Vanish and FireTiger's 2018 Hunt Journal - Season 8
- Thread starter vanish
- Start date
I'll have to consider it. Thanks for the offer.
Thanks Carlin! I had a ton of fun even though it was slow action.
Thanks Crumb.
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Really tempting to try to get back down there as the weather forecast keeps improving and I'm fairly sure with just FireTiger and I we could make it happen.
duckhunt
Well-known member
Great stuff. I always look forward to your updates.
bowhuntmontana
Well-known member
Great buck and great story. Having a good season.
greaseywater
Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2018
- Messages
- 37
Thanks for posting these. Well written and a good read. I'm subscribed.
FireTiger was able to get back down to pronghorn country for the last two days of the season. The forecast looked good, but Thursday ended up being similar to Sunday, with low visibility, thick clouds, high winds and high humidity. The animals were locked down and not moving off private land. There was one herd that moved through without a good opportunity.
Friday started off similarly, but by 10am the system had moved out and the weather started to clear. It was a beautiful day by noon, and there was a noticeable change. Animals started appearing in all directions, finally moving around after the front had moved out. She spotted a herd of 7 and watched them until they finally bedded at 2pm.
It took a couple hours, and just as she was getting in range, a truck appeared on the horizon on the opposite side of the herd. The truck left, but it had the pronghorn nervous, and they worked right past FireTiger. The pack out ended up being almost 4 miles.
Friday started off similarly, but by 10am the system had moved out and the weather started to clear. It was a beautiful day by noon, and there was a noticeable change. Animals started appearing in all directions, finally moving around after the front had moved out. She spotted a herd of 7 and watched them until they finally bedded at 2pm.
It took a couple hours, and just as she was getting in range, a truck appeared on the horizon on the opposite side of the herd. The truck left, but it had the pronghorn nervous, and they worked right past FireTiger. The pack out ended up being almost 4 miles.
From there, she headed to our spot for turkey. Before she even left the parking area, she could hear birds talking. There were hundreds of them roosted. While it probably would have been easier to set up on the roost, there were some deer hunters in the area she didn't want to mess with, and so she set up in our log blind. A few hours of waiting and she was able to take her first Rio Grande turkey.
Tom or Jake? 8.5in beard and 1in spurs seems like a tom, but look at that goofy fan?!
Tom or Jake? 8.5in beard and 1in spurs seems like a tom, but look at that goofy fan?!
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Awesome!
Thanks! Yeah, its shaping up to be a pretty good one again.
Thanks for reading! Where does your handle come from?
Ah not quite, it was the next morning, although only about 18 hours apart!
WildWill
Well-known member
Congrats on filling the goat tags plus the bonus turkey.
greaseywater
Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2018
- Messages
- 37
It's not that interesting of a story, but since you asked: when I was in high school I worked as a dishwasher. Being a literal sort of guy I wanted my username (on a different site) to be "dishwasher", but I needed a number, like dishwasher345. I don't like numbers in my username, so I thought I would be clever and come up with a different handle that kind of meant the same thing. So I came up with "greaseswabber". That is, one who swabs grease.
Fast forward 15 years and I'm still using that, but in all that time few people could ever pronounce it or understand it. I've got more public handles now, so I changed it to something that is pronounceable by looking at it. Greasey water.
Now it's almost a meaningless name. I guess I could come up with some kind clever back story, but I'm still a pretty literal guy. So, there it is.
TheBenHoyle
Well-known member
Those short tail feathers might be replacement feathers that haven't fully grown in. Some coyote might have had a disappointing meal a while back. The tail feathers come out pretty easily. A buddy of mine tried to pick up his first turkey by the tail and got a handful of feathers.
If there is anyone in the Longmont, CO surrounding area that would like some meat (elk or deer), send me a PM.
We go through a LOT of meat in a year as we host BBQs and weekly gatherings, prepare food for BHA events and give to friends, but our freezers are getting pretty darn full. I'm getting concerned that I won't be able to fit our premade meals much longer.
Our meat is all processed and packaged meticulously here at home.
