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Post by bullseye on Sept 11, 2007 10:03:11 GMT -5
This Saturday ruffed grouse season opens up in the northern zone in Wisconsin. While I look forward to this time of year, this year will be a little different.
First of all we have our last club bass fishing tournament on Saturday so the start of our hunt will be slightly delayed. Second with all the the medical problems of Debby's parents her vacation time has been used up. This means an abbreviated hunt of 4 or 5 days this year rather than the usual 9 or 10. Finally, this year we will have someone new along with us. Our grandson Clay is going to make the trip with us. He and Grandma will be going fishing in the canoe and he and Grandpa will probably take a few short trips into the woods for grouse. It is definitely something we are looking forward to this year.
I am getting a late start getting the hunting trailer ready this year. With everything going on it still has not come out of the garage. I am hoping to get it out tonight and start to get things loaded so we can leave next Tuesday or Wednesday evening.
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Post by Bill on Sept 11, 2007 22:33:33 GMT -5
Sounds like your raising a hunting buddy there Bullseye. Donnie is doing the same thing. Again . Me I raised mine and taught him to shoot and like it but since he graduated from high school he just don't seem to care about hunting any more.
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Post by bullseye on Sept 12, 2007 5:34:11 GMT -5
We are giving him the opportunity Bill. His dad is afraid of the water so he doesn't fish and he has never hunted. We are fortunate that our daughter Beth and her husband has decided to let him experience these things. When our granddaughter Kaylee is old enough we will do the same with her and let her make the choice is this is something she wants to do for the rest of her life.
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Post by bullseye on Sept 12, 2007 20:05:27 GMT -5
I started loading up the trailer tonight. I hauled it out of the garage last night and started to load it up tonight. I am finding that I need to get some more shells. While I did not shoot that many last year (not near as many as DD) it is getting the the level that for me is getting low. The packing is going better than expected and we will probably be finished by Sunday night. It is just unfortunate that the bass club decided to have their last tournament on the opening day of grouse season and deer bow I think this will not happen again.
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Post by Bill on Sept 12, 2007 22:41:04 GMT -5
I have an Idea ;D that with you being in the ruling class of the bass club that this might not ever be a problem again. ;D Wish I was comming along Bullseye. With my son getting married soon and doing it in Hawaii its going to take up all my vacation time I have allocated for hunting. Having only one son I pretty much feel obligated to be there for it. I'm looking at it next year as a long range project and figuring on spending a week grouse hunting if all goes well. I might possibly be moved again and don't know what affect that will have yet though.
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Post by deputydon on Sept 13, 2007 8:47:09 GMT -5
Having hunted (and camped) w/ ya; I know that EVERYTHING will be in order. LOL LOL LOL Have a fun, no great time!!!!! I too would like to do it again. It just wasn't in the cards this year. BTW I have a lot of guys from here that would love to go. But I'm thinkin' too many could ruin it.
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Post by Bill on Sept 13, 2007 18:46:01 GMT -5
I always thought that 4 guys was about the magic number. That way everyone has a partner so if you get lost or hurt there is someone to help you close by. I noticed that the few times we got together as a group it made it hard for you D-D to shoot over my sholder. ;D Small bit of cussing behind me In the area we hunted it might of been able to handle 6 guys but not every day. Now in the area to the east where Donnie, Bullseye and I hunted 2 years ago it might of handled 6 a lot easier but about the only way either place could do that is IF you move camp every couple days. The camp site we had last year was awsome for 4.
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Post by bullseye on Sept 14, 2007 4:40:38 GMT -5
It is too bad that circumstances didn't allow for you guys to come back this year. I understand that things happen and in Bill's case family comes first. Unfortunately we all still have to work so vacation time is under someone else's control. Maybe it is just destined to be every other year so you can look forward to next year.
