Washington High Buck Hunt 2013 Day One

Well it's that time of year again where we get a little over a week to try and get into a high mountain wilderness area and shoot ourselves an early buck. As I am thinking about my trip I have to try and think back to last year and what I learned from it.

A. I need better food then Top Ramen and Power Bars.
B. Have a hunting partner to go with so there is at least someone to talk to in camp.
C. It's likely going to take a little more work to find deer then sitting by the meadow next to camp.


So my wife mostly took care of A by buying me some rice and noodle packs that you just have to add water to. I also bought some instant potatoes, power bars, granola bars, beef jerky and some chocolate milk for the trip. The chocolate milk was for the hike up.


I made plans with my buddy Kevin to go with me. The plan was, since the season opened on a Sunday I would take Saturday off and we would hike up into the Pasayten Wilderness so we were ready to hunting opening morning.

Kevin had some time to get into the area we hunt a few week earlier and drop off a 50 lb salt lick with his game cam.  We decided if we did not see anything substantial on the game came we were going to hike up the steep mountain that climbs out of camp.

So the day before the hunt arrives I get off of work at 6 AM. My hunting partner Kevin wanted to spend half of the day with his family before hiking in. My two choices were to sleep at the trail head or hike into camp and sleep there. I decided that I was too excited to sleep at the trail head so I was just going to do the hike into camp and sleep there.

I took my sweet time getting to camp. A normal 3 hour hike took me 5 hours with all of my gear and lack of sleep. When I got to camp I had worked up a big amount of sweat. I went to the creek and washed down in the freezing water. I also rinsed my closes and hung them to dry. I found a place to hang my tarp and set my bed and went down for my nap to wait for Kevin.

Three hours later I woke up to an unnatural sound of metal knocking together. I looked over and there was someone putting up their tent in the same camping area. It was Karl the Swedish hunter I ran into last year in the same area. Karl asked if it was ok that he was camping there and I said of course. Ten minutes later Ray who was Carl's hunting partner arrived in camp. About 20 minutes after Ray, Kevin showed up. The first thing I wanted to do was look at the game cam photos he picked up on the way up. There were only 15 pictures and all of them were of doe's.

The Meadow Near Camp.

Kevin and I walked out to the meadow so he could look for bear's, since I saw 4 of them in the same meadow last year. We also talked about our next days adventure. And we decided to hike up the steep nasty mountain.

Without seeing a bear we arrived back at camp and sat around the campfire with Carl and Ray while we had dinner. We discussed our plans so we were not hunting in the same area and went to bed around 9 PM knowing that 3 AM was quickly approaching.

Operation Get the Wife a Limit

On day two of grouse hunting here in north central Washington my one goal was to get my wife a limit of grouse. I was not going to shoot any grouse until my wife had her limit. This time I got a few hours of sleep the night before and again I woke everyone up to get going at first light. I rode the lucky gate and we headed to what we call "The Lower Road."

We get to the top of one hill but before we drop into the next drainage we have to go through another gate which is old, heavy and not fun to move at all. As I was going to get out to open it my wife tells me she will get it. As she drags it open like a pro I give her a smile as I drive through. After a couple moments of waiting for her on the other side I look in my mirror to see her moving the old heavy gate about an inch at a time and with a very flustered look on her face. I get out to HELP her and she quickly returns to her seat with a 'hurry and get this gate closed so we can go hunting' look.

A short time later I see the first grouse in the grass along the road. It flushes into a tree and my wife gets out to shoot it. She shoots a 7 1/2 12 gauge low base shell. So I like her to get a bit closer than she was when she pulled up for the shot. When she pulled the trigger feathers floated down out of the tree and the bird set its wings for the bottom on the valley. There are three choices to choose from in this situation.

A. Positive feed back. "Hey don't worry, at least you got feathers, we will see more."
B. Silence. "..............................................sniff, sniff........................................."
C. Poking fun. "Hey Annie Oakley did you have your eyes closed?"

I tend to start with A and after getting the just shut up look move to B. And if we ever do get some grouse I might be brave enough to move to C.

So this time I give her some positive feedback. As we are looking for more grouse after a few minutes I realize she is not that pleased with herself so I move to silence.

A few corners later I spot the next grouse. My wife gets out and drops it. and I revert back to some positive feedback.

When we finished the lower road my wife had three birds. So I put my big boy pants on and went in for some Poking Fun. "Well I did my job, I showed you 4 birds." with a smile and after an "yeah, yeah" from the wife, I knew she was feeling a lot better now that she had three birds in the bag.

