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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 392
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OP
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 392 |
We ask the question, of "how this?," or "why this?," all the time. I would love to hear stories on mistakes that lead us to all these conclusions. Sometimes the best learning experiences are our mistakes.
I will start off with one from this past season. I changed pads halfway through my hunting season, from an Alps Mountaineering to a Thermarest. My Dad was coming with me, and I needed two. Of course being the gentleman that I am, I got the new one.
I have a habit of cooking seated on my pad in the tent. With the AM pad there is a layer that stops you from sliding all over, and it also works well for a level surface to set hot water on in the pot. The new air pad, not so much. I forgot that it did not have the top on it and poof!
Lesson learned, be very careful with heated objects around the air mats.
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 228
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Campfire Member
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 228 |
I was backpack hunting with my bro up at timberline last year and ran into some other hunters that killed a bear... I learned not to eat undercooked bear meat..We all got Trichinosis from it, it almost killed me (respiratory paralysis)....I'll never eat bear again..
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 392
Campfire Member
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OP
Campfire Member
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 392 |
I was backpack hunting with my bro up at timberline last year and ran into some other hunters that killed a bear... I learned not to eat undercooked bear meat..We all got Trichinosis from it, it almost killed me (respiratory paralysis)....I'll never eat bear again.. That is brutal! Haven't eaten bear yet, but that doesn't encourage me to.
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 581
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 581 |
During archery season dont leave your sidearm at camp, no matter how heavy it is.
I only did this twice in a 20 year span and as luck would have it, I ran into a bear both times, the second one got the point across REAL well, it was a grizzly at 15 feet.
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." - Abraham Lincoln, the Rail Splitter from Illinois.
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 431
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Campfire Member
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 431 |
During archery season dont leave your sidearm at camp, no matter how heavy it is.
I only did this twice in a 20 year span and as luck would have it, I ran into a bear both times, the second one got the point across REAL well, it was a grizzly at 15 feet. +1. My exact reasoning was "it's too heavy and I'm just too tired to carry anything extra today". My first mountain lion experience. We were told that we'd never see a lion and the black bear would be scared of us, so we werent too worried about it. In fact a gentlemen who we talked to later said that he had hunted the area for 20 years and he'd never ran across one in there. We walked up a steep ridge and when we got to the top, there was a mountain lion 20 yards away staring at us. After a brief "holy chit!" moment, I slowly reached for my pistol, which then I remembered was nicely tucked away in the tent. The nice lion turned and trotted off thankfully. I'll never leave my sidearm again. It all happened quickly, but we stood there for ten minutes afterwards replaying the situation not believing what just happened.
What happens when you get scared half to death...twice?
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 581
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 581 |
Another one, dont wait until the first week of october in the Sawtooth wilderness to test out your gear, crappy tents at 8000' feet are not fun to deal with when it starts snowing.
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." - Abraham Lincoln, the Rail Splitter from Illinois.
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 2,327
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 2,327 |
Don't butcher your deer in the field, put in game bags, put game bags in PLASTIC bags to keep pack clean, then seal it all tightly while hiking out, then load closed pack in car and drive home...
...without first cooling the meat and/or taking the meat out of the pack upon arrival at the car.
I now keep a cooler in the car when hunting. Also probably a good idea to bypass the plastic bag and just wash the pack out later, especially if it's warm. Don't seal up that heat!
Gloria In Excelsis Deo!As far as gear goes.. The poorer (or cheaper) you are, the tougher you need to be. gpopecustomknives.com
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 2,327
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 2,327 |
Another one, dont wait until the first week of october in the Sawtooth wilderness to test out your gear, crappy tents at 8000' feet are not fun to deal with when it starts snowing. Gonna take this to heart! Hope to try out a Golite SL3 in that region this Fall. Hope it's up to the task.
