Ever been lost in the woods while Deer Hunting?
07-18-2003, 08:31 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: New Hampshire
Posts: 3,406
Ever been lost in the woods while Deer Hunting?
OK, I' ll be the first to say, yes, absolutely, I have been lost. Many times I haven' t been lost, I just didn' t know where I was. My first time was during my second year of hunting. I saw a deer that just stepped behind a tree as I had my sights on him. It was late afternoon and in the excitement and anxiety, I turned myself around 180 degrees. Needless to say, when I decided to walk out (West), I was actually walking (East) deeper and deeper. I finally came out 6 hrs after dark, 7 miles later with the Police and Game Wardens looking for some " lost hunter" . Oh, and I never saw that deer again. I also understand that those folks that hunt the big woods, especially in the northern part of the country/ or Canada, would be more apt to get lost. I also believe that most/every seasoned hunter has been lost at least once. Am I wrong?... c' mon admit it, you' ve been lost!
07-18-2003, 08:47 AM
#3
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: St. Mary\'s County Maryland USA
Posts: 393
RE: Ever been lost in the woods while Deer Hunting?
I got lost ONE time while squirrel hunting when I was about 13. I use the sun as a reference so I noted it' s position as I walked in the woods. It started to get overcast and I got lost, came out about 2 hours after I was supposed to meet my Dad and buddy and I was on the wrong side of the woods. Ended up walking to my brother' s ex-girlfriend' s house and calling my Dad. I was worried about showing up with a gun in my hand so I hid it in the bushes before knocking on the door, what a day.
07-18-2003, 09:06 AM
#4
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Kitchener, Ontario CANADA
Posts: 152
RE: Ever been lost in the woods while Deer Hunting?
OK, I’ll fess up. [:' (] I got spun around twice last year. I’ve only been hunting for two years and my bush skills are fairly good, but still need a great deal of honing.
First was on a beautifully cold day (-10 C). I was asked to strike out for the last watch position. I was told to walk with the other watchers to their stands and then semicircle the area to climb up to my stand. The last watcher went to the south side of a ridge when he should have went to the north side. I headed out and was supposed to go around a swamp. I hit the swamp so I headed south again and then started to doubleback. I climbed a hill thinking I was successful only to find an open field when I was looking for hardwoods. [
]
Looking around I could see a lake that I knew so I wasn’t completely lost (it was just that the lake was probably two miles away). However, I had no idea how to get to where I was supposed to be. We had FRS radios but I couldn’t make contact due to rocks and probably distance. So, I pulled out my compass and headed East. Came right out at the trucks when I should have been at least a mile NW from them. It was embarrassing to say the least, but I wasn’t the least bit cold from my hour and a half hike through the woods.
It gets worse…..we decided to push around a hill and I was sent on my way once again. Determined to redeem myself, I went around the hill and when the hill started to fall away (and I was supposed to turn) I went to the next hill and climbed up. I had a lake on one side and a swamp in front of me. Looking at my topo, there was no such position. The FRS’ worked this time and my buddies agreed that the map didn’t show anything. Again, I could have walked back to where I came from but still didn’t know exactly where I was or how to get to where I was supposed to be. [:@][:@]
Our topos are from 1983 (most recent version) and what looks like a lake is really a swamp. Turns out I was 500 metres from where I was supposed to be. Man did I ever take a beating for that one. [&:]
OK….now it gets better. The smarta$$es then ask me if I’m ok following the four wheeler trail out to the trucks and assume a watch position. Using all of my outdoor skills, I follow the trail and I MADE IT!
I sat down and waited until the guys pushed back over the hill and not 10 minutes later, I hear the corn flakes sound of cold dry leaves. I turn and a buck is trotting behind me at about 30 yards. I spin around and stand up without him seeing me and dropped him in his tracks (with a .308 WINMAG). It was a beautiful almost perfect 10 pointer that field dressed at 200 lbs even. It was only about 75 yards to the trucks and the four wheeler trail made pulling him out easy. It grossed out at 130 and only had 11/2 points in deductions. [:-]
If I hadn’t got lost twice that day, it may not have been me sitting at that watch. The deer made all the teasing worth it.[8D]
The picture is at a weigh in station and is the only one I remember to take of this beauty.
First was on a beautifully cold day (-10 C). I was asked to strike out for the last watch position. I was told to walk with the other watchers to their stands and then semicircle the area to climb up to my stand. The last watcher went to the south side of a ridge when he should have went to the north side. I headed out and was supposed to go around a swamp. I hit the swamp so I headed south again and then started to doubleback. I climbed a hill thinking I was successful only to find an open field when I was looking for hardwoods. [
]Looking around I could see a lake that I knew so I wasn’t completely lost (it was just that the lake was probably two miles away). However, I had no idea how to get to where I was supposed to be. We had FRS radios but I couldn’t make contact due to rocks and probably distance. So, I pulled out my compass and headed East. Came right out at the trucks when I should have been at least a mile NW from them. It was embarrassing to say the least, but I wasn’t the least bit cold from my hour and a half hike through the woods.
It gets worse…..we decided to push around a hill and I was sent on my way once again. Determined to redeem myself, I went around the hill and when the hill started to fall away (and I was supposed to turn) I went to the next hill and climbed up. I had a lake on one side and a swamp in front of me. Looking at my topo, there was no such position. The FRS’ worked this time and my buddies agreed that the map didn’t show anything. Again, I could have walked back to where I came from but still didn’t know exactly where I was or how to get to where I was supposed to be. [:@][:@]
Our topos are from 1983 (most recent version) and what looks like a lake is really a swamp. Turns out I was 500 metres from where I was supposed to be. Man did I ever take a beating for that one. [&:]
OK….now it gets better. The smarta$$es then ask me if I’m ok following the four wheeler trail out to the trucks and assume a watch position. Using all of my outdoor skills, I follow the trail and I MADE IT!
