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Hunting thread

Thats awesome!!! I'll hunt pheasant one day, it's on my bucket list.
It's a great sport. When I lived up north, it was a big part of my life. We'd hunt 2 states at least 3 days a week for 3 months, every year, year in year out for over 20 years. I used to hunt big game with bow and rifle, but all that faded away once I got serious about chasing ring necks. No pheasants in these parts though, so I've pretty much stopped hunting. I could hunt deer on my property, but chose not to.

Trained a lot of Springers over the years. I have a 12ga Browning O/U Sporting Clays gun for pheasants.

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Life changes
I grew up hunting. My Dad took us out of elementary school to go deer hunting. As a young man fall foliage meant "it was time to kill something." I hunted all over the West with my Dad and brothers for decades back when out of state permits were easy to get. Then I became middle aged and did not work as hard. I was not so determined to shoot anything. I got to be 60 something, I started to be glad when I didn't have an animal on the ground and had to carry it out on some steep mountain side in the dark. I had a heart attack and now I don't hunt at all. I don't really miss it.
 
I still hunt as much as I can although being a disabled VET I've slowed down a lot with age these days. I still do what I can to get out whenever possible. I love deer and turkey hunting and have killed my share over the years.
 
Life changes
I grew up hunting. My Dad took us out of elementary school to go deer hunting. As a young man fall foliage meant "it was time to kill something." I hunted all over the West with my Dad and brothers for decades back when out of state permits were easy to get. Then I became middle aged and did not work as hard. I was not so determined to shoot anything. I got to be 60 something, I started to be glad when I didn't have an animal on the ground and had to carry it out on some steep mountain side in the dark. I had a heart attack and now I don't hunt at all. I don't really miss it.

Growing up in my blue collar family meant game was food on the table that didn't have to be bought. It wasn't expensive to hunt in WI in the 60's and 70's and game was abundant. Sure there's sport in the hunt itself, the stalk, etc. but it's as much if not more the comradery and harvest as it is "killing something." I don't hunt anything I don't eat, except those damn varmints that tear up my backyard and birdfeeders, I leave those for the neighborhood fox.
 
I like to do bird hunting road trips with my dog for up to two weeks at a time. Often covering two or three states. It is one of the reasons I went with a power wagon. I end up in some really rugged remote areas some times.
This is Dash. I helped him earn a AKC pointer title, HRC retriever title, and maximum score NAVHDA natural ability title. A rare occurrence as they say you only have one great dog in a lifetime, but out of several hunting dogs I have owned and trained he actually was my 2nd "lifetime dog".
Sadly I lost Dash to a splenic mass last June and still grieving over him. Currently in search of a new puppy and then after a few more months, another.

First one is in the CO sage desert.
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2nd one was during his last year here in Texas.
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I like to do bird hunting road trips with my dog for up to two weeks at a time. Often covering two or three states. It is one of the reasons I went with a power wagon. I end up in some really rugged remote areas some times.
This is Dash. I helped him earn a AKC pointer title, HRC retriever title, and maximum score NAVHDA natural ability title. A rare occurrence as they say you only have one great dog in a lifetime, but out of several hunting dogs I have owned and trained he actually was my 2nd "lifetime dog".
Sadly I lost Dash to a splenic mass last June and still grieving over him. Currently in search of a new puppy and then after a few more months, another.

First one is in the CO sage desert.
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2nd one was during his last year here in Texas.
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SW CO?
 
Bird hunting is a genteel sport perfect for older guys. I used to hunt chukkars in Nevada, but it turned into killing them for revenge. Their famous trick is to run uphill into steep rock piles and then fly downhill close to the ground. I would hunt pheasants if I lived in the right country and had friends with bird dogs. Big game hunting now seems like a lot of work. I would enjoy cooking in a hunting camp. Elk camps are the ones I miss the most, especially with horse and mule support.
 
