What is your Best Hunting Story?

[akdad]

???Crazier than that first story????

Funny how hunters can put hrs of research into boots, scopes, rifles, and practically everything they have but then jump in a plane in Alaska with whoever happens to be driving

 

[akdad]

OK after Muddy's deer drowning story, I will finish my caribou trip on the peninsula. After the plane departed the wind picked up a little more. We had a wall tent for cooking and drying gear. When we set up the pup tents for sleeping, we could not keep them weighted down. We set the pup tents inside the wall tent. Then the side of the wall tent started to lift up from the wind. We found some discarded jaw bones and cut slits in the bottom of the tent and used the jaws as extra tent stakes. Then we put rocks on the jaw bones for extra security. Now the rain starts and the wind is still pulling the stakes out of the ground. About four in the afternoon we started hauling all of the rocks we could find and piling them on the stakes and the side of the tent to hold it down. The sun set during our construction job and the wind and rain continued. I remember running with large rocks and slipped and landed on my back in the mud with a 20 pound rock on my chest. As I lay there laughing one of my buddies runs past and ask if I was OK. Soon we were all laughing and I think it insanity slipping in. At four A.M. we finished the rock pile and went into the tent to rest. The pilot flew over in the morning. We motioned him that all was good, he dipped the wing and flew away. He returned about five hours later and landed to check on us. He said you guys looked OK this morning, but he had to pick up two camps that lost all of their gear. four people were taken to the hospital with hypothermia. The winds were sustained at 60 to 65 MPH and 105 MPH gusts had been recorded.
That was the first night of a five night and six day hunt that will never be forgotten. We shot four nice bulls and four cows over the next couple days.

Man you guys had a rough trip!!! I'm glad you guys were ok. Do you remember where you were? Was that a few yrs ago?

 

[akdad]

Funny how hunters can put hrs of research into boots, scopes, rifles, and practically everything they have but then jump in a plane in Alaska with whoever happens to be driving

I read this after I posted and realized it looks like I'm making fun of some people. That's not the case I just really wonder sometimes when we climb in planes who is up front. I didn't mean to pick on anybody

 

[Ol' Red]

Man you guys had a rough trip!!! I'm glad you guys were ok. Do you remember where you were? Was that a few yrs ago?

It was in 1993, just before I moved south. We were on Lake Tutna, hunting the Mulchatna herd before it crashed. I didn't really think it was that rough back then. I had rougher days in mountain survival course in the Army.

 

[Backwoods towny]

My second or third year hunting, my father took me to a tree on a deer trail in the mountains in the middle of the woods of PA. He said "your on your own kid" he will be back then.
I sat down against the tree ,had my thermos of hot chocolate beside me rifle in my lap ready for a deer. Started to get cold,ants in the pants.
Leaned rifle against tree grabbed my hot chocolate, poured a cup and started sipping and out of no where a button buck is standing on the trail not even 10 feet from me.
We looked each other in the eyes for what seemed like an hour,probably more like 30 seconds to a minute. I slowly grabbed for the rifle leaning against the tree got my hands on it and the deer took off running.
Never did see another deer that season but learned a valuable lesson that day!!!!!!
Never ever put the rifle down,lol


A few decades later,any time in the mountains meant party time. It was after Christmas archery and muzzle loader only. Me and an uncle went to the mountains with muzzle loaders. He said he wasn't walking to far from the truck. I went back in about 10- 15 minutes from where he parked and sat on a tree that fell over. I sat there and sat there just about to give up and walk around and here comes a doe. Muzzle loader in my lap cause I know better, I was trembling, sweating took the shot. The deer ran 20 feet and stopped,stood there and started eating. So I reloaded the muzzle loader trying to steady my self. Took another shot and the deer ran off this time and it didn't stop.
I still can't believe I had 2 shots at 1 deer with a muzzle loader within minutes and didn't hit it at all.
I don't party at deer camp while hunting anymore till after I harvest.

