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Opening weekend Highs and Lows...

dblomberg4

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2018
Messages
285
Location
St. Paul, Mn
So I camped out on some state forest land Friday - Sunday and this is my short story about how the weekend trip played out, and... WHAT I CAME HOME WITH!!!

It's Friday the 13th full moon in beautiful view above my jeep as the evening sets in, sipping a whiskey taking a crappy photo of my camp sight in the moon light before I head to the tent to get rest before the openers morning hunt.

But let's back up... Thursday I picked up my bow which had to have new strings put on it as they partially broke while practicing in my back yard a few weeks before as well as a new arrow rest, (shout out to Vapor Trail Limb driver, I LOVE this arrow rest). I re-sighted my bow in at the shop at 20 yards and was stoked with my groups. Skip forward to after I just pulled up to my camping spot that I scouted and was thrilled that nobody else was there as a trail directly from it led to my preferred spot for opener morning. I decide to shoot a few arrows because I love shooting, and just wanted to double check everything was still on fine. Arrow 1 from 30 yards misses, high left. arrow 2 misses high left. (idiot...) i move into 20 and shoot a 3rd, it hits the target but still WELL high left. I spend the next 20 minutes or so re-sighting my bow in again, not sure what moved, but oh well. I wander around the high grass where i saw the arrows skip up and head and never find either of the first two.

I wake up saturday morning head out to hunt the spot I picked out, the sit goes well, I see what i thinks a 6 month fawn come into 20 yards at around 7 am, get a picture of her at about 40 yards and watch her mill around for 40 minutes. 10 am rolls around and a tall at least 4 point comes charging through the trail i'm set up on breathing heavily and not stopping, as it ran right underneith me as i hung in a sitdrag out of a tall pine tree. At this point i was wishing I had some video equipement to get that captured. The evening I decide to set up closer to where that fawn was spending most of her time more than 40 yards from where i was.

So evening sit's come i'm really enjoying my location but what i think is that same fawn comes in right under where i was sitting this morning. I watch it slowly wandeer in and out of the pine island i'm sitting in surrounded by a big thicket of young white oaks and scrub. As it closes in where i'm sitting and I get a good view of with my binoculars I re-assured myself it was a 6 month button buck. I take my phone out and get a few seconds of video of it prancing off and a crappy phone pic too. I head back to camp and get ready for a few libations, dinner and bed. while getting ready for bed my foot was itching a little bit didn't think much of it.

This is the beginning of the end...

Sunday morning i'm up at 5:30 getting dressed in my tent scratching my foot a bit when a small sedan backs in next to me. As I get out of my tent getting dressed this younger guy asks me where i'm hunting at. I vaguely point in the general direction of where i'm headed and he points in the direction where he says his stand is about 10 foot up not far from the camp. We exchange "pleasantries" and he heads out ahead of me by a few minutes. I get back out to the tree where i saw the button buck hoping to see more deer come through 8:30 am hits and it's no mistaking that i need to get out of this tree pretty quickly as nature is calling. I "quickly" and "quietly" get my ridge runner platform, and my 8 WE stepps off the tree getting to my last 3 stepps as i'm standing on the last one really trying not to do you know what before i got to the ground most of the stepps just crashed out of my bag, ( i think i need to look at @Murph4028 Kydex and magnet setup again after this...)

So, here i squatted to do the deed ruining my spot for the day buried my shame and decided i should scout for the rest of the morning in search of a new evening sit spot. Guess who's stand area, i completely walk through while still hunting / scouting. Yes it was the guy that pulled up next to me at 5:30 am, ( Sorry man, that was not my intention, as i'm sure he probably thought i did it on purpose).

So I head back to camp deciding this is a lost cause and to pack up grab lunch and hit a new spot on the way home. I grab a quick lunch pondering my ever itching foot and scout with OnX while eating lunch to find the best rough location not too far out of the way. I get there after lunch and it's super hilly terrain and i'm trying to skirt through a small pond and get up next to what looks like a bean field. takes me about an hour to get up next to the deep stuff and i get set up about 14 feet up in the only tree I can find where it seemed like a decent route from bedding to the beans. fast forward 45 minutes and my itching foot and the mosquitoes and lack of my thermacell and repellent i didn't sweat off getting in i was fed up and decided to pack it in. so I get to my jeep and am relieved to be taking my boots and socks off and let my feet breath a bit.

I sit here now typing this long winded story as the only thing I brought home from Archery Season opener is some darned poison ivy on my feet from taking a leak the night before opener in flip flops...

TLDR: Don't go out to pee or look for arrows in a new area in flip flops...
 
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Cheers to poison ivy. I'll probably get a rash just reading this. My family doesnt understand why I dont just stay out of the woods because I'll get it 3 or 4 times a year. But figure I'll either die from it or my body will get immune. Staying out of the woods isnt an option.

The guy on thp youtube channel got it all over his hind quarters doing the deed (#2) in north Dakota. Looked rough, cant imagine it in the "Grand Canyon".

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Thanks for the story! It always helps to know someone is going through what you are too. I also had a fawn- filled (not one single adult deer) unsuccessful opening weekend. Only I got chigger bites instead of poison ivy.
 
Cheers to poison ivy. I'll probably get a rash just reading this. My family doesnt understand why I dont just stay out of the woods because I'll get it 3 or 4 times a year. But figure I'll either die from it or my body will get immune. Staying out of the woods isnt an option.

The guy on thp youtube channel got it all over his hind quarters doing the deed (#2) in north Dakota. Looked rough, cant imagine it in the "Grand Canyon".

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I just saw that THP episode yesterday! I'm super HAPPY I didn' get it where he did! LOL
 
I stay in ticks, skeeters, chiggers, and poison ivy. Squirrel hunting the past three days has left me with a patch of ivy on my forearm (from bracing a rifle against a tree that had some on it) and skeeter bites all over my shoulder blades (hard to get bug spray there).

I feel your pain. Poison ivy never goes away down here.
 
I'm lucky enough that in about a month or two there wont' be any leaves up here and the ivy dies down over the winter. honestly i just want to pop all the blisters, LOL
The last few years I've given up and just itch the crap out of it. Scars be damned. It feels so good.

Sorry to derail your whole story onto poison ivy haha.

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That blazing hot shower water on Ivy though....feels so good!

I got it for the first time a year ago. 33yo now, I guess I have to start being cautious.
 
That blazing hot shower water on Ivy though....feels so good!

I got it for the first time a year ago. 33yo now, I guess I have to start being cautious.
I just turned 45 this month, this is my first time getting poison ivy. I like to think I know what to look for and avoid it at all costs... I'm just going to blame whiskey on this one... late night bad footwear choice.... leaves of 3... HAD to PEE.....
 
I knew fellas in the tree service years ago that swore by a product called Oral Ivy. They used it daily to prevent and reduce the effects of poison ivy. May be worth looking into for those of you effected by poison ivy!

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I knew fellas in the tree service years ago that swore by a product called Oral Ivy. They used it daily to prevent and reduce the effects of poison ivy. May be worth looking into for those of you effected by poison ivy!

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Thanks man, I'll have to look into that!
 
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