Seeth's 2020 Hunting Log

[seeth07]

Welcome to my personal hunting log for the year 2020! I've always kept one on paper and after reading through quite of few others the last couple years and really enjoying following along, I've decided to finally give it a go myself. Hopefully you will all find it entertaining and maybe even informative as I'm not shy in sharing details. I draw the line at sharing coordinates however!

This fall is going to my absolute busiest big game hunting season ever as its filled with some absolute amazing tags. First I found out that I drew an Idaho moose tag for unit 69-2. Then about a week later I found out I drew a Kentucky week 1 cow tag. To add onto that, every year I meet up with my cousin who is from Colorado and his young daughters in western Nebraska for the firearm deer season chasing mulies in the pine covered ridges on public land. My wife got a few over the counter tags as well and she will be joining me on every trip as she always does. I grabbed a few as well. We also will have our in state tags here in Wisconsin for deer and turkey where we are from.

So to sum it up:
Idaho Moose Unit 69-2 Bull tag - FILLED
Idaho General Deer tag - UNFILLED
Idaho Tex Creek Elk A tag (wife) - UNFILLED
Nebraska Upper Platte Deer Tag - UNFILLED
Nebraska Upper Platte Deer Tag (wife) - UNFILLED
Nebraska Upper Platte Antlerless Mule Deer Tag - UNFILLED
Nebraska Upper Platte Antlerless Whitetail Deer Tag - UNFILLED
Kentucky Unit 3 Week 1 Cow Tag - UNFILLED
Kentucky General Deer Tag (Buck) - UNFILLED
Kentucky General Deer Tag (Doe) - FILLED BUT UNFORTUNATELY NOT RECOVERED
Wisconsin Archery Buck Tag - UNFILLED
Wisconsin Archery Buck Tag (wife) - UNFILLED
Wisconsin Gun Buck Tag - UNFILLED
Wisconsin Gun Buck Tag (wife) - UNFILLED

Right now, here is what my fall hunt schedule looks like (these dates don't include the travel around them). Its absolutely nuts especially considering the amount of travel time required!
Sept. 5th, 6th and 7th - Scouting trip to KY
Sept. 12th-16th - Wisconsin bow opens on the 12th. *Will likely sit a few days here.
Sept. 20th-Sept. 26th - Idaho moose scouting trip/archery bull elk/buck
Oct. 3rd-11th and 17th-19th - Wisconsin duck opens the 3rd, I'm a diehard waterfowler and this hunt schedule is really cutting into those hunts!!!
Oct. 22nd-Oct. 31 - Idaho moose, gun cow elk, gun buck
Nov. 4-Nov. 11 - Peak Whitetail run at home! Also peak duck migration...choices, so hard to choose!
Nov. 14-Nov.16 - Nebraska gun deer
Nov. 21st-Nov. 22nd - Wisconsin gun deer
Nov. 26-Dec. 2 - Kentucky gun deer/cow elk
Dec. 5-Dec. 6 - Last weekend of duck, fun diver/late mallard hunts usually
Dec. - Small game and night coyotes with the thermals

So the game plan is squared away. Hopefully state-to-state restrictions don't get to the point where it affects us at all. E-scouting and phone calls are in full swing. I've probably spent over 100 hours already of time invested game planning those two big hunts and my notebook already has little pieces of information logged from 11 different phone calls. Many more to go!

 

[seeth07]

I'll start it off with a few trail cam pictures of the bucks that are on our property behind our home. Starting in early June I got a few cameras out and I'm now up to 5 out of 6. Last year I started using the cuddelink system and absolutely love the convienance. I have a house receiving unit that all cameras send images to. All I have to do is check the camera in my house. The only draw back is the images in this house unit are just a thumbnail image of the actual image size and quality. Basically the 20mp image at the main camera turns into a 1mp quality image at the house camera. Works to see the images coming in and then when I swap the card in the camera I can save the actual full size image to my library. Anyways, here are the only two bucks worth sharing. I really got to fix the date on that camera as that pic is from two days ago

 

[duckhunt]

Looking forward to following along.

 

[seeth07]

So today was training day number one for my hopefully new pack mule...my bernese mountain dog! I bought him a high quality saddle pack and after a few times of testing it empty on his back in the house, tonight we took our first hike. I loaded it up with 5lb weights in each bag and we went on a .5 mile hike. He did well until we got 100 yards from the house and then he gave up! It's a start, lots of conditioning to do yet but they were bred for pulling carts in the high Swiss alps afterall!

Here he is all pooped out!

 

[LCH]

That's going to be one busy fall!

