Just wondering what any of you have found out hunting that you put to use. I found this Solingen knife around 1977-79 while hunting north of Seligman AZ. I was stationed there while working for Santa Fe Railroad. The handle was cracked and partly missing so my brother who was pretty handy put the black epoxy handle on it for me. I still use it hunting 40+ years later.

Bud I went to AK with in '92, who ended up staying there, found a skank in the woods once. He fugged her in a tent for a week and then married her. Turned out she was the biggest skank in Skankorage and she ruined his life. Not surprising, knowing him. He moved back to TX to be around all the old crew and promptly broke the bro code in a big way, so he got the Heisman from all of us.

Mark,

if you started in Seligman, and ended up in Alpine, you won the Arizona Olympics!

Sycamore

I found Jimmy Hoffa's wallet near the skeletal remains of some unknown dude.

I found a old knife, that must have been used to dress out a deer. It was so old it started to come apart, I just layed it back down in the woods and left it.

A little spindly Ironwood (American Hornbeam) tree that I use as a walking stick when hunting steep terrain.

Ron

Memories

8 point whitetail rack. Serves as a hat rack.

Knowledge of how and where the deer move in the area.

That the TWRA is like a number of other LE agencies and far more concerned with revenue generation than protecting landowner Rights.

I used that knowledge to change the TCA Code to make fence cutting and driving through crop land a Class E felony, took those actions out of TWRA's hands and put it in the purview of the Sheriff's Department.

Found a knife, gave it to a young hunter. Found a rangefinder archery model. Still have it but don't use it.

Sat on a fallen log over a logging trail for lunch last fall elk hunting, looked down and found a Gerber multi tool. Someone else had the same idea as me. His misfortune my fortune!

No, there was more than that, my migration around this state started in Eastern AZ towns of Morenci/Clifton and ranch/homestead in Alpine. Then working life took me on to Thatcher/Safford, Mesa, Flagstaff,/Williams for college, Seligman, Bagdad, Parker Dam (at the dam), Phoenix, back to my home in Alpine to help take care of elderly Mom who is now in assisted living in Eagar.

I was trout stream fishing with my Dad back in circa 1974-1975 when he found a knife along the creek and gave it to me. I was about a 12 year old kid at the time. It looked like it had been there a little while.

I have carried it in my hunting pack and used that knife for hunting for the last 45 plus years. It has helped gut and butcher I don’t know how many elk, antelope, mule deer, Coues whitetail deer, and javalina.

Maybe not the best knife I own, but he has been gone now for closing in on 20 years, and I think of him every time I use it. I cherish that knife.

I found a Case fixed blade knife one day while riding looking for cows. Found a big mule deer three point antler shed the other day looking for cattle. Just one side. Didn't pick it up as we were gathering. Might go back and get it. Also found a mule deer skull with three on one side and four on the other. Find horseshoes pretty often and an old motorcycle tire yesterday. Quite a few car tires. I could go on.

Found a Pulaski with a broken handle at a small lighting strike burn on top of a ridge in Siskiyou Conty. Found a small cruizing ax in a thicket of white fir in the same area. Found a very nice butter knife in the Devils Pocket. I still have and use all three items.

That, and meat.

My findings have absolutely nothing to do with future hunting.....only use here at our home!


About 20 years ago.....a wagon wheel steel outer rim and the wagon axle. It was placed among rocks as an accent to a raised flower bed on a 90 degree driveway turn in our yard! This past deer season, I found a dead, burn marked Juniper stump to join the wagon wheel axle and wheel rim as more accent!

That stump was a “biotch” to load and secure in the back of a Polaris Ranger......all by my lonesome! 😁 memtb

I just found a spotting scope along the roadside. Just sitting there on its tripod and all? What are the odds.

i found a metal coffee pot and metal cup hanging on a nail in a tree looking for cows on our family ranch along with a bunch of empty corked bottles on our ranch in south texas kinda a make ship camp
went back a week later and picked them up and found the old rock fire ring and some old 44 or 45 rimfire ammo scattered about
we have had out ranch since 1886 and no one knows who wouldve camped there

i use the coffee pot and cup in my deer stand to make coffee on my heater. there was a small rust hole in the pot but i drilled it out and put a rivet in it and it drips a little but makes a good cup of coffee

A few years ago I made a loop around the far corner
of my property where I have a tripod set up at a
junction of 2 trails. I guess I scared someone off
that had been trespassing and hunting out of my
tripod stand because I found their really nice cammo
cushion where they dropped it at a few yards from
the stand. I've found various spent shells/cases
of different types in different blinds and hunting spots
where people have trespassed and hunted and I
keep all those JIC the GW ever catches someone and
needs em for evidence

syntax, man, syntax. (did that coffepot and cup actually find any of those cows it was looking for?)

