Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

You beat me to it CFT. Joe's Da Man among men at Chickenbuck this year!

Hows the road to chickenbuck? good luck all you hunters and be safe. Have a great trip Tom.

Oh, you mean the Beaver township turnpike?

PALACE IN THE POPPLE
By Gordon H. Heuer

It’s a smoky, raunchy bears’ nest
With an unswept, drafty floor.
And pillow ticking curtains
And knife scars on the door.
The smell of a pine knot fire
From a stove pipe that’s come loose
Mingles sweetly with the boot grease
And the Copenhagen snoose.

There are work worn .30-30’s
With battered, steel shod stocks,
And drying lines of long johns
And of steaming, pungent socks.
There’s a table for the Bloody Four
And their game of two-card draw,
And there’s deep and dreamless sleeping
On bunk ticks stuffed with straw.

Jerry and Jack stand by the stove,
Their gun talk loud and hot,
And Bogie has drawn a pair of kings
And is raking in the pot.
Frank’s been drafted again as cook
And is peeling some spuds for stew
While Bruce wanders by in baggy drawers
Reciting “Dan McGrew.”

No where on earth is fire so warm
Nor coffee so infernal,
No whiskers so stiff, jokes so rich,
Nor hope blooming so eternal.
A man can live for a solid week
In the same old underbritches
And walk like a man and spit when he wants
And scratch himself where he itches.

I tell you, boys, there’s no place else
Where I’d rather be, come fall,
Where I eat like a bear and sing like a wolf
And feel like I’m bull-pine tall,
In that raunchy cabin out in the bush
In the land of raven and loon,
With a tracking snow lying new on the ground
At the end of the Rutting Moon.

Good luck at deer camp boys!

cft

Good luck chickenbuckers!

Good luck to all MN hunters. Be safe.

Back from the Happy Hunting Grounds. Very quiet up in the Emily area. Very little shooting. Only two deeer that we heard of taken back in where we were. I'm showing my age. A deer ghosted in behind me yesterday and busted me. Don't know if it saw me or sniffed me, but the danged thing snorted for a couple minutes as it moved away. Saw it's tail twice, but no chance for a shot. I don't like getting fooled like that. Danged deer! Hope everyone is having a great hunt. Hoping to get out more on solo day trips as time permits. Good luck guys. Hope the 'Buckers are having a great time.

It was a busy opener morning at chickenbuck! For me as of shooting the first deer opener morning I jumped on a smaller yearling. I dropped it in its tracks. About 15 minutes later missy shot a buck with her dads pistol! I think it is the biggest buck taken out of camp chickenbuck! I cleaned my first deer with a little guidance! And loaded my first deer alone. But I finally broke my dry spell!

Well, there you have it ^^^^ Lol!

Had a wonderful hunt in the Black Hills. Easily seeing over 50 deer a day, 5-15 bucks a day, and some true big boys. I hit the peak chasing right on the money. Every group of does was being harassed a buck of some sort. At one point on Saturday evening I saw 24 does all being chased around by one rutted up 6pt.

Saturday morning the bigger boys were out and the does were running, literally sprinting. Every doe I saw was on a full blast all out run, and a buck was a few seconds to a few minutes behind her/them. Saturday two does came from a clearing running past me at 20 yds. I thought I should probably grab my rifle next to me and sure enough.... A buck was in hot pursuit. He hit my scent and stopped. I got the rifle on him, saw he was a big body, wider than the ears, and 8pts.

The M70 barked and he dropped at the shot. Win M70 fwt, 7x57 Mauser, 140gr Federal blue box.







Ryan swung over and helped me load it. He was out with his mom hunting the same area. We headed back to Ryan’s for some awesome cajun bacon and eggs, then got to cutting. Ryan capped the deer for the taxidermist, and we 1/4’d him and got it packaged for cool down and cooking!

I can’t thank Ryan and his family enough for all they’ve done for us in the last few weeks.

You can see on the first two pics he was a battler. His face is scared up and his ear was split it 2 spots. He must be a hockey player.

Some pics of the country.

Nice work on the deer Joe. It’s nice to break the ice, e the first on the board and break your slump! Congrats. Where where you sitting when you shot it?