What do you plan on packing with your dog?

 

[seeth07]

What do you plan on packing with your dog?

Well hopefully meat lol

If everything goes well conditioning, my plan is to take him to Nebraska with us. Its an easy 3 mile hike in to where we hunt and for a 3 day hunt, he will be loaded with 5lb of food (he is a beast and eats 4 cups of food a day, I'm figured 5 on this exercise intensive trip) and then its 1/2 gallon of water a day. That will put his pack at about 20lbs on the way in. Hopefully he will be helping me pack out his share of 20lbs of my deer.

 

[seeth07]

New clothing showed up today!

I didn't necesarily "need" any new hunting apparel but over the last 5 years I have slowly been turning my old school and heavy "grandpa" wool style hunting clothing into the newer fancy technology. The warmth performance isn't noticable but the sweat and weight sure is. I'm happy to say that this purchase finally completes my typical big game apparel package of modern clothing.

What I purchased is the First Lite Chamberlin Puffy Jacket, Catalyst Pant and Zero Cold weather OTC. I started with rain gear, then layers and now finally that cold weather extra shell. I'll provide some review this fall after hunting I'm sure

 

[seeth07]

Wednesday night I got our packs out and wanted to restock them from the prior season. Unfortunately, some mice decided to use my pack as a nest over the winter! They got into my game games and that is where it was destroying all of my game bags. Thankfully, that was it. There was a minor hole in the pack but no other damage and all of the mouse piss smell was in the game bags and not the pack. Bummer but could have been way worse.

 

[seeth07]

Got the deeks out this morning. Dozen hen teal freshly rubbed down in mud ready to go. 4 teal spinners. Got the waders in the truck. 20 gauge and number 6s packed in the truck. Who's ready for the season opening tomorrow? I AM!!!

 

[seeth07]

Nothing like a quickie before work

I went into my favorite spot loaded with a 20 gauge and 6s looking for teal. Only saw one teal before legal shooting hours but dropped three honkers on three shots! Nothing like a triple to start off the year. Goes to show that shooting sporting clays all summer really pays dividends



Also got my first packout of the year. 1/4 mile hike out with (3) 10+ pound geese, deeks and gun gets the cardio going!

 

[JShane]

nice work with 6 shot

 

[seeth07]

The teal won last night... went behind my house to check the cameras and there is a creek that often will hold some woodies but occasionally a few teal and mallards as well. I got in there quietly and got down on the bank and saw some ripples about 30 yards ahead. I hunkered down and three drake woodies come swimming right by me at 5 yards. After they cruised through, I see some more ripples and here comes 4 bluewings. They too swim right past me and excitement got the better of me because I think they were only 10 yards away when I hit em removing the head completely off the first teal and then my next two shots were clear misses. So disappointed....usually that situation results in 2 or 3 dead teal just after the first shot

Seeth vs Geese - 3/3

Seeth vs Teal 1/3....damn little buggers!

 

[JShane]

oh man to have to sit and watch woodies cruise by would eat me alive. I'd have gone o for 3 on the teal after that

 

[seeth07]

oh man to have to sit and watch woodies cruise by would eat me alive. I'd have gone o for 3 on the teal after that

Yes, its brutal to watch. 1 was a near full plumage mature drake already and 2 immature drakes.

 

[duckhunt]

Great way to start the fall season.

 

[JShane]

Yes, its brutal to watch. 1 was a near full plumage mature drake already and 2 immature drakes

 

[seeth07]

Truck is loaded and after this 1pm conference call, I'm KENTUCKY BOUND!!!

 

[seeth07]

This 3 day scouting trip has 2 primary goals:
1) Locate 2 early morning glassing spots and 2 evening glassing spots.
2) Locate 3 spots worthy of setting up a trail camera.

My hunting trip will be a late season cow hunt so I need to keep that in mind during my scouting. I need to focus not so much on where the elk are exactly right now but instead were are the elk likely to find sanctuary and feed once all the leaves fall off and the temperatures go down.

 

[seeth07]

Almost back home after a long grueling solo drive. That follows a very long, tick infested, spider bombing, thorn gouging, Sun blazing, calf burning, damn near elkless, arrow flinging, heartbreaking trip.

Full recap over the next few days or so...

 

[BrokenChicken]

Nebraska Upper Platte Anterless Tag - UNFILLED
[[/COLOR]

Don’t forget that if its the AO SC (Antler-less Only Season Choice) tag its technically good for 2 does. Look at it. Im not sure if u have the regular or WT only. But either way both have 1Doe + bonus WT doe

And congrats. That is one heck of a season planned out