Birds 2024

     With Colorado messing up the time frame where my Dad an I usually go to the north woods, I only had a small window to hunt wild birds. Around late October we did a day trip to some local woods in Western, MA. We shot a woodcock and then hit up a stocked area where my Dad's springer flushed a hen pheasant. Thanksgiving morning I went back out for pheasant and we shot one over my dogs and the other one failed to flush and my Dad's springer brought it to us without a shot needed. 

    I also took my buddy Johnny out for his first year as a bird hunter and we got him a hen pheasant. He also came out with me later that year for ducks. He said an Old Squaw or long tail duck during a wicked Nor' Easter. Later on during the duck season I shot a beautiful hooded merganser that I am hoping to get mounted.  There was one really awesome time while pheasant hunting, while running both dogs, they both locked up on point, I walked in and flushed a hen, and dropped her with one shot. Piper brought the bird back and it was magic. The kind of moment where everything comes together.

  

Deer Season 2024

    

 

    My 2024 deer season wasn't unsuccessful. It just wasn't the greatest. I filled the freezer with 3 does, well actually two little skippers and a 1.5 year old button buck. I shot one opening day of bow, just because the opportunity presented itself. I shot the second, the little button, later in the archery season. He came into a doe bleat in a can call. Both were good shots and easily recovered.  I built a walk-in cooler in my shed this year using an air conditioner and a gadget called the "coolbot." It works really well.  I also put in a winch in the skinning shed, which works out great.

Her first "deer hunt"

    I also took part in a large group during opening week of shotgun on Nantucket. It was the first time I had ever hunted Nantucket, and it was quite the experience. These deer live in thick underbrush, scrub oak, that requires safety glasses to push through. I had a couple really nice opportunities where I wish I had used my rifled barrel and sabot rounds, but it was frowned upon because it was seen as "unsafe." Many of the others in the group used 3.5 in shells filled with .00 buckshot and did not have the best practice when it came with muzzle control. I saw a lot of deer, more than you could see hunting by yourself, but the tactic was a little crazy at times. It was an interesting experience, nonetheless. I shot a small doe with buck shot, wounding her. I flushed her out from where she was bedded down but was unable to take another safe and ethical shot due to the proximity of other hunters around me. As I was tracking the blood I heard a shot from the direction she ran. Another guy in the group dropped her and allowed me to tag her.  I dragged her out while walking on the beach, a pretty cool experience.

     Overall, it was a lot of fun. I had a couple of close encounters during bow season that did not pan out. One sit I had a very early morning doe walk towards me, but caught be moving in an attempt to take a shot and reversed direction. I saw another group of does the last morning sit before shotgun season. I didn't have any doe tags left, but they winded me at 20 yards and took off anyways. I did not have any big buck encounters except to help process a roadkill buck that was hit by a car opening week of shotgun. Terrible waste, but a co-worker of mine took the meat for his freezer.

Colorado!

     

My cousin, who lives in Colorado got married in September of 2023. This just so happened to coincide with elk hunting season. I decided that I didn't have enough money or time to buy an OTC elk tag, so inside I tagged along with my cousin's future husband and brother for my first ever elk hunt. All three of us were novices so I knew our chances would be low, but the experience was like no other. 

    The first day we hiked about 10 miles, climbing a mountain over 11,000 feet in elevation. Along the way we heard several bugles and tried to close the distance, unsuccessfully. At the top of this mountain was a remote alpine lake, crystal clear, filled with hungry cut-throat trout. 

    I filled the rest of the week with fly fishing. We hit up the well-known South Platte, and the ever-popular Deckers. We also did the "dream stream" area with a guide with no luck. Then we checked out a small, stocked area where we caught countless little stocked rainbows. All in all it was great to just get outside and see what Colorada had to offer. We had a few moose sightings, blue grouse, a bunch of mule deer, and even some rocky mountain rams on the side of the road. 

  

Bear Trip 2023

 

   

     Second trip to Stony Brook Outfitter in New Brunswick for a spring bear over bait hunt. This year I brought my new Bowtech Carbone One bow setup with heavy FMJ's. First night in the tree stand I had a sow walk into the bait. I waited and watched a long time to make sure there was no cubs with her. After what felt like a long time, no cubs showed up and I was preparing to make a shot. Just as that thought crossed my mind, she grabbed something from the barrel and started walking away. I pulled back, and made a hasty poor decision to punch the trigger on my release and launched one over her back. The arrow stuck into the base of a tree. She took off at first and then came back, leery about what happened, but still interested in the bait barrel. She stared in my direction for a long time, sniffing the air. She eventually went back to the barrel. I was able to gather another arrow and knock it. I waited until she reached forward into the barrel, exposing her vitals. This time, I took my time and made the perfect shot, double pass through. She ran about 20 yards and let out a partial moan, where she died quickly. 

    This trip was later in the season, early June (4-10).  I felt like the bear hunting was better around this area, and we had really good weather. The black flies were the same as in May. The white perch were not running, which meant, no fish fry.  There were some bigger bears taken this week. One in the mid 300 range that someone shot with a crossbow.  I was able to do a lot of fishing and even went with my guide one evening to help bait sites and check trail cameras, which was actually a lot of fun.  I was able to help find a small bear that one of the guys shot. It was his first bear, and first ever animal he had taken while hunting so he was pretty excited.

    The fishing went from frustrating to an absolutely lights out blast. The smallies were not hitting the normal streamer patterns. I noticed a large hatch of mayflies all around the lake, with the casings littering the surface. I switched to dry flies and as soon as I threw a chubby chernobyl the top water exploded.