Sept 20th, 24 hour with Outback
Don't know if this should go in waterfowl or big game but here she is.
Finally getting some rest from a hectic weekend. Had my buddy come down on Thursday night for some goose hunting on Friday. Friday morning was quite slow and I dropped only 1 bird. Headed back to the spot for an afternoon hunt. Yuppers the birds where already there. Got into the field and chased them away only to have 2 good flocks come into my GMC 3500 Dually blind. Only managed to get 1 bird by the time we got the gun socks and trigger locks off.
Saturday was a wash out with all the rain so we went to feed the beart's as they hadn't been fed for over a week. Was trying to get the sow and 3 cub that had been coming in to take a hike. My buddy headed back home later that afternoon.
Sunday morning up at the crack of stupid and headed to the goose field. Got set up by 5:30 am and waited.
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A few bird started to move. Started getting some action at around 7:20 and had a 10 bird limit by 7:45. Got home and cleaned them up, had some lunch then put the waterfowl gear back in the storage trailer till next week. Loaded up the Equinox and other gear then told the wife I was going to go and shoot a beart.
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In my stand by 3:00pm, my barrel had been hit. Nothing much going on but I did notice that I managed a 20 minute nap. Around 6:10 I had a feeling, looked down to my right and about 20 feet inside the bush line was a beart. Sniffing, scratching himself, sniffing some more. He could smell me but couldn't figure it out. He started to pace back and forth to the 20yd marker just inside the bush line. He came out once but turned and immediately went back in. 6:45 his gut got the best of him and he cam out to the barrel, quartering away I sent one of Big John's laser guided Zombie's his way. Hit him hard and off he ran.
I got out of the stand to retrieve the arrow and found good red blood. Started to look for the blood trail but couldn't find any. Went out to the path I walked in on figuring he crossed it. Found some blood then went to drop some gear at the truck and make a few calls for some help before heading into the bush. Then I heard the moan and felt more at ease heading in to look for him. 7:30 I marked my entrance to the bush for my friend who was now on her way to help. I headed in following the blood trail. This boar took me on quite a journey to say the least. Some of the thickest, dirtiest places I've been in the dark for sure. I found him just around 10:30. Now where am I?
I texted JB to let her know I had found the beart.
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I instructed her while watching her phone for a text to drive the 4 wheeler till I could hear it. I would then text to stop when I could hear the wheeler. Then I got her to drive further but noticed the sound going away from me so texted for her to return to the first spot. I told JB that the moon was to my right so she should face the wheeler to the bush and face the headlights to her left. Then asked her to call out something every few minutes so I could follow the sound to the trail. I had now burnt out 2 sets of batteries in 2 different flashlights. Still had the headlight working though. I had also walked into a thick branch getting hit right in the eyeball. I could only see good with the left eye and all blurry with the right eye.The whole time from heading in and out I had been leaving trail marking tape every 10-15 yds or so. Tried to slash a makeshift trail with a folding pack saw as well. From the time I seen the headlights it still took about 30-40 minutes to get back to the main trail.
I was pretty tired but got some gear jumped on the wheeler with JB walking behind and headed back in. Within minutes we where right back where we started. Got things figured out and made our way in to get the beart.
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Made it with some more trail busting work, got'em tagged and headed back out. Quite a lot of work was involved but the biggest hurdle came at the end of the bush was a good sized fairly steep hill. Ended up having to winch our way and resetting the anchor tree twice but that got us about 10 feet from the main trail and no place to anchor. I got JB to unhook the cable and spooled it in, managed to get standing on the seat leaning over the bars and hit the throttle. Damn near flipped it over backwards but made it. Found a place just off the trail on good flat ground and gutted the beart. Headed to the truck and got him loaded. It was now 1:35 AM.
Arrived home and had him hanging by 3:00 AM. JB headed home as she had to work in a few hours and I went in the house got washed up and right to bed. I had now been up 23 1/2 hours shot 10 geese, a 210lb beart, wandered around the bush in the dark for hours. Punished my 4 wheeler and my o'le body. Wasn't long falling asleep after going over the events of the day. Quite the adventure.
As I type this up a coupla days later the beart is at the butchers, My aches and pains have subsided, the o'le right eyeball has stopped throbbing and hurting with swelling going down. Would I do it again? YOU BET!!!!!!! Will see if we got any decent pic's to post and yes kind of a joke with us is we call them beart's.
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