My most remembered hunting trip..

[LAH]

Wife and I were introduced to West Virginia when our Grandson played football at WVU. Beautiful country and friends that we still have. Only downside was it seems that I was always walking around a mountain and needed a little longer leg on the downside.

Take me home Country Roads!!!

We had family here from Arkansas a couple weeks ago. I drove them out to my place in the sticks & around a few areas. Their remark was you either go up hill, down hill, or around the side of the hill in West Virginia.

 

[LAH]

Guess the hunt I remember most was a cold day in West Virginia when I took two bucks the same morning with my trusty '06 using the RCBS 30-180-FN I cast myself. It was a great day but there was another in Montana where I took my largest whitetail with a Ruger Blackhawk, 45 Colt.

 

[ISS]

AWS,

sounds like you were lucky to have survived that. I was able to take lots of pictures on my trips to Africa. My nephew is figuring out how to transition them to the new computer.

 

[AWS]

When your a 21 yr old GI you think your indestructible.

One of the few pictures I had was big crane that I shot for the local herbalist to make medicine from. He had things like preserved pit vipers in Kinmen rice whisky and assorted other wonderful concoctions that if they didn't kill you you were strong enough to survive the initial disease anyway.

 

[ISS]

You shot a Crane? We have the big Sandhill Cranes that spend part of the year here. You get the death penalty if they catch you shooting one.

 

[mmcu]

You shot a Crane? We have the big Sandhill Cranes that spend part of the year here. You get the death penalty if they catch you shooting one.

Sandhill's have a season here in Texas - we call them "the flying ribeye".

You might be thinking of the Whooping Crane. Yep, shoot one of those and you're in deep kimchi.

 

[butchlambert]

Sandhill's have a season here in Texas - we call them "the flying ribeye".

You might be thinking of the Whooping Crane. Yep, shoot one of those and you're in deep kimchi.

They are very tasty!

 

[Doug Casner]

That aint some bs from the panhandle is it? I dont know about sandhills but blue herons I dont think would be too good. Doug

 

[mmcu]

That aint some bs from the panhandle is it? I dont know about sandhills but blue herons I dont think would be too good. Doug

Sandhill's are excellent table fare!

 

[butchlambert]

That aint some bs from the panhandle is it? I dont know about sandhills but blue herons I dont think would be too good. Doug

Speaking of the sandhill only.

 

[Lefty2506]

Not sure I really have a single favorite. I'm fortunate to have made a lot of memories in the field with friends and family over the years. I'm really glad a friend of mine got me into bird hunting many years ago. Its some of the most expensive meat I've ever eaten, but the memories made working our dogs have been absolutely priceless. I've been lucky to put several young hunters on their first bird and then watch them grow into responsible hunters over the years which is always enjoyable. I also had the privilege of guiding a good friend of mine and his teenage son one afternoon on a pheasant hunt. We limited out in 2 hrs. The dog did fantastic and we all had a ball. She ended up finding a covey of quail on the way back to the vehicles as well. He developed liver cancer the following year, and that turned out to be his last time in the field before he passed. His son has since graduated college and still comes to hunt with us every year. I remember that afternoon every time he walks into camp.

 

[centerlineseal]

bird hunting

This goes back well over 60 years, before I could carry a gun. Somehow, I got out of school to go hunting with my dad (Carl) and my Godfather (Great Uncle Larry) for quail in NE Kansas, at Jinx Ramey"s place near Dennison KS. Dad had his full choked 16 gauge Model 12 Winny and Uncle Larry his side-by-side .410 (unknown make). I was the bird dog as we started out down an Osage Orange hedgerow, which would eventually tee into another hedgerow. Snow on the ground and Bobwhite tracks everywhere in the middle of the row where I ducked and dodged those damn needles on the Osage. The birds ran down the row to the tee, smack dab into another covey and then the gunnin' started. Both Dad and Larry reloaded several times and we spent the next 20 minutes picking up birds. Both limited out at that tee, 8 quail apiece. Back to the truck within an hour, brunch at a cafe in Holton, then home for some more hot chocolate.

Both Dad and Larry are gone, Jinx a long time ago, ... and all those hedgerows as well!

I, however, still hunt the uplands, .. and just got my 10th Brittany, .. puppy named Mollie. Life carries on!

