Average Joe Hunting Adventures with Dan and CJ

Last night was a much needed fishing trip.
Elk burgers on a Colman stove, quiet little pond, and some fish!

My buddy caught a nice bluegill and bass.
I caught this little cat fish.

It was a great night!
 

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Last weekend I had the pleasure of shooting a few arrows at the NW Mountain Challenge with a buddy. Good times were had, I only broke one arrow, and I made a couple really good shots. So I'll call it a victory.

The course did not lack great views or steep shot angles. It was all great practice.

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Every shot made me thankful I have an angle compensating rangefinder. This shot was very tricky. Black target in a DARK shadow. Probably one of those I'd pass in real life, but we all ended up getting at least 5's.
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I always like antelope targets... They have that natural aim point on them already. Nailed the 11 on this one.
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Enjoyed following you guys along so far. Sn.outdoors where you from in Wisconsin? I'm up in Burnett County, Northwest part of the state

I grew up in Fond du Lac and Calumet County, but I did spend a lot of time hunting up in Bayfield County. More specifically, the Iron River area. I killed my first buck up there when I was 13, and a handful of other deer over the years. I also killed 2 bears with Keith Holly at Big Bear Guide Service.

The last time I was up in your neck of the woods was 2013 for my second bear hunt. It was sad to see how few deer were running around compared to the mid 2000's. Despite the impact the wolves have had, I'm sure there are still a few giants left. After all it is the home of the Jordan Buck.
 
Idaho has blessed us with more tags! My wife drew a 41 deer tag, and we couldn't be more excited. I spent a lot of time down there last fall and winter chasing coyotes, and have several spots in mind. I LOVE hunting deer in the desert, and some of the bucks I watched last fall were REALLY nice. It's not my tag, so I'll let the wife pick whatever buck she wants to shoot.

I also put myself in for an unlimited antelope tag. Even though it wasn't a surprise, it was nice to finally read the congratulations from IDFG.

I'm still debating how I want to use my deer and elk tags. My work schedule is kinda messing up September, as I have a week long commitment. I'll dwell on the plethora of options in front of me for a few days and post what I've decided on. Right now we're just going to enjoy the success.
 
Idaho has blessed us with more tags! My wife drew a 41 deer tag, and we couldn't be more excited. I spent a lot of time down there last fall and winter chasing coyotes, and have several spots in mind. I LOVE hunting deer in the desert, and some of the bucks I watched last fall were REALLY nice. It's not my tag, so I'll let the wife pick whatever buck she wants to shoot.

I also put myself in for an unlimited antelope tag. Even though it wasn't a surprise, it was nice to finally read the congratulations from IDFG.

I'm still debating how I want to use my deer and elk tags. My work schedule is kinda messing up September, as I have a week long commitment. I'll dwell on the plethora of options in front of me for a few days and post what I've decided on. Right now we're just going to enjoy the success.


I don't think we have enough tags for this year...... ;)
 
I spent my four day weekend up in lovely NE KY this weekend!
Got some great scouting, hiking, shooting, stand prep, lane trimming, and camera hanging in.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited KY gets me....
It's a very target rich environment and I'm so excited to get out there and hunt some awesome areas.

Start of the trip


I will be hunting a mixture of both public and private while I'm out there.
The private are I'm hunting is approximately 700 acres in a really cool area.
It's got thick bedding areas, a beautiful little creek, some corn fields, and more.

I'll be trying something completely new this year and I'll be hunting over a creek pinch point.
On one side of the creek it's super thick where the turkeys and deer bed down.
Then on the other side of the creek it's great food sources.....

So I'll be setting up in some of these spots.












I've got a real good feeling about these crossing areas. Another cool thing about the creek is there was a lot of track that showed deer were using it to move not only too and from food, but that was their highway to other properties.
So around the rut time frame, I am thinking that bucks will be cruising it looking for spots hot does crossed.




This property is super cool and is almost two levels. Down below is the crops, creek, and bedding.
Then the upper level, up the hollows is some great giant white oaks.
I found some EXTREMELY mature white oaks that will be loaded with acorns. They should be a great early season spot!



I found one little bench that had three mature white oaks that all had acorns starting.... I was so excited because tons of trails were transitioning over this spot..... it was so exciting until I found this...... :mad:








I was so fricken mad!!!!! Land owner has been notified and I REALLY hope he sorts this out.
Drives me nuts when people trespass and then do something like this. :mad:


No biggy.... I'm not letting that get me down. It will be dealt with and I am going to fill my tags in KY this year!
I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!

Now I just need to get to July 6th to see if I drew any Oklahoma tags.
Then it's LESS THAN 2 MONTHS UNTIL ARCHERY ELK!!!!!!!!



WOOOOHOOOOOOOO





End trip milage...... (I should have done a beginning journal mileage)

 
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If you are following this thread you may have noticed that photobucket has done some crazy change and almost all of my photos are now not shown....
I'm going to need to figure out how to get this fixed!
 
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That creek crossing looks hot to me. I hunt similar spots in NE.

