Anyone up for a semi-live hunt for Thanksgiving Day???
Time for #5 in the 2009 series! Here are links to the first four of my 2009 semi-live hunts.
January 2009: Semi-Live on Kauai'
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=074385
February 2009: Alaska Muskox
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=074409
May 2009: SOLO Alaskan Brown Bear: SOLO Alaskan Brown Bear
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=074488#000001
September 2009: Moose ?? Camp!! (...Cry Wolf!!!)
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=078735;p=1
I can't wait, just type loud so i can hear myself reading over my in-laws!
Back in 2007 I went down to Oregon from Alaska to hunt with my buddy Benny Pinney who was in his last year of dental school in Portland. I figured I better get down there and take advantage of him being there before he moved on.
I did a semi-live hunt here on TradGang but it has since fallen off the bottom of the thread list. We decided to use treestands to hunt funnels like we both have done for whitetails in the past. The first morning Benny saw 10 deer from one stand and the next time when I hunted, I made sure I was in that same stand (while Benny was back at school). I had a wide, old buck come by my first morning in that stand and my hunt was soon over!
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/TG8_OR_Blacktail_A_Thinned_111307.jpg)
Benny shot a great buck a week later to make us two for two.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/Benny_Blacktail_2007.jpg)
Since we had done so well I decided I would head back to Oregon in 2009 and see if our 2007 successes were a fluke or if we were on to something. I highly suspected at a minimum that Benny had found a really exception spot with a saddle cutting a steep ridge with an old skid trail, and a stream paralleling the ridge.
Here is the trail in front of my stand and the skid trail thru the saddle.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/StandTrail-143.jpg)
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/LogTrail-145.jpg)
Hey Steve!
Where is Ben now? I remember exchanging e-mails with him when he was 13!
Jerry
Good on ya, Steve! Let's hear it.
I'm Down!!
its about time LOL! Good stuff as usual man! Wish I could have gone along this year ugg!
Weasel, Dr. Benny is in Juneau.
I just remembered that i did the 2007 semi-live hunt on Thanksgiving. I had fallen asleep (was triptofaning on turkey).
Back from checking ermine traps and plowing the drive....
My wife Donnie came along to Oregon since she hadn't been there before. We went and hung a stand the day before the season opener. Here is the stand a few yards off the skid trail and on a bench between the stream and the ridge.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/StandTree-142.jpg)
Opening day and I was in the stand by 6:30 am after 11 ½ hours I hadn't seen a single deer—ughhhhhh! The following day I hunted a second stand to rest the first spot and moved that stand mid-day and once again saw nothing all day—double uggghhh!
Here I am in the woods I hunted on the morning of the second day.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/Steve-118.jpg)
Very good stuff congrats.
I went back into "the spot" on the third morning and was only intending to sit until 10:30 or 11 am. My 2007 buck was close before I ever knew he was there but at 10 am I heard a stick snap and then again as I spotted a deer headed my way.
Finally, I got to SEE a deer! When I first saw it I couldn't tell sex, just that there was a deer and it was coming straight to me. I then saw it was a buck and saw there was enough antler on top that I would get ready and not look at and be distracted by the rack again.
Anybody even reading this or is everyone napping, lol?
The buck stepped out to the left onto the skid trail and looked like he would probably come in front of me but he was close enough and roughly broadside so I decided then and there would work and pulled back and shot.
I got down in about 25 minutes and found these track where the deer had spooked at the shot.....
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/Tracks-153.jpg)
Don't you just HATE it when you miss!!!!!!!
miss you, no way!!
I kept looking for blood or hair in that picture Steve, now I know why I couldn't find it.......hope the story continues.....
David
Im with you Steve, keep it coming.
I want to read more. Please. I love those deer. The dark racks and cool looking capes. Someday...maybe.
Merf
I'm listening.. :campfire:
Yep, tuned in for the rest of the story! :D
I miss but not this time.
...and I soon found a bit of blood indicating a liver hit.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/BloodyLeaf-148.jpg)
I soon was feeling better since I found a whole lot of blood. It can be tuff tracking in this dense rainforest so I felt a little better about having a short trail when I found spots like this fern and also some bubbles in the blood indicating I also had gotten lung.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/BloodyFernClose-147.jpg)
Sorry, I ALWAYS fall asleep after Thanksgiving dinner!
I did have some slow downs on the trail for several minutes at a time but I always found a renewed blood trail and at 150 to 175 yards found the buck with his nose augured into the ground where he fell while going down a steep embankment.
I really wasn't sure what his rack looked like until I lifted his head but was please with the beautiful dark antlers and configuration more like a whitetail than a Columbian blacktail with 5 points on the right and four points on the left.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/PB160134.jpg)
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/CBT-Rack-137.jpg)
I looked him over and noticed he had a large portion of one of his hoofs missing some time in his past.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/CBT-hoof-139.jpg)
(sorry about the out of focus pic)
And then there's the autopsy. I caught his right lung on entry, the very top of his liver, and the broadhead was in the front of the stomach with the super-wide Zephyr Sasquatch broadhead...somehow it seemed a fitting head to use in the NW coastal rainforest!
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/EntryHole-140.jpg)
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a137/SteveHohensee/Lungs-141.jpg)
And there you have it until the next one!
Time to go downstairs and help wifey make some venison sausage!
That's a good looking buck. I love Blacktails. I wonder how he lost that hoof.
Congratulations!!! Looks like a great hunt with or without a harvest.
Hey Jerry AKA "Weasel"....
Did you catch this statement I made earlier? "Back from checking ermine traps"...sorry about your relatives, lol.....
Steve, thanks for sharing and great looking Beanie!
:thumbsup: :clapper:
Very nice :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Thank you for sharing!!
Great hunt and a gorgeous buck! Hope to hunt Blacktails myself one day. Thanks for sharing your adventure!
Ken
Those are some beautiful bucks Steve!! Looking forward to this years installment.
Awesome! you'v been busy this year
Nice bucks Steve, great pictures too!
Steve that is a dandy. Congrats!!
Mike
NICE!
That is a monster blacktail! I sure do love those dark antlers. Congratulations, Steve!
MG
Thanks Steve great story and Pic.
Awesome Steve! Great story and buck.
Outstanding buck!
Congrats!
That hoof would have made an interesting track! Have to call him "Ol' One Toe". Yeah, it doesn't look like your regular Blacktail antler configuration does it? Very nice Steve! I understand you found "the" spot. I rattled in a forked horn last weekend. I hope to find his dad or grandpa this coming weekend.
Wing: Do you recognize that blade? (Helle Viking carbon steel)
Benny's buck above was taken in a different area about 75 miles north of my bucks.
Norm Johnson was telling me that the deer don't move too well when the weather is nice and it was nice and didn't hardly rain a drop from the Friday we hung stands thru the time I go this buck.
While I was hanging that stand Wifey was trimming and sawing shooting lanes so that is probably the real reason I didn't hit a twig and actually got that buck! Thanks Wifey!
Thats a great buck thanks for the story.
Bob
Steve that is an awesome buck. I love that Oregon Country. I have not yet had a chance to hunt on my visits but that will need to change SOON!
Steve, congratulations on a magnificent buck!
Great buck, Steve. Next time you're in Oregon, shoot me an e-mail, I'll buy you coffee.
Where are you at Stan? I like coffee!
I'm just south of Eugene, but only two hours from Portland. I don't mind driving.
We were close by Stan, we stayed in Cottage Groove.
Dang it, I'm about 8 miles from there. Next time, let me know, you've got a place to stay AND a cup of coffee :thumbsup:
Way to go Steve! Good lookin' deer man :clapper:
Nicely done Steve, congratulations! :thumbsup:
Careful Stan, I might actually take you up on it, I have a "frugal" bone that sometimes reappears! Spent a bit too much money this past trip but we did several days of site seeing too including parts of a couple days with the Johnsons' in Reedsport.
The coast from Reedsport to Florence is absolutely spectacular, perhaps the roughest seas I have seen anywhere.
Am waiting for Tree Killer to post a monster buck his spy camera photos are also spectacular!
How would you like to be a crabber this time of year? I'd lose my cookies for sure.
I hope Tree Killer meets up with that one hog he posted a picture of...what a magnificient animal!
Glad to see your visit was fun and productive Steve. It's always fun to see what Norm is cooking up in the shop!
If Stan isn't home give me a headsup. We're in Eugene and we'll put you up in one of our spare bedrooms. My wife is a great cook. Just another port in the storm if you need it.
Blacktails are beautiful creatures and yours is a dandy Steve. Thanks for the hunt!
Thanks for the hunt Steve. Congrats on a great buck!
Nice deer steve and thanks for sharing. wanted to let you know that I've got a thread going on a recent Kauai hunt that was largely inspired by your TBM piece a couple years back. Thanks for the idea, it was a great hunt.
Dan
Thanks everyone. Dan, e-mail is on the way!
That is awesome and very impressive that you come to here and take a BT buck. I live here and struggle.
I am learning that the funnels are a key to success and I am heading out now to sit on one.
Congrats.
Paul
make sure that funnel is pointed down dude. :D :scared: :D
Congrats :thumbsup: