mine does it the same way cupo. If access prevented a serious problem I'm going to give this a whack. Although this doesn't seem possible when sex evidence is required...
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Take It Easy. If It's Too Easy, Take It Twice..
CCA Member
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cupo
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I've heard some states are strict about taking animals out whole or having certain parts attached. To be extra sure, you could leave the sack attached to the meat of a hind quarter. It would just mean leaving some skin on that quarter. The regs could be interpreted a couple of ways but having the head in posession with antlers attached is commonly used, at least in WA. I've never heard of anyone in Washington getting a hard time about it.
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This can't be healthy. All this fishing is really messing with my head.
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scud
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Thanks for the info.
Hope to try it out next season.
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