 

[MtPockets]

Since Archery Elk season started in Montana last weekend, I'll share one from hunting the CMR in Central Montana.

Since it was our first year hunting the CMR, my wife and I were camping off one of the roads, then driving around to find areas to hunt.

One morning, we found an area that seemed to hold elk.
We had it figured out where they spent the night and slso where they bedded down during the day.
Simple, right? Just get them while they moved from one to the other?
Problem was, there was no way to walk in without them busting us.
Sitting in the pickup overlooking the area, we saw that there was a lush, green meadow with scattered timber between the two areas.
"Why not sleep out there in that meadow?"
Seemed like a great plan.
We packed up what we could, but we had no sleeping bags, pillows, etc because we planned to sleep in the camper.
We made do, filled our packs, and headed out.
First, the hillside getting down to the meadow was more treacherous that we'd anticipated but then we got to the lush, green meadow.
It was filled, end to end, with 3-4' tall lush, green thistles that were hiding hundreds of downed trees!
Not wanting to give up too easy, we made our way over, around, under, and across the maze. Obviously, it took much longer than anticipated and when the sun went down we still were not to the edge of the trees, where we had originally planned to camp.
We found a nice, comfy spot where some elk had been bedded recently. They had the thistles mashed down nicely and thankfully only pooped a LITTLE.
Home sweet home.

That was THE most amazing night ever! I slept like a baby, only to wake up now and then to the sound of elk bugling all around us.

My wife, on the other hand, hadnt slept a wink because with her extremdly sensitive ears she was able to hear EVERYTHING moving.
At one point, she heard an owl hooting so thought she'd answer back.
That is, until I reminded her of what a large predator might think of an owl on the ground.

Morning came, and I got out of our little blind to put up the decoy.
As Im searching for the perfect spot, an elk bugles a few hundred yards behind me.
I quickly poke the decoy in the ground and he bugles again, only this time he is VERY close.
Turns out, my wife had let out a couple of cow calls that brought him RIGHT in.

As I hear that second bugle, I turn around and here is a very respectable bull standing on the back side of the downed tree that my wife was hiding beside.
He was pacing back and forth, screaming and tearing up the brush.
I couldnt get a shot because my wife was literally between me and that bull.
I tried to cow call, but he'd have no part of that.
He KNEW his next date was right next to that log!
He eventually decided to move on, but I never was able to get a shot on him.

 

[Bob Wright]

On my first Antelope hunt in unit 7 near Williams Arizona I took an average size buck with some fun "cutting edge" combinations of gear. 1985 technology!
- Remington 742 semi-auto in 30-06. Totally a long range rig.
- Remington 165 core locts
- Bushnell Banner "ranging" reticle scope that came with 10 different shooting dials for distance. NASA quality right here.
- Bushnell binos, 8x
- Truckload of pure blind luck now.

