Best outdoors memory from 2022?

[MrRogers]

I went to POW for a coastal black bear hunt back in May. It was my first hunt out of state. By far the coolest outdoor experience I've ever had. Hopefully I can hunt Alaska again someday.

 

[PRC_GUY]

Killed my first cow elk in the 25 minutes of the opening day at 500 yards.

 

[Durran87]

Hunting elk in CO for the first time—I can’t wait to go back…

 

[MTbiggame]

Montana elk hunting trip with my buddies. 3 days of hard work but it paid off.

 

[TheGDog]

It burns in my psyche... but my first non-recovery of a Deer happened.

BUT... I was really proud of myself because I had returned to a spot where the season before, I'd spotted a buck up this same ridge about 600yds up tucked within a bunch of standing burned trees. Last year I made a play to half the distance, but this climb is PITA steep and every square inch is covered in buckthorn on the way up.

Well.. so this year comes around, thinking similar game plan, but that this time I'd slow down on the climb up and be better about re-acquiring where in the heck the buck is multiple times on the way up.

I'm sitting down at the bottom, tripod out and glassing trying to see another buck feeding like that year before... but then?.. I start to hear lotsa shots ringing out.. more than one flury of them, in a fairly short amount fo time, so I was like... "Sh!t, you know what that means G, you gotta commit and make this climb...NOW!"

So I just straight up did a frontal assault up this wall-o-buckthorn. Toook my time, made sure to take stops to hydrate and snack along the way up, and burned thru a significant amount of water though. So as I get up there, I'm very aware that my water is on the low side. (But there's a spring on the way out, so I figure at worst some dehydration until I work back over to that spring.) At a certain point... I hear a shot sorta coming toward the direction I was climbing up towards. When I finally get nearer to the top... Oh sh!t! I see movement, look up... 3 deer moving. 1 buck, 1 doe, and something else hidden behind some trees in the way. And it's soo steep they can't just quickly run up and away! So I drop my back unsling rifle and spot a tree to hold the rifle against for support.

Was only a 70yd shot, but the angle was HEAVILY quartering away. Like dang near a Texas Heart Shot. But I was loaded with Barnes TTSX 168gr .308 Win, so I figured as long as angle is right is *should* be able to penetrate and get to the lungs. POW!... he goes right down! After a lil bit of pause and observe, he then lurches sidways sliding along where he fell and slides off this boulder into a hedge just below it, so I'm thinking I'm golden. He should be all wadded up in that hedge.

...NOPE!

So pack back on, sling rifle, climb some more. Get up there, looking around area of shot and WTF? NOTHING! No blood. No intestinal matter. Just where the tracks roughed-up the dirt. I'm scanning around slowly in a circle when I hear something. It's below me. I look down, and see the side of a buck trying to creep along hugged-up near a long manzanita hedge maybe 40-50yds below me now. He even leans into the hedge to try to better hide his antlers too. So I start to drop my pack and try to hurry up and unsling.

Shoot.. dang it, he heard me and gets another burst of energy and trots away side-hilling. I intently focus on trying to video record in my brain the path he takes exiting. Noiting these two boudlers he chicaned aorund on his way out.

Now remember.. I didn't know where the 3rd deer was exactly in this scene.
What I do know is... I know I've shot a deer. I thought it should have been up there near where it initially went down. So... when I see this one now below me... my hesitation was because I didn't want to inadvertantly shoot a 2nd deer and create waste. And even though it kinda looked like he might have had some pain that made him trot slightly askew to one side more than the other. In my brain in that moment, it didn't compute that this deer would be able to trot away with that much speed if he just took a 168gr TTSX. So for a second I convinced myself this had to have been that other deer.

So after making note of where he'd exited my FOV. I decided let me climb back up to point of shot impact again and real look around, just in case. Really slowed down and scanned full 360 intently. When convince he was NOT there... went back down to where first saw him below me.

Meanwhile all this is burning energy like mad! When I get down there I'm like I have to eat something and drink a lil. My level of exhaustion was gettingg pretty strong as this point. So as I drop pack and begin to do a quick snack.... sh!t... KABOOM!!... T-storm jumps off, literally right above me. FML. And sleet comes down with the rain too.

