NC4X4 Hunting and Fishing

So don’t mind my face. I was trying to take picture with my phone and not drop it but it shows a tree saddle pretty good since some of you guys were interested. We also may have been sipping something besides water and decided to hunt together cause it was easier to bull shit
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Little breezy this evening.

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After some turkey day venison!
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Looky what i caught slipping in at 5 minutes to dark.

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Man it sounded like a war zone by our land this morning. I didn’t see a thing, but heard 9 rifle shots before 9am.

The fog rolled in and it looked like some kind of Call of Duty background-
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Thanksgiving morning rain showers held off long enough to get a sit in. I’ve been seeing this rascal for almost a month, mornings an evenings, tending does and had been passing him up sometimes as close as 20 yards, in hopes my son might get a shot at him. He decided to sleep in that morning....
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Finally started seeing deer last night...1 3-pt buck & 5 does. Granted the does didn't come out until end of legal shooting light, but the buck hung out for 20 minutes and offered ~30 broadside shots. Didn't squeeze the trigger, but I'm counting it as a win!
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Current situation. Already smoked a decent six point from here. We’ll see how this evening goes. My tree is swaying so bad in this wind that I’m not sure I can even take an accurate shot. It feels like I attached this stand to a fishing pole. Feels like I’m deep sea fishing from a tree.
 
View attachment 332007 Current situation. Already smoked a decent six point from here. We’ll see how this evening goes. My tree is swaying so bad in this wind that I’m not sure I can even take an accurate shot. It feels like I attached this stand to a fishing pole. Feels like I’m deep sea fishing from a tree.
Yup F dat noise. I will climb down and sit my butt on the ground when it gets like that.
 
View attachment 332007 Current situation. Already smoked a decent six point from here. We’ll see how this evening goes. My tree is swaying so bad in this wind that I’m not sure I can even take an accurate shot. It feels like I attached this stand to a fishing pole. Feels like I’m deep sea fishing from a tree.

Yup F dat noise. I will climb down and sit my butt on the ground when it gets like that.

A friend of mine stuck a big buck in Jones co. in the 80s.He had the day off because hurricane diana was coming in. He was in a tree stand on a worn down deer path.He said he felt like he was getting seasick in the stand but he stayed a while.The big buck came down the path and he stuck it after it passed by from him while the tree swayed.
When the wind is howling it's a good time to stalk the woods.With the noise of the wind they can't hear you,w the scrub and leaves moving it's hard for deer to see you moving though the woods and their nose is no good.It's can be dangerous w big timber and widow makers so you have to be careful and look at the tree tops for dead branches as you walk.
 
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My 82 year old poppa tore up some poosy this evening..........





























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I'm proud of him. He saw some small does he did'nt shoot and a pack of 6 grown does he could of shot but they were not on the property we hunt.He also saw 2 coyotes sneaking on the powerline but they disappeared in the brush.After he told me I told him next time you see them squeak them w his lips.He shot the bobcat w my 30.06
 
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Realized I never updated this from the Wyoming elk trip. Left the house on Friday, Oct 16 at around 5am and made it to just west of Lincoln, NE by midnight. Crashed for a few hours in the truck at a rest stop and hit the road again and met the boys around 12:30pm on Saturday where they were finishing up a packout on a small sliver of public that often gets overlooked.

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Snow coming over Medicine Bow Pass
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Dropped down into the valley to meet up with everyone.
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Swung by the ranch to pick up some stuff from the shop.
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Headed to camp to scout and try and cut some tracks in the fresh snow.
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I drew a tag in Unit 11 which is a limited draw area. It’s southern boundary is around Medicine Bow pass and runs north to I-80. Don’t ask how I drew it on my first application. It was luck. We made camp right in the middle of the unit at Turpin Reservoir. This put us roughly 30 min to one hour drive from everywhere in the unit. It was gnarly high mountain terrain to checkerboard BLM/Private at lower elevation and we hunted just about all of it.

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The rest of the week was legitimately a whirlwind. Literally and figuratively. Windy days we would stick to the timber and slowly move through it glassing and pushing. The first full day, we got into some fresh sign. Lots of rubs, droppings and got close enough to smell them. It’s a real thing, they leave a smell like a dirty barn stall. No luck and no contact other than sign. After that it was about 2 days of hiking and not seeing much of anything. We would drop a truck at one spot, drive to our starting point and work back toward the other vehicle then repeat. Strategy being we wanted multiple options to pack out to due to terrain.
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Finished up a night hunt in a big meadow and headed to the bar. Oddly enough we sat down in the meadow and I started glassing. Something felt familiar. I’m pretty good at remembering terrain features, well we drove/hiked in on a trail that is marked decently. Well a year and a half ago the snow was so deep we got lost as fuuuuuck on the snowmobiles in this exact same meadow and couldn’t find this exact same trail which resulted in a 5 hr bushwhacking backcountry ride back to the bar. Same meadow, same bar.
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Really the rest of the week was similar, find SOME recent sign, get close, never see anything. We covered pretty much the bulk of the unit with whatever the conditions allowed.

The last day and a half we backed up and punted. I had a cow tag in another nearby unit on BLM and state land only. We called in some favors and just couldn’t get into them for one reason or another. Really I could make a pile of excuses but we left it all in the woods and tried everything. Just wasn’t meant to be this year. Learned a hell of a lot, will go back and try again for sure.

Left to come home on Saturday, October 24 at about 4am. Grabbed dinner outside Kansas City with some friends currently stationed at Leavenworth then continued on to Lexington, KY. Same as on the way out I crashed in the truck for a few hours then was home by about 2pm Sunday.

While we ended up having Adam’s camper and more creature comforts than expected, I had packed and planned around not having it in case early snow prevented us getting it to the unit. For those of you thinking about a similar hunt, here is a quick gear breakdown.

Guns:
Primary - Rem 700 in 35 Whelen
Backup - Rem 700 in 7mm Weatherby
Timber - Marlin 1895G 45-70

Pack:
Mystery Ranch Selway 60
Sling Clip ($20 well spent)

Food/Cooking:
Jet Boil
Titanium utensils
ProBar for breakfast
Honey Stingers and Clif Bloks as midday snacks
Mountain House meals for dinner. (chicken and dumplings is the fuckin jam)
Sawyer squeeze filter kit

Boots:
Asolo Fugitive GTX

Clothing:
First Lite Fusion
Really any of the higher end camo will perform similarly. First Lite just fit me the best and being a gear nerd from my skiing days, Merino wool anything is just super versatile.

I had my lightweight Marmot Tent, 0deg bag and thermarest as well.

All in all, public land self guided hunts are no joke. Go prepared, weather changes constantly. Take more than you need. The last night we spent up at camp we could see the smoke from the remains of the Mullen Fire and the northern Colorado fires. I started my drive home through where the Mullen Fire burned right up to WY230 at the Colorado line. Between that, some of the storm damage we hiked through in the unit and passing a few of the Wildland Fire camps on my way in, it put a lot of things in perspective in terms of how gnarly nature can be.
 

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Lots of killing going on yesterday! I dropped a sow in the morning and a big boar in the evening. Between the 5 of us there was 3 dead hogs and 2 does just yesterday evening. There was a lot of beverages consumed at the skinning tree last night:D :usa:
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Any ideas what kind of poo this is. It's about 2in by 4in. I've seen it a few times now.
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I’ve always read about the second rut, but haven’t witnessed it. Saw a buck chasing a doe this morning. He was all over her. It’s supposedly a month later when the does that didn’t mate cycle back into heat.
 
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