EXTREME

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Jackson Marsh
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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:53 pm

Yeah a lot of times there are trails I take in a roundabout way that ups the mileage...because it's easy walking at first.

I'm still looking for the overlooked close to parking lot spots, I just suck at finding them :lol:

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James
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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby James » Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:57 pm

Jackson Marsh wrote:I'm still looking for the overlooked close to parking lot spots, I just suck at finding them :lol:


I've found 1 reliable one myself. In 2009 I had a buck pegged bedding very close to the road but he was bumped by hunters scouting preseason in September. I believe that I still killed that same buck much further back that year.
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john1984
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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby john1984 » Thu Oct 06, 2016 4:05 pm

I do wonder about these so called 3+ mile hikes. 2 years ago I rented a bear bait site and the guide said it was a 2 mile hike one way. I brought my GPS and it turned out to be an easy 0.7 mile walk. If you measure a straight one mile line on an Ariel map well a mile is fairly long, especially if non of its on a trail.

Anyways I'm not too extreme. I did a ton of walking in the marshy forest last few gun seasons trying to push something for thee old man, my jeans were soaked from the waist down thee entire day, I started getting leg cramps way out in the cold marsh and I was a little worried cuz I couldn't walk, but I sat down for awhile and legs felt better.

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matt1336
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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby matt1336 » Thu Oct 06, 2016 4:22 pm

I remember being in the marsh seriously contemplating if I needed to find high ground, make a fire and stay the night. Legs so tired not being sure if you can make it out. Thick thick cats with nut deep...sometimes deeper water and muck. Legs go through a bog/cats and your feet don't touch bottom. When I think about it- I've really put myself in dangerous situations. No deer is worth that.

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olivertractor
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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby olivertractor » Thu Oct 06, 2016 5:06 pm

Late season sits with frozen hands and feet, than having to slip on the junk waiters to cross the chest deep River thru the alders, cause got too much water a lot of the years, it's why I don't have a lot of feeling in my hands now and battle with keeping them warm to this day. I remember many times not feeling my feet until got home 1-2 hours later. Very stupid when I look back, very lucky I still have use!

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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby grydsrt » Thu Oct 06, 2016 7:38 pm

The parking area was 1.1 miles away from the area in which I killed my biggest deer to date. The area is located on a military base in Kansas. The ground was dry and I had walk up a pretty decent hill during the hike in and the entire distance was tall CRP interspersed with the occasional row of cedar trees. Along the way I crossed numerous dry erosion ditches. I observed how unbelievably dark it was while walking in the pitch black 20 degree, 30 mph wind gusting night. There were no street lights, no moon, no stars visible in the overcast sky, no light seepage from nearby areas, nothing but inky cold darkness.

I realized during the hike in that not a single person knew where I was as well as the most soon the base personnel would even think about looking for me was two days later on Monday morning and then they had two square miles of trackless CRP to search.

Getting that 250lb deer out of there again in the dark 18 hours later was almost impossible. I had a deer dragging plastic roll-up sled and eventually had to reverse the bucks direction in the plastic and turn it's antlers to the rear because they caught on every piece of vegetation we passed. After about three hours of dragging the best I could manage was to drag the deer about 10 yards and then fall over on the ground to rest. I would then get back up and repeat, 10 long yards at a time.

My revised plan now is to dress and quarter that deer on site and pack each quarter out individually because I can walk 1 mile with a 40lb pack four to six times through CRP far more easily than I can cover the same distance once with a whole deer on a Deer Drag-er Sleigh. In addition, I now tell my nearby cousin's husband who is a farmer with a UTV how to get on the base, where I am parking, what route I plan to take, when I plan to return, and when to proactively begin searching for me that same night if I do not call him.

In sum, it sucked. But the sucking was my fault for not properly planning.
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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby huntinsonovagun » Fri Oct 07, 2016 12:27 am

You guys are indeed crazy. Makes me feel like a Nancy. I DON'T like the feeling of being wet all day and I wonder how you guys can sit for 4 hours with wet socks. My hands and feet get cold easily, but if they were wet there's no way. I've gotten down before because I couldn't clip my release onto my bow- and we don't even really have that cold of weather here. Actual temps in the teens is about as cold as I'll see it in a season, and that's probably only every 2-3 years only for a few days at a time.

I agree about guys exaggerating on their walk-in distance. A mile without a trail is a pretty dang long haul, but when I do get that far out, the human sign is all but nonexistent. I'm going to start focusing on getting a little further out. I used to focus on the areas people walk right by, but I think people MAY be getting lazier and just not going even as deep as they were 10 years ago...

I've also put together a system to quarter and pack deer out instead of dragging. I haven't done it YET, but I hope to soon

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isitseasonyet?
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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby isitseasonyet? » Fri Oct 07, 2016 2:51 am

Man I'm still young and dumb, one season I sat out in December on the ground in about 2 feet of snow. I was so cold, -20 below actual temp? School was canceled because the wind chill was like -65, or somthing. Parents at work so I told them I was hunting no matter what the temp. Stupid stupid stupid. I had on EVERY layer I could find. I was just sitting there all afternoon feeling fine and finally a buck came by. I couldn't lift my bow I was so cold. I tried to get my phone out of my inner layers but couldn't work the zippers. I had no dexterity. I finally got ahold of my dad by using my nose to dial the phone because I had to hold it with both hands and couldn't use my thumbs. Luckily I was hunting private land near a field edge and he was able to get out to me fairly easy, I couldn't stand up on my own he had to pick me up and help me get into the pickup. Hands down dumbest thing I've ever done. Warming back up was the most painful thing I can remember. Learned the hard way that time. Just because you can sit through it definitely does not mean you should. That was the biggest buck I seen that season and I still love to hunt late season. But it was dumb. How's that for extreme?

