Daily Hunt pics and Stories 2006

[SSGA]

All i can say is if you type in "Alpine Copperhead" into google and read a little you will find the answer is NO. Their poison is as toxic as a cobra    

     AUS Snakes
 
I have hunted in the snow and as soon as the sun came out so did the snakes, onto rocks to heat up 12dC is ok for them and any temp above 23dC and they go into stress, one of the few AU snakes that need to be kept relatively cool!

Hope that settles a few nerves    :confused:  

SSGA

[whitebuffalo]

couple pics of us shooting. My son is to little yet to shoot but he was in the wings watching on.

 
 

[John/Alaska]

Cool picture whitebuffalo! Its fun when the younsters shoot too. Here is a picture that I took the other day when my 5 year old grandson & I were squirrel hunting at his folks place. We had hunted over to where his uncle was buildng ahis house. We were shooting at the stump just of the left corner. I caught the arrow in flight. Oh yeah and there is sheep in those hills in the background.

 

[Al Kidner]

Mmmmmmm Alaska! One day..........

[loco_cacahuate]

heres a pic i got of a spike from my brothers blind. I think i missed this as bad as i have any deer, about 2 ft over him. Buck fever with a spike????
 

[Roughcountry]

Was gonna Email these to Littlefeather but figured he spot them on his thread.

These elk were in a clearing in a burn yesterday. Snapped the first shot in a hurry thinking they would be gone, yeh thats the windsheld and antenna of my pickup.
   
They stopped and I got a few more shots before they walked on.There were more but this is all I could fit in the frame.
 
CK, this is bout 1/2 mile from our main camp, on the way into the spike camp. There were 4 spikes in the bunch, the big bulls are still batching it, but starting to talk a little.

[Littlefeather]

Dang, that looks kinda easy. Maybe I'l shoot six or seven. What is the limit by the way?   :D

[Roughcountry]

Well, my regs say only one with bones on his head. I guess we have ta aim at a bull instead of flock shootin   :D

[Charlie Lamb]

DANG!!! Another plan down the drain.  :D

[Brad_Gentry]

Well, our squirrel season opened up at the beginning of the month, and last weekend was the first chance I've had to get out. Went out for an hour on Saturday morning and got one, and about an hour and a half on Sunday morning and got two. The best season of the year has officially started!
 
 

[Hawken1911]

Nice job on the squirrels Brad    .  Could you give us some more details?  We're planning a Michigan Trad Ganger squirrel hunt in a few weeks, and we could use some motivation.

Did you get them on the ground or in a tree, and at what distances?  What kind of points/blunts did you use?  Any tips for us?

Thanks,

Paul

[Steven Mullins]

Got a new bow this year, looking forward to hunting w/it this year. Acadian Woods 56" custom takedown treestick....this bow is more commonly known round these parts as 'Ms. Copperhead'...

 

[Steven Mullins]

Tim Mullins, Steven Mullins, and Joe Carpenter in MO...what a trio!

 

[Brad_Gentry]

Paul,
I am by no means an expert on squirrels, but where I'm at, when it's still this warm, I have the best luck early in the day. About 15 or 20 minutes after first light until about 0900 is when they seem to be most active. The ones in the pics were all shot out of trees, and distances probably averaged at around 15 yards. As for points, I have always used mostly homemade points that consist of .38 casings and bear bleeder blades(ala Tom Mussatto), but usually have a bit of a selection in my quiver. Right now I have arrows with the homemade heads, some with Ace Hexblunts, and a couple with Gamenabbers on them.
I had never used the Gamenabbers much, but right now am pretty impressed with them. I used them on two of the squirrels I got last weekend and they worked great. The head either passed through or stayed in the body of the squirrel (which makes for a much easier recovery), and both of them died straight away. Besides that, I missed one shot and squared a cedar tree; The shallow point on the Gamenaber didn't penetrate at all and just bounced off. They're not too expensive either, at about 8 bucks for a dozen.

Good luck on the hunt! With a bunch of friends, some bows, and some bushytails, you're bound to have a blast!  

[SSGA]

Aussie sunrise with the moon...............Beautiful day to sit and glass the ranges!

SSGA

[**DONOTDELETE**]

wow some great pic's & stories. I'm hoping to score and put some pic's & some stories too... Good Luck Everyone & Tanks to all the have already shaired.