So me and a hunting buddy were working different ends of a foothill seeing small groups of pronghorn here and there.
Standing out in the middle of a prairie, I caught a glimpse of 3 pronghorns, 2 doe and 1 decent buck by my newbie standards.
It's 350 yards and they are moving straight across right to left.
I range them with my new fangled scope, dialing to get him to fit between the ranging cross hairs to know the distance for dial ups. My rifle rest happened to be the only thing at my disposal: a lone dead juniper with one horizontal branch that was strong and steady to lay the rifle on. Nothing else there but dirt.
I got it dialed in.
Now the pronghorn for no reason began to pick up the speed. I'm totally confident in my equipment since I never shot it at a pie plate further than a hundred yards while laying in the dirt. Test the ranging ability? Ha! No need! It's gotta work, right?
I lead the buck using my finely honed quail hunting skills. Bang! I have no idea where that shot went.
The 3 decide warp speed was needed and did a right turn going away from me. All I have is the south end of the northbound pronghorn and they are moving fast.
They offer a built in aiming point back there called an anus. It's bounces up and down a lot when they are running 60 mph.
No problem since my incredible equipment and a "rest" will put me on it.
They hit the top of the Mesa and I squeeze one off at the buck.
"Boom- pop" is the report, as they disappeared over the edge.
Time to go looking.
So, anal me, decides to count how many steps to the top. 100, 200, 300, 365. I'm vertically challenged, so being honest I'm thinking 350 yards.
I start slowly looking and I see the south end of a pronghorn but no horns. Oh no!
I get closer and this one's head is resting in a sage bush. Then I see the cheek patch is brown. Then the horns.
I look for the entrance of the shot. 1 inch away from the brown aiming point. "No way" I said loudly.
Then I look for the exit. Just above the sternum and a river of blood.
Absolutely "no way"!
So field dressing this buck revealed it was a straight line from stem to stern and straight thru the heart.
All I could think is I was the luckiest hunter in the world to make that shot. The odds of me missing or losing an injured buck were huge.
That set me on my journey to long range hunting and trying to eliminate the luck part of it entirely.
It's still my longest range kill today, but there will be that last day of some hunt in the future that I pop one with way better skill and equipment and take a real nice one with minutes to spare.
I'll never sell that rifle but it's not my hunting rig today. My, how time and technology change.

 

[memtb]

Since Archery Elk season started in Montana last weekend, I'll share one from hunting the CMR in Central Montana.

Since it was our first year hunting the CMR, my wife and I were camping off one of the roads, then driving around to find areas to hunt.

One morning, we found an area that seemed to hold elk.
We had it figured out where they spent the night and slso where they bedded down during the day.
Simple, right? Just get them while they moved from one to the other?
Problem was, there was no way to walk in without them busting us.
Sitting in the pickup overlooking the area, we saw that there was a lush, green meadow with scattered timber between the two areas.
"Why not sleep out there in that meadow?"
Seemed like a great plan.
We packed up what we could, but we had no sleeping bags, pillows, etc because we planned to sleep in the camper.
We made do, filled our packs, and headed out.
First, the hillside getting down to the meadow was more treacherous that we'd anticipated but then we got to the lush, green meadow.
It was filled, end to end, with 3-4' tall lush, green thistles that were hiding hundreds of downed trees!
Not wanting to give up too easy, we made our way over, around, under, and across the maze. Obviously, it took much longer than anticipated and when the sun went down we still were not to the edge of the trees, where we had originally planned to camp.
We found a nice, comfy spot where some elk had been bedded recently. They had the thistles mashed down nicely and thankfully only pooped a LITTLE.
Home sweet home.

That was THE most amazing night ever! I slept like a baby, only to wake up now and then to the sound of elk bugling all around us.

My wife, on the other hand, hadnt slept a wink because with her extremdly sensitive ears she was able to hear EVERYTHING moving.
At one point, she heard an owl hooting so thought she'd answer back.
That is, until I reminded her of what a large predator might think of an owl on the ground.

Morning came, and I got out of our little blind to put up the decoy.
As Im searching for the perfect spot, an elk bugles a few hundred yards behind me.
I quickly poke the decoy in the ground and he bugles again, only this time he is VERY close.
Turns out, my wife had let out a couple of cow calls that brought him RIGHT in.

As I hear that second bugle, I turn around and here is a very respectable bull standing on the back side of the downed tree that my wife was hiding beside.
He was pacing back and forth, screaming and tearing up the brush.
I couldnt get a shot because my wife was literally between me and that bull.
I tried to cow call, but he'd have no part of that.
He KNEW his next date was right next to that log!
He eventually decided to move on, but I never was able to get a shot on him.

