Trad Gang

i hunt pretty much one core area and have so for the last 15 years. it is a mountain that offers plenty of game but very unforgiving to the weak. it is a very special place to me. i love to read about evreyones awesome hunts on here and there are many places i dream of however i just can't seem to bring myself to leave the mountain!!! i do plan plan to scout out a few different areas this year and everyone has got me to thinking about a canoe trip but i'm sure when the time drwas near the mountain will win again as my spirit soars with the wind and the mountain is its home!

Ken, I pretty much just hunt the Santiam unit here in Oregon. It encompasses part of the Western side of the Cascades and has elk and black tail deer. Really haven't wanted to go anywhere else.

Uh...does Wyoming count.   :goldtooth:   I don't think you could hunt one "area" here.

i hear ya, i have never had the urge to hunt anywhere else, hell i never never drove farther then 20 miles to hunt in my life except for Shawns bunny hunt!!! i turn 40 next year, for that i really want to go on a special hunt and i'm planning to go with a few friends to Colorado. there is pretty much every thing a mountain man dreams of right out my back door!

a pic from my little piece of heaven.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v119/adkmountainken/Walk%20In%20Beauty/water1.jpg)

I am also tied to one area.  We have the Necedah Wildlife Refuge immediatly northeast, state lands adjoining north and county lands south with our lands in the middle.  My grandparents started a creamery here after settling from Norway so our family roots are very deep for this sand country. We have a good cabin and a good hunting family so it is very difficult to find places that are any better.

I do also I have hunted the same two areas for 15 to 20 years . The last 7 have been between two creek beds that the deer seem to like . I hunt from an ATV because of an auto accident so I take alot of rides to my homemade blind so as the deer get used to the sound of me coming and going . This has worked very well I see deer most days not always in range but they are there . I even managed to get my first traditional kill this year . Just righting this has me shaking like the day it happend !!

I admire your ability to be content with what is at hand.  I have places that I go back to time and time again, but then the call to wander strikes me and I must heed the impulse as much as my wallet will allow.  Right now I am thinking hard again about Canada and bears.  Must be the Ian Tyson CD I was listening to on the way home. "North of the border, I see a quarter moon chasing my pony down the trail. Night sky is falling, Alberta's calling, chasing the moon by the tail..."  And then sometimes I hear John Denver singing about seeing it rain fire in the sky and I am ready to pack my bags for Colorado.  If I hear the Nitty Gritty Dirt band singing, "Let's talk dirty in hawaiin..." the next thing I know I am dreaming about scrambling over lava covered mountains trying to shoot a feral goat.  Gotta dig out that old Men at Work Cd so I can fantasize about a water buffalo adventure...

Ken, one day when we get the urge to try a different flavor, I'll have to come there and hunt with you, then you come and hunt the Cascades with me. Can't guarantee you'll take home game but, will guarantee you'll take home scenery too remember, unspoken words around a camp fire, friendship for life and an open invitation to return when ever you like. That's a soldiers promise!   :thumbsup:

Smoke,  I have to talk to you some time about Necedah.  My wife's family lives in Tomah and that is not too far from there.  I am usually up there in the summers, but one of these days I am going to have to make it for bow season.

Gregg

BowMarks,
     good for you man!! congrats ona fine kill and way to stay out in the beauty of it all. i will be the first to say i very much disslike atv's and i'll also be the first to say that your situation is EXACTLY what they SHOULD be used for. i had allways said i would never use one, that was when i was a loud and boastfull man for i know i would be lost without the woods and if an atv was the ONLY way i would definitly use one. for now by Gods grace i am very healthy and love to walk/hike/hunt the mountain. again congrats for being out there and making meat the old way!!!

i'll hold ya to that promise bro!!!

Ken,
Nice little piece of heaven. I can just picture some big ole gobblers in that area.     :thumbsup:

MJB,
   there is a ridge there that the gobblers roost year after year. they allways have from the very first time i hunted there. some times just as its getting light you will hear one lone gobbler let loose. other mornings when you just hope to hear a gobble all hell brakes loose as gobblers sound off up and down the ridge!!! ya just never know!!! i have taken a dozen long beard from the mountain and a couple jakes. if i get one this year i'll make you a wing bone call from him.