The national forest areas of northern Wisconsin cover over 1.5 MILLION acres with the Chequmegon being the larger of the two, split into two parts with a total acreage of around 858,000. There might be room for a couple more. Many times we will camp in one area and then drive in probably about a 15 mile radius and hunt the trails in that area while our campsite stays in the same place. Then we will move to another campsite and do the same thing.
We started our annual grouse hunting trips in 1995 with our friends from Crivitz who have done it for over 30 years. Jim has probably walked most of the trails in the forest in that time. The areas we have hunted have taken us to many areas of both the Nicolet (to the east) and the Chequmegon (west). We have walked a lot of productive trails and also done a lot of walking and not had a flush.
In both instances when Donnie and Bill came up in 2004 and Donnie, Bill, and DD came up in 2006, I used the knowledge I gained from our September trip to go to the places where I thought we would have the best chance of finding birds. My goal was to at least give them the chance to get birds, rather than making the long trip to just take walks with a gun and give the dogs exercise.
The "good" areas can change from year to year and we at times find many good ones or in some years few. The area we hunted in 2006 had probably a good 15 or so trails that would have been very productive to hunt, with another 20-25 that would have been what I will call OK. In the two days we had to hunt we didn't even come close to running out of places to go.
Could more guys hunt in that area? Sure they could but the difficulty would be trying to get someone unfamiliar with the area to the individual trails. As Bill, Donnie, and DD know, it is not as simple as going to the second stop light and turn right. Trying to give someone directions in the national forest that is unfamiliar with the terrain and the irregular gravel road system would be difficult. It would be my guess they would spend more time lost than hunting. Of course DD, if there were someone that you really didn't want to see much any more that would be a possibility!! ;D
For most years we start our annual September hunt in the far NE corner of the state in the Nicolet and cover probably 150 miles as we work our way west to the Chequamegon, only coming back home when our vacation time is up. It is not only about hunting but we take the canoe we carry and stop at a number of spots to do a little fishing too. We run into apple trees and have apple pie or find some blackberry bushes and Deb and Helen pick berries while Jim and I hunt. We hunt familiar trails and also try and explore new ones. We usually let the birds tell us when it is time to move. If there are no birds we move, if there are birds we stay and hunt a few more trails. There have been times when we have three different camp sites in one day.
This years abbreviated trip is planned to have only two stops. The first one will be close to where Donnie, Bill, and I hunted in 2004. It is not really a spot that has been good grouse hunting since 2004. but the reason for it is so Debby and Clay can fish for bass in a lake that we have caught a lot of fish in over the years, some over 20". I will hunt a couple of trails that go around the lake but unless I am surprised will probably see few grouse. The other stop will be the same campsite that the 4 of us stayed at last year. This is where the birds have been for the last couple of years and it is also where Jim and Helen are going to be.
This year our hunt with Jim and Helen is going to be a gift from the Lord. Jim did not feel good last year and could hardly hunt at all. Most of his hunts were short, with him many times turning back after only a mile or so because he couldn't go on. What we didn't know at that time, or even when Donnie, Bill, DD, and I hunted in October, was that Jim had pancreatic cancer. It was fortunate that it was caught early enough that he could have surgery. They ended up removing his gall bladder, splien, part of his stomach, part of his pancreas, and part of his small intestine. He did not know if he would survive the surgery or what even the short or long term survival would be. In fact, he had me make a special trip to his home prior to his surgery to ask me if he died if I would spread his ashes over some of his favorite grouse hunting spots across the state. Jim has spent most of the time since his November surgery recovering. He had a 14" surgical incision to heal and underwent chemotherapy over most of the summer, with it just ending in late July. So we are indeed blessed to be able to be with them another year. I guess being a former Navy Seal made him a "tough old bird" and he is still with us.
So I look forward to this year's hunt for primarily a couple of reasons, neither of which is how many birds I will bag. The first is to be able to share what we do with our grandson Clay, in hopes that this may be something that someday the two of us can do if I live that long. The second is to enjoy the company of Jim and Helen for yet another year. We will sit around the campfire and tell stories of the hunts of years past and thank the Lord that we have yet another year together.