I sat down and waited until the guys pushed back over the hill and not 10 minutes later, I hear the corn flakes sound of cold dry leaves. I turn and a buck is trotting behind me at about 30 yards. I spin around and stand up without him seeing me and dropped him in his tracks (with a .308 WINMAG). It was a beautiful almost perfect 10 pointer that field dressed at 200 lbs even. It was only about 75 yards to the trucks and the four wheeler trail made pulling him out easy. It grossed out at 130 and only had 11/2 points in deductions. [:-]
If I hadn’t got lost twice that day, it may not have been me sitting at that watch. The deer made all the teasing worth it.[8D]
The picture is at a weigh in station and is the only one I remember to take of this beauty.
07-18-2003, 09:16 AM
#5
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fredericksburg Virginia USA
Posts: 13,672
RE: Ever been lost in the woods while Deer Hunting?
Nice deer taxman! So your savvy of the great outdoors is what got him for you right?
I was raised in the sticks and my little brother and I would take off on all day treks through the woods, it was weird, but some how we both always seemed to know which way was home and would come out of the woods no more than 100 yards from where we had gone in. We were just goofing around and not paying any attention at all, yet we never got lost. I did get turned around once, but I wasn' t hunting, I was scouting and once I figured out which way to go came out on a road less than 500 yards from my house, I guess you could say I was lost, but I knew the direction I needed to go to get to the road, but wasn' t sure where along the road I was going to come out at. Is that lost or just off course?
I was raised in the sticks and my little brother and I would take off on all day treks through the woods, it was weird, but some how we both always seemed to know which way was home and would come out of the woods no more than 100 yards from where we had gone in. We were just goofing around and not paying any attention at all, yet we never got lost. I did get turned around once, but I wasn' t hunting, I was scouting and once I figured out which way to go came out on a road less than 500 yards from my house, I guess you could say I was lost, but I knew the direction I needed to go to get to the road, but wasn' t sure where along the road I was going to come out at. Is that lost or just off course?
07-18-2003, 09:43 AM
#7
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Walnut MS USA
Posts: 871
RE: Ever been lost in the woods while Deer Hunting?
Two times. The first was in 1957. In a timber tract 5 miles long and 2 miles wide. Bow hunting and it was in a light rain. I had some trasils that I knew but got in an area where I recognized nothing. With the rain and overcast I couldn' t use the sun for bearings. East of me was a highway. But with it being slightly hilly, I could here vihecles but the sound was circling around the small hills, coming from all different directions. I found a strange trail, started down it only to be almost run over by a spike buck. Got so close before vearing off to the side that I could have stabbed him with my arrow if I wasn' t busy falling down tripping on a tree root. I kept following that trail until it crossed a trail that I knew. That trail took me to within 100 feet of my car. Total time hunting, 1 hour, time finding my way out, 4 hours.
The other time I was squirrel hunting with my stepson and his wife. Another overcast day; no sun. Finally came out 3 miles north near a neighbors house. I called home and they Picked me up. But not before sitting down to an old fashioned southern breakfast.
Russ
The other time I was squirrel hunting with my stepson and his wife. Another overcast day; no sun. Finally came out 3 miles north near a neighbors house. I called home and they Picked me up. But not before sitting down to an old fashioned southern breakfast.
Russ
07-18-2003, 09:45 AM
#8
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Hamilton Square NJ USA
Posts: 557
RE: Ever been lost in the woods while Deer Hunting?
3 years ago I was hunting along a briar/cedar swamp one evening, the swamp is narrow, but long, and deer pop out onto the oak flat alongside it. Well, about dusk, a nice buck comes out, I get ready, and he turns to lick a spot on his back, so I draw, and shoot. I hit a little high, and the arrow caught him right under the ear. Hee jumped back into the swamp, and I could ear him thrashing around about 40 yards in. I climbed down and snuck in on him, but he got up and started running away, but not having much speed or coordination due to lose of blood, I was able to stay within earshot of him. Finally got another arrow in him, but when I walked up, I realized I left my bag with my compass, knife, flashlight, and everything else back at my treestand. Damn. I started to drag him in the direction I thought was right, but without a knife to gut him, he was heavy dragging through waist high briars! Had to leave him and eventually find my way out an hour later, then go find my treestand in the dark, then go find the deer. I shot the deer at about 6:30, and didn' t get him loaded up until after midnight, spent most of that time wandering around through the briars. What a night. I don' t know who lost more blood in that swamp, me or him.
07-18-2003, 09:53 AM
#10
Matriarch Doe!
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Waterloo, Oregon
Posts: 16,449
RE: Ever been lost in the woods while Deer Hunting?
Okay...once. Technically I guess you could say I was deer hunting because it was deer season, but at the time I got " turned around" I was picking mushrooms. I was camped up in the mountains and had been deer hunting. I' d been walking for a ways and came upon an area that had alot of chantrelles. I' d killed a grouse earlier that day and thought ' Cool---a bunch of these, and that' ll cover dinner!' It' s easy to get turned around picking mushrooms, because you' re spending so much time looking down and zig-zagging around when you spot more in different directions. Anyway, by the time I figured I had enough, I had NO idea which way I had come from! Man, I was so disgusted with myself! In the area I was in, I knew two directions would have me hitting a road, but two directions would have me walking a really long time---one more like forever. On top of that, it was starting to get dark. So I started to make big wide circles, and started finding places I' d cut mushrooms, and eventually found my way out. That will NEVER happen to me again (knock on wood)!