Gloria In Excelsis Deo!As far as gear goes.. The poorer (or cheaper) you are, the tougher you need to be. gpopecustomknives.com
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 904
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Campfire Regular
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Posts: 904 |
do not leave your gear outside and go to sleep. you might wake up and have a foot of snow.
to go along with this take your water inside and put it under something to keep it from freezing solid.
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 792
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2008
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Do not take off your boots to cross a freezing cold river thats running high from spring run off and get to the other side to then realize you left your boots back on the other side of the river. So you have to go back accross to get your boots then accross again, making that crossing number three.
Point of the story? Double check to make sure you have all your gear before setting out to cross a river.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 6,981 Likes: 2
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 6,981 Likes: 2 |
When you are field dressing an animal and making that little slit up the belly towards the sternum, don't use your fingers to guide the blade of your knife. I stopped a friend from doing that when he was dressing out an antelope. Three weeks later he was dressing out an elk and I wasn't there. He cut his finger to the bone.
Don't leave lubricant in your rifle bolt in super cold temperatures. Otherwise it will freeze the firing pin inside the bolt and it won't strike the primer hard enough to fire the bullet. All you will get is a click. For the same reason, if your rifle gets wet make sure you dry out the bolt real good.
KC
Wind in my hair, Sun on my face, I gazed at the wide open spaces, And I was at home.
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 1,604
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 1,604 |
Developed camp sites are not always good campsites. I chose where people had been camping one time on BLM before it tarted raining / sleeting and then snowing. It was horrible. There were good camp sites within 100 ft. I later looked at it and said no matter what tent I had it was a bad spot so why did so many choose it ? The view was better.
Sometimes when butchering and animal it's just best to get it quartered with hide on and get to a better cleaner spot nearby. Between two giant logs and under a tree isn't a place to get fancy.
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Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 5,731
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Joined: Nov 2005
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Don't try to crap in bibs. Spend the time and take them off first. All you have to do is land a turd in them once, and pull them back on to get the idea you should never do it again.
"I didn't get the sophisticated gene in this family. I started the sophisticated gene in this family." Willie Robertson
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Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 431
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Campfire Member
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 431 |
All you have to do is land a turd in them once, and pull them back on to get the idea you should never do it again. That's not completely true...took me twice
What happens when you get scared half to death...twice?
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 904
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 904 |
**** there went another keyboard
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 1,853
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 1,853 |
Don't try to crap in bibs. Spend the time and take them off first. All you have to do is land a turd in them once, and pull them back on to get the idea you should never do it again. same thing goes for a dufold union suit. the escape hatch is never big enough.
My idea of being organic is taking a dump in the woods.
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 2,327
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 2,327 |
Don't try to crap in bibs. Spend the time and take them off first. All you have to do is land a turd in them once, and pull them back on to get the idea you should never do it again. same thing goes for a dufold union suit. the escape hatch is never big enough. I swore off the union suits decades ago after an early trout fishing trip with snow on the ground. Didn't want to "get nekkid" to take a crap and try as I might just couldn't maneuver. Time ran out as things reached critical mass, if you know what I mean. In a panic I pulled out my knife and, well, made the escape hatch "more useable". They weren't much use for anything other than dust rags after that. Never wore another union suit. Sad, they were a nice red color too.
Last edited by snubbie; 03/08/12.
Gloria In Excelsis Deo!As far as gear goes.. The poorer (or cheaper) you are, the tougher you need to be. gpopecustomknives.com
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 228
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
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Posts: 228 |
Don't wear non hiking shoes in the car ride to the trail head and expect to put on your hikers when you get there...If you do, make sure you didn't leave them at home...4 hours away..
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 6,981 Likes: 2
Campfire Tracker
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Joined: Mar 2001
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When fly in a bush plane 100 miles into the Alaskan bush, don't leave your rifle sling in the pilot's office.
KC
Wind in my hair, Sun on my face, I gazed at the wide open spaces, And I was at home.
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 733
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 733 |
Never leave your backpack behind.
It costed me my Dall sheep ram two years ago.
Never again.
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