EF2’s 2020 Fall Hunt

[Pucky Freak]

Gearing up for fall hunting adventures in IA and WY! Buck and doe antelope, WT, turkey, waterfowl, and upland game. I’d like to take my 3-year-old squirrel hunting, but my wife might veto that. Freezer has about 10 lbs of game left, and is itching to get restocked. A special thanks in advance to my wife for making this possible, since we have more kids in the house since starting foster care.

 

[duckhunt]

Looking forward to following along.

 

[Pucky Freak]

In order to clear up the fall schedule, 4 big house projects needed to be done this summer.

Project 1 was our cat got a UTI and peed in a bedroom several times. Replaced section of subfloor, tackstrip, and carpet pad, and shampood carpet about a dozen times.

Project 2 was same cat also peed in front of our front door. Urine soaked into wood floor, subfloor, door and wall trim, insulation, stud wall, Threshold, joists, drywall, and door frame. Total nightmare. Had to rip everything out except the rim joists, which I treated. Odor down to less than 1% of what it was. Replaced section is shinier and smoother than original, but is covered by a welcome rug. Just waiting on custom casing to arrive. About 70 hours and $225. I don’t want to imagine what contractor would have charged...

Project 3 - restain deck

Project 4 finished yesterday. Replaced corroded sewer vent pipe. Water damage to roof, roof insulation, ceiling, walls, floor, basement ceiling (worst), basement shower and trim. Cut 3 holes in wall drywall and replaced 1965 copper with PVC, so the entire route needed widened by 5/16”. Sink drain pipe was rotten to so that got replaced. Saved over $1000 by not having a plumber do it. Job was far easier than the cat pee fiasco. Pic shows patched wall and old pipe
A lot of time and sweat, but I was very determined to have a clear schedule for hunting!

 

[Pucky Freak]

Today I got permission again from adjacent landowners to bowhunt the spot near my house. The 60 acres is in corn this year. The rest is mostly Reclaimed cow pasture that the owner opted not to mow this year. it’s mostly chest high grass and young trees. Many more places for deer to hide this year. I rebuilt my blind about 8 yards closer to the deer trails so I’d get closer shots, as I missed 2 deer there last year. I’ll pick up a couple doe tags for this spot. The one good buck in this spot I think became roadkill, so I will likely be targeting a public land buck.

 

[Dave N]

Project number 5. Make peeing cat disappear.

 

[wyoboypt]

Project number 5. Make peeing cat disappear.

My thoughts exactly

 

[MN_Bowhunter4]

Project number 5. Make peeing cat disappear.

I was waiting for this myself! Can’t wait @ElkFever2

 

[Pucky Freak]

Oh I won’t replay the numerous “your cat must go” arguments with my wife. Short story is she agreed that the next cat-induced repair job will also be the last. Vet bills for the UTI could have bought a NR elk tag. She has kept the cat isolated to a tiled room since.

My cat, on the other hand, doesn’t cause any trouble...

 

[Pucky Freak]

Our family just got back today from a week of Yellowstone camping, road trip through SD, NE, & MT, + some deer scouting. A special thanks to @wyoboypt for lots of travel tips and other generous help on this trip. The kids being 1, 1, & 3 made for some slow and challenging travel, but my wife and I had a fun time and made it work.

I am buying a WY deer point this year with the plan to put in for a regional tag next year if I don't draw elk. I identified hunt areas in 3 regions I wanted to scout, and was able to check out 2 of them I had e-scouted, and the other one I plan to hike around in Oct after filling some antelope tags. The first area I looked at was in the NW and I scouted from the road at dusk. I was able to turn up a 2-year-old MD buck accompanied by a couple does. He had a nice wide rack with some potential next year if he can survive hunting season. My wife took a sunset pic as I was updating OnX.