I don't do so bad at screwing up a sentence myself.

I can't recall ever finding anything while hunting that I still use, except as others have said, meat, head, hide, or antler/horn. The closest would be full curl Dall sheep horns, one of which I had carved into a diorama of sorts. I was hunting this dude after a scout 2 weeks before season. Wolves got him first. I was a bit bummed when the carver polished off the tooth marks at the tip.

Myself.

Yes, there is that, numerous times! it's a comfort zone, almost.

Just remembered. We broke one of a dome tent's poles during a storm one time. A couple weeks later I found it's replacement while walking on a local beach. Different color is all. Still use that tent on occasion, tho we have a better one now.

Man I found several climbing deer stands and a few chain on type and a ladder stand, I guess people just walked off and left them.......

30 years ago I was pulling in to Elk camp and propped up against a tree next to a fire pit was a nice 14" skillet. Still using it today. It's the one in the back in this pic.

That tree was just as far as that woman could chase her husband with it, before giving up...

Found an old Collins axe on the side of a dirt road a few months back. About got the head reconditioned, down to the sandpaper and whetstone stage. Still need to find the right piece of hickory.

A brand new sub zero mummy sleeping bag at the side of a rough road. Don't like mummy bags so gave it to son.

Once found a really nice homemade steel gambrel. I still use it.

Have found hundreds of hooks.bobbers.and assorted fishing lures while duck hunting

Walking along a trail in relatively deep snow and found a trail of Tupperware, silverware, pots, pans, and a few other things. Looked like someone got caught in a camp a ways from the road, tossed everything in the back of the truck and took off down the trail to get out of there before they got snowed in. I've seen it happen before and almost got caught myself a couple times... anyway, still use the tupperware at home and the silverware got tossed in the camp silverware holder for future use and the pots and pans went into the camping box....

Once out fishing I caught one of those folding knives we used to get for a couple bucks in stores that were shaped like a banana and about the same color scales. This one had a knife blade and a file with a fish hook disgorger on the end. Well, we were floating the river and had arranged a shuttle so when we got to the take out a couple days later, we went to get the truck/trailer to load the boat and we noticed a tire was wobbling. Jacked it up and realized the bearing had got hot and came apart during the shuttle drive which was about 65-70 miles... ran up to the only gas station in Maupin, Oregon about 5 minutes before they closed on that Sunday and found the last set of bearings that fit that axle and went back to the boat to replace it. Tried to get the old bearing pieces off the axle and realized they were not going to come off willingly and the spindle was scored so bad we wouldn't be able to get the new bearing on. After scratching my head a few times, I remembered the knife and whipped it out. Used that cheap file on the knife to clean up the scoring on the spindle and slipped the bearing on, assembled everything, and headed for home.... that darned file was one of the sharpest files I've ever used and it did a great job on that spindle... not sure I know where that knife is now...

Bob

Just this year after a season of cancer treatments and surgeries I found out while hunting my eyes and good binos can cover a lot more terrain than my feet.......

Found a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses on a rock at the top of a small hill while caribou hunting up in northern Canada.

The guide had said the area was "Un-hunted by white men"

Guess the Inuits liked Ray bans!

I have found nothing, my son found a 1911 pistol last year, but found the owner. My neighbor that took me out moose hunting this year, found a Wnchester Model 70 .270 Win, or .30-06 (I can't remember) two years ago in the parking area. He ran a notice on a local hunting Facebook post and no one ever claimed it. He said he's giving it to his son when he is old enough to hunt big game in a couple of years.

I did not find it hunting but in 1983 my wife and I served as short term missionaries at a parochial boarding school on a small island in the Caribbean. One of the first days there I was walking into the water on the ocean side of the island getting ready to go snorkeling for dinner when I looked down there was a Gerber LST resting on the see floor in about 3' of water. Grabbed it, took it home and carried it for years. It has now been sharpened so many times I have to be careful reaching for it in my pocket because the tip of the blade is now exposed.

House Handle Co.

Ask them to hand pick you one for grain orientation.

Buck 110 folder.....someone must have left it on his bumper after dressing out a deer.

More confidence that accepting the reality of God was the right thing for me to do.

Very cool

Any numbers or identifying marks indicating who made the pan?

Found about 10 pot plants

Oh yeahhhhh

Or got aggravated trying to put a sharp edge on it, and chunked it as far as they could throw...

Was hunting Oregon Starky unit in the 90's got out of the tent and saw a Blazer drive by our tent and off the roof slid a gun case.
The rifle was still in it.
One of the guys in our group said the blazer was in the wall tent down the road from us. We left it in there tent went hunting got a visit that evening guy thanked us for returning it.

TFF!

