Looks great! Little full… Lotta sap…

[rtraverdavis]

(Annual Hunt Talk Christmas Tree Thread)

We set out for new hunting grounds this morning. As usual, it was a sh*t show. Daughter wore her slip-on Vans instead of snow boots, son had to take a dump twice while we were out and lost his hat, I had to dig two holes in the frozen ground and find the missing hat, carrying a tree through deadfall… The usual. But we found a good one.

Post up yours!

 

[Derek44]

Laced em up tight and went deep. Apparently not deep enough and the good ones were either still way high or on private.

 

[Derek44]

Pretty sure it was an old warrior and regressing though. Probably wouldn’t have made the winter

 

[rtraverdavis]

Pretty sure it was an old warrior and regressing though. Probably wouldn’t have made the winter

Damn! Can’t believe you got him. Buddy of mine has trail camera photos of him going back 135 years. In his prime he was known widely by the name Donk McBuckchuckle. But you probably already knew that.

Huge congrats. A true legend.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

What was the hanging weight, can we be honest?

View attachment 303440Laced em up tight and went deep. Apparently not deep enough and the good ones were either still way high or on private.

 

[seeth07]

(Annual Hunt Talk Christmas Tree Thread)

We set out for new hunting grounds this morning. As usual, it was a sh*t show. Daughter wore her slip-on Vans instead of snow boots, son had to take a dump twice while we were out and lost his hat, I had to dig two holes in the frozen ground and find the missing hat, carrying a tree through deadfall… The usual. But we found a good one.

View attachment 303425

View attachment 303426

Post up yours!

How did that wind indicator you were packing work out? Get a good downwind approach setup for the right view to make sure he was a chopper?

 

[Nameless Range]

When it comes to trees, I am a road-hunter through and through.

Switched it up and cut a Subalpine fir this year. With the lack of snow we were able to get up into country west of us that we typically don’t.

In his book, “The Beast God Forgot To Invent”, on Christmas Trees, Jim Harrison wrote:

“There are no perfect trees anymore than there are perfect human beings.”

Same goes for family pictures, but maybe not afternoons.

 

[rtraverdavis]

How did that wind indicator you were packing work out? Get a good downwind approach setup for the right view to make sure he was a chopper?

That’s cocaine.

 

[Hem]

Good Elkhorn tree and my favorite decoration.

 

[Derek44]

What was the hanging weight, can we be honest?

Haven’t got the scale slips back yet but they told me it was the biggest one they’ve scaled. Probably like 2400mbf. It was a brutal pack out.

 

[Northwoods]

(Annual Hunt Talk Christmas Tree Thread)

We set out for new hunting grounds this morning. As usual, it was a sh*t show. Daughter wore her slip-on Vans instead of snow boots, son had to take a dump twice while we were out and lost his hat, I had to dig two holes in the frozen ground and find the missing hat, carrying a tree through deadfall… The usual. But we found a good one.

View attachment 303425

View attachment 303426

Post up yours!

You’re a wise man for dragging the whole family out there. I do the same. Then everyone is responsible for the tree that was selected. Plus there are only so many family Christmas tree adventures in a lifetime.

 

[Dave N]

View attachment 303440Laced em up tight and went deep. Apparently not deep enough and the good ones were either still way high or on private.

Good grief!

 

[Northwoods]

We went and got our tree on Thanksgiving morning before I went to work. Balsam fur, looks to be a 9 year old that I passed on last fall. I put it in the house today but won’t do any of the final trimming unsupervised. In my wife’s defense I did turn a tree into a perfect rectangle one year.

 

[FI460]

(Annual Hunt Talk Christmas Tree Thread)

We set out for new hunting grounds this morning. As usual, it was a sh*t show. Daughter wore her slip-on Vans instead of snow boots, son had to take a dump twice while we were out and lost his hat, I had to dig two holes in the frozen ground and find the missing hat, carrying a tree through deadfall… The usual. But we found a good one.

View attachment 303425

View attachment 303426

Post up yours!

I see you brought the bloodhound out. Smart decision. These things can be tough to track.

We didn't make it out opening weekend. Hopefully we get into some booners on Saturday.

 

[NEWHunter]

Got a decent one. Not gonna lie though, shanked this one on private this year. The outfit doesn’t charge for access - only a trophy fee which was kinda nice. We were looking for a more mature representative of the species, but after covering everything we had permission on we just couldn’t turn one up. Lots of non typicals on this place which made for an interesting hunt. We settled on this guy.



Some of you are probably looking at this picture, thinking the kids are bit young and wondering if this was safe or should it even be legal. Well, they are young, safety is relative, and legality - YMMV. I did pretty much all the work. They just had to make the call on the one they wanted to take home. We probably didn’t even walk a mile. Once the decision was made though, it was dead right there. Rolled once and that was it. Honestly, I did it mostly for my ego and the gram.

I did do the mounting myself though. Still need to put the finishing touches on, but looking good so far. PM me if you’d like the name of the place. It’s a decent option if you didn’t draw this year.



Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

 

[Derek44]

Got a decent one. Not gonna lie though, shanked this one on private this year. The outfit doesn’t charge for access - only a trophy fee which was kinda nice. We were looking for a more mature representative of the species, but after covering everything we had permission on we just couldn’t turn one up. Lots of non typicals on this place which made for an interesting hunt. We settled on this guy.

View attachment 303523

Some of you are probably looking at this picture, thinking the kids are bit young and wondering if this was safe or should it even be legal. Well, they are young, safety is relative, and legality - YMMV. I did pretty much all the work. They just had to make the call on the one they wanted to take home. We probably didn’t even walk a mile. Once the decision was made though, it was dead right there. Rolled once and that was it. Honestly, I did it mostly for my ego and the gram.

I did do the mounting myself though. Still need to put the finishing touches on, but looking good so far. PM me if you’d like the name of the place. It’s a decent option if you didn’t draw this year.

View attachment 303524

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

High fence???

 

[Nick87]

What sort of saw "system" were you "running" in order to smoke such an old warrior?

 

[NEWHunter]

High fence???

No. Not even a low fence. Strictly fair chase, but they do supplemental feeding at this place. I don’t really see the difference between that and what they do in Jackson Hole. I’m sure some of the public land purists on here would still consider how we chose to hunt as cheating though. I wouldn’t, given how much competition there was - way worse than any similar hunt on national forest around here.

 

[Doublecluck]

Trophy 9’er yesterday. All public land.

If you look closely to the right they even killed the babies. The horror! Savages!






#makita #diabloblades

 

[ismith]

What sort of saw "system" were you "running" in order to smoke such an old warrior?

What “saw” are you “running” actually makes sense.