We only have two Colorado tags left at the moment and I'm determined to hold out for my biggest WT buck again this year, so we not not bring home anything more, but you never know!
Note that this offer is for personal consumption, not your dog! Our dog gets liver and trimmings from our game, but I about died last year when an acquaintance of ours told us as she walked out the door with 10 pounds of elk, that her dogs would be so happy.
We go through a LOT of meat in a year as we host BBQs and weekly gatherings, prepare food for BHA events and give to friends, but our freezers are getting pretty darn full. I'm getting concerned that I won't be able to fit our premade meals much longer.
Our meat is all processed and packaged meticulously here at home.We only have two Colorado tags left at the moment and I'm determined to hold out for my biggest WT buck again this year, so we not not bring home anything more, but you never know!
Note that this offer is for personal consumption, not your dog! Our dog gets liver and trimmings from our game, but I about died last year when an acquaintance of ours told us as she walked out the door with 10 pounds of elk, that her dogs would be so happy.
Good thinking Ben! We actually had a coyote bedded 18 yards from us while these toms were coming in, and saw another one slinking along 20 yards behind them, so its entirely plausible. I really wanted to shoot the close one with my bow as I've never taken a coyote with it, but it wasn't worth blowing out the turkeys.
Red84
New member
Looks like a successful day! Congrats!
I call that a tom. Mostly due to the spurs, not the beard. We get frozen off beards around here, some really big toms have 3" beards, lol. That fan is run of the mill in the fall. I hunt fall turkeys each year and I don't believe I have ever gotten a "normal" fan. Just the heart shaped fan you have there. I believe they are finishing a molt. Coincidentally if you plucked that bird you'd probably find an abnormal amount of pin feathers. That to me would confirm a molt.
Awesome, good to know. This is our first fall tom so new to us. Thanks for joining the thread.
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We're on the way to Nebraska. Going to try a spot we've been by before but not hunted. FireTiger is up. I have a tag but since I've got a week scheduled for the beginning of November, I'm playing assist most likely.
Red84
New member
It’s been fun to follow along! Best of luck in NE!
We arrived at our camp location late Friday night. It would not be far to our first setup, maybe 500 yards. We'd be hunting a pinch point on a travel corridor along the river. The plan was to set up a waterfowl blind I picked up free last year so that we could sit together with Hank along and hidden. That worked pretty well, though I was a bit shaky on whether we'd be able to draw.
The first spot we tried to set up, the grass was crazy tall. We found a downed tree and put the blind in front of it, and there was an area where the grass was matted down. This would allow for us to see a deer if one were to actually walk through.
Hank was well hidden in the blind, most of the time. In this case he'd gotten cold and wanted to be able to see the raccoons making noise in front of us, so he naturally climbed on top of FireTiger for a better view.
We had one doe feed by at 30 yards and that was it for this spot. We decided to do some exploration around 10am.
In the timber of the riverbottom now. The grass is ridiculously tall everywhere. We jumped 4 or 5 does on our way. Set up on a spot a couple of feet higher than the surrounding area near a seemingly well used trail but it was getting toasty.
We stayed until about 1pm. With nothing happening and the temps approaching 70, we headed back for lunch and a ... second... nap.
For the evening, we set up on a trail working towards some cut wheat fields that had nice green sprouts. Does started appearing on the edge of the field about 45 minutes before dark. We had a small buck (looked like a forky) follow the plan with about two minutes of legal shooting light left. FireTiger passed the opportunity.
Sunday morning had us in position near a private cornfield. We were hoping some deer would come out from the corn and head to a swamp thicket to bed. We were in a small strip of timber with the river about 40 yards away.
About an hour after sunrise, I started hearing a commotion in the direction of the corn field. I could hear it moving closer, but not see it. The next few minutes involved many mistakes. I saw antlers just over the grass and finally figured out where the noise was coming from; the deer was in the river.
1.) Instead of getting FireTiger ready, I knocked an arrow, as the deer was closer to me.
2.) I was fidgety instead of moving cautiously and calculated.
