What’s the coolest thing you found in the back country

[strousek]

Not completely backcountry but every year we cut our firewood from the same stand of old growth forest on the CO front range. Couple years back I went to throw another log on the fire and there was a horseshoe glowing red in the fireplace. This had to be inside a piece of pine that somehow I never hit with the chainsaw or splitter. Still nails in the shoe even. I am guessing someone hung it on a small branch some 100 years ago and the tree had to have grown completely around it.

 

[flathead#2]

Found a Blackhawk Sheath knife (no sheath and the scales were rotted away) on the Flats, near Deming, NM.
Just West of the Florida's.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I found this buried in an old mine shaft in the Piute Mt. in 1976. I spent a few hours getting it to this point. Not much more than a wall hanger now days.

 

[6mm Remington]

When I was 10 years old I went to Roy Montana to hang out with my grandfather (LeRoy Umstead) for a month one early summer on his ranch and to help him out as much as a 10 year old can help at least. We saddled up one morning and drove a bunch of his cows back north of the homestead to the Missouri Breaks where he had another couple sections of property. On our way we came upon a very large 5 point mule deer buck skeleton hanging in a tree. The deer skeleton was complete. It had a round piece of a large branch between the rear hocks on the legs and a rope was secured to it to get the deer up off of the ground. The nose was about six feet up off of the ground so that predators couldn't reach it. The bones were all intact and the carcass had been hanging there for so long that the bones were all white and there was not a bit of hide, hair, or anything else still present. Like I said this was a very large buck also.

The only thing that my grandfather and I could think was that someone had shot this very nice buck and with help obviously had pulled it up off of the ground to keep animals away until they could return to pack the deer out. As anyone knows who has hiked around in the Missouri Breaks country of Montana, it's pretty wild back there and it's easy enough to get "turned around" in that country. The hunter was not able to relocate his mule deer, and it hung there all of this time.

As far as I know, this skeleton might still be hanging there. It was 1970 when my grandfather and I found the buck skeleton. To say the least, it was a pretty cool find. Of course back then there were no cell phones or small compact cameras to take a picture of this once in a lifetime find. It's one of my treasured memories of my grandfather and I spending time together in the wilds of Montana!

 

[Shō[t]gun]

View attachment 247415

Been a while, but I just discovered this awesome thread. This is from a loggerhead shrike. They'll do this all over to store food for later or age insects until their toxins become inert.

 

[TA2510]

My wife and I found a cache, that judging from the expiration date on some items, had been buried for over 20 years. In addition to the food and toiletries, there was a full box of Russian made AK47 ammo.

Was it found near Pagosa Springs Co?

 

[M44]

Dropped under a bridge scouting for mink sign and found a GI style duffle bag full of stolen items . Most of it was from an area school, but also included a 22 revolver, bricks of 22 ammo, and a pair of binoculars.

Loaded it up and headed to the county sheriff. Turns out they already had the thief behind bars and he had made the statement that the items would never be found which he thought helped his case. Not a good day for that jackass.

A couple months later the sheriff contacted me and stated he never found an owner for the 22 ammo and binos and they were mine.

 

[Bigborealaska]

 

[bergie]

I think it would be cool to find some of the many things I have lost while hunting....

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I think it would be cool to find some of the many things I have lost while hunting....

Well, you can forget that..

 

[Greyinggrayling]

Backcountry hunt for caribou. We were walking along a riverbed when I found an ancient Athabaskan stone axe head.
Big country out there.

 

[jhm2023]

While busting brush along the base of a mountain on a sheep hunt in the pissing rain, I stopped under a big spruce tree in an attempt to get out of the rain and eat a snack. I looked up and saw a 3/4 curl ram skull hanging from a branch like 12 feet up. It looked like a person hung it there and given the rate of growth of those far north spruce, It probably had been there a very long time and went up with the tree as it grew.

 

[Matt5266]

Picture perfect arrowhead while archery hunting. I was following a blood trail on after shooting the biggest bull of my life. Unfortunately I never could find him....

