Nov. 2009: Oregon Columbia Blacktails!!!

[Steve H.]

Anyone up for a semi-live hunt for Thanksgiving Day???  

Time for #5 in the 2009 series!  Here are links to the first four of my 2009 semi-live hunts.

January 2009: Semi-Live on Kauai'
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=074385

February 2009: Alaska Muskox
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=074409

May 2009: SOLO Alaskan Brown Bear: SOLO Alaskan Brown Bear
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=074488#000001

September 2009: Moose ?? Camp!! (...Cry Wolf!!!)
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=078735;p=1

[adeeden]

I can't wait, just type loud so i can hear myself reading over my in-laws!

[Steve H.]

Back in 2007 I went down to Oregon from Alaska to hunt with my buddy Benny Pinney who was in his last year of dental school in Portland.  I figured I better get down there and take advantage of him being there before he moved on.

I did a semi-live hunt here on TradGang but it has since fallen off the bottom of the thread list.  We decided to use treestands to hunt funnels like we both have done for whitetails in the past.  The first morning Benny saw 10 deer from one stand and the next time when I hunted, I made sure I was in that same stand (while Benny was back at school).  I had a wide, old buck come by my first morning in that stand and my hunt was soon over!




Benny shot a great buck a week later to make us two for two.

[Steve H.]

Since we had done so well I decided I would head back to Oregon in 2009 and see if our 2007 successes were a fluke or if we were on to something.  I highly suspected at a minimum that Benny had found a really exception spot with a saddle cutting a steep ridge with an old skid trail, and a stream paralleling the ridge.

Here is the trail in front of my stand and the skid trail thru the saddle.

[Weasel]

Hey Steve!

Where is Ben now?  I remember exchanging e-mails with him when he was 13!

Jerry

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Good on ya, Steve! Let's hear it.

[Bob L.]

I'm Down!!

[AkDan]

its about time LOL!   Good stuff as usual man!  Wish I could have gone along this year ugg!  

Weasel, Dr. Benny is in Juneau.

[Steve H.]

I just remembered that i did the 2007 semi-live hunt on Thanksgiving.  I had fallen asleep (was triptofaning on turkey).

Back from checking ermine traps and plowing the drive....

[Steve H.]

My wife Donnie came along to Oregon since she hadn't been there before.  We went and hung a stand the day before the season opener.  Here is the stand a few yards off the skid trail and on a bench between the stream and the ridge.



Opening day and I was in the stand by 6:30 am after 11 ½ hours I hadn't seen a single deer—ughhhhhh!  The following day I hunted a second stand to rest the first spot and moved that stand mid-day and once again saw nothing all day—double uggghhh!

Here I am in the woods I hunted on the morning of the second day.

[KentuckyTJ]

Very good stuff congrats.

[Steve H.]

I went back into "the spot" on the third morning and was only intending to sit until 10:30 or 11 am.  My 2007 buck was close before I ever knew he was there but at 10 am I heard a stick snap and then again as I spotted a deer headed my way.

Finally, I got to SEE a deer!  When I first saw it I couldn't tell sex, just that there was a deer and it was coming straight to me.  I then saw it was a buck and saw there was enough antler on top that I would get ready and not look at and be distracted by the rack again.

[Steve H.]

Anybody even reading this or is everyone napping, lol?

The buck stepped out to the left onto the skid trail and looked like he would probably come in front of me but he was close enough and roughly broadside so I decided then and there would work and pulled back and shot.

I got down in about 25 minutes and found these track where the deer had spooked at the shot.....

[Steve H.]

Don't you just HATE it when you miss!!!!!!!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

miss you, no way!!

[Huntrdfk]

I kept looking for blood or hair in that picture Steve, now I know why I couldn't find it.......hope the story continues.....


David

[champ38]

Im with you Steve, keep it coming.

[fishmerf]

I want to read more. Please. I love those deer. The dark racks and cool looking capes. Someday...maybe.

Merf

[Santiam]

I'm listening..  

[Wannabe1]

Yep, tuned in for the rest of the story!   :D