Trad Gang
Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: leatherneck on October 31, 2009, 05:15:00 PM
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Well we just got the camp open for our annual hunt. Some people ask why we go to camp when it's only 20 minutes from the house. Well every year we all take a week to get away and unload. We eat swell and enjoy the campfire. Did I say we eat swell!!! :bigsmyl:
Anyhow, Paul Askew(blacktailhunter) arrived safely last night from Oregon. Now paul was tired,in a new set of woods, and has never set eyes on this place in daylight hours. So this morning I walked him into his stand and 50 yards from his stand we jump up a buck. Good buck, not great. After settling Paul in I started to make my escape. I worked midnight so my bed was calling me. Well mother nature decided to help keep me awake and let loose. I was soaked by the time I hit the truck. But I was happy, I was at deer camp. With the bad weather I expected little deer movement. But Paul saw the sign of the weeks events to come. The first deer he saw was a decent buck dogging a doe!! Guess what that means, the rut has started!!! No shots this morning but he was pleased. Theres something about a breed of hunter that just sat in the pouring rain, 15 to 20 mph winds, in a strange place, and comes to the cabin with a smile on his face. It's going to be a good week, I can feel it. I'll be home on Wed. for a minute and I'll update everyone on Paul, and the gang at "Camp Bastard". Until then, be safe and hunt hard. Later.
Mike
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sounds like my kind of camp, hunt hard WHENEVER ya can and dam the torpedos (rain)!!!!! good luck guys and take some pic's for us.
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SWEEET! In the AM I leave for Zanesville and a week of bowhunting the Ohio rut.
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I camp close to home all the time. Nothing like a good deer camp. :campfire:
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Our camp opens in 4 days down south of you all about 70 miles! :thumbsup:
:campfire: Charlie
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When I was driving out this morning there was bucks all over the side of the road. Even saw a real dandy with his nose to the gorund.
Not sure how the evening unfolded for Paul and Rob but I never got a call, so probably no blood shed. I'll be leaving in the morning. The weather is looking perfect for the next week. It's times like these that I sometimes wish I hadn't filled my buck tag. SOMETIMES I said. I'll be chasing does and doing the cooking this week. We love to smoke so the smoker will be fired up. Lets see, Sun night-baby back ribs. Mon.-2" thick steaks on an open fire. Tue-Probably do some spaghetti. Wed.-smoked pulled pork. Thur.-smoked beef brisket. Fri/Sat.-leftovers. No diets allowed at "Camp Bastard"! Until Wed.
Mike
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I love deer camp! Especially with a good crowd of people not crabby drunks.
I didn't care for deer camp with crabby drunks. They kind of put a damper on the whole experience.
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Mike, I seen a real nice one today (11-1-09) just a little before nine o'clock coming down the trail that goes about 16 yards in front of my tree. This deer had some long tines and good main beems, not real wide maybe 17 inches inside. Four one one side for sure. But as luck would have it he turned and went back where he came from. I think he seen me reaching for my bow. He was the only one, no does. I don't think the rut is in full swing yet. Good luck to all you guys at camp. Hope Rob and Ben get a good one. See you at work Saturday night. I'm on vacation til then. I'll be hunting hard. Chad
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Our deer camp starts next Saturday morning. the Buffalo Tongue Traditional Bowhunters
:archer:
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Man, what a week. I gained 25 pounds. it's good to be home. Only bad thing is I have to go back to work tomorrow night. And work a double!!! The rut has been hit or miss this week, but blood was shed. :bigsmyl: I have to spend some time with the family tonight so i'll post the weeks events tomorrow. Until then. :campfire:
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Leatherneck,
As a blacktail hunter from Washington State, it sounds to me like you had good weather with only 20 mile an hour winds and some rain. We call that good weather out here on the west coast, especially during November.
I ams ure Paul can hack whatever your weather can throw at him. Northwestern hunters know all to well what crappy weather is all about and hunt in it anyway. A hunting day here can go from sunny and 60, to sleet, rain, snow, sun, sleet, rain, sleet, sun, etc...
Looking forwar to seeing pictures and hearing stories.
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First I must apologize. Sorry it took so long to get this posted. It's been real busy around my house here lately. So here goes. As I told you all before, we like to try and invite someone to camp every year to spread the good fortune of having an awesome place to hunt. The deer don't always cooperate., but thats hunting. But one thing we always guarantee, you will not go hungry. I think Paul saw that first hand. heres a sample of what I'm talking about.
Preparing 9 racks of ribs for the smoker:
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/029-1.jpg)
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/030-1.jpg)
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This next picture is my favorite. Work in progress. Love the smell of hickory smiking in the woods:
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/034-1.jpg)
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I think Hayden,Ben,and Rob couldn't wait before dinner so they needed a snack.
