F-Troop Est. 1968

See ya in da fall Toucher!

Hooter Ponds

F-Troop at Hooter Hilton ruins

Gitchy-Gummi

Justin and Lindy earn Split Rock badge

Robba ponders why the heck we came here today!

Leaddog barely makes it across

New ornaments for the christmas tree in the clearing.

F-Troop @ the christmas tree

Friday:
Leaddog, Steven and Jaws/Pyroman shows up to hunt the last Friday of the season. Since Marsh has been troddened to death by six inches from all of the recent activity, something new was in order. No one has been up-top, so Leaddog decides to do the round the hill hunt. Steven and Pyro hunts up Beaver Valley to the Thumb and eventually meets up with him up top. Scrapes and rubs abound, on rather large trees announcing the beasts presence. All gets excited when Robba joins the crew later in the day, who then informs all that a deer is heading right towards the gang. As usual, the mule turns on the cloaking device and it vanishes before their very eyes. A walk out back to camp with lights was in order.

Saturday:
Finally the crew gets a chance to hunt the backcountry, which due to the last six weeks of chasing “Darren’s Deer”, who then apparently stole and gave to the big mean ol’ bear his coveted “troop in da hood” head warming device. (Somewhere out there is a nicely warm, well armed, big mean ol’ bear.) The classic F-troop pinch didn’t work out as planned, due to the mules having other plans and were not in the area. One last attempt to find such resulted in one flash of brown traveling by the Toucher at Mach speed, as pushed by Leaddog and Chip on the Thumb. All meets up somewhat and heads back to camp under headlamp – as planned.

Sunday:
One last attempt to find mules results in a close to camp hunt. The team splits as usual, drivers start towards their point, watchers heads for theirs. Toucher puts out seven does as usual, but no horns! During the watch climb, one shot is heard from the area of the drive. Polecat forgot his radio and is in a comm blackout! Minutes pass that turns into an hour and finally a call from Robba informs all that a real nice eight pointer was bagged, BY ANOTHER HUNTER NOT FROM F-TROOP! Yup, there in the midst of the gang was a guy dressed in tan and brown, gutting the beast. Deflating whatever spirit that was left in the crew, all heads back to camp hoping the intruder impales himself on the rack as he pulls out the beast by himself…..

Season Synopsis:
More buck sign then ever was seen, with less does being seen than ever.

Leaddog and Chip blasts away at the big mean ol’ bear, Chip needs new under-britches!

Toucher spends an eternity and two days looking for his deer.

Leaddog bags a buck(aka NUBBS), 5ptr 130lbs.

Chip bags his first Adirondack buck, thus cleaning the gene pool of inferiority with a spiker tipping the scales at a whopping 1424 ounces!

Polecat forgets his radio!

F-Troop with Chip’s Spike Horn 1424 ounces

Chip with his first buck.

Friday:
The FAMHC once again gathers to figure out where the beast of Toucher’s dreams is hiding. Toucher, was in the woods and most likely on his watch before any of the members of the esteemed club even showed up, still waited for the beast to make his presence. The gang all zeroed in on the Toucher, with not one tail being observed. Where is this mule hiding?! With eyes now all present, a watch is in order for most. Leaddog and Polecat relocates Trailhuggers old watch, with Chip sitting at the vicinity of Greenie’s Rock. Everyone else was waiting patiently when a shot is heard from the notch area. A quick response from Chip declares that “Brown is down”! Hearts stop as all waited for a report, and a small earthquake occurred and was felt by the gang – which turned out to be the Toucher, who was jumping up and down in rage because of what could have been his mule that was bagged by Chip! Fortunately that was not the case, as Chip’s mule was a huge, monster, giant….spike! Tipping the scales at almost 87 lbs, with five pounds of prime backstrap missing, the Chipster finally puts one on the walls! Yay Chip!

Leaddog and Toucher stays in the woods till dark, walking out with lamps. A fine celebration of Chips first buck was in order, not that the gang needed an excuse! 😉

Saturday:
A return to the hill in question results in not one mule being located. Scouring the mountain in the previous weeks appears to have changed the habits of the beast in question. Much sign is observed, but no maker of such is located. A subsequent drive of the other side of the creek results in a jumped mule up top by Polecat, and Digger seeing two as well. The mules seemed to have relocated operations based on the Toucher’s persistent quest on hill number one. Meanwhile the backcountry is still on hold till next week.

Sunday:
The mule has now been “rearranged” to eating sized portions by the crew. Toucher now heads back to the hill, not to look for his beast, but to find a lost item. Three other join the hunt, with everyone else vacating camp! What was seen (or not) will have to be reported by those who stayed.

Polecat and Toucher go down early!

Leaddog did it all by himself!

Leaddog even dragged it out! No Ken Doll award this year!

Southern Zone Style!

Southern Zone Style! II

Southern Zone Style! III

Woodshed

Leaddog with his 5 pointer 130 ponds

Leaddog bags buck. Details to follow…… sorry Al!

Ok, I’ll try to update but my memory is getting foggy. It must be reported that the Leaddog was in Horicon assisting the Search and Rescue efforts for the lost hunter for two days, so no official “Week Five!” report was created.

