I had some of my old geezer buddies over to B.S. and drink coffee and we discussed some of the worst hunt experiences, heres one of mine,.......
back in the late 60S there was a medium large management area in Florida of about 7000 acres of mixed hard wood, thick brush and small swamps,that was surrounded on 3 sides by canals and the fourth side also had a canal but the berm or levy had a dirt road along the top that allowed access to that one side , about every 1/4 mile there was a short access road that stuck out into the management area for about 300 yards like teeth on a large rake allowing cars and trucks to park off the main levy road access, now .99% of the hunters parked and walked into the area to hunt and you could walk across the area in about an hour or two ,ROCKY AND I had done that many times, but a very few hunters had learned , and packed in canoes which was about all the perimeter canals allowed due to heavy overgrowth on the banks that in some places made only a 6-10 foot channel in the center clear, the canals were 10-15 feet deep in most places and about 30-40 foot wide. the advantage of using a canoe while hunting was that if you did shoot some 100-150 lb hog or deer well over a mile from the cars parking location you could pack it out far easier in the canoe, as paddling a canoe beats dragging out game any time thru that area.
well ROCKY AND I knew that and any time we could arrange too we brought a canoe and tried to get into the back of the area well before first light so all the car hunters entering the area acted to some extent like drivers that tended to push much of the game to the rear of the area as most hunters gave up fighting the brush and swamps before they progressed more than 600-1000 yards, making the rear area far more productive on average.
Id hunted with a canoe most weekends for several years with good success,most days we hunted with shotguns, as ranges were short and brush was thick and shotgun slugs worked very effectively,now it took about an hour to paddle back around the perimeter to gain access, one of the guys at work ( AL) heard us talking about that and said he had just purchased a 2 hp outboard engine that could be clamped to the side of a canoe rather easily allowing far faster travel, and suggested we could use it IF he were INVITED along on the hunt? now ordinarily I like to go to the range and hang out with guys to get a feeling for how they handle firearms before hunting with them, but hey this was a single day hunt, and seemed like a decent idea.
on this particular day we got there a bit later than usually because the new guy (AL) was not ready when we showed up at his house at the PRE-DISCUSSED 4-AM time frame so by the time we were in my 17 foot canoe and zipping along with the tiny outboard putting along it was getting light out, the new guy was seated in the bow of the canoe and I was seated mid canoe with my other friend working the outboard.
we made it a point to make sure all the guns were UN-loaded, and we loaded the canoe with our gear.
we had traveled about 600 yards and were making surprising speed, (maybe 6-8 mph) when AL to our surprise suddenly stands up in the bow of the canoe and fires his shotgun at a deer he saw on the canal bank, the instant result of that hair brain action was AL and everyone else, flipping out of the canoe, the canoe drastically changing course and capsizing with all our hunting gear, we spent the rest of the morning diving for and eventually retrieving most of out gear from a muddy canal and fantasizing about burying AL in a large red ant hill, tied and nailed to a large heavy section of railroad tie.
yes AL did get his deer but we only found that out after about two hours of diving for our hunting gear in the canal.
back in the late 60S there was a medium large management area in Florida of about 7000 acres of mixed hard wood, thick brush and small swamps,that was surrounded on 3 sides by canals and the fourth side also had a canal but the berm or levy had a dirt road along the top that allowed access to that one side , about every 1/4 mile there was a short access road that stuck out into the management area for about 300 yards like teeth on a large rake allowing cars and trucks to park off the main levy road access, now .99% of the hunters parked and walked into the area to hunt and you could walk across the area in about an hour or two ,ROCKY AND I had done that many times, but a very few hunters had learned , and packed in canoes which was about all the perimeter canals allowed due to heavy overgrowth on the banks that in some places made only a 6-10 foot channel in the center clear, the canals were 10-15 feet deep in most places and about 30-40 foot wide. the advantage of using a canoe while hunting was that if you did shoot some 100-150 lb hog or deer well over a mile from the cars parking location you could pack it out far easier in the canoe, as paddling a canoe beats dragging out game any time thru that area.
well ROCKY AND I knew that and any time we could arrange too we brought a canoe and tried to get into the back of the area well before first light so all the car hunters entering the area acted to some extent like drivers that tended to push much of the game to the rear of the area as most hunters gave up fighting the brush and swamps before they progressed more than 600-1000 yards, making the rear area far more productive on average.
Id hunted with a canoe most weekends for several years with good success,most days we hunted with shotguns, as ranges were short and brush was thick and shotgun slugs worked very effectively,now it took about an hour to paddle back around the perimeter to gain access, one of the guys at work ( AL) heard us talking about that and said he had just purchased a 2 hp outboard engine that could be clamped to the side of a canoe rather easily allowing far faster travel, and suggested we could use it IF he were INVITED along on the hunt? now ordinarily I like to go to the range and hang out with guys to get a feeling for how they handle firearms before hunting with them, but hey this was a single day hunt, and seemed like a decent idea.
on this particular day we got there a bit later than usually because the new guy (AL) was not ready when we showed up at his house at the PRE-DISCUSSED 4-AM time frame so by the time we were in my 17 foot canoe and zipping along with the tiny outboard putting along it was getting light out, the new guy was seated in the bow of the canoe and I was seated mid canoe with my other friend working the outboard.
we made it a point to make sure all the guns were UN-loaded, and we loaded the canoe with our gear.
we had traveled about 600 yards and were making surprising speed, (maybe 6-8 mph) when AL to our surprise suddenly stands up in the bow of the canoe and fires his shotgun at a deer he saw on the canal bank, the instant result of that hair brain action was AL and everyone else, flipping out of the canoe, the canoe drastically changing course and capsizing with all our hunting gear, we spent the rest of the morning diving for and eventually retrieving most of out gear from a muddy canal and fantasizing about burying AL in a large red ant hill, tied and nailed to a large heavy section of railroad tie.
yes AL did get his deer but we only found that out after about two hours of diving for our hunting gear in the canal.