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

Ok I've got updates, but I'll break it up in a couple posts.

First the truck stuff.

It has been a "work in progress" and it remains a work in progress.

This was Dusty's truck in the 70's. He purchased it from a farmer in the Dakotas in the early 70's when it was still close to being new. (it's a 1970 model)

The farmer was afraid of the truck because it had a knock in the engine, Dusty drove it and decided he'd take a chance on the truck since it was such a good price for how new the truck was. He drove it home very carefully and decided to drop the oil pan from the engine before pulling the engine out of the truck. He found a main bearing cap bolt in the bottom of the oil pan. For whatever reason it had come loose and worked it's way out. He decided to just put the bolt back in and torque it, give it a try. That was all it took, the knock was gone and he had himself a heck of a good truck for little money. His uncle Bill needed a truck, Bill worked up in the woods logging. Dusty sold the truck to Bill and bill used the heck out of it. Some years later Dusty purchased the truck back from Bill. At this time the truck needed some work, rust had started eating the truck along with whatever mechanical things that needed repair. Dusty never liked the original tan color of the truck so he decided he'd paint it yellow with a white top.

This is a scanned photo from 1979.



That's how I remember the yellow pickup from when I was a kid.

Over the next 25 years from when this picture was taken the truck was used for all kinds of things, family vacations with a camper/topper on back, some truck pull off mischief, logging, snow plowing etc. Lot's of memories, lots of hard work and upwards of half a million miles later....

I heard of the truck coming up on auction and I knew it had a snow plow on it and that it would work well for me as Dusty was a mechanic his whole life and I knew the truck would be mechanically sound.

I asked Dusty's son Waylon if he was going to buy the old truck. He laughed and said something like "Hell no!!" I said ok then, would you bid on it for me? He bid it on Missy's card actually. He got the truck and we drove down to Dusty's house with a car trailer behind a 1 ton crew cab superduty truck.

When we got there to load the truck Dusty looks at the trailer and tow rig and says "I think you better put that diesel on the trailer, Yeller aint used to riding on no trailer."

Oh god we laughed!

For the simple fact that the diesel had more cab room for the family we decided to give yeller his first ride on a trailer.

We put the truck to use in winter months clearing snow at home, out on the frozen lake for ice fishing and out at the cabin too.


Yeller was rough, but still functioned mechanically.






The "Snow hammer" out on 5 mile reef, lake of the woods.



Time, salt and abusive work had taken it's tole.





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A couple years back I picked up a parts truck with no engine. It was a 1968 I believe, the grill would be different but the body panels would be the same as the 1970.

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I turned the boys loose on the parts truck "Take that truck apart" I told em.







They did a fine job and had a lot of fun doing it.

I wanted to keep Yeller's original cab but pretty much everything else would be replaced. Some of the blue parts needed patching so we "skin grafted" from the old yellow tin.







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Eventually we got the blue box on the truck and actually I think we used the truck for 2 winters like this.



In these past 3-4 weeks between hunting weekends we've been replacing cab corners, patching lower door areas & other minor patching that was needed to make the body solid again.








Finally we were ready for some paint prep.





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Cab in epoxy prime with the roof white.



The replacement wheels painted white.



some yellow..



first door logo...



I sprayed the matte finish clear Tursday night, we peeled all the tape, bolted the new wheels on, loaded the truck and drove it to camp with the paint still drying.





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Nate driving the truck home yesterday.

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Hey Missy, you should have checked the card in your trail camera yesterday.

Thats so cool Dave, looks like dusty had a huge smile! great job. are the stacks coming back to it as well? how was the hunt this weekend?

The boys saw some deer but no shots fired, fleeting moments, waving white tails etc.

We might put a set of stacks back on the truck some day.

Excellent!

Boy is he a swelled up bugger eh?

We saw more rut activity in the last 3 days than I've seen all season. The 'Sconny boys might be in for a heckova season.

Nooooooo!

My '55 has/had them from when my dad restored it in 1977. They're coming off as soon as I get to working on it. Maybe the first thing. Need to modernize that bugger...maybe even put brakes on it that stop the truck.

We had quite a crew over the weekend.



It was a lot of fun, I sat with this 12 year old hunter Saturday morning and evening.



Sadly, no deer were out "galavanting" by our hunting spot.

(that was our word for the day)

We also both had terrible belly growling issues which we think may have scared the deer off.

I took the wrapper off this doe and cobbed her up into quarters and straps to finish cutting at home.



Eener took a liking to deer fat, which we regretted horribly later last night



We had "lumber jack birds" begging for scraps as I was cutting.



Flying off with a big chunk of deer fat.



It's always sad to close up rifle season, especially with only one deer taken by the whole camp.

But we loved the company of family and good friends and we were especially thankful that Dusty was able to make it up all 3 weekends.

Muzzle loader season opens this coming weekend.

So yer saying you might have a set for sale?

I felt sadness that I haven't felt in a while when we left the woods on Sunday. I wanted more...I need more. I'm not muzz ldr hunting this year. I think I'll have to next year.


Me and Jack scouted on mid-day Saturday and I really like what we found on a new "walk-in" area in a recent clear cut. More deer sign than I've seen and we only looked for a few hours.

Sale...hell no. You can have em.

They're painted flat black so hopefully nobody see's em.

Great pics, Dave. 'Love the "Jacks". They always seem to find me every year. 'Can't count how many sandwiches and snacks I've shared with the "camp robbers" or Whiskey Jacks as we call them. The only problem is, once you give them the least little tidbit, you're stuck with 'em all day weather you want them around or not. I don't mind-it breaks up the long spells of nothing going on while on stand.

Dave,

You never cease to amaze. Good on you my friend.

Great pictures, Dave!

Looks like your dog really enjoyed that fat!

Tom you should come up for black powder.

Heck, half your stuff is already up here lol!

There's a nice heavy brown sleeping bag in the boys room, we figured that was maybe yours too??

Thats what i say too Tom. come on up and enjoy the weather. i will be making it out to tour the camp this weekend. i can finally get more into hunting. had the boy out last night to get his first deer! what fun that was. 2 out of my 3 kids got there first deer this year. my youngest he was feeling somewhat left out so my daughter walked him out to a stand yesterday so he could have his luck with a deer call. said he got a doe and fawn to come out too. now that the pressure is off i can have more fun muzzleloading.

Wow congrats on the kid deer stuff, that's great.