bored, lets talk hunting

[Pony Soldier]

Pounding ground in southwest and far western Montana. It ain't wonderful but it's what I have. I find I get bored looking at the same dirt more than twice a year.

 

[bozeman]

Prayers for recovery! My first memory of hunting, I was 6 years old with a single shot 410 my dad left me on stand (we ran dogs for deer)……very proud he let me and scared to death at the same time. As long as I have my mind, I will never forget that day. Walls old style camo coveralls and a thick orange bogan…….freezing, scared to death but the time of my life!!!

 

[Pony Soldier]

This what some of my best old ground looked like in Nov

 

[Silvercreek1999]

Nice! I'll most likely draw the general tag tho I'm unsure if I'll be able to use it.

 

[Silvercreek1999]

Prayers for recovery! My first memory of hunting, I was 6 years old with a single shot 410 my dad left me on stand (we ran dogs for deer)……very proud he let me and scared to death at the same time. As long as I have my mind, I will never forget that day. Walls old style camo coveralls and a thick orange bogan…….freezing, scared to death but the time of my life!!!

Thanks!

 

[MeatMissile]

How did you tear yours ? I tore mine about 4 weeks ago ...I'm getting my hard cast taken off next week. Should have plenty of time to be able to hunt in fall ? How long was your therapy?

I got into a foot pursuit. As I caught up to the guy and grabbed onto him take him down, I felt/heard a weird thump and I went down hard on top of the guy. I scrambled to get into a good cuffing position and I realized my leg wasn’t right. I got the cuffs on the guy and called to get someone to transport. He started to realize I was hurt, so I just had to hold him down with my body weight until someone could get to us. I got up and my lower leg felt numb and I had no power in my foot. It was my left leg, so I was able to drive myself to the ER.

That was June 27. I did 9 months of PT. I was going 3 times a week for the first month. It was massage, range of motion stuff at first. Then it went to twice a week where we worked on learning to walk again and continuing range of motion work. Then we started doing calf presses with very little weight and worked my way up. Then, balance work.

In between, I was in the gym. I was able to jog at 5 months. Uneven ground wasn’t easy. Then I did a month of agility drills and began to do straight/level sprints at 6 months post-op. I was back to full duty at 10 months post-op.

 

[Pony Soldier]

You wanted a story so I shall share some of the insanity of my youth. Growing up in northwest montana I was taught hunting by my father. His approach was to hunt about 3 sections over and over and over. By the time I had hunted the same ground for 4 weeks All of the squrrels had names and were starting to beg for snacks. Dad's approach was to pick a spot and wait for the elk to migrate to us.

In about 1970 or 71 a couple of fraternity brothers and myself decided to sweep that little basin. It was known to hold a few nice bulls after the rut. I sent each one to each of the little ridges and I played dog.

I picked up a track in the jungle and started him on the path. I had to cut him off a couple times but finally he made a break for it. My partner was on the back side of the ridge and they came noses to nose at about 15 ft. It was as close to self defense as anything I had seen. It took him two shots and shortly there after there was another shot from our other brother.

The bull was size large and had a nice 349 rack. We drug him to the gulch bottom just in time to meet up with the other gent pulling a cow down the drainage. We worked our butts off pulling those two down the drainage until we hit the flats and at that point nothing moved. We set them up for the night and worked our way back to the cars.

We got back to my house, called the fraternity for assistance. The next morning 20 of the brothers showed up. I borrowed a horse and went to drag the elk down to where the trucks could get to. I latched onto the bull with a nylon rope ( cause I was stupid) The rope got longer and longer until it pulled the horse over backwards. Dry ground and dragging elk isn't a good mix. Then with all the bodies we manhandled those elk down to the vehicles.

Most everyone had cars from high school but pickups were in short supply. One of guys had a jeepster (new) so we decided to load it on the roof rack. We loaded the cow in the back and drove under the bull until it was centered. As it settled in the roof collapsed creating a bull in a bowl. Everyone got on the uphill side of the vehicle to keep it from rolling over. We made it to the road and creeped into town.

I had to wait for the train as I didn't have a vehicle but the guys drove into Missoula very slowly. It was so top heavy that even at 30 mph every truck that went passed them nearly flipped them over.

They made it to the house and hung them on the fire escape. At the last pull the fire escape pulled out of the wall and the entire mess hit the ground.

For some reason, none of those boys ever wanted to hunt with me after that. The entire house ate those elk all winter. The cow was tasty as usual but that bull was just just a logging truck tire in a hair coat. You needed to have strength and endurance to get through dinner.