Have a skull story. NW Wyoming, way up Pacific Creek about 15 miles from the end of the Road is a great hunting spot called Colter's Meadow. Just South of YNP boundary. Ivan Schaefer went up there to hunt elk with his 2 buddies. Was early October of '96 as I recall. The other 2 left camp to hunt together but Ivan stayed behind by himself to hunt by camp. His buddies returned later to find Ivan gone. Couldn't find him so they packed out and reported him missing. Search parties tried but couldn't spot him anywhere. Area was completely burned out from the '88 Yellowstone fires. Easy to see a piece of orange cloth from a helicopter. Once snow covered the ground the search was halted.

Many years later an outfitter was leading a string of horses around the meadow. One horse kicked a round white object that was laying on the trail. He dismounted and picked it up. It was a human skull. He put it in a pack bag and turned it in to the Sherriff upon getting back to civilization. They checked the dental records and it was Ivan. Some critter found him and set him on the trail.

Thanks for that. Just ordered one, and a handle for a 4# sledge. Been looking online and having trouble finding the right eye size.

Late 70's deer hunt I climbed to the top of a ridge to a good look out spot and there on a rock was a leather case full of 8mm Mauser rounds and a well used Case hunting knife.
Once while duck hunting in the mid 90's I found a Leatherman engraved U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/16606951/1/lost-spotter

No markings anywhere on it that I could find.

About 5 or 6 years ago (maybe even a little more) my son and I were launching my bass boat at a local lake and he says dad I can see a flashlight in the water next to the dock. I gave him the net and he pulled out a XLR250 Kill Light. Nice light, works great.

Many years ago in SE Oklahoma I found a Mora knife laying in an old logging road. I used yesterday evening to field dress a yound buck I killed with my crossbow. On a hunt in 2001 in Southern Utah I walked out on a rock point to glass some country. A deadfall was convenient to sit on and I did so. Right where I chose to sit and between my feet was a fanny pack with a pair of gloves and a 10x42 Swarovski binocular. The bag, gloves a binos looked like they had endured a season on the ground. Sent binoculars back to Swarovski and they refurbished them to new conditon. I still carry use them every year. 40 years ago in an area North of Creede, Colorado I found an old ax head and the bail from a wooden bucket stuck in a tree below an old mine entrance. I left both on the tree.

I hooked a nylon anchor line bottom fishing about 20 miles off shore years ago. Turned out to be a 150 foot, half inch line with 6 feet of chain and a 14 lb Danforth Anchor. I still have the anchor, but never have had a boat big enough to require an anchor that size. I use it to take up space in my garage.

I find knowledge every time I'm in the woods. I use it every time I go into the woods. Which is often because it's right out my back yard.

I once found a Taurus semi-auto pistol in the wash under a water gap. It was pretty corroded but cleaned up decent and shot okay. Gave it to my son. Once found a car parked in a remote place on the ranch. It had been there a couple days. Driver had committed suicide. Either that or he knew some dirt on the Clintons and they suicided him.

Cost them something too.
Lol
#analvirginity

Well, that's just really weird after HC deleted his post.

Alpine is pretty close to the top of places to live in AZ in my book. Sounds like you were not afraid to move to get a better job. There's less and less of that in AZ these days.

During my brief stint with BLM in Ely, Nevada in 89 & 90, I was spending about a week out in the Duckwater area. I was on the job and not armed but that didn't keep me from scouting and exploring a lot. One morning I was up on the bench in the foothills of the mountain and came across a denim Levi jacket hanging in a small tree. It looked like it had been there for several months, at least...it was a nice one with heavy fleece lining and it fit me right, and obviously was well used. I still wear that jacket occasionally. I think about the sheep herder who likely left it there each time I put it on, and I think I probably should have left it there. He may have expected to find it next time he passed through.

I have one of those.

I had forgotten about this one.....but, it wasn’t my find.

About 17 years ago myself and 2 friends went Chukar hunting in the steep ridges and ravines across the Big Horn River behind my house. My friend found a old (ancient) Buffalo skull. It was in pretty rough shape, with a lot of it missing.......meaning in this extremely dry area it was likely pretty old. Though, a good portion of it was missing.....that was one heavy SOB. This are certainly does not look like Buffalo country.....I’d love to know the history about that old skull! memtb

@visalia6mm - https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/16606951/1

I would love to chat and see if you perhaps found mine. I was in Colorado, unit 15. I can provide exact details and photos of the one I lost and its location.

i found a nice little LL Bean steel thermos about 20 years ago that i still use. its a 2 cupper so it is perfect sized for carrying. there was a pair of gloves with it that i wore for years until they got ragged.

Someone is going to find my Osprey backpack and contents out on the prairie. I took it off crawling around an antelope herd yesterday evening and I couldn’t find the sonofabitch after it got dark. Had a couple cheap Mora knives, rope, my gloves, flashlight (of course) and some other stuff in it.