Fishing, and hunting reports (share yours)

[91bravo]

No deer....

 

[Hard Knocks]

No deer....

Any season left, bud?

 

[91bravo]

Any season left, bud?

Oh yeah, we have over 2 months left of hunting. Bow season opens Oct. 15 and gun season opens weekend before Thanksgiving. Down here in Bama, we have one of the longest hunting seasons in the nation. We can kill 2 does a day and 3 bucks a season, which is way more than a lot of states. We can use bow, muzzleloader, shotgun, or rifle here. There are even rules here for spear hunting as well! I consider myself lucky that I don't live in a state where I have to draw a tag to hunt certain game. I know some states, you can't even hunt with a rifle. Bow, shotgun or muzzleloader only.

 

[Hard Knocks]

I consider myself lucky that I don't live in a state where I have to draw a tag to hunt certain game.

Absolutely. Right now we are able to buy over-the-counter deer and elk tags here, but I'm fairly certain that we will see everything go to a draw system before long. That's just my opinion based on sitting in on the F&G meetings. If a guy wants to buy a second tag, right now residents can do that at the nonresident price until the quota of those is sold out. That's a lot of money though, like 299 for deer and 399 for elk. But we do a lot of predator control (no shortage of those!!!) so that takes the edge off until deer and elk season rolls around again.

 

[91bravo]

Absolutely. Right now we are able to buy over-the-counter deer and elk tags here, but I'm fairly certain that we will see everything go to a draw system before long. That's just my opinion based on sitting in on the F&G meetings. If a guy wants to buy a second tag, right now residents can do that at the nonresident price until the quota of those is sold out. That's a lot of money though, like 299 for deer and 399 for elk. But we do a lot of predator control (no shortage of those!!!) so that takes the edge off until deer and elk season rolls around again.

In a few counties, we can run dogs and hunt deer that way. Dog or man drives can be pretty dangerous if everyone is not on the same page though. Running dogs and shooting buckshot for whitetail, is some really fun, action-packed hunting. $299 is a lot! I can pay $26.50 for an All-Game license, go straight to the woods with my rifle, and hunt. We have lots of yotes here, and they are fun to call in. Crows are the same way. But my all-time dream, is to stick a nice 5x5 Elk or Mulie with a 125gr Grizz Trick!

 

[Hard Knocks]

In a few counties, we can run dogs and hunt deer that way. Dog or man drives can be pretty dangerous if everyone is not on the same page though. Running dogs and shooting buckshot for whitetail, is some really fun, action-packed hunting. $299 is a lot! I can pay $26.50 for an All-Game license, go straight to the woods with my rifle, and hunt. We have lots of yotes here, and they are fun to call in. Crows are the same way. But my all-time dream, is to stick a nice 5x5 Elk or Mulie with a 125gr Grizz Trick!

Ya a license and first tag for a resident is about forty-five bucks, just the second that jumps up. We have to break our dogs from running deer out here, it's illegal for us to do that. Mine will trail about anything that climb trees though. Well, not squirrels, but coon, bobcat, lion and bear. It's legal to run fox and coyote, too, but I break my dogs off those or you'll just be running coyotes when you want to be chasing bear, there's a ridiculous amount of coyote. On the years with only a little or no snow, I call hard for coyote. You can stack them up on years like that. But when there's snow on the ground, I've got the dogs loaded up and am looking for a cat track to put them on somewhere. If you're going to keep dogs they've got to be worked steady!!

Is that broadhead fixed or expanding? It looks wicked! We can only use fixed and the Montecs are pretty popular. It's pretty tough for a hound guy to wrangle dogs and try to pack a bow with him though I'd bow hunt hard for elk if bear season didn't run at the exact same time. It would be plenty doable on elk.

 

[91bravo]

I've never owned any hunting dogs, but have known folks that have and I know it's a lot of work taking care of them! Of the 67 counties in Alabama, only a few of them allow you to run dogs for whitetail. Fewer than that, allow the use of buckshot. I'm mainly a still hunter, 30 feet up in a tree somewhere in my Ol Man. No bears and no snow here, but we can stack yotes like cord wood on a good night!

The broadhead is a fixed bladed Slick Trick. It's the older ferrule style, that particular one has passed through 2 different deer already. I keep my broadheads like my knives, scalpel sharp!

 

[Hard Knocks]

It's all about the dog work!

No bears and no snow here, but we can stack yotes like cord wood on a good night!

Lol. Whack em and stack em

 

[91bravo]

It's all about the dog work!

Lol. Whack em and stack em

That's what I'm talkin' about!

 

[TommyGun56]

It's all about the dog work!

Lol. Whack em and stack em

Dave are they Foxhounds? Great Pictures by the way! Grew up hunting Raccoon and squirrels with a Treeing Walker

 

[Hard Knocks]

Dave are they Foxhounds? Great Pictures by the way! Grew up hunting Raccoon and squirrels with a Treeing Walker

Good morning Tommy. Those in the picture are Treeing Walkers as well, although I'll give a home to any good tree dog I miss good raccoon hunting, they are very sparse here.

 

[TommyGun56]

Good morning Tommy. Those in the picture are Treeing Walkers as well, although I'll give a home to any good tree dog I miss good raccoon hunting, they are very sparse here.