I grew up doing a lot of goose hunting, and some incidental ducks and upland birds. We also had an annual elk camp. The only thing we do now is the same elk camp. Camp has varied over the years but now it’s just my dad, my brother, and I. I usually get 2 weeks in the woods, which is what I spend the other 50 weeks thinking about :D

Of my there daughters only the middle one has the hunting bug. She’s gotten 2 cow elk and a deer, and she’s just 14. She helps clean, pack, and process too. The other two girls will do a little grouse hunting, but that’s about it BA1F5EB6-5A4D-4EB6-8B7D-4F57C44A1614.jpeg1ACBF807-507E-4B23-BFE1-57C2305EA48D.jpeg2FB0F0FB-00DC-4E70-A84F-622C509C1AD3.jpeg949D0E22-F92D-4438-ADE3-46A3CA15E4B2.jpegAFE359B3-A1D9-46C5-B9F8-DF6722297390.jpeg
 
The picture with the sage grouse was from near Walden. The road trip that was from started with Dove in west Texas, then Dove in the panhandle, Blue Grouse out of Southfork, Sharp tailed south of Steamboat, Sage grouse near Walden, then Prairie Chicken, Dove, and Teal in Western Kansas, and home. All public lands and very loosely planned though I do sometimes network online and hunt with others at some stops. I also own large decoy spreads and do combination Goose, Duck, Pheasant, and Quail road trips that take me across OK and KS. Once I get the new dogs and train them, I will do one in the power wagon for up to a month long that will take me as far as Montana. This was Blaze. She lived to 16 and left me a few months before Dash.

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The picture with the sage grouse was from near Walden. The road trip that was from started with Dove in west Texas, then Dove in the panhandle, Blue Grouse out of Southfork, Sharp tailed south of Steamboat, Sage grouse near Walden, then Prairie Chicken, Dove, and Teal in Western Kansas, and home. All public lands and very loosely planned though I do sometimes network online and hunt with others at some stops. I also own large decoy spreads and do combination Goose, Duck, Pheasant, and Quail road trips that take me across OK and KS. Once I get the new dogs and train them, I will do one in the power wagon for up to a month long that will take me as far as Montana. This was Blaze. She lived to 16 and left me a few months before Dash.

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That explains my confusion. I thought I had seen a post you hunted SW CO but that pic and your mention of sage made my mind go to Waldon.

I hunted Elk up in that area for 8 years up until 3 years ago when I switched teams (post #1). Every area has a Bull mountain, Elk Mountain, etc. so I won't mention those (closer to Gould), but few have Johnny Moore which I have hiked up and down from both ends more times than I care to think about. We've also hunted in the Zirkels and pretty much all over GMU 6/7/16/17/161/171 (tag covers that many GMU) from Gould up to the WY border.

Sorry about your pups, sounds like you got a lot of good years of hunting and friendship from them.
 
Pigs are the worst. Every state that has em should publish wild pork cook books.
 
I'm ready for <100°
I hear ya. The heat wave and drought has been brutal. Where I will be it will be in the low 70s in the am and with no rain, the birds should be concentrated coming to water. That is if the tanks are not completely dried up. Then when the temps get back into the 100s I will spend the rest of the day in the AC or driving around in the truck checking on stuff.
 
My dove hunts typically consist of more shenanigans than actually shooting birdees.
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Went with a friend today to do some last minute scouting for his upcoming black powder Moose hunt starting Sep 9.

Hiked in and saw tons of sign all around his chosen area. Superhighway game trails. Moose, Elk, Deer, (and bear) scat and fresh track for both Moose and Elk. He's taken Elk in there before and knows the area pretty well.

Drove the ATV's farther in and he wanted to see if we could get all the way down to Eldora as he'd been unable to in his old RamCharger last he tried. This is the view of Eldora from the trail. We made it down to the town and back out. He managed to throw himself off at one obstacle, thankfully, the rig didn't roll on top of him. Could have ruined everyone's day.

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