3.) I got tunnel vision, and didn't realize there was more than one buck.
4.) I hit photo on my phone ( which was set up like a video camera on a tripod ) instead of record video.
So, while I was ranging things in the path of the buck in the river bottom, the lead buck had already climbed the bank of the river and was working his way in front of us just off to my left. My movement attracted his attention, and he walked toward us. He was only at 32 yards when I first saw him. This would have been a good shot for FireTiger (who is looking for her first bow buck), as he wasn't agitated yet, but though she knew there were deer around by this point, she couldn't actually see him.
Eventually, the lead buck had enough of me though, and blew back across the river, taking his FOUR buddies, who were just out of sight in the river, with him. They were all young bucks except the last one, which I didn't get a great look at, but was definitely a larger class.
That was it for the morning hunt. We explored the area some more. One of the areas we like to hunt at another location is right on the lake edge. Not the best choice here unless you're hoping for a broken ankle.
There's a doe standing 30 yards from me in this photo. You'll never see her with the image compression, but that's how tall the grass was.
I didn't get a photo of our last setup, but I really liked it. We were tucked in the grass under a lone tree on a field that was covered in tracks. All we saw was two more raccoons.
The first spot we tried to set up, the grass was crazy tall. We found a downed tree and put the blind in front of it, and there was an area where the grass was matted down. This would allow for us to see a deer if one were to actually walk through.
Hank was well hidden in the blind, most of the time. In this case he'd gotten cold and wanted to be able to see the raccoons making noise in front of us, so he naturally climbed on top of FireTiger for a better view.
We had one doe feed by at 30 yards and that was it for this spot. We decided to do some exploration around 10am.
In the timber of the riverbottom now. The grass is ridiculously tall everywhere. We jumped 4 or 5 does on our way. Set up on a spot a couple of feet higher than the surrounding area near a seemingly well used trail but it was getting toasty.
We stayed until about 1pm. With nothing happening and the temps approaching 70, we headed back for lunch and a ... second... nap.
For the evening, we set up on a trail working towards some cut wheat fields that had nice green sprouts. Does started appearing on the edge of the field about 45 minutes before dark. We had a small buck (looked like a forky) follow the plan with about two minutes of legal shooting light left. FireTiger passed the opportunity.
Sunday morning had us in position near a private cornfield. We were hoping some deer would come out from the corn and head to a swamp thicket to bed. We were in a small strip of timber with the river about 40 yards away.
About an hour after sunrise, I started hearing a commotion in the direction of the corn field. I could hear it moving closer, but not see it. The next few minutes involved many mistakes. I saw antlers just over the grass and finally figured out where the noise was coming from; the deer was in the river.
1.) Instead of getting FireTiger ready, I knocked an arrow, as the deer was closer to me.
2.) I was fidgety instead of moving cautiously and calculated.
3.) I got tunnel vision, and didn't realize there was more than one buck.
4.) I hit photo on my phone ( which was set up like a video camera on a tripod ) instead of record video.
So, while I was ranging things in the path of the buck in the river bottom, the lead buck had already climbed the bank of the river and was working his way in front of us just off to my left. My movement attracted his attention, and he walked toward us. He was only at 32 yards when I first saw him. This would have been a good shot for FireTiger (who is looking for her first bow buck), as he wasn't agitated yet, but though she knew there were deer around by this point, she couldn't actually see him.
Eventually, the lead buck had enough of me though, and blew back across the river, taking his FOUR buddies, who were just out of sight in the river, with him. They were all young bucks except the last one, which I didn't get a great look at, but was definitely a larger class.
That was it for the morning hunt. We explored the area some more. One of the areas we like to hunt at another location is right on the lake edge. Not the best choice here unless you're hoping for a broken ankle.
There's a doe standing 30 yards from me in this photo. You'll never see her with the image compression, but that's how tall the grass was.
I didn't get a photo of our last setup, but I really liked it. We were tucked in the grass under a lone tree on a field that was covered in tracks. All we saw was two more raccoons.
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