 

[ISS]

My memories of hunting along rice paddies are as memorable, but unpleasant,

 

[AccelR8]

Lee Whitsel your story brings back memories for me!

I grew up in Ohio but my Dad grew up in West Virginia and I had Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and 1st and 2nd cousins in WV and I spent lots of time there.

butchmabert I used to kid them in WV, tell them they needed to go out at mid-day and turn the cows around to face the other way or else they'd grow with legs on one side longer than the other and couldn't walk a straight line on the flat barn floor!

 

[Lefty2506]

This goes back well over 60 years, before I could carry a gun. Somehow, I got out of school to go hunting with my dad (Carl) and my Godfather (Great Uncle Larry) for quail in NE Kansas, at Jinx Ramey"s place near Dennison KS. Dad had his full choked 16 gauge Model 12 Winny and Uncle Larry his side-by-side .410 (unknown make). I was the bird dog as we started out down an Osage Orange hedgerow, which would eventually tee into another hedgerow. Snow on the ground and Bobwhite tracks everywhere in the middle of the row where I ducked and dodged those damn needles on the Osage. The birds ran down the row to the tee, smack dab into another covey and then the gunnin' started. Both Dad and Larry reloaded several times and we spent the next 20 minutes picking up birds. Both limited out at that tee, 8 quail apiece. Back to the truck within an hour, brunch at a cafe in Holton, then home for some more hot chocolate.

Both Dad and Larry are gone, Jinx a long time ago, ... and all those hedgerows as well!

I, however, still hunt the uplands, .. and just got my 10th Brittany, .. puppy named Mollie. Life carries on!

If you were to ask me on the street, I'd tell you that I'm a deer hunter, but I go out west some and shoot prairie dogs with some buddies, which is true. That friend that I mentioned (Don) is an older guy (almost my dad's age) that I met when I was in college. We spend the entire week of Thanksgiving camping and hunting pheasant together. It started out with a bunch of us that shot and trained together during college and grew as we added friends and family members. At one point, we had 50 to 60 different people who would join us for one or more days during that 9 day period, but we've paired it WAY back because the overhead was just too much to deal with for that many people. We would eat some of the birds at camp during the week, and divvy up the rest based on the number of days hunted. Don was always on me to take my birds home. He felt like I was getting cheated because me and my dog were contributing to the number of birds harvested but I wasn't taking my share home. Finally I told him one day that I didn't come down for the birds, I came down to enjoy the dogs, fellowship, and memories. That one statement completely changed the way the camp ran. Our shot percentages suffered a bit, but we make a lot more memories We've had a few from the group that have passed on, and several of the core people are at an age where they could go any time. When they do, we will talk about all the memories we made with them in the field. And of course, when one of our 4 legged companions passes, we share our favorite memories made with them.

 

[hvacman04]

Many years ago my friend Randy and I talked after church on Sunday about going to another state to hunt and try something new he agreed. Being in south central Pa. we chose to slip south to West Virginia to do a hunting trip. Called the game warden in that area just over the border and he game us a list of farmers with deer problems. We took of and went to Lead Mine West Virginia and checked in with a wonderful old couple named Pardons. They welcomed us to come and hunt with open arms. We came back on the night before hunting season. It was very cold and damp with light rain coming down and a bad weather report. Mrs. Parsons came over to our tent out in their fields and offered us to come in and stay in their spare rooms. We declined as we didn't want to be a burden on them. But she gave us a slice of yellow cake with chocolate icing and it had hickory nuts in it. It was so good. WE asked if we could get out of the rain and sleep in their 2nd barn that had no stock in it just machines and hay. We promised we would not have a fire in there. o.K. so we set up and sleep in the hay mound and was put to sleep with the pitter patter of rain all night long on the metal roof of the barn. Never got cold and was the best night sleep ever. We got up in early hours dish water froze in the pan. After a hot meal slipped up on a ridge and got a very nice 5/4 whitetail. My grandparents told me how nice it was to be in a barn with a metal roof in a rain storm they where right I never forgot that trip.

Lee , there will be instances where something happens, and you will relate to it in a hunt with someone. I miss it bad. The com arod aree. Like being in service on patrols but not killing deer. That reminded me all of us sleeping in a pop up camper, rain hitting roof , what a sleep. I was dog aspirin tired, running our butts off loving it. Buck