Great story! Even without a kill……truly some memories to have, especially sharing the experience with your wife! memtb

 

[tonyf3]

My dad and I hunting.. I was 20yrs old or so
We got onto a bachelor herd of 5 or 6 bucks. After getting into range we could see a father and his young son coming over the hill., maybe 600 -800 yards from us. They had permission to hunt the same property, but we didn't really know them at all other than a social hello.
Dad convinced me to let them shoot. So we watched it all go down, then we walked over and helped out afterwards.
When we left them, my dad said to me he didn't want to ruin the other dad's opportunity to see his son kill his first deer.
that was one of those 'perspective' moments

 

[MtPockets]

Great story! Even without a kill……truly some memories to have, especially sharing the experience with your wife! memtb

My wife tagged along but didnt hunt for about the first 10 years that we were together. That particular hunt changed that.
I bought her a bow for Christmas that year and it's been game-on ever since!

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Thanks to @marksman1941 we have a very entertaining spooky hunt thread.

What about your best, most memorable, hunts- successful kill or not? I had to add that last part because many of my more memorable hunts didnt end with meat on the ground.

I am getting old enough that many are getting blurry. I have to say the one that will never get blurry is when I shot my biggest bull elk. My son was 12 and along on the hunt for his first hunting season. He had shot his first buck earlier in the day and when I shot my bull he came running down the hill to meet me at the bull. I will never forget watching him run the several hundred yards down to me. He then shot his first cow elk the next day. What a trip.

 

[MtPockets]

I am getting old enough that many are getting blurry. I have to say the one that will never get blurry is when I shot my biggest bull elk. My son was 12 and along on the hunt for his first hunting season. He had shot his first buck earlier in the day and when I shot my bull he came running down the hill to meet me at the bull. I will never forget watching him run the several hundred yards down to me. He then shot his first cow elk the next day. What a trip.

That's what it's all about- special times with family and friends.
It truly doesn't get any better!

 

[unclebob]

My best story started out as a pig hunt and tuned into the deer hunt of my lifetime.

Fall of 2001, after everything that had happened that year, I was stuck back home working because foreign travel was severely restricted and I was due to head to Halifax for the fall and winter. I had no plans on hunting that fall because I was on a long deployment in San Diego, Yuma and International Falls. So faced with the long fall season approaching, I built a hasty box blind big enough for 2-3 people to hunt pigs out of in the pecan orchard on my property. I had bow hunted out of a treestand with no luck, rifle hunted with no luck seeing a deer I was willing to shoot. I gave up deer and started focusing on pigs. Fast forward to December 14th, like every few days, I stopped by Winn Dixie and gathered up all of the rotting fruit, vegetables and bread products. Drove home grabbed my 450 Marlin H&R and made some calls to verify the guys were coming to hunt pigs. I drove down to the river bottom and poured out a bag of sweet feed, all the rotting stuff and a half a bag of corn, picked up the plastic and other packaging and drove out to park and wait. That process took 10-15 minutes tops before I was walking back to the stand to sit and wait. We had some ringtail cats that liked to come out and feed and play before the bigger animals came to feed. As I walked up I noticed at least a dozen does and yearlings feeding around the area oblivious to my less than stealthy approach, but what really got my attention was the cedar tree on top of the tank dam shaking and swaying back and forth. This guy comes strolling off the bank and has his nose to the air sniffing around the does. It took me a half second to realize that I was only going to get one crack at this and I was in a less than desirable position. Backpack in my left hand Handi in the other, I cracked it open and slipped in a 350gr flat point, took careful aim and fired. Buck trots about 15yds west where I didn't have a view of his body, but it was obvious that I had missed. I crouched and crab walked to a pecan tree, sat down the backpack, came up slowly, loaded another round. The buck took forever, 10-15 seconds to make it back over to the doe he had eyes on, he was lined up in the footpath we beat out from the blind to the bait pile took careful aim again, fired and the woods exploded with chaos. Deer I hadn't seen bolted into the hay pasture to the east, but I didn't see the buck. I walked over to investigate, but no buck, my cousin calls and asked me what I had shot and I said apparently nothing, he's saying he heard the thwack a 1/2 mile down the road as he was loading up to come down to the blind. I searched for blood, bone or hair trying to figure it out, then I start a grid search making to the broom weeds on the edge of the clearing and tripped and fell forward into the weeds and on top of this guy. He had lurched forward maybe 6-8yds and was completely concealed in the weeds.

