What's the most valuable thing you have found hunting?

[as.ks.ak]

Peace. Clarity. Friends.

Some of the best people I know I have met hunting.

Some of the worst too…which is valuable in its own accord. Good to have those folks identified. Activities like hunting reveal ethics and moral qualities astonishingly well. Identifying those folks may be more valuable than the peace and clarity, because ironically enough once you identify toxicity and remove it, peace and clarity follow… funny how that works.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[krisn416]

Mylar balloons, without fail, almost every time I’m in the mountains. It’s bizarre. Rather than toss them I should start making freeze dried meals, could start a new business lol. Found a Leatherman once, but didn’t have the heart to take it, my BIL had no issues though so he quickly became the proud new owner

 

[KHNC]

I wish someone would post that they found a fanny pack with a hand made whale bone knife in it, a Summit tree stand and a MT050 all weather jacket lying on top by the edge of the road at Green River lake WMA in Kentucky. I know you drove a Blue ford truck and were fast as hell. If i could have covered that 75 yards before you were able to stop and load that stuff up in your truck bed, this would have had a different outcome than it did at the time!

 

[lager]

Found this guy dead, tangled up in a thicket , long time ago. Got his horns tangled up in a fence , during rut , and pulled several hundred yards of fence and steel post down the hill till he got tangled up and twisted so tight he died . I hiked back to truck to get some wire cutters . Took a long time to get him cut loose . Packed out the horns and then eventually got another cape and had him mounted .

 

[HunterHawk]

Game wardens binos, that i returned. Found them in the middle of a road, drove over top of them before I realized it was a bino case and turned around once I realized what they were. Threw them in the back seat and kind of forgot about them. Was coming out after hunting and we were BSing (i know him well, good guy) and he asked me if I had seen his binos, I started smiling and he was all sorts of excited to get those back. I had planned to turn them over since he patrolled that area and lived out there as well anyway but it was funnier that they were his.

I have donated plenty to the mountains/woods... pack came open on a trail and didn't look back until it was fairly empty... gps that I sat on a sign.. pretty sure that was stolen as when I went back maybe an hour later once I realized it was gone and asked the 2 guys (the only 2 in the area) and they said they didn't see them.

And lost a $200 pair of okley sunglasses shed hunting

Grunt calls.

Every damn pair of gloves I have owned.. and im sure plenty of other stuff I didnt realize or can't think of.

 

[2ski]

I found a cell phone this last fall in a field while bird hunting. I charged it up and turned it on. Locked and there was whoever's it was had turned off service to it. So nothing to do but recycle it.

 

[8mille]

I’ve found balance each and every time that I’ve gone out and blended with nature.
Also, the grim reminder that some hunters leave their trash behind where MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE TO STOP IT !!! Carry your garbage out with you !

 

[resident vs nonresident]

Rangefinder. Posted on FB hunt group and was actually able to connect with the owner and return it. It’s funny to find something hours aaay from home to only end up living within few miles of the owner

 

[Hopapa]

A lack of cell service

 

[Esteban]

I grew up in a modest home my parents own directly adjacent to a national forest. My brother and I had free reign to roam from the time we were very young and we would spend our time chasing wildlife, climbing trees, building forts etc.

I must have been around 8 or 9 and my brother 6 or 7 when we stumbled upon a tool box in the woods one day, tucked up under a juniper tree. We opened it and found it to be full of random worthless items by our estimation...small bags and glass jars filled with dried plants, powders, glass tubes, spoons, lighters...

We dumped all that crap out, took the box, and used it to store our ninja turtles and gi joes in a tree fort. Dont think it clicked in my head until I was a teen that we had dumped some crack heads stash on the ground

 

[.270]

I found an old plastic wrapped brick of weed once while hunting down by the border. It was so old, didnt even have a smell. Probably was valuable at some point in time, I just left it there.

I have donated a KUIU backpack to the woods though.

 

[Itsabadhabit]

A harmonica in the box in the Rockies back in the 70’s.