Great... so now even if there was blood, this damn rain is gonna wipe it. So I realized I gotta hurry up and finished the snack and get on side-hilling to see if I can maybe find where he ran to perhaps.

I probably went like another 250-300yds side-hilling this nasty steep buckthorn covered place. Get to where it seems like I can see decent for a ways in all directions. Not seeing an antler sticking out. REally starting to doubt if that one down below me was the same one I'd hit?

The side-hilling got me into a draw that, I dunno, looked like it'd be easier to descend there instead. My exhaustion levels where now crazy dang high... all my lower back stuff has me doping up some more for safety. And just with all the rain and sleet now too? I realized I had to call it and be safe, and just concern myself with making sure I'm doing to descent before I'm too spent and it makes it even more dangerous.

Sh!t was brutally painful all over next day. And with my issues, I knew I'd have to recup before could go back out there. Went the next weekend. Figured would be meat to harvest, but that tough bastard owed me trying to at least find him.

Went better prepped this time. Something like 6L fluids. It was pretty crisp on the way up too so that conserved fluids a lil bit as well. Pickle Juice and 2 Gatorades were part of the addtl support.

I side-hilled that entire ridge that day. ... nothing. I was truthfully figuring I'd smell the carcass. My sense of smell is very acute. But no banana. Passed be a Doe and her fam on way up, and a couple more solitary does during the 2nd sidehilling. Made sure take stops on the tops of fingers and really use the binos to scan around each time. But never found him. So that was my tag in 2022.

Thankfully as a consolation prize the week before the season started, I'd took a nice yote in there while checking out another location a lil further up the Hwy. So it least it wasn't a total bummer.

-=-=-
I'm figuring this year while I go up to place cams I'll see about stashing 2 gallons of water up there for later. That's been an extremely helpful tactic I've used before. Just slap some blue painters tape on it with my email address so incase somebody drinks it they can email me to let me know they had to.

Interestingly... when I'd gon back up there the next weekend... very close to where the shot had happened... I now noticed what looked like somebodies sleeping bag... just left on the ground.... fully laid out, not rolled up. And some plastic bottles upon it. Thought it was odd I didn't see anybody while in that area though. Besides... who does that? I've been noticing stuff like that more and more... you go in places and find where DBags apparently just elect to leave there cheapie tents behind? SMDH.

NOTE: that buck I'd hit would have been the nicest one to date.

 

[Hunt eat repeat]

Taking my old man on an alaska adventure. He never imagined he would make it to Alaska

 

[Decker9]

This year was super special, 3 generations of us took to the sheep hills (my daughter age 9, my dad age 72, and my lady of corse). 8 days and over 80 km with not a sheep sighted, but a huge success in our eyes.


Chicken soup tastes better in the mountains, change her mind lol


Two week later found us all chasing goats for a week, we passed on a young billy, if my kiddo were 10, she would have had her first goat.



I don’t think anything has melted my heart as much as seeing my dad and my daughter together in the mountains. I could tell my dad was on cloud 9, and my daughter as happy as he was. We’r sure looking forward to next season!!

 

[coloyooper]

Getting my ass kicked up and down the sheep mountains

 

[Bluehawk]

Goose hunting in Nebraska. We were in a ground blind in a cornfield. A group of about 60 were flying overhead and were about the same height as a 747. My friend and I laughed that there was no way we could pull them out of the sky due to how high they were and the speed they were flying. My friend gave his flag a couple of whips, low and behold the whole group turned and started to cyclone down. It was amazing seeing that many geese heading down to our spread. We didn't even try calling or anything. We just waited for them to start landing before shooting. We both got a triple out of the group.

 

[Scoot]

200+ hours for each of us bear hunting in MN prior to 2022. Neither of us had ever seen a bear while hunting for them in our home state. Within 45 minutes of each other, while 40 miles apart (different tags), we each shot our first bear. I was happy to shoot a bear, but thrilled my son got the chance and made good on it. Getting this picture was icing on the cake for me!

Some significant highs and lows in the year as far as hunting goes, but this was my favorite by far.

 

[Marble]

Gonna need proof,,, well at least on the last one

Our last trip to Mexico.