He's not the biggest buck I ever shot, but he's one I will never forget.

14 points and 144 5/8"

View attachment 492168View attachment 492170

Congratulations
I would sure shoot if he came by me!

 

[marksman1941]

All of my deer have been memorable, due to sheer ridulousness, great family time, or insane luck. I would love to write them all out, and I will probably give an accounting of them when I'm not typing on a cell phone. But my most memorable that comes to mind is my first buck.

I was hunting with my uncle and cousin, whom really taught me to hunt. My dad rarely hunted and wasn't very good at it when he did make it to the woods.

So in oregon the rifle season is extended two extra days for youth hunters. My cousin and I are both youth (he was 14 and I was 17), so it's late late November and the last weekend of season for us. I've never killed a deer, my cousin had killed a stack already by this point.

We made a walk out through a logging skid road, and were on our way back to the truck just before last shooting light when my uncle says "there's a buck!! Just across the draw!"

Being fairly new to hunting, I couldn't spot the buck with my naked eye. It was dim light, rainy, and blacktail deer are fairly dark haired and blend in well with the ground especially when they're wet. I tried scanning with my rifle scope for the buck, but it was so fogged up I just had a little center portion of the scope that was clear, showing the very center of the reticle. Finally after a couple of minutes my uncle verbally walked me into the buck and I could see the white patch on its throat.

The problem was, we couldn't see antlers. My uncle knew it was big based on the white throat patches (it had 2) but we just couldn't spot antlers. So we're passing my rifle around, each of us trying to put antlers on this critter, for several more minutes. The buck is standing stock still this whole time. Eventually I remembered I had some Kleenex tissues in my backpack and I told my uncle to grab them so we could clean the scope lens off and maybe see the deer better to verify it was a legal buck.

My uncle unzipped my packs front pocket (which was my brothers pack that I borrowed and just threw my own stuff in on top of his) and found not only my Kleenex but a set of binoculars! So he pulled those out and started looking at the buck and forgot to give me the tissues.

After just a few moments of watching with the binoculars, my uncle exclaimed "it's a buck!!" I'm aiming at it through my limited field of view in the old Leupold 3-9, and I ask "cool, is it legal?" And my uncle halfway yelled "FREAKING SHOOT!!" So I did.

A 200gr Sierra game king from my dads old Remington 721 in 30-06 did the job, and we heard the buck run uphill for about 10 seconds before crashing and tumbling back down the hill. It was wild to hear just how much noise he made tumbling down the hill.

We knew he was dead so we ran back up the skid road to get close to him. Walking down in on him in the dregs of last light, I didn't have enough knowledge of deer to understand just how big he was. My uncle and cousins started losing their gourd while I just sat there looking at this big old fella. We expect he weighed 230 on the hoof, and measured 25.5" wide which is huge for a blacktail.

My cousin gutted him out in about 3 minutes flat and we started dragging him downhill while my uncle took the packs and guns to go grab the truck. We hit a couple of blind drop offs while heading down the hill where the deer took off, dragging my cousin and I downhill for ~30 feet before hitting a plateau. The second drop off my cousin took an antler tine in one butt cheek which bruised the heck out of him.

After a short, brutal drag we got him to the truck and it took 4 of us to get him up and in. Then the cold work of skinning him began at the house. It was a party, as the whole family came over to see my first buck, and we took turns warming up inside with pizza and hot chocolate while other people would work on skinning for a few minutes.

Every aspect of that night is printed in my brain, and is nothing but joyous.

The only bad part is the next day I papered that rifle just to have some bench time, and it was shooting an 8" group. Proper to the hunt it was shooting about 1". Somewhere along the line the scope took a hit. I'm extremely glad I still hit the deer where I planned to, even with the scope being out of whack.

Picture of the blacktail attached