 

[ctafoya]

I found my early archery bull on my son's late rifle hunt.

 

[DeadSound]

Dad and I found a calvary bell from Custer's expedition, it's on display in the Cody museum now.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I found a trail crew stash in a hollow stump from the 30s. Stove, gallon jug of flour, quart jar of sugar, quart jar of coffee - all from the 30s.

Last week I found an intact horse slip scraper. In good shape except the wood poles were gone. It was on a gold placer that hasn't been worked since the early 40s.

 

[Arcticmanak]

I found my own can of bug spray that fell out of my pants cargo pocket. If you've ever been in the woods in interior Alaska you know how valuable bug dope is. I was hiking into my spot when I lost it, realized it was missing a while after, then prayed that I'd be able to find it, backtracked, with no trail, and found it in waist high brush. Those green aerosols should be blaze orange.

Years ago I was out fishing, drove the 4x4 across a shallow stretch of a river, then camped on a gravel bar. Nearby I found an old school GPS unit with Fish & Game identifiers on it. I brought it to their office the following week and I'll never forget the biologist's incredulous statement, "You found this, and brought it back???"

 

[Arcticmanak]

I know the thread is for things found while hunting, but this was a fishing outing. Most valuable recovery was finding an adult male while we were dipnetting for salmon in the Copper River a few years ago. First we saw a boat floating downriver, unmanned, motor still running, about 100yds from shore. A few minutes later we saw a man being carried downriver, wearing a pfd (absolutely no way he would have survived without one). He was 30-40 yds from shore as he came toward us. I ran and grabbed a rope to try and throw to him but he got caught in a current that took him out further. By the time he reached us he was ~100 yds out. Helplessness is when you are holding a 30 yd rope with no ability to reach a man in peril. I will never forget him looking at us, and made a futile attempt to swim toward us in that raging, frigid, glacially fed river. One stroke with his left arm was all he could manage. I sent an SOS on the Inreach, got a response from the Garmin emergency center in Texas, then relayed info of what was happening. My boys and I stopped right then to pray for that man and that someone with the means to rescue him would reach him in time. Miraculously, that info made its way to a charter boat captain that raced by us about 10 minutes later and pulled him from the water. He traveled about 5 miles downriver by the time he was rescued.
We got to meet him later that summer. He said, "When I saw you on the shore holding that rope I knew what you were thinking. .....He's too far out. My rope is too short. He's going to die.... Thank you for saving my life."
There were lots of pieces that all came together to rescue him, but I'm grateful we were at the right place at the right time to do what we could do.

 

[Trimbandit]

This story reminds me of something that happened on a fishing trip my brother and I took years back.
We were going to the Wyoming side of Flaming Gorge. So many things happened that put us behind schedule from where we wanted to be. Anyways it was already dark by the time we got there and put the boat in the water. That wasn't a big deal as they say burbot are most active at night. The boat has slightly more than a trolling motor so everything we did was slow. After 45 min of heading to where we wanted to fish we saw a distant white light flashing on the shore. At first we thought nothing of it but we continued to discuss if it was really there. Then once we were convinced it was, we knew it would take 10-20 min to get there and back if it was nothing. What made the difference is when we realized if someone was in trouble we hadn't seen another boat that evening. We made the decision to investigate. Turns out a dude and his daughter were there for an annual fishing trip when a large wave washed over the side of their boat that made it start taking on water. They were close to the shore opposite their camp so they wisely swam to it dragging the boat. Mind you this was in October or November. Turns out the guy was a nurse and knew their fate after being in the freezing water with no realistic way to get the 20 miles around the lake back to their camp.
We were able to ferry them across where they got to warm up in their vehicle.
Went back the next day to help him get his boat back that was still on the opposite side of the lake. I still think he was worried we were trying to steal it.
If you aren't sure if there is a God, I can confirm, He is real.

 

[JF_Idaho]

Estwing hammer. Sold it on marketplace for $10