Friday evening before opener our crew was Pam, myself, Missy, Taylor, Nathan, Corinn, Joey, two bloodhounds named copper and allis and the eener dog.

Saturday morning everyone was out to their stands well before sunrise. The forest was quiet overall, first distant shot was probably not until after 8 am. Very little shooting overall. I heard the .308 bark from Joey's direction at around 9. He had broke a 2 year dry spell and finally taken a deer with his tikka. At around 9am I was getting down from my stand to go and help Joey when I heard what sounded like a large hand gun fire a shot from the direction of where Pam and Missy were sitting (seperate stands, same area) Missy had been carrying her dad's scoped 454 in previous years so I thought there was a good chance it was her. I passed by Pam's stand first, she had not shot, she pointed in the direction of Missy's stand. I continued on and met Missy as she was climbing down from her stand. She confirmed that she had shot, we checked the shot sight and found hair but no blood. Tracked the direction where the buck had gone from the shot sight and still found no blood, no hair. damp fall forest grass, no snow, It was going to be a tough tracking job. We decided to go check on Joey and come back to this troubling effort afterwards.
Joe was watching over his deer when I got to him. A quick congratulations and then it was on to the task at hand. Joe had his beautiful Case fixed blade hunting knife with stacked leather handle and highly polished steel blade ready to take on his very first solo effort at field dressing. Conditions were perfect, It was cool but not super cold so there was really no temperature inspired haste, dad was full up on patience that morning and the knife was sharp. Joey did a great job, really clean field dress. The entire crew was there by the time he was half way into it, brothers, sister's, mom, dad, cousin, all offering comical guidance through the procedure. Joey's big sister actually grabbed a leg and took off with the drag down the trail heading back to the cabin. Joey of course joined her. The rest of us followed for a bit but as we approached the fork in the trail where we could split off, we went the direction of Missy's effort on her buck. Walking the trail I was scanning one side in particular that was heavy with tag alder, everyone was talking and laughing, suddenly I froze. I had locked eyes with Missy's down buck 30 yds off the trail in fairly heavy cover. My rifle was at my shoulder before I realized it. He was down but not on his side, he had all 4 legs under him, head was up, he was basically prone and facing us straight on. Things that were crossing my mind were "maybe this is a different deer, this is likely missy's deer, this deer is going to bolt at any second and we'll lose him in those heavy tag alders.." I remember asking "Missy, are you ok with this?" She said yes and Boom! I put one low in the neck inline with the vitals. We waited a bit as he laid over and became motionless. I went in to investigate, he was done. It was then that I saw his blood trail in to where he lay and the entrance wound in the rib cage from Missy's 454. It was her deer and she put a good shot on him, I really don't think he was getting up even without my finishing shot. There was quite the celebration at that point, 2 deer on opening morning and this one was taken with Missy's dad's handgun. Very special moment.
Again I offered direction as Missy too field dressed her own deer.

We hung them on the pole, had an excellent breakfast and continued with the remainder of our opener weekend with no more shots fired although there were a couple of sightings.

Great deer and beautiful pics Tom!

Thanks Dave. Put up some pics if you have em. That looks like a hellova big bodied buck!!

Great report.

Camp Isabella has one doe down.

More when I have better internet.

A funny size reference photo. I'm not a big guy but I'm 200 lbs, 5 '9.5". I wish we had a scale, pretty sure he went over 200.



The 2 successful opening morning hunters.



And here's the buck that Nate shot over at his girlfriend's family farm.

Tom we were happy to host you, glad we finally got to hunt again!

Congrats to Joe and Missy! I think about all you guys every opener while I'm wearing my chickenbuck hat.

Dave,

I would say that buck was well over 200#.

Funny Ryan mentioned Chickenbuck gear. The whole family was wearing it when we got to his place! love it!

Ryan, it was nice to hunt together again. If I now have my points set up correctly, we can do it more often. Maybe we can get Cale out with us?

"...dad was full up on patience that morning..." Priceless!

Well done CBJ, Missy and T! Dems some nice deers!

Sometimes full up, sometimes fresh out. lol

Congrats on a nice buck and taken with a grand old cartridge. Liked the pics, too, especially the log fixer-up building.