TexasFrog
Active Member
Welcome everyone
How did you find us here at LRH.com?
- Thread starter Len Backus
- Start date
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fseaman
Member
I was an active member prior to 2019. At that time I relocated from my home state and all my "stuff" was stored. For the last 5 years I played with motorcycles instead.
I have an itch that needs scratching so back to long range and back to hunting.
I was very active in reloading and wildcatting. I learned informally from a certified GS. My most fun gun that I "made" is a 1873 Trap Door chambered in 257 Roberts. Of course I run this at "reduced pressures". I'm so crazy that I have pressure measurement tools.
Glad to be back.
I have an itch that needs scratching so back to long range and back to hunting.
I was very active in reloading and wildcatting. I learned informally from a certified GS. My most fun gun that I "made" is a 1873 Trap Door chambered in 257 Roberts. Of course I run this at "reduced pressures". I'm so crazy that I have pressure measurement tools.
Glad to be back.
I kept hearing about you guys from one of my employees. Looking forward to the conversations.
Wilderness Blacktail
Well-Known Member
I've been a member for quite some time but found this forum back in 2009 after a backpack hunt. I jus recalled this story the other day.
My dad 62 i think, brother and I had left for a 3 day packpacking trip i into the wilderness. The forecast was clear on a warm October day. It was 100 degrees and blue skies when we left the highway. We get to the trailhead and start hiking, the camp area is 4 or so hours in.
After an hour we leave the old growth forest and into a burn that has been growing in. A half hr later we cant see the trail and the greasebrush is well over our heads. We're climbing up, over, down n crawling and just plowing thru, drippin sweat n the heat and cussin and laughin at ourselves.
And then the sky goes black and we can see its building and coming for us from the west. In 20 minutes its pouring rain. Huge drops that get u wet instantly. At that time we only posessed rubberized rain gear which is bulky and weighed a ton and foolishly left it in the truck cause "its not sposed to rain n if it does we'll jus get out of the weather for a bit".
We are in the middle of a big burn area and making like 10 feet per minute! We change course the instant the rain hits towards the treeline to the west and push harder.
2 hours later we make it to the treeline and start looking for shelter. We only have a lil tarp but thats not gunna do it! We look around and find a big fallen tree with a hollowed out root wad n trunk, right next to it is a big standing tree with a burnt hollow in it. Home!
Dad n quickly rig our tarps off the tall end of the root wad to make a dry cave while my bro gets a fire together under the still dry overhang. This is a fir forest so once u have a fire all the fallen limbs contain sap n still burn good as they dry out.
We piled up chunks of bark to make nice sitting places inside this burnt tree and root wad with small plastic tarps and out space blanket keepin the rain out and the heat in as we warm up and eat some hot noodles n drinks.
Its quite cozy and we enjoy lotsa laughs at our own expense as we sit there, fire cracklin and poppin sippin hot cocoa and peeking out the holes lookin for a deer now n then while the storm just thrashes the outside world.
As it gets to evening my bro says he toik a look at that standing fir tree and he can sleep nice n dry in there. We all pop outside and look and sure enough hes got room to sleep like a squirrel in there, nice n flat dry surface with only a burnt cat face for a door opening. We rig him up his tarp so it hangs over the door like a wall tent.
Dad n I stack more big hunks of bark in our tree trunk to make it flat and soft to sleep on. The fire burns n keeps us even warmer as we slept thru the storm that night at "Squirrel Hole Camp".
The next day was clear and perfect as we hunted all day but saw no legal bucks.
When it was time to leave we elected to bushwack cross country down this side of the steeep canyon and up the other side and still made it back in half the time that brush patch took us!
That evening standing around the hot fire tellin stories sayin "we aint doin that again" I got on the computer and searched for "ultralight backpacking tents" and that is how I found Long Range Hunting.com.
I had been raised watchin dad shoot across canyons n basins gettinbucks and we practiced that any time we could so it was a natural fit to come here and search the topics I was researchin, joined a few years later.
My dad 62 i think, brother and I had left for a 3 day packpacking trip i into the wilderness. The forecast was clear on a warm October day. It was 100 degrees and blue skies when we left the highway. We get to the trailhead and start hiking, the camp area is 4 or so hours in.
After an hour we leave the old growth forest and into a burn that has been growing in. A half hr later we cant see the trail and the greasebrush is well over our heads. We're climbing up, over, down n crawling and just plowing thru, drippin sweat n the heat and cussin and laughin at ourselves.
And then the sky goes black and we can see its building and coming for us from the west. In 20 minutes its pouring rain. Huge drops that get u wet instantly. At that time we only posessed rubberized rain gear which is bulky and weighed a ton and foolishly left it in the truck cause "its not sposed to rain n if it does we'll jus get out of the weather for a bit".
We are in the middle of a big burn area and making like 10 feet per minute! We change course the instant the rain hits towards the treeline to the west and push harder.
2 hours later we make it to the treeline and start looking for shelter. We only have a lil tarp but thats not gunna do it! We look around and find a big fallen tree with a hollowed out root wad n trunk, right next to it is a big standing tree with a burnt hollow in it. Home!
Dad n quickly rig our tarps off the tall end of the root wad to make a dry cave while my bro gets a fire together under the still dry overhang. This is a fir forest so once u have a fire all the fallen limbs contain sap n still burn good as they dry out.
We piled up chunks of bark to make nice sitting places inside this burnt tree and root wad with small plastic tarps and out space blanket keepin the rain out and the heat in as we warm up and eat some hot noodles n drinks.
Its quite cozy and we enjoy lotsa laughs at our own expense as we sit there, fire cracklin and poppin sippin hot cocoa and peeking out the holes lookin for a deer now n then while the storm just thrashes the outside world.
As it gets to evening my bro says he toik a look at that standing fir tree and he can sleep nice n dry in there. We all pop outside and look and sure enough hes got room to sleep like a squirrel in there, nice n flat dry surface with only a burnt cat face for a door opening. We rig him up his tarp so it hangs over the door like a wall tent.
Dad n I stack more big hunks of bark in our tree trunk to make it flat and soft to sleep on. The fire burns n keeps us even warmer as we slept thru the storm that night at "Squirrel Hole Camp".
The next day was clear and perfect as we hunted all day but saw no legal bucks.
When it was time to leave we elected to bushwack cross country down this side of the steeep canyon and up the other side and still made it back in half the time that brush patch took us!
That evening standing around the hot fire tellin stories sayin "we aint doin that again" I got on the computer and searched for "ultralight backpacking tents" and that is how I found Long Range Hunting.com.
I had been raised watchin dad shoot across canyons n basins gettinbucks and we practiced that any time we could so it was a natural fit to come here and search the topics I was researchin, joined a few years later.
- Joined
- May 2, 2001
- Messages
- 7,522
Great story!