My phone went chasing the halibut last week so will be out of touch until I get a new one. :D
 
Hunt the moose rut hard. Try and find any locations you can where visibility is possible and sit on them during the midday. The Bulls will be covering country looking for cows. Look for any riparian areas on google earth and hone in on them; this is where moose will be early in the morning. By mid-day, they move up and bed on the sidehills. Look for old logging roads that are no longer in use; these provide a perfect bedding spot.

I hunted a low-density moose area last fall. It was tough. Only had a couple of bull moose sightings. Did not kill one, but I missed a shot. That's all you can ask. Best of luck. Spend as many days as you can.
 
I spent my four day weekend up in lovely NE KY this weekend!
Got some great scouting, hiking, shooting, stand prep, lane trimming, and camera hanging in.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited KY gets me....
It's a very target rich environment and I'm so excited to get out there and hunt some awesome areas.

Start of the trip


I will be hunting a mixture of both public and private while I'm out there.
The private are I'm hunting is approximately 700 acres in a really cool area.
It's got thick bedding areas, a beautiful little creek, some corn fields, and more.

I'll be trying something completely new this year and I'll be hunting over a creek pinch point.
On one side of the creek it's super thick where the turkeys and deer bed down.
Then on the other side of the creek it's great food sources.....

So I'll be setting up in some of these spots.












I've got a real good feeling about these crossing areas. Another cool thing about the creek is there was a lot of track that showed deer were using it to move not only too and from food, but that was their highway to other properties.
So around the rut time frame, I am thinking that bucks will be cruising it looking for spots hot does crossed.




This property is super cool and is almost two levels. Down below is the crops, creek, and bedding.
Then the upper level, up the hollows is some great giant white oaks.
I found some EXTREMELY mature white oaks that will be loaded with acorns. They should be a great early season spot!



I found one little bench that had three mature white oaks that all had acorns starting.... I was so excited because tons of trails were transitioning over this spot..... it was so exciting until I found this...... :mad:








I was so fricken mad!!!!! Land owner has been notified and I REALLY hope he sorts this out.
Drives me nuts when people trespass and then do something like this. :mad:


No biggy.... I'm not letting that get me down. It will be dealt with and I am going to fill my tags in KY this year!
I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!

Now I just need to get to July 6th to see if I drew any Oklahoma tags.
Then it's LESS THAN 2 MONTHS UNTIL ARCHERY ELK!!!!!!!!



WOOOOHOOOOOOOO





End trip milage...... (I should have done a beginning journal mileage)


Please leave all the GPS coordinates to the sweet stinky that you found in the milk crate. It washed away during our recent floods here and Florida and went upstream. Also, get my can of sunkist that I left out there.:cool:
 
Hunt the moose rut hard. Try and find any locations you can where visibility is possible and sit on them during the midday. The Bulls will be covering country looking for cows. Look for any riparian areas on google earth and hone in on them; this is where moose will be early in the morning. By mid-day, they move up and bed on the sidehills. Look for old logging roads that are no longer in use; these provide a perfect bedding spot.

I hunted a low-density moose area last fall. It was tough. Only had a couple of bull moose sightings. Did not kill one, but I missed a shot. That's all you can ask. Best of luck. Spend as many days as you can.

Thanks for the advice! Sorry you weren't able to connect on that bull.

I'm definitely going to give it a solid effort. Due to my fluid work schedule I don't have solid dates yet, but I will either do 23 Sep to 9 Oct or 30 Sep to 15 Oct. I want to squeak in an elk hunt sometime in 16-24 Sep if possible, and I'm also thinking the second week of Oct could be more productive as far as rut activity goes than the last week of September. If the first trip is unsuccessful I'll back at it 10-24 Nov to close out the season. It seems like this hunt will be more of a waiting game vs. my normal tactic of burning boot leather and constant searching. I've spent a TON of time walking around NE Wa for work, and only a handful of times did I bump into moose. But if I sat in a decent area for a day I almost always saw at least one moose.

The areas I've been to all look promising, but it is a low density area. And if its not a meadow, which there aren't many of, its steep, thick, old growth with very limited visibility. The little bit of local knowledge I've been able to gather tells me the unit is more of a wintering area and the resident moose are few and far between. I'm going to have to buckle in and exercise my patience. Much like your hunt, I will be thankful to have at least a single opportunity, which I can hopefully connect on.
 
That creek crossing looks hot to me. I hunt similar spots in NE.

My phone went chasing the halibut last week so will be out of touch until I get a new one. :D

I'm thinking it's gonna pay off!!!
Message me when you get a new phone!!!!!
 
Please leave all the GPS coordinates to the sweet stinky that you found in the milk crate. It washed away during our recent floods here and Florida and went upstream. Also, get my can of sunkist that I left out there.:cool:

haha I'll have to bring you them back :D
Think the cops will believe me when I'm coming across the state border and say "I'm just bringing them to a guy I met online". :hump:


You aren't kidding about these Florida floods..... we got hammered with some rain!
 
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