I again decided to take the big loop around, with the idea of stopping in one creek bed where we have had good luck with ruffed grouse in past years. I pull the Jeep over and my wife asks me what I am doing. I told her I was going to go find some grouse. We both get out of the vehicle and load our guns. I went straight in to the thick and nasty stuff and my wife stayed out on the road. ( sometimes I like having someone out of the thick stuff so they can see where the grouse flush to.) Meanwhile our two Wirehaired Pointing griffons start working the creek bed.

5 minutes into the walk the bushes explode with flight. I yell to my wife "Get in here". Her response is "I am busy helping Maddy go Potty". I knew what that meant. BANG, BANG, BANG. My wife yells to me "How many are there!?" I told her - well I just shot three. The dogs start coming out of the brush with birds in the mouth like worker bees bringing pollen back to the hive. They drop the birds at my feet and go back for more. When all the downed birds are back they go back to searching for live birds.  I see Remi get birdy and about 10 feet above her a grouse was sitting in a tree. I again yelled for my wife to get in to the bushes. She yells back and says she is on her way. She gets back to me, shoots the grouse, and I tell her I will get the bird and she can work the 70 yards back to the Jeep and kids. I retrieve her 4th and final bird of her limit. Remi flushes up another bird and I see the general area it went to. I have to crawl under some of the thick brush to get to it. I drop it with one shot and with 8 birds our day is done.

So peration get the wife her limit is complete. We sit on the side of the road and feather all of our birds. Maddy dances and plays in the falling feathers as part of a perfect grouse hunting morning.

Opening Day Grouse hunting 2013

The night before grouse hunting opened I had to work a night shift. I arranged my schedule to get off at 4 am instead of my usual 6 am. That gives me two hours to drive home, get ready and get the family up and awake for hunting. So I get home get both the car seats moved over to the Jeep. The best thing for me about getting the family up is waking up my three year old daughter Maddy by giving her a little shake and asking her if she wants to go hunting. I am always greeted with a big smile and a soft whisper of  "yes". The wife heard me get home so her and baby Elsa got up without any help. We loaded everything up and got going about 10 minutes late.

While I am grouse hunting I am very superstitious. Silly things like, I have to be wearing the right clothes, I have to ride the gate to our hunting road and when I am driving I have to hold two shells in my one of my hands. I don't know what to say but it work for me.

We get to the road we will be hunting and start the slow drive. Since we had the baby a few months prior my wife wont be doing any long hikes this year. We get all the way to the end of the road and did not see a simgle grouse. I figure its going to be one of those frustrating opening days. We tell ourselves that sometimes we see birds on the way out to make ourselves feel better.  So we turn around and start making our way out. A ways down the road I see the first grouse. As it starts running through the bushes it flushes into a tree. The wife offers me the first grouse of the year and I take the shot. The bird came tumbling down out of the tree.

A few minutes later I found my second bird. As I drove around a few corners all of a sudden there was a grouse running for its life in front of the Jeep. The grouse flushes into a tree and I get my second bird of the day.

A few more corners down the road I find one for my wife to shoot up in the bushes. So now the pressure is off and everyone is happy. Except now my wife has a bit of confidence and she tells me she would like to limit out in one of the up coming days.

We get to the main road and I decide to take the main loop around instead of the quick drive home. While driving down the main road I catch a flushing grouse out of the corner of my eye. I slam on the breaks walk back find the grouse and add my third grouse for the day.



We drive a few more roads and did not find any more grouse for the morning hunt. But we did see a bear with a funny yellow patch of fur on his right rear thigh. I was also able to get a rabbit in the bag as well.

We returned home so I could get some sleep since I had been up since 5 PM the day before.

My wife woke me up for the evening hunt. I was having a really hard time waking up, but then I remembered I only had one more grouse to go for my limit. We went to the same area but drove the upper road.  A mile in on the road I spotted a grouse running through the grass about 40 feet off the road. I chased after it and it flushed. I shot at it in the air and missed. I shot under it as it flew into a tree. I knocked it out of the tree and returned to the Jeep with my limit for the day.  We did not see another grouse for the night.

Five grouse for opening day was good enough for us and we went home very happy and content.

Tree Stands for Beginners

Here is a guest post from Blake Anderson from HunterTreeStands.com. I asked him t write an article about women who want to get into bow hunting and what they need to know about tree stands.

Beginner Women Bow Hunters
 

Bow hunting is a sport and hobby that can be enjoyed by many different types of women. This article will provide you with a lot of great tips and information about what you need to know to get started with bow hunting, and how hunter tree stands can help you be more successful in the woods.

Customize Your Equipment

Women and men all come in different shapes and sizes, and therefore require a bow that is custom tailored to their specific body. A bow can be customized to fit your height, strength, arm span and often comes in various lightweight and heavier models. Any hunting shop can tell your specific measurements and how much power you should place on your strings, so test a few out and see which one fits you best.

