Buried Camp Equipment

[beginnerhunter]

Along those lines...sometimes I'll come across an obvious outfitter camp (meat poles, hitching posts, fire rings, sometimes with buried gear). Do they just set up camp and "hold" this area the entire season? If so, I can imagine them being pissed if I just showed up one day to hunt. Do they have special permits that give them exclusive rights to hunt certain areas?

 

[Gerald Martin]

Along those lines...sometimes I'll come across an obvious outfitter camp (meat poles, hitching posts, fire rings, sometimes with buried gear). Do they just set up camp and "hold" this area the entire season? If so, I can imagine them being pissed if I just showed up one day to hunt. Do they have special permits that give them exclusive rights to hunt certain areas?

They have special permits that allow them to and require them to camp in certain areas. They don’t have exclusive hunting rights to the area.

 

[mtmuley]

Years ago some friends of mine happened on a buried camp while bow hunting. They happened to sit down for a break right on top of it. They said otherwise, it would never have been discovered. It was fairly large and built into the landscape. Had bunks, canned food, sleeping bags and cooking stuff. And a shoebox full of pictures. Pictures I won't go into detail about. So after getting home my friend was talking about it at work. Another individual there was a Sheriffs Cadet and alerted authorities. They went back to the site and retrieved what they needed. Found the address of a person. Contacted them and ultimately determined the person that buried the camp was in prison in Colorado. For rape and murder. mtmuley

 

[Arctic_Snow_Seeker]

That sounds like one of elkchaser's bunkers!

Seasoned guy like @JohnCushman should know what your talking about. Wait no he’s a Newb...

 

[Dave N]

Seasoned guy like @JohnCushman should know what your talking about. Wait no he’s a Newb...

I would suggest treading lightly. Cush is well liked and respected around here.

 

[Arctic_Snow_Seeker]

I would suggest treading lightly. Cush is well liked and respected around here.

I know. One of the most experienced hunters I’ve came across.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Bow hunting up Burnt creek back in the early nineties we found a cache belonging to Dan and Don Nichols.

My cousin shared a few stories of these guys...... wow.

 

[Gellar]

When I went on my first backpack hunt I “cached” a few things a mile or two in that I didn’t think were as important anymore. They were all there just a few yards off the trail when I hiked back out.

 

[tarheel]

Hell, all I ever found was someone's firewood stash. My Dad, BIL and I were scraping off about 10 inches of snow so we could set up our tent in an aspen grove up North of Hayden and found enough cut and split firewood cached in a dug out pit to last us for several days but we opted to burn lodgepole for our campfire.

 

[Sytes]

I came across a slucebox and a couple hundred feet of 2" plastic pipe way back in at the head of a drainage in the Bighole a few years ago. Someone went to a lot of work getting it in there only to toss it on the ground and never come back to set it up and use it. Looked like it had been there for 20 years.

Never found a slucebox though found several runs of black pipe on the surface face-side of a drainage... Figured it was a grow operation. Hunting in the area. When I left after a few days, I reached the end of the FS road, confronted by a locked gate. I was peeved... Thought the Forest Service locked the road even though it was open on my map. It had a forest service lock on it so I figured they were too lazy to drive down to the end of the road and see if anyone was parked there before locking it for some unknown reason. Hiked a distance to a house... Owner of the house happened to be there. We busted the t-post and I was able to get out. He shared the area was being investigated by FS LEOs. When I called FS they said one of their trucks had been burglarized and a bunch of the locks stolen from inside. Anyone up region 2 Fish Creek might know of this from some 15 years ago. I imagine that guy had a cache somewhere in there.

 

[shb]

I found parts of a guys gun in Wyoming. Dug around a bit and found a couple more small parts then took off after some antelope with plans to return. That never happened and I kick myself regularly for not digging around more.

View attachment 130506

Have you had that looked at to see what it came off of?

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Smart folks cache water before a long hunt here in Az.,Could be a life saver.
Pack it in pack it out,been doing it for years. 〽

 

[LuketheDog]

I found a fresh cache stuffed up in a hollow tree, but a bear had been into it and everything was shredded, sleeping bag, canned food, tent. That dude was going to be bummed when he got up there to hunt...

 

[shb]

I have had it at a few gun shows and could never get the same answer twice, it does have “Grice”engraved on the side.

It could be something 40 yrs old, or 200 yrs old.


You should try the guys on the muzzleloader forum. They could probably have it sorted out pretty fast.


A lot of history went through WY.

Firearm Identification

Need help identifying an original, pre-1865 muzzleloading firearm? If you already know what it is, post in the appropriate forums.

www.muzzleloadingforum.com

 

[TheJason]

Bow hunting up Burnt creek back in the early nineties we found a cache belonging to Dan and Don Nichols.

Creepy bastards.

 

[Hem]

Creepy bastards.

You know, it was creepy . The supplies we found had been hanging in a tree for a few years. Some of the gear was really grimy from heavy use and not much care. The location was a spot where someone REALLY didnt want their stuff to be found...North facing timbered slope, downfall, very steep,....and the dreaded brush. Bulls loved it, right? Naturally I was at the age where you dived in to shit jungles like that. Note: funny how there aren't too many youtube videos of hunting elk in that kind of mess
I digress.
Anyway it all made sense to us. The Nichols had stuff stashed around the Peaks . Once they were on the run at one point they were breaking in to cabins in the Canyon for supplies. What we found was illogical to be associated with anyone else.

 

[shb]

I found parts of a guys gun in Wyoming. Dug around a bit and found a couple more small parts then took off after some antelope with plans to return. That never happened and I kick myself regularly for not digging around more.

View attachment 130506

Theres a chance that's a part of the early 1800's fur trade history.

Is there such a thing a Grice percussion lock?

Would it be 40 years old or 200?

www.muzzleloadingforum.com

 

[Wildabeest]

Speaking of sluices... Is it legal/ethical to “improve” a spring on public land using only natural materials from the area? For example, building a pool to collect runoff (and thus a nice watering hole) using stones and mud?

 

[COEngineer]

We found a bunch of trash (food wrappers, garbage bags, propane bottles, etc) one year about 3 miles in. We talked to some other hunters who knew the people that had left the trash during the previous year's rifle season - they said they just couldn't fit it on their horses and the snow was coming. We packed it all out on our backs.

The year after that we came back for archery season again and again found the place littered with trash. Then we stumbled on the buried cache of equipment (tent poles, pans, propane cans, etc) that they had covered with a tarp and half-heartedly buried. We were pretty pissed that they left so much trash (half the stuff in their cache was already rusted beyond use and was basically trash too).

That experience left me with a dim view of people caching stuff in the woods. There are lots of problems with caching:

1. It's illegal.
2. It's another form of claiming "your" spot (like tree stands and game cameras).
3. There's a fair chance that you (intentionally or unintentionally) won't go back and retrieve it, thus becoming trash.

So, I don't do it and I don't condone it.

 

[Jwill]

I found a cache of a few tarps, firewood, and a pit for toilet in a hard to find spot in the GWJNF this fall. Kind of a creepy spot. Reported it to the forest, but never heard anything back...