I thought I recognized a Treeing Walker in there! Best Damn dog I ever hunted was a "Walker" Leed was his name, I still miss that dog. Use to Coon and squirrel hunt with him! We took a lot of other dogs,(Redbone, Black and Tan, and Blue tick) and none of them was half the Dog of "Ole Leed". The Best part of the Hunting was listening to those Dogs run! Thanks again for the great pictures Dave

 

[Hard Knocks]

I thought I recognized a Treeing Walker in there! Best Damn dog I ever hunted was a "Walker" Leed was his name, I still miss that dog. Use to Coon and squirrel hunt with him! We took a lot of other dogs,(Redbone, Black and Tan, and Blue tick) and none of them was half the Dog of "Ole Leed". The Best part of the Hunting was listening to those Dogs run! Thanks again for the great pictures Dave

You are welcome my friend. I'm glad you enjoyed them!

 

[JJ_Colt45]

We get Bow Muzzleloader and Shotgun (slug only) ... and the southern tier counties have a late season Rifle season but tags are limited to a certain amount for the Rifle season for each county depending on the deer population.

We can use handgun during the gun seasons so that adds a bit of a nice challenge to it.

Still plenty of deer so no tag draws ... and you can get a second gun season tag for anterless only to help thin the herd.

Our 1st Shotgun season opens this Saturday ... a little warmer then I'd hoped but looking forward to getting out.

 

[Hard Knocks]

... a little warmer then I'd hoped but looking forward to getting out.

The warm weather really didn't do us any favors with the muledeer. The whitetail are sure running right now though.

 

[JJ_Colt45]

well we had a cold spell and the whitetails have been in rut awhile its winding down now but still have alot moving so it should be a decent season.

 

[Hard Knocks]

So both of my folks drew tags for controlled hunts this fall. My father's tag was for antlered muledeer only, in a unit a few hours north near some country we lived in when I was a boy. That part of the world in between the Snake and Salmon Rivers has historically been big buck country, and we see a lot of good muledeer while hunting whitetails there (muledeer can only be hunted there by controlled permit, but whitetail has an open season). We spent the last couple of weeks looking for a buck for my dad and I hoped to fill out on whitetail in the process.

Morning breaking over the rims above the Snake

Both the Salmon and the Snake are wintering grounds for game, being fairly mild climes in the winter. The mountains separating the river, though.....those can be a different story. And you have to cross by road from the Salmon to the Snake over those mountains. Otherwise you're jetboating through the Hells Canyon to get there. We elected to take the wall tent rather than risk pulling a trailer and take a chance if the weather turned bad.

Home sweet home...

My buddy's stove built from a propane tank

Kyle will recognize this one. The 1111 pulling camp duty....

We began seeing deer before getting camp set up and made sure to check them out just in case.

A section of the road passes through private ground between the two rivers and sometimes you just hate to look because you know a big buck is going to be there taunting you Here's a few that knew they were safe.

And some others a few hundred yards the wrong side of the unit boundary.

 

[Hard Knocks]

While glassing hard for muledeer, we began seeing a few whitetail mixed in. I realized I'd better start getting serious about a whitetail buck. There was definitely a chance of filling out on one.

Tough to see in this pic that is taken at about a thousand yards through the scope, but there's a muledeer doe and twin fawns that are readily seen feeding above a whitetail doe with twins....

Small buck about 1100 yards out

Lots of deer, nothing big enough to go after, so off to camp. We did find a stand of hedge (osage orange) and thought about bringing some hedge apples to Justin so that he could start his own grove

After a few days we decided to make a run South against the Seven Devils to see if the game was moving there. No luck that way, but beautiful country.

After catching our breath away from camp for a day, it was back to it. A few elk were in the valley and a couple of bucks wanting to spar a bit.

Finally, a better whitetail. Nothing huge, but plenty big enough to go after with only a couple days left of my season.

At about 900 yards out, there was no way to approach through the valley for a stalk, or to make a shot attempt simply by trying to close distance through the open country. We watched him until he bedded and then headed up the road for a long stalk that would have to be done climbing and side-hilling over a few ridges. Nothing else for it. But I was able to work within 150 yards of him and make a clean shot when he broke out. I wish the photos would give an accurate feel of the steepness of the country, it's a butt kicker for sure.

 

[Hard Knocks]

Back to looking for muledeer bucks. Seemed like the whitetail were on the ridges and the mulies lower down

A few coyotes hanging around and harassing the herds. We could hear them having a big time in the night.

Without being able to really cover the harder ground by foot, which my dad was not going to be able to do, we began to realize that with the warm weather we were having we were going to really need some luck to score on a big deer. Fortunately we had about forty head down in the valley every evening with several small bucks. On the last evening we had to hunt, my father decided to try for this buck with the double main beam.

He had been coming in steady, and so we snuck out into the field and lay down behind some cover to have a good field of fire. I hope I'm still trying to pull that off when I'm 79

We couldn't get the deal closed on the funky-horned buck. He came in alright but just wouldn't get clear and about 30 head were feeding into us and going to blow, so dad swung over and took the first buck with no does in behind him, a nice forked-horn. I brought a knife my dad made about the time I was born out of an M2 planer blade. It's passed through my granddad and grandmother's hands and back to me. Seemed like a fitting hunt to bring it along

We were really hoping for a mature buck this trip, but man did we have a great hunt. I doubt I'll ever forget laying out there in that field with my old man, or him fidgeting like a kid and asking every few minutes if I could see them coming yet Sorry for the long read, I didn't know how to keep this one concise.

 

[Wood5045]

Great pics and beautiful country. Thanks and congrats!