Practice Makes Perfect

Not only will practice make you more comfortable out in the woods, but it will also provide you with key movements that are necessary to make consistently accurate shots. One of these movements is having a relaxed bow grip. As a beginner, you will most likely want to grip the bow handle as tightly as possible. This however isn’t the best method for shooting a bow, because it will give you an opposite effect of instability. After you learn to relax your bow grip, you will need to focus on your anchor point. An anchor point is the perfect location of where your hand will rest at full draw. It’s important that this spot remains the same to ensure reliable accuracy. The optimum spot should bring your index finger directly below the chin where the string slightly touches the tip of your nose.

Tree Stands Enhance Your Game

There are a few products that will quickly jumpstart your successes in the woods, and tree stands are one of the best. Although women are generally quieter than men due to their lightness on their feet, it’s still quite difficult to stay quiet enough to sneak up on a deer. Hunter tree stands give women a significant advantage of elevation that’s necessary to see overtop of heavy areas of brush and vegetation. Not only is your line of sight improved, but it allows you to get out of the line of sight of the deer, which can quickly pick up on movement.

Being up off the ground in a tree stand also gives you the added advantage of focus. You can take your time when drawing your bow back and calmly focus on your target before letting go of the string. Take your time and relax your mind by allowing yourself a few deep breaths, and your accuracy will improve a great deal. A lot of what makes a hunter successful with bow hunting is experience. So be patient and keep on practicing, and before long you will be happy and excited every time hunting season approaches.

Review and Giveaway: The Handy Sharp

This year at the Wenatchee Sportsman show I ran into Chad Ruseler at his booth for the Handy Sharp. I watched him do his demo of the small light weight blade sharpener. I spoke with him after his demo, and let him know I would like to test his product. A few weeks later I received two Handy Sharps in the mail. 

As I started to use the Handy Sharp around the house and farm I realized it did have a lot of good uses. I sharpened my kitchen knives with it, I sharpened my hatchet with it. It will do anything from garden tools to horse grooming tools. Doesn't matter if the blade is straight or serrated this will sharpen it.  For an instructional how to video visit The Handy Sharp web page.

The handle is blaze orange which makes it easy to find when looking through a crowded drawer or backpack. It comes in different sizes and shapes as well. The tool easily fits in your pocket or pack without adding much weight or taking up much space. Its great for the kitchen or to keep in your bag for emergencies. There is also a version that goes on your key chain.


Now I told Chad that I would have this review done last spring and here it is almost fall and we are just now getting it done.  That is what having a new baby will do to you!

At R-Dub outdoors if a product doesn't work we will let everyone know it doesn't work. But this product does work.  Deer season is right around the corner and everyone knows that you need a consistently sharp blade for cleaning your deer or other big game. So I want one of my readers to take advantage of this too -. I have one to give away and it could be yours.

All you have to do to sign up for this giveaway is follow our blog, like us on Facebook, share the giveaway on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. You can get up to 4 entries to get the Handy Sharp. Each time you do one of these make sure to leave a comment at the bottom of this post to let me know. On September 20th I will announce the winner and send them their prize. Good luck to all!

Gearing Up for Grouse Hunting

So grouse hunting starts in a week here in Washington State. This is the first day of serious hunting for me and my family. The family and I decided to take a drive around the main road in our hunting area to see if we could find anything.

We start off just before dusk, I mentally gave us enough time to get home just before dark. Of course everything goes out the window when you have a baby, and of course I did not factor in feeding time for Elsa.

We get back on the road and start seeing some rabbits.  We get through some more of the popular grouse area's without seeing anything. When we get to the paved Forrest Service road where we normally would take a left to hunt, we took a right to take us back to the main road which will take us home.

At this point my wife starts telling me how she doesn't know where we are. I told her we never come this way because there is no grouse on this part of the road.  Just as I said that we saw four Ruffed Grouse on the  side of the road next to a small stand of aspen.  My wife chimed in well I guess we will be coming this way this year.

The rest of the drive home we just saw a bunch of rabbits, more than we normally see and 4 whitetail deer(No Bucks). My prediction for this year is that it will be a good grouse season in North Central Washington. I think the spring rain held off long enough for the chicks to get big enough to withstand a heavy rain. We then had some early summer rain which would of let the berries and other food for the grouse come in nicely. Only time will tell.

Food Plots and Turkey's

This year while starting new food plots in my fields I found that just the tilled soil brought the turkeys in.  We watched the turkey all year starting in the spring, Of course they disapeared when turkey season came around. Then they came back with their chicks. When we first saw the chicks there were two hens with about 20-30 chicks. Now each hen has about 9 chicks each. Now that deer, grouse and duck hunting are getting closer the sun flowers, grass and clover have filled in and all,

I can't get hunting off my mind.  Good luck to everyone this hunting season and be safe.