Leupold BX-4 Rangefinding Binoculars

History Found In the Field

teej89

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I'm on episode 004 of Randy's hunt talk and he talks about finding the arrow head while he was hunting goats and how he started thinking back in time of who was here before him. It got me thinking about things I've found in the field, old mugs, rotten tree stands, old stools, old trappers cabins, and how I'll sit there and reflect on the past. When I was little I use to climb those rotting away rusted nail tree stands just to be able to sit in it and imagine who was in it years before me and why they took the effort to build it there.

What I'm hoping to accomplish is to start a picture thread of items you've found in the field that made you reflect. Unless this has already been done lol

The most memorable thing I've found was last year. Back in 2004 I shot my first buck ever, 15yrs old. I'll never forget that day, it was raining, i didn't want to wake up. We were hunting a new spot and we set down before dark and my dad was like no lets move up so we can see down into the hollow. I mumbled but went along anyways. I'll let it be known I missed my only chance on my first encounter with a buck after 3 years of hunting the week before by not being fast enough. So i was not in the best mood. First couple minutes of daylight start then all the sudden my dad goes "buck buck TJ!" but I can't see it, i look and look and cant see it. Then after insisting he shoot it I end up finding it. The words my dad says he'll never forget was "Got em" then BANG and the buck dropped. Here's a pic of my buck, sorry for the crappy pic:
IMG_1679_zpspa2kdk1w.jpg
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Now we ended up not hunting that piece much and 10yrs later I was hunting it on my own. I was walking around doing some still hunting due to the snow and wind. I get up on top of this hollow and I was like man I really recognize this spot. Then I was looking around and it caught my eye, this is what I saw:




It's nothing big but it meant a lot to me and to this day he never told me about this and I never told him I found it. After finding it I sat down at that spot and hunted out the rest of the day reliving that moment of shooting my first buck.

Fastforward to this year.... My dad killed his first elk ever and he was in the passenger seat to watch me arrow my first bull ever also.
IMG_6994_zpsuiewmvwt.jpg
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Your arboreal inscription reminded me of the best one I ever saw/found. It was on a huge aspen in the blacktail of SW Montana and it said
"And God said to the cowboy
Get the hell out of here
This is sheep country"
It was high on a mountainside at the end of an old road with the carcasses of some long abandoned 1940's sedans with trees and brush growing up through the bumpers.
Who says sheepherders have a lot of time on their hands?
 
I've found old abandoned vehicles, abandoned moonshine stills down in river bottoms, various other things through the years, but the saddest thing I ever found were the grave markers of an entire family, parents and three children, who died in the 1918-1920 flu pandemic. There were no other signs of habitation there in the hardwood forest, just the gravestones in a very small clearing.
 
As a boy my mom's boyfriend taught me how to big game hunt. One day while walking a logging road I looked down and found an Schrade "Old Timer" fixed blade knife. The brass guard was broken and the wrist pin was missing. We picked it up anyways. Before our next hunt he presented me with the fixed and sharpened knife complete with a leather sheath he made for it. I also learned the tradition of giving a coin in return for a gifted knife--so that you don't sever the friendship. He has since made more knifes for me, but I really enjoy carrying that one.

Being in the Marine Corps, I hunt a lot on Camp Pendleton for various species. I routinely find relics of old the "old Corps." These include M1 Garand magazines, old Colt magazines, rifle parts, etc. Once while fishing in a pond aboard MCB Quantico I thought I hooked into a big bass, but it turned out to be a belt of 5.56 blanks that some candidate must've ditched---shedding weight I guess, haha.
 
Several years ago I was glassing for elk and saw what I thought was a sardine can sticking out of the sand. I dug is out so I could pack it back to camp and dispose of it properly. When I dug it out I saw that it was a harmonica. The patents on it are German from the late 1800's. The only explanation I can come up with is that it must have belonged to a turn of the century sheep herder. The ground was part of a large sheep ranch around the turn of the century. The wood is gone from the harmonica but the brass is in pretty good shape and it will make some noise when blown through.
 

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Your arboreal inscription reminded me of the best one I ever saw/found. It was on a huge aspen in the blacktail of SW Montana and it said
"And God said to the cowboy
Get the hell out of here
This is sheep country"
It was high on a mountainside at the end of an old road with the carcasses of some long abandoned 1940's sedans with trees and brush growing up through the bumpers.
Who says sheepherders have a lot of time on their hands?