 

[PNW bow hunter]

The first week of July 2017 a buddy and
I did a 35 mile back pack trip in a NE Oregon Wilderness. I have elk hunted it a lot, but figured there had to be some great bucks out there.

About 8.5 miles into our first day, we’ll before we got to where I thought we would stop to glass the first evening for bucks we found a back country horse camp.

In the middle of the camp, about 20 ft up in a tree was a giant sign.

TRUMP 2016

Not sure if was the number 1 coolest, but it was pretty cool, post election, months later, WAY out in the middle of no where, to see that.

We marked it as Trump Camp on our gps, and that is what we have always refered to that area since then.

 

[eddielasvegas]

The first week of July 2017 a buddy and
I did a 35 mile back pack trip in a NE Oregon Wilderness. I have elk hunted it a lot, but figured there had to be some great bucks out there.

About 8.5 miles into our first day, we’ll before we got to where I thought we would stop to glass the first evening for bucks we found a back country horse camp.

In the middle of the camp, about 20 ft up in a tree was a giant sign.

TRUMP 2016

Not sure if was the number 1 coolest, but it was pretty cool, post election, months later, WAY out in the middle of no where, to see that.

We marked it as Trump Camp on our gps, and that is what we have always refered to that area since then.

Any chance you'd be willing to revisit that site in the next few months?

If there is not a TRUMP 2024 sign, all it means is our great country is doomed.


Eddie

 

[PNW bow hunter]

Dropped under a bridge scouting for mink sign and found a GI style duffle bag full of stolen items . Most of it was from an area school, but also included a 22 revolver, bricks of 22 ammo, and a pair of binoculars.

Loaded it up and headed to the county sheriff. Turns out they already had the thief behind bars and he had made the statement that the items would never be found which he thought helped his case. Not a good day for that jackass.

A couple months later the sheriff contacted me and stated he never found an owner for the 22 ammo and binos and they were mine.

Kind of off subject

Not back country but along the lines of your post.

One of my best friends and I heard a rumor of snowmobiles that got stolen from a local shop, and then dumped into lake Merwin off a bridge when everything got to hot.

We spent a morning scuba diving all over around the bridge. Never found any snowmobiles or snowmobile parts. We did find several fishing poles, a tackle box full of gear, some money, and gun!

The sheriff never could identify the gun we found that we ever heard about. Since it was at the bottom of a lake, I’m sure it was involved in something bad.

 

[Pony Soldier]

While working south of Butte, Mt in the 90s, we were underground in an old silver mine. Among many turn of the century mining equipment pieces, were a number of porno pictographs of naked women on the drift walls drawn with carbide lamps. One that was quite unique was in a raise that was at least 9 ft tall with massive breasts. The most unique of these was the fact that each artist put the date, name, address under each one. These were grad students from Harvard in the 1920s or 30s with Winchell of the USGS. Obvious they had been in a remote camp too long.

 

[timberland]

While busting brush along the base of a mountain on a sheep hunt in the pissing rain, I stopped under a big spruce tree in an attempt to get out of the rain and eat a snack. I looked up and saw a 3/4 curl ram skull hanging from a branch like 12 feet up. It looked like a person hung it there and given the rate of growth of those far north spruce, It probably had been there a very long time and went up with the tree as it grew.

trees do grow up from the ground, did it get up there when it was on a lot of snow pack?

 

[Pony Soldier]

Tree tops grow up but the limbs don't. They grow out. They might have gotten there from snowpack but likely they were put there by another wandering soul.

 

[dieNqvrs]

While busting brush along the base of a mountain on a sheep hunt in the pissing rain, I stopped under a big spruce tree in an attempt to get out of the rain and eat a snack. I looked up and saw a 3/4 curl ram skull hanging from a branch like 12 feet up. It looked like a person hung it there and given the rate of growth of those far north spruce, It probably had been there a very long time and went up with the tree as it grew.

Trees don’t grow like that. A branch height never changes. If it was 12 feet high 50 years ago it would be 12 feet high now.