Ken,
 :thumbsup:    :thumbsup:  THANKS !!

There is something to be said for being home at the end of the day.
I had to move up here though to satisfy my wandering as I couldn't afford to go out west every year.
I have access to about 600 acres out my  back door. I only own 20 but most of my neighbors let me hunt. I also hunt a 900 acre Ranch/Farm with in a half hours drive from home that has some very good deer on it. It's not in the bowzone and I share that with one other bowhunter who I have yet to see there in five years. I do have to give this place up during November when gun season starts as the owner has some friends that have the run of the place. They don't seem to shoot much. There is always some real good Bucks year after year. I have a few other smaller parcels just for variety but still not too far from home. I'm content with chasing Whitetails at the moment with the opportunity for Moose as well.
The only thing I'd like to get yet before my knees are totally shot is a Bighorn Ram. But like I said, I like my bed.
I may go back to Wisconsin this fall to hunt with my brother for a week. I miss those big Oak trees!

Sorry I guess that would be two core areas.  

We own 20 acres(10 the house is on,and 10 across the dirt road).Then there's the surrounding 40 acres,plus 296 acres(I usually stick to the lower 40 that borders our 10),all within the immediate vicinity of the house.During bow season I'm fortunate to have all that to hunt...usually to myself.So guess I have about a 90 acre core area that I stick to,that I've been hunting since I started hunting at 10.

another pic of Royal Mountain.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v119/adkmountainken/royal-1.jpg)

All the area's I hunt in VT I have hunted all my life, we have probally 10-12 properties that we have permission to hunt on some exclusive rights, I can not be held to one place, I do not like to pressure the deer I bow hunt they get enough of it without me adding to it, I like to shoot better than average bucks for the area, so we need lots of stand, well 60-70 a year to be exact, I am ready for any weather front, wind change in feed patterns, wich I have documented over the years, and even know how the mast trees hold there crop. This is only in vermont, nevermind thee other states we hunt, I only get 2 tags here and have a 3 week bow season, if I do not fill them here it's usally cause I chose not to shoot a few young legal bucks, but NH, NY and ohio seem to fit thebill for me. But been toying with the idea of Mass. again when we get back from Ohio. So in a long anwser Ken, no one core area for me, I do have favorites though. Chris

I hunt wherever the trail takes me. Gives me a chance to meet and hunt with some great people. Just made some new friends in Texas last week. As far as my home turf, I only hunt my 500 acre tract.

Most of my areas are so small that I must travel to hunt.  Someday, I hope to buy a sizeable tract of land, but till then, I gotta move around.

We have 80 acres that are 15 minutes from the house. The better half and myself are the only ones that hunt it. A friend owns the land and doesnt let anybody else in but us and his son. The son is 17 now and has started to like girls better than hunting so its just us 2 now. It has everything, hardwoods, creeks and plenty of thickets. The uppers have pines and cedars in the hills. Its corn and beanfields on all 4 sides. We hunt there whenever we go to the woods...Roy

a standing invatation to all. my home is your home, my stands are yours, justr show up!

I hunt 10 minutes from the house on a small 20 tract bordered by farms and swamp.  This area just happens to be between the bedding and feeding areas and deer travel thru it constantly.  Also have turkeys.  I have hunted a lot of places (23 years in the Air Force = Upstate New York, Alaska, Ohio, South Carolina, California, Texas and Florida) I have had great success on my little 20 Tract and haven't been anywhere else to hunt for the last 10 years except for a successful moose hunt in Maine in 2005.

Bo

i have about one core area in 5 different state's, does that count?

I, too, hunt just one core area.  It is a great piece of land owned by family friends.  I feel incredibly lucky to hunt there.

Ken, I can see why it is hard to leave the mountain.  That is beautiful.

ahhhhh sweet mountain music!!!!
 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v119/adkmountainken/th_water.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v119/adkmountainken/?action=view¤t=water.flv)