[Holm-Made]

I just got back from hunting the opening 5 days of the South Dakota archery antelope season.  First time hunting Antelope and had a blast not to mention some beginner's luck.        I went with a friend who had hunted this 10,000 acre ranch the past 9 years.  We hunted a few miles east of the Montana border.  They have had a major drought this summer with a lot of animals coming to a few water holes on the ranch.  Four days before we arrived they got 3 inches of rain.  This scattered the animals and made water hole hunting a non option.  We hunted fence crossings from double bull blinds and hay bail blinds the rancher had set ahead of time.  Look closely, you can see the fence crossing under the fence.

 

It's not as easy as it looks because there are a lot of these crossings going into the huge fields from the pastures.  Animals are also very skittish around the crossings, usually running. Even though they can very easily go over the fence they always go under unless very spooked.
Here are some pictures of the ranch from the top of a butte.
 
 

[Holm-Made]

We were up at 3:50 every morning and in our blinds by 5:00.  We didn't leave the blinds until 9:00 at night.  The only reason to leave the blind was to retrieve game otherwise every goat within a mile would be alerted in the open terrain.  I spent the first 3 days in my Double Bull blind reading, drinking water and watching antelope in the distance.  Not too many close encounters and only one shot opportunity at a fawn of which I didn't take.  The animals seemed to give the blind a 40 yard berth as a rule. When the antelope were close they were real edgy.  
 
 
I had better luck getting the Mule Deer does in range and they provided several hours of entertainment.
 

[Holm-Made]

After the 3rd day I came in for a late supper at 9:30.  The rancher came by to let me know he was pulling all the bails off my field early the next morning and that I should move my blind.  I had to head out in the dark and walk a mile back to get my blind.  I got to bed around midnight.  A couple of the other hunters had filled their tags on the second day and had scouted today from the butte.  They suggested I try a bail blind next to a fence crossing in another field.  I took their word for it.  The other hunters had been seeing quite a few goats in this field with a particularly big buck that had horns that jutted a little more forward then the rest of the bucks.  When I got situated the next morning I saw this buck in the field.  He did a lot of posturing and scraping.  There was only one other buck that I could see in the field and he gave the big boy a wide berth.  About mid morning a buck tried to enter the field from the pasture behind me.  He kept running up and down the fence but seemed reluctant to cross.  Finally he ran off back to the pasture.  Later it dawned on me that despite the fact that he was pretty big he was afraid of the slanty forward buck in the field.  About 10:00 the slanty buck fed over to about 80 yards from my bale blind.
   
Eventually he bed down about 75 yards out.

[Holm-Made]

About 12:30 the buck got up and started walking toward the fence I was set up on.  He was on course to meet the fence about 60 yards to the east of my position.  I peeked out the back port hole and saw a different buck heading to the fence at the same spot coming from the pasture.  He wanted in but the big boy wasn't going to allow it.  The big boy was weezing and posturing.  When the new buck got to the fence he turned and started following it west towards my fence crossing.  The big boy turned also and started paralleling the fence about 30 yards out matching the new buck step for step.  I had to make a quick decision which porthole to set up on.  The new buck was nice and would pass by the back port at 10 yards but was on the other side of the fence so I immediately dismissed it and set up for the big boy in which it appeared he would pass the front of the blind at about 20 yards.  The bucks were focused on each other and didn't seem to notice the blind which helped big time.  I glanced over my shoulder as the new buck passed at 10 yards.  I looked back and prepared for the shot as the big boy was entering the front porthole.  My buddy has reminded me several times to aim low as these goats are high strung and will jump the string almost without exception.  In the heat of the moment I, of course, forgot.  As I released a cedar shaft out of my Holm-Made longbow, I watched it in slow motion as it pin wheeled towards the buck's chest.  I saw him start to drop.  Everthing seemed to happen in slow motion until the arrow hit him in the spine with a loud whap, and he piled up.
I was overcome with a sense of accomplishment.  After spending 15 plus hours a day in a blind I felt like I earned this special gift.  It felt good to sleep in the next day        Here he is:
   
   
Equipment used:
Holm-Made hybrid 60" 52# bow bolt takedown system
(I traded Bow Chef some knife blanks for the laminations that went into the bow and they are the best quality I have ever worked with by far.)
I used 55-60 spine tapered cedar arrows with 160 grain Magnus journeyman broadheads.  (I got the shafts from Clearfork archery.)
I feel fortunate and blessed.  Chad