Hunting hazards

[diamond hitch]

Since the bark beatles killed our country, hunting has gotten to be a risky sport. As you stroll through the woods a little breeze picks up. Suddenly trees start crashing to the ground around you. This tends to make me as nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

I noted a couple of years ago that when the wind picked up there were shots being fired but there wasn't an echo and they appeared to be of a small caliber. It finally dawned on me that it was the last vestage of root breaking followed by lodgepoles crashing to the ground. Now they are geting to just fall with very little sound.

The elk aren't stupid and have adjusted to the conditions. I find them more often in the second growth of clearcuts from the 80s or in the fir thickets on the north sides. Some of my drainages are getting so bad that I struggle to find a safe place to tie up my horses for the day while I hunt on foot. You almost have to hunt in pairs to have enough eyes on the trees for safety. I ran into a hunter last year from Helena that had found a cow elk that had been killed by a falling lodgepole.

Two years ago I was falling trees in a patch that had died in hopes of expanding my hay field. As I progressed on a panel the conditions must have changed as I stepped back to let my tree fall safely, one chose to execute revenge on me and struck me from behind. Five stitches later I had gained proper respect for the conditions nature has provided.

Be carefull out there folks!!

 

[CUElk]

Good post. First thing I do when scoping out a camping spot or a spot to take a break is look up for dead trees. My old hunting partner and I called em "widow makers".

 

[wytex]

Yep, it's pretty unnerving to have a tree near by fall without warning . Some times the only sound is when it hits the ground, too late by then.
I try to navigate around those stands of widow makers now.

 

[windymtnman]

Since the bark beatles killed our country, hunting has gotten to be a risky sport. As you stroll through the woods a little breeze picks up. Suddenly trees start crashing to the ground around you. This tends to make me as nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

I noted a couple of years ago that when the wind picked up there were shots being fired but there wasn't an echo and they appeared to be of a small caliber. It finally dawned on me that it was the last vestage of root breaking followed by lodgepoles crashing to the ground. Now they are geting to just fall with very little sound.

The elk aren't stupid and have adjusted to the conditions. I find them more often in the second growth of clearcuts from the 80s or in the fir thickets on the north sides. Some of my drainages are getting so bad that I struggle to find a safe place to tie up my horses for the day while I hunt on foot. You almost have to hunt in pairs to have enough eyes on the trees for safety. I ran into a hunter last year from Helena that had found a cow elk that had been killed by a falling lodgepole.

Two years ago I was falling trees in a patch that had died in hopes of expanding my hay field. As I progressed on a panel the conditions must have changed as I stepped back to let my tree fall safely, one chose to execute revenge on me and struck me from behind. Five stitches later I had gained proper respect for the conditions nature has provided.

Be carefull out there folks!!

As long as you mentioned having horses, here's the scenario I've had with my "boys" in dead timber. I baja through dead timber leading my horses and mule that are trailing single file. When I step between two trees, my horse bumps a tree with his side, and the tree then falls on the 2nd or 3rd pack animal. It doesn't take much imagination to envision what could happen next when the horse/mule that the tree either fell on, or it saw that tree coming down and charges forward. (You're about to get run over). Actually, this has happened to me multiple times, and I've had my boys take a tree on their backs and just stand there! One gets a whole lot more respect for that animal when they don't explode, and you calmly lift the tree off of them! But, it could go infinitely bad and make for an unpleasant memoir.