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Post by Bill on Sept 14, 2007 8:02:55 GMT -5
Tom, Isn't all that you describe what a hunt is actually for. I didn't know that it was to mainly kill birds. Thats just part of the results of a hunt. What I'm going to miss the most this year is not how many birds I got but seeing Donnie again and spending time with him BS'en and finding out what he has done since I seen him last and how he is doing and all that. Thats what a hunt like that is all about. Short trip hunts are for going out and getting meat. Long distant hunts are for renewing old friendships.
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Post by deputydon on Sept 17, 2007 10:06:12 GMT -5
Tom, Isn't all that you describe what a hunt is actually for. I didn't know that it was to mainly kill birds. Thats just part of the results of a hunt. What I'm going to miss the most this year is not how many birds I got but seeing Donnie again and spending time with him BS'en and finding out what he has done since I seen him last and how he is doing and all that. Thats what a hunt like that is all about. Short trip hunts are for going out and getting meat. Long distant hunts are for renewing old friendships. Your right and wrong there Bill. Long distant hunts are always good for renewing friendships.... but the dove hunt Bounce and I do by sitting on the creek bank are always rewarding and we seldom kill doves. Also I look forward to EVERY Deer season when I get Bounces blind ready and hear a gunshot during deer season coming from Bounces direction. Soooo even the short distant trips can be rewarding and renew old friendships.
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Post by bullseye on Sept 17, 2007 10:50:43 GMT -5
Guys, I think we all start out hunting with bagging up towards the top of the prioroty list. As we age I think we start to realize that there are other things that are really more important, especially if we are successful. The relationships, the getting ready, the mentally remembering hunts of years gone by are some of the total enjoyment.
I know when we started this annual grouse hunt I had not really hunted them for over 20 years. I questioned my ability to even be able to hit one. Once I had bagged a few and my confidence was restored I was fine. I guess I just didn't want Jim LHAO as I tried and tried to shoot one.
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Post by Bill on Sept 17, 2007 23:36:36 GMT -5
That kind of reminds me of the guy that wanted to borrow shells from me as he was out and needed some more. I think he started the day with both pockets full. Seems he might of had a bird from all those shots but had a hell of a lot more tree's hit than birds. Thought he was going to cry when he found I was shooting a 20 ga. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Post by bullseye on Sept 18, 2007 6:14:05 GMT -5
With the exception of loading up some odds and ends and the food we are pretty much ready to go. I got the canoe loaded on the trailer last night and the guns into the truck. We got Clay a day early as our son-in-law's mother, Clay's other Grandma passed away yesterday unexpectedly. While there was some discussion if Clay would stay for the funeral or go with us, they finally decided to send him with us. They felt that not only would things be easier for them, they did not want to deal with him if they told him he wasn't going with us and he would have to stay home. We had a hard enough time letting him know we were not leaving last night and still had some packing to do.
The weather is not going to be normal grouse hunting weather. It is forcast for the daytime highs to be in the upper 70's, with Friday being the only day predicting a chance of rain. The nights will be down around 60 so it should be good sleeping weather and not too warm to light a camp fire. I guess we can leave the long underwear at home this year.
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Post by deputydon on Sept 18, 2007 7:58:00 GMT -5
That kind of reminds me of the guy that wanted to borrow shells from me as he was out and needed some more. I think he started the day with both pockets full. Seems he might of had a bird from all those shots but had a hell of a lot more tree's hit than birds. Thought he was going to cry when he found I was shooting a 20 ga. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Boy am I gald there's NOT a limit on "them green S.O.B.'s " or I'd have been in trouble.... NOW THERES A MEMORY FOR YOU !!!!!
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Post by Bill on Sept 18, 2007 9:21:39 GMT -5
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