Got a place in mind to put that, but I'm going to have to modify that a bit, changing it to "bighorn sheep country." ;)

I met a guy in the Gravellies who showed me a Clovis point that he found (at least that is what it looked like - it was huge). I imagined a clan of buffalo-hide-covered early people hunting this ridge, surrounded by glaciers, arguing about whether the decrease in mammoth population was due to hunting or climate change. ;)

I wish I had snapped a picture.
 
I have found lots of artifacts while out hunting over the years. I have also found lots of shell casings. This one in particular has became my all time favorite "lucky charm" type of find while out hunting. I found this casing high up on a rocky ridge that dad and I hunted this past fall in Montana. We got to the spot where I was going to setup and I just happened to look down and see this laying. I picked it up and casually remarked to dad that "someone had had some luck in this spot" and told him I was going to put it in my pocket for good luck. Less than 5 minutes later, I had my first mule deer on the ground. I have carried it with me on every trip out hunting since then. It will always be with me. It is the first Rem. .32 rifle cause I have ever saw, and it is a Peters cartridge. The haven't been around for years.
 

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I'm on episode 004 of Randy's hunt talk and he talks about finding the arrow head while he was hunting goats and how he started thinking back in time of who was here before him. It got me thinking about things I've found in the field, old mugs, rotten tree stands, old stools, old trappers cabins, and how I'll sit there and reflect on the past. When I was little I use to climb those rotting away rusted nail tree stands just to be able to sit in it and imagine who was in it years before me and why they took the effort to build it there.

What I'm hoping to accomplish is to start a picture thread of items you've found in the field that made you reflect. Unless this has already been done lol

The most memorable thing I've found was last year. Back in 2004 I shot my first buck ever, 15yrs old. I'll never forget that day, it was raining, i didn't want to wake up. We were hunting a new spot and we set down before dark and my dad was like no lets move up so we can see down into the hollow. I mumbled but went along anyways. I'll let it be known I missed my only chance on my first encounter with a buck after 3 years of hunting the week before by not being fast enough. So i was not in the best mood. First couple minutes of daylight start then all the sudden my dad goes "buck buck TJ!" but I can't see it, i look and look and cant see it. Then after insisting he shoot it I end up finding it. The words my dad says he'll never forget was "Got em" then BANG and the buck dropped. Here's a pic of my buck, sorry for the crappy pic:
IMG_1679_zpspa2kdk1w.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]


Now we ended up not hunting that piece much and 10yrs later I was hunting it on my own. I was walking around doing some still hunting due to the snow and wind. I get up on top of this hollow and I was like man I really recognize this spot. Then I was looking around and it caught my eye, this is what I saw:




It's nothing big but it meant a lot to me and to this day he never told me about this and I never told him I found it. After finding it I sat down at that spot and hunted out the rest of the day reliving that moment of shooting my first buck.

Fastforward to this year.... My dad killed his first elk ever and he was in the passenger seat to watch me arrow my first bull ever also.
IMG_6994_zpsuiewmvwt.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
Very cool. My first deer was a Doe in 1959, I shot her instead of a little buck right beside her. My Dad cut mine in a tree with the letters C D "for Cactus Donkey". This was on an old friends property, 31 years later my dad told me that place had been sold and ask if I remembered that hunt of course I said yes. Well that Xmas I got a round present he had gone back and cut out that part gave it to me. We are Blessed to have Dads that were hunters.
 
That's awesome, Justin! Too cool, Pops!

What is that, @mtmuley ?
I't's a drilling rig. Horse drawn possibly. Lots of oil in that country up there. The gentleman that saved it pulled it off of State property with a dozer on to his land. The State was going to burn it. My family has roots up there. Gotta save something. mtmuley
 
Miles away from any road or landmark in the Mojave Desert, a tunnel dug into the side of a sandy hardpan slope. Went in to check it out, somebody had dug themselves a pretty nice domicile. Bedroom. living room, kitchen area. The furniture looked homemade. The bed was still made, the utensils still in the kitchen, a wooden case of Coca Cola half full in the hallway, the bottles were dated 1915. No idea if the guy just walked away and abandoned the place or got into trouble in the Desert and died?
 
Miles away from any road or landmark in the Mojave Desert, a tunnel dug into the side of a sandy hardpan slope. Went in to check it out, somebody had dug themselves a pretty nice domicile. Bedroom. living room, kitchen area. The furniture looked homemade. The bed was still made, the utensils still in the kitchen, a wooden case of Coca Cola half full in the hallway, the bottles were dated 1915. No idea if the guy just walked away and abandoned the place or got into trouble in the Desert and died?

dude that is an awesome find! you've never had an interest in going back? I'd love to see that!
 
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