Friday:
We all hunted for Toucher’s mule – again. Toucher, in the woods at dark once more sits and see’s a doe at his watch – I think. The gang crawls throughout the lands, with no results. We can’t keep this pace as is in this location, the backcountry calls!

Saturday:
The gang hunts Toucher’s hill – again. Part two of the day results in an attack of the hill behind camp. Reluctantly, and under orders Leaddog and Steven climbs into their watches. After yet another heart pounding climb, Leaddog stumbles into his watch. Attempting to regain any type of regular breathing pattern, a mule appears to be standing 75 yards away – which looked as if it had horns! As always it’s behind a tree blocking the view. 10 minutes pass, and finally the mule steps out and begins to vacate the area. One shot is sent hitting the beast, two more follow- just because! The mule goes up a small knoll and is out of site. After a wait Leaddog follows the path taken, and there on the knoll lies the mule – who then attempted to run but couldn’t. The kill shot was delivered and Ftroop has it’s first buck of the year!

Sunday:
I honestly can’t remember what we did! But I’m sure it resulted in running around the woods aimlessly!

Snowed in grouse.

It’s all fun and games until sploosh-cat shows up!

Dr. Pork makes his yearly visit!

First Vly

Nice Scrape!

Friday:

Four Rangers and members of the FAMHC gather the eve before to make plans for the next days hunt. Those plans didn’t include the torrential downpours and high winds that all woke up to. After the warmy-changy rains ceased, all heads for the hills – which most likely included Icicle Al. 😉 The AOI was covered in fine fashion, with more scrapes and rubs being found. Steven joins the gang and sees what all have seen – nothing.

Saturday:

With eight FTroopers now present, including what was most likely and was later confirmed to be Icicle Al, the gang hunts locally. The rains and winds of the day prior have ceased, and now has turned into 3″ of winter wonder, with visibility limited to less than 75′. The ninth member of the gang was found by Digger on the hill and was reported as a “little turned around” in the snow. Yeah – sure! 😉 (it must be mentioned that Digger now holds the badge for “Most Number of Icicle Al Sightings). After pointing him the correct direction – yeah, right, sure – Digger resumes his quest for the beast. Toucher sees a doe up high, tracks abound everywhere. Dr. Pork, and “Wally-hood” who was sporting his nifty Hunger Games crossbow shows up a bit later in the day and gets into the mix! A final drive was completed and all heads back to camp. Leaddog and Steven arrives at camp first, barely in the lot when a frantic call from the Chipster was heard. Apparently a buck has just sneaked by both just 200yds from camp and goes up the hill. No shot could be taken due to Chip removing his bullets (as told) from his shootin’ iron. At the cable. Half a mile from camp. Safety first Chip! ARRGH!! LEAVE BULLETS IN GUN TILL DONE!

Sunday:

A beautiful day of warm and sun is on order, which melted most if not all of the 3″ of partly cloudy. A local drive was performed with does as usual, being pushed as usual, by the usual pushers. Steven sees two slickers down low, and all heads back to camp to quit deer hunting – until next Friday. An interloper’s tracks was observed from the day prior. Was it the “stealth ninth member” who keeps popping up of the gang? If this keeps up, we’ll have to consider charging him dues!

Sunset on marsh

Leaddog makes it across safely

Friday:

Toucher shows up in the dark, dons headlamp and works his way to the Area Of Interest (AOI). Stealthily he sneaks into the AOI, only to find to his surprise an intruder sitting in a treestand! Not to let this intruder interfere with his preplanned hunt, he makes his presence known. Leaddog shows up at graydawn and gets on the trail to assist the Toucher. Plans are rearranged, and both hunt away from said intruder, who most likely thought he had the entire woods to himself. Sorry there out of state interloper, not the case! In the following order, the members of the esteemed FAMHC attain CHU’s and remains active with said membership: Steven,Lindy, Robba and Digger, but no Polecat. In an attempt to not push any mules to the interloper the crew hunts back towards camp, with no results.

Saturday:

A strong crew is now present, and a push of a local hill is in order. Watches are manned, with drivers moving about. During the drive, a bear flies by Leaddog at 100mph, 50 yds away in the trees – who then takes two shots – just because. The bruin runs right into Chip, who offers three shots. A change of Chip’s panties was in order! Chip earns his “I found Icicle Al badge”! Part two of the day results in a push over Liz to Piney Knob. Digger and Leaddog climbs into the sky just to drop off the other side, but encounters the interloper in his tree stand on the way. Playing through his watch must have left him quite befuddled, and he also claimed via interrogation that the bear ran right under him. Polecat and company waits for the up-top crew to get up-top, then as always asks them for a hoot to locate said cloud splitters. That hoot sent a mule that was only 20 feet away in the pines from the up-top crew, down the other side. All pushes down hill to Piney Knob and closer to the beer!

Sunday:

The crew has had enough of the interlopers and decides to make its presence known. Drivers are driven to a starting point and only one vehicle is present, and does not belong to the interlopers. Feeling much better about the lack of others a big push is in order. Towards camp the highguys travel, and finds much sign. Lowguys find the tree stands unoccupied, but still left in the woods. Lowguys hunts to the low watchers, and the highguys finally runs into mules. ToucheR actually saw “horns glistening in the sun” