Intro: Hill Country's Miss Hope and Faith....(roster added on page 2)

[Terry Green]

Denny swapped Sept for Oct....I've got Hope....

I'll try and get some pics up soon.  Haven't had a lot of chances to get out with here since our season has only been open two weeks....but she's been in the Cohutta Wilderness chasing bears....

[Mike Theis]

Terry - Good luck on the bears. There is always time to get one down. Look forward to pics of Cohutta.

Bud - Congrats on the deer.  Looks like you charged up the mojo on that stick for the next guy. Good job.

[Terry Green]

Well....I've only been able to get out 3 afternoons after the bears....don't know why I didn't take a pic of the 1st bear sign I saw, ....a BIG pile of scat...I guess I was so surprised at the size and freshness I just started looking for the bear.  Hope saw it though....

 

 

We found 2 more fresh piles in the area, but not enough to keep us around as Doug and I did our 'rounds' in two directions....here's a few shots of the area....

 

 

 

 

[Terry Green]

We left out for a 45 minute dirt road drive to another area just in time to hunt sign or no sign.  Its an area we know well, and always have confidence there....

About a quarter mile in Hope got in range of a 200#+ boar hog that just caught all the movement it needed to swap ends,....oh so close......here's the track...don't mistake the blackish 'v' shaped leaf in the middle of the track....the front part of the hoof is to the left, the leaf is IN the track.  No doubt this one was a bruiser.

   

More fresh sign in the next branch in....

   

Pic of the area I set up in.......

   

[Terry Green]

Next trip I went into an area blind...but yet again, another area I have confidence in and where I had one two years ago walk right by me at 15 yards but I didn't shoot cause it was walking toward the St Jude winner set up 100 yards away.

This area is known by us as The Legacy Tree.  There was sign all around the Legacy as it had been climbed as stripped, but I didn't want to scent it up....but I did take a pic of a tree 15 yards from it showing claw marks from last year.  The Legacy is twice the diameter of this one...

 

Here's a pic of the area....

 

This was from last night....we had fresh sign of a nice bear and hog and set up quick for a 2 and a half hour stand.

Bear Track....

 

Left by another large hog....

 

[Bud B.]

A thunderstorm with high winds just ran Faith and me out of the woods. If no rain in the AM I'll hunt for a few hours and then ship her off before noon.

I hate to see her go. This is a fine little bow that hunts the woods well and is nimble enough to get through a overgrown ten year old cutover.

I have some pics. Will post in a bit.

[Bud B.]

A friendly snake from down east a few weeks ago.



Stumpin' from the stand at dark before coming down.



The oncoming storm about an hour ago

[Bud B.]

Awoke to rain and pending rain looking at the local Doppler. No hunt with Faith this morning    :(  
I went back to bed.

I took these a few minutes ago just before packing her up to send to Paul.

I'm gonna miss her.

 

 


UPDATE: She's on her way Paul.

[T-D]

Man it's sad to see her leave ya Bud. I was enjoying the story telling and the pics. Hopefully I may get her in November. Who knows;0)

[Bud B.]

Has Faith arrived Paul?

Go get'em!! I'm looking forward to the next series of hunts  

UPDATE:

She's safely in Wisconsin  

[Terry Green]

Denny wont be back till the 11th...so I hope to get out again a time or two....

Here's the hunt from yesterday afternoon.

Just before getting to check a scent post, Hope got to see a bear come out of a tree....the canopy was quite open where I was and the bear spotted me before I ever knew it was even there.  

This is a Black Bear Scent post.....you can see how high he's been rubbing and how high he's been clawing......

   

And another large hog track.....

   

60 yards further up....fresh bear scatt...

   

Here's the set up.....  

North.....

 

North/West....

     

West...
 

   

South/west....  

   

South....(my back drop)....

   

[Terry Green]

OK....here's the reason I chose this set up....
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***** CLICK HERE TO SEE *****

(Guys, let me know if the vid plays for ya please)
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Now...it was raining acorns and I had high hopes even though the moon was not in my favor.

I was on point pretty hard from 430 till dark as it had rained for two days and bears can be pretty quiet even when its dry, so I knew something could be on me before I knew it if I weren't paying attention.

About 630 from the north.....I hear something I know is not a squirrel rustling toward me from about 50 yards away in the saplings coming down the knowl.....then it stops.  But now my eyes are focused north along with my left shoulder and it starts up again and I see saplings parting in my direction.....

         

Then out busts one of the biggest hogs I've ever seen in Cohutta, a HUGE red one that looked like a tank.  I've telling you if it would have been black it would have looked like a 250# bear, but hogs don't have hair that long so this thing was pushing 300#s I'm telling ya.  

He turned to his left and went down in that little valley behind that log and up onto the larger hill directly behind me.  He was going somewhere and not wasting any time doing so. Dang that boy was brute.  A scene I'll never forget.

So....Hope and I have given it a good run at Cohutta, which is a tuff assignment.  She's seen two large boar hogs and one black bear.  Not to bad for just 4 afternoon hunts.

I'm going to try my best to get out again before sending her to Denny....even if its just to the deer woods.

[Guru]

Really cool bud    

[Shedrock]

C'mon Terry, skip work and go hunting. You only live once!

Great pics by the way.  

[Terry Green]

The bow is on the way back to Denny....I did get out two more times, and got within range of 90-100# black hog in the same area as before.  Nothing but a head shot till he turned into those saplings and disappeared.....so, close but no shot.

Hope got a lot of miles put on her in Cohutta, and got to see some critters up close and a lot of beautiful country.  I really enjoyed having her along.

Didn't hear back about whether anyone could see the video or not...so here's a pic....Freshest Bear sign I ever found, complete with with a cherry on top.     :D

 

[Izzy]

The vid worked for me bud, froze a few times but that may have been my system. Glad you had some action out there. Sure is some thick cover.

[Dsturgisjr]

Hope arrived back in Michigan on the 12th. (smelled a little funky though)  We put a little practice time in on the range and headed to "little Pond" on of my favorite stand locations for an evening hunt.
 
view from the tree stand
 
serious game face!  

[rastaman]

[Dsturgisjr]

I saw 9 does over the hunt and 6 came in to drink.I wanted to shoot one, but not at this stand. The first buck to come in was a 3-point.
 

Near dark 2 more 8-points drank, but I wanted to wait for something bigger before I started filling tags this early.

This picture looks a lot darker than it was and I forgot to turn off the flash.
 

All and all a great evening hunt with Hope.

[Shedrock]

Good stuff so far Denny