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/035-1.jpg)
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OK, I'm making myself hungry. Back to hunting. Paul was hunting a bottom stand that usually is productive during the rut. Two little hollows dump into this flat and the bucks usually cruise here looking for does. Theres a 160 class 10 pointer running around this area where Paul is. Heres a couple of bucks by the stand the day before Paul arrived. The stand is in the background.
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/197-1.jpg)
Yet another:
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/191.jpg)
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I must say that Paul hunted hard. Regardless of the weather, he was out morning and evening. I gave all the guys a few days and without meat on the pole, I went to work. With missingimpossible(Mike P.) in tow with camera, we went in search of a doe. The first night we came back with (I'm lucky here) too dark to see footage of me missing a skin head. :scared:
My favorite spot besides sitting in a tree. Looks like it's Haydens as well. Alot of lies told here!:
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/036.jpg)
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Good luck and have a great week.
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Now Paul was seeing this nice looking 8 pointer that he wanted to stick real bad. Problem was, the buck would not come by the stand when Paul was there. Paul seemed to be having a good time with sightings of multiple different bucks. It just seemed like we couldn't put things together for a shot. So onece again I venture out to put meat on the pole. This time I was able to connect on a doe. Reason I bring this up is when guys hunt as hard as Paul and the gang did people need a littl motivation late in the week to get the blood flowing again. Just seeing a deer on the pole got the guys pumped up again. Mission accomplished. ;)
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So I decided to feed them all some more. How about a 2" Ribeye cooked over the fire:
Ben, are they done yet?
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/039.jpg)
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/038.jpg)
I think Paul and Rob were enjoying:
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/037.jpg)
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Back to hunting:
It was down to crunch time and Paul wanted to take some venison back to Oregon. So he decided to shoot the next deer that came by on Fri. Heres where Paul was perched:
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/042.jpg)
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Let me start this next part off by saying, Paul is a good shot. He practiced every day and drilled the bull under 20 yards. He was fully prepared physically and mentally to take a whitetail.
The next morning Paul had a young buck come in at 17 yards. Paul took his shot. The deer ran off and Paul came back to the camp.
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We have a rule that nobody goes after a deer until all in camp get to go. Everybody gets to experience the fun. Heres the guys going into the stand area.
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/041.jpg)
Paul on point tracking like a blood hound:
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/044.jpg)
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Paul said he saw the arrow hit high. We tracked this deer for some ways until we saw it running acrossed the hill without any ill effects. I'm certain this buck was hit in the void between the vitals and the spine and will live.
I bring this up for one reason only. Not to embaress Paul by any means. But to let him know that this happens to all of us. God knows I've done it more than once.Those that don't know Paul, he's new to trad. And as I said before, he jumped in with both feet. He was pretty discouraged about wounding a deer. This showed me alot about his character. Some people just don't care,but Paul was upset. He started questioning his preparation and skill. I put a stop to this immediately!!! His skill and preparation was beyond ready. This is an unfortunate part of bowhunting. I encouraged him, as I would ask all of you to do as well, to continue with traditional archery. He would be a loss to our sport if he went back.
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Sorry we don't have any big buck pictures to show. But I hope you enjoyed our week as much as we did. We were happy to have Paul in our camp and I believe he had a good time. As luck would have it, the bucks went crazy the next week. Thats hunting.
Paul made it back to Oregon OK. Hopefully he took a few memories of his hunt. He probably slept better without the snoring that went on in camp.lol I wear earplugs it gets so bad :scared:
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As I type this story, the mailman knocks on my door. And to my surprise a package arrived from Paul. When I opened it my eyes were amazed. Pauls better half made this item for us to hang at our camp. We will be honored!!! Thanks Paul and your girlfriend for a wonderfull plaque. This is not a drawing, but she burned it in the plaque. Alot of work I'm sure!
BTW- Most know that our camp name is "Camp Bastard". Well we named Paul "Western Bastard". Hence the back of the plaque.
Keep at it my friend and thank you!!!
Mike
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/001-5.jpg)
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/003-5.jpg)
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cool story mike! nice pics as well!
can i be the mass. bastard?? and when do you want me to come down??? :thumbsup:
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Thats kool, Thanks Paul.We saw a few big ones that week but no shots.I hope to get it done after youth hunt this weekend.The kids are pumped.
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now thats what i call awesome!!!!! :clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
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Looks and sounds like you all had an AWESOME time!!!!
Good luck to all!!
How 'bout a "coshocton Bastard?"-----need one? :bigsmyl: :biglaugh:
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Originally posted by Cyclic-Rivers:
I love deer camp! Especially with a good crowd of people not crabby drunks.
I didn't care for deer camp with crabby drunks. They kind of put a damper on the whole experience.
camp like being married gotta choose carefully !
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Thanks Mike felt like I was with you. Memories like those will stay with you forever.
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Looks like a ton of fun how bout burg bastard. :bigsmyl:
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I had an incredible experience with the guys in Ohio. I was going to do a post myself, but I have been having a hard time after wounding that buck as to telling the story about the hunt. I have told my friends about the bad hit, but don't generally share that info. The guys are experienced and believe the deer will live, so that gives me some solice.
Although I really wanted too, I opted out of the last evening hunt, because I didn't want to make a bad hit and then not have the time to wait overnight as my plane left early the next morning.
Outside of getting cold like normal, the weather was awesome.
I had never seen so many deer in my life. I passed on a couple of bucks early in the hunt, it slowed down and then I decided to take the next deer that came in. I made a shot that was a little high and apparently in that void area above the lungs. We waited 3 hours, tracked for an hour, bumped the buck and he took off looking no worse for the wear.
After that shot, I almost called it quits. I've made a couple of bad shots with my compound and rifle for that matter, but I was questioning whether I should still hunt trad. I have only lost a couple with the compound in almost 20 years, so losing an animal is not something that has happened to me very often.
Mike's words were encouraging and did help, but there is no worse feeling in my mind other than losing a friend than wounding an animal.
yep, the food was great. The night the guys were having rib eye steaks, I opted out for the left over smoked ribs :D
I had planned to take lots of pictures, but I seemed to be so tired most of the time that all I did was hunt, eat, and sleep LOL. It was almost like I was in a transe the whole week LOL.
The first 3 days were insane to me. I saw 3 to 5 bucks a day, which for me is a lot.
I live in Blacktail country and bucks are far and few between. Ohio is crawling with bucks.
The only reason I passed on the smaller fellas early was the fact that I was seeing bigger bucks within 100 yards of my stand, the guys told me to hold out the first part of the hunt, because I knew it could happen at any time. That and the fact that the area was like a deer factory and I didin't figure it would be a problem to harvest one in the last day or two.
Well, I would have been right if my arrow was placed a little lower, but I didn't pull it off.
A big thanks to the guys for having me out there and treating me like a king. I had nothing too want for the whole trip. I am use to being the one in charge and showing others a good time, so it felt kind of odd for me to be pampered LOL.
I feel honored to have been a guest with such a fine group of guys. The guy I think I connected best with was Mike P. or Missingimpossible. Well if you watch him shoot Missing IS possible LOL Sorry Mike I had to get you back a little bit for all of the your jokes that I was the brunt of LOL.
Missingimpossible Mike P. is about the witiest guy I have ever met. His jokes or stings as I refer to them are non-stop and we were always laughing. Basically, if you open your mouth, he will figure out a way to twist it into something humorous. Most of the time it is some what sick and twisted but it is always funny.
If you watch his face while someone is speaking, he is contemplating how to sting you LOL. I know there is Camp Bastard, Fat Bastard, Little Bastard, but I don't know what they call Mike P., so I told my wife that he is the Smart Bastard.
Anyway, it was a great time. I plan to return and hunt the public land across the road at some point in the future, possibly next year.
As I said before, anytime any of you 4 want to come out here and hunt elk, you are always welcome.
Thanks guys,
Paul
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Originally posted by leatherneck:
As I type this story, the mailman knocks on my door. And to my surprise a package arrived from Paul. When I opened it my eyes were amazed. Pauls better half made this item for us to hang at our camp. We will be honored!!! Thanks Paul and your girlfriend for a wonderfull plaque. This is not a drawing, but she burned it in the plaque. Alot of work I'm sure!
BTW- Most know that our camp name is "Camp Bastard". Well we named Paul "Western Bastard". Hence the back of the plaque.
Keep at it my friend and thank you!!!
Mike
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/001-5.jpg)
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd312/sargeyriley/003-5.jpg)
Mike,
I told the Ol'lady to do something original, and she needed something to start with, so she had me stand there and draw my bow.
The next day I look at what she has started to draw and it is a picture of me shooting at a whitetail LOL.
I guess it is original LOL.
Paul
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Keep the string tight and the groups small my friend.
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good place and good friends ! bravo !
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I haven't been on here much lately and missed this thread. I can tell you from experance that those Ohio boys know to treat ya and show ya lots of deer. I might also add they feed ya a little. I got to hunt with them a few days last year, never saw so many deer or ate so much in my life. No doubt, one of the best hunts with some of the best company I've ever been on. Did I mention we ate a little. I guess it a good thing we've had an east wind here , otherwise I would have smelled those ribs cookin and been there before they were done. I gotta tell ya that pulled pork ain't bad either. We did hunt a little between meals. All kidding aside. One of the best hunts ever. I'll never forget it. Thanks again to a great bunch of guys.