 

[Pucky Freak]

This was my first Yellowstone trip. During college I tried to drive in along the Beartooth hwy in the spring, but didn't check to see if the pass was open first, and it ended up being a very long dead end road. Our Yellowstone campground had closed showers due to COVID, so I set up a solar shower in the middle of the woods, and found what was left of this elk skull along the way.



My 3-year-old was obsessed with finding a bear, and on day 5 we finally saw one near our campsite. Small chocolate-colored black bear, maybe 3 years old. We picked plenty of ripe wild strawberries at that elevation, so my guess is that is what she was foraging on.


Of course we saw tons of these guys


Mammoth Hot Springs was one of our favorite spots.




A nearby cow herd had fat cows and skinny cows, and light and dark-colored ones.



A pair of young velvet bulls at dusk. The only elk we saw were in the park except for a group of 3 cows in the Bighorn NF, and a roadkill 6-pt that had tried to cross I-80 just outside Arlington, WY

 

[Pucky Freak]

We hiked to an unmarked hot springs along the Firehole. It was about 98 degrees and kind of shallow, so after a short visit there we soaked in the river, which was about 80 degrees from the surrounding volcanic features. Another trip highlight


Yellowstone lake, and some falls

 

[Pucky Freak]

We also spent a couple days in the Tetons. This was the only antelope we saw there, and he showed off for about 5 mins before running away. Getting to look at 100+ WY and SD antelope bucks over the course of the trip was helpful to get an idea of what kind of headgear I'd like to hold out for on my hunt. After getting a rack in the binos it's apparent after about 1 second whether it's a decent/good buck or a dink. My tag is for a <1 PP regular draw unit, and my goal is to take the first decent buck I see, which may take a bit of searching since I'm starting 5 days after the season opener.

 

[Pucky Freak]

On the return trip I checked out another deer unit for an evening and the next morning, while the family stayed at a motel. I was pretty wore out from juggling kiddos with my wife all week, and I spaced taking any pics. There were lots of mulie does, and on a school section a pair of velvet bucks, one of which was mature 4-pt and definitely a shooter. Too bad I don't have a tag this year!

That's all for now. IA dove season is just around the corner on 9/1.

 

[Pucky Freak]

All-day river float for smallies and channel cat. Caught a bunch of little ones, and kept two for the frying pan. Best part was we didn’t see another soul on the water. We did see lots of killdeer, some teal and woodies, and a turkey. Hasn’t rained in a couple weeks and the eagles were taking advantage of the clear and shallow water - there was one perched on just about every tall dead tree.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Keep it coming! Excited for the dove hunt summaries.

 

[WNC2500]

EF2: Love the recap, and the pictures. My wife and I did pretty much that same route about this same time last year. Bighorn NF was about my favorite. Maybe it was the time we were driving through. The scenery, along with the clouds, and sunsets were breathtaking. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Looking forward to the updates

 

[mdeerjunkie]

Exiting! Keep it coming!

 

[Pucky Freak]

My wife took our twins to appointments for 2 outpatient surgeries each today, and I took our daughter fishing. Chance of thunderstorms, but I figured I’d keep an eye on the sky and make a day of it.

Five mins after this pic the sky got dark and a front blew in with heavy straight line winds. We took shelter under a bridge for about an hour, then went back to fishing. No bites but she had a lot of fun wading, splashing, and throwing rocks.

A 30-min drive home and we found our neighborhood got hit far worse.

News said it was 99mph winds. Between 3 roofs, gutters, siding, deck, x5 widow maker branches removal, and limb-impaled central A/C unit I’d guess $30k in damage. I patched a fist-sized hole in the roof so we don’t get a waterfall in our living room.

Today I am thankful for insurance, the power just coming back on, BIL who came out to help clear debris off our windows and doors, an adequate emergency fund, no one in my family was hurt, and now only half as many leaves to rake during hunting season.

 

[Gellar]

Sorry to hear about the damage. Glad no one was hurt! My brother in Des Moines is still without power.