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[Chesapeake173]

This will be tough to beat. Ever. Spent some time in Montana with my 15 year old daughter and some good friends. There were tears of frustration and joy. There were highs and lows, but nothing like the high of both of us shooting beautiful mule deer bucks within seconds of each other.

This morning started out with her missing an opportunity at a nice buck. We went to another spot and tried a short stalk on a smaller buck and a group of does, which ended without a shot. We then tried to get to another spot and wound up stuck for over an hour.

I’ve come to start believing that things happen for a reason, even if you don’t see it right away. We made it to our evening hunt spot and started still hunting with a nice cross wind. I glassed a nice buck probably 900 yards away. We closed the distance to 400 yards. He was out in the open as Claire got in position to shoot. As they do he stepped into some shadows and disappeared. We quickly made another stalk up a valley and belly crawled to the rim of a deep draw. Standing 235 yards away were not one, but two nice bucks. Claire got into position and took the first good shot she had(which happened to be the smaller one) and anchored it! The second buck was confused by the echo of the shot and stood rock still. I slid over behind the rifle and dropped mine where it stood. A quick follow up on Claire’s and he skidded to the bottom of the valley.

In seconds our hunt was over and the work began. After all of the pictures we started a fire and began to quarter them out. We made one heavy load that night and another one the next (with the help of some good friends).

I couldn’t have asked for a better experience and can’t wait to get back next year.

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[mcseal2]

I'm going to have to say the last minutes of the last day whitetail my nephew got hunting with me. I definitely had the adrenaline going then. My nephew's first buck. I got a good one this year too.

Kodiak Island was awesome too. I've dreamed of going there for years and it finally happened. Incredibly beautiful country and a great adventure.

Caught my best rod and reel flathead catfish over the summer too, 62lbs. I was solo that trip but my kids are old enough we camped together on the river for the first time.

2022 was a pretty darn good year for outdoor recreation.

 

[Choupique]

Lots of great ones for me

My son became the 5th generation of men in my family to spend the day at our deer camp which was built in the 40's

Killed my BOAL

Had a great elk hunting trip in Colorado which didn't produce even an elk sighting but proved that we can hack it in some nasty stuff

Dad shot the woods up and filled all of his buck tags

It's been the best winter of my life so far

 

[Truaxdw]

Hunting with my son in Kyrgyzstan, couldn’t ask for a better partner

 

[3325]

Saw several black bears during late summer and early fall.

Saw two wolves one day while elk hunting in October. I'm okay having a few wolves. And I'm okay with killing some wolves.

Had a bull bugling off and on in the timber one day in October. I kept trying to close the distance and put the sneak on him and he kept staying ahead of me.

Killed a cow in the November late season. No antlers this year but I'm thankful for a full freezer.

I had some good days outdoors this year.

 

[Dos Perros]

Best thing I did in 2022 was forget to take my weekly COVID test at work. Well, I didn't forget, I was 12 minutes late taking it. And rules being rules I was granted a week off work in late July, something I'll take every time!

I grabbed my 7 y/o boy, loaded up our camping and fishing gear, my Yamaha TW200, and we headed to the mountains of Wyoming for a week. In short, it was incredible. We camped just outside a Wilderness area, fished grizz country, stuck some nice cutties and browns, rode my TW up a switchback with a view, floated a big river, and generally had a blast. We were up early and out late, sun burned, mosquito bitten, and living the life! Lil dude is a road warrior and overall great companion. I know we have many adventures ahead.

 

[dfwpist2020]

Grandson’s first deer


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[Go West Old Man]

Getting our hrch titleView attachment 494305

Congrats! That’s a milestone for sure. Now send that fine looking retriever to the Grand!

 

[actionshooter]

I have a bunch of great memories from this year.. starting with my 1st coues deer hunt (tagged a nice one) with some great friends.. it ranks up there, but one of my kids getting a deer always beats my trips, even if my kid is almost 30 lol...

I actually think the best thing that happened this year was a purchase we made... a little cabin on 30 acres that butts right up to 1.1M acres of state and the Okanogan NF....will putting this in a "family trust" where my kids and grandkids will always have a great place to meet up and hunt together as a family.