Edit: when you are half frozen you move in like super slow motion its a strange sensation...

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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby Zonk54 » Fri Oct 07, 2016 3:24 am

I've hunted in -35 below wind chill during Iowa late muzzleloader. Had to wear snowshoes because of deep snow. Bumped a few does and they wouldn't even run. Tried to stalk a nice buck but he heard the snow squeeking it was so cold.

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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby MentatArcher » Fri Oct 07, 2016 3:43 am

Come on, guys... no one has hang glided in? Got shot out of a canon? Wing suit? lol.. jk.

The best I've done is the bike/canoe.. It's far from the most difficult/audacious but I love using either. Both are super quiet and comfortable. Police bikes are made with a rear hub that doesn't click when it spins (when you aren't pedalling). A bike is damn stealthy as is, but if you want to next level it, get a cop bike or just that rear hub.

I can't imagine going through a mile of chest deep marsh in waders. I'd honestly be scared of getting swallowed up by the muck or losing my bow or stand or other crap. I guess if you've tried everything else and that's what you have to do to be successful then it's a no brainer, but that is a seriously tough grind.
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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby grydsrt » Sat Oct 08, 2016 5:38 pm

I like the idea of a click-less cop bike hub. Thanks, I did not know they exist. As far as carrying all that stuff in in one haul there is no possible way I could do it and effectively hunt afterwards. That 1.1-mile hike on the military base paralleled a county road with a low fence, I just could not park any closer. Because the deer feed on the farmers’ fields on the other side of the road at night I avoid the road at all costs. This is nice because when the sun comes up it is like shooting skeet with deer running all over you to get onto the (relative) safety of the base.

I am now discovering that people do not go out during the morning hours to hunt. When I was a kid in the 80’s we were forever getting into the woods before daylight, we just did not stay past 9am and now I try to sit all day. I however have no experience with either sub-zero cold nor any type of swamp or marsh.

Because I have the luxury of a wife who supports me in my unemployment I go through the entire scent control regime. What that means in the above military base location is that I will carry in a rucksack/backpack the night before with the god-awful amount of hunting supplies I plan to use the next day (clothes, food, water, stand, everything but the gun) and stash it about 200-400 meters from my planned stand location.

I then go back to the hotel and when I wake up take the scent free shower, drive back on base, and walk back in planning my arrival at the rucksack stash/cache point to be no later than 2.5 hours before daylight. I arrive that early because it seems to take an inordinate amount of time (one hour +) to change out of my walking clothes, spray my standing-outside-in-bare-skin self with that DIY scentkiller solution, put on all my scentlok/scentblocker clothes, and walk the remainder of the distance to the hunting location carrying only my weapon, stand, or blind chair and shooting tripod.

The reason I mention the road is because conceivably I could park legally on post, cross off the base onto the county road and ride my bike along the road to my entry point having already stashed my rucksack and weapon there on the way in? Would it be as perfect as the two-trip method described above, probably not? However, situation depending, that 1 mile or more bike ride on the county road might very well get me to the back side of non-military public where no one, even the most beastly, could possibly hope to walk …

On the other hand, in the army, we are regularly expected to walk 12 miles with weapon and 30lbs of weight in our rucks in under 3 hours. In fact, at age 40, I covered 18 miles with a 50lb ruck in 3.5 hours. Would I have been able to hunt when I finished? Absolutely not, because the lactic acid buildup caused my leg muscles to lock up. That 18 miler took me around 12 months of daily, after work, training to prepare for as well. You can lose that type of fitness simply by taking off more than 24 hours between runs(!). Both of the above were done on either paved or dirt roads. Come to think of it, when I had the experience dragging the 250lb deer I was still recovering from clavicle surgery … probably why it sucked so bad.

When I was 20, I did a two-day 40k foot infiltration march, mostly on trails, with a 90lb rucksack and 23lb machine gun. For that one I trained with a 40-60lb rucksack 2-3x a week for four months prior. It seemed to be a very easy 40k. Outside of the military or other occupation where I am paid to run and work out I find it virtually impossible to stay in even minimum effective shape, much less do 2 or 3 hours-long weekly rucksack runs, but that is probably because I am spoiled by military life (for instance, from 2005-2010, I got 270 days of PAID vacation!).

In conclusion, with the proper preparation, walking miles in to hunt is possible.
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crankn101
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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby crankn101 » Sun Oct 09, 2016 2:25 am

I know you guys probably wont believe this but, I dont use trailcams. I know, I know, pretty darn extreme.
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headgear
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Re: EXTREME

Unread postby headgear » Sun Oct 09, 2016 2:42 am

crankn101 wrote:I know you guys probably wont believe this but, I dont use trailcams. I know, I know, pretty darn extreme.


:lol:

Done a few all-dayers in -20 degrees, it wasn't fun. Some fun drags over the years, waist deep water, crossing rivers, 600 yards of bog make the legs like jello when you are pulling a heavy buck. My farthest walk is 1.5 miles one way, not sure I would ever want to go 3 one way but I could go 5+ miles in some spots if I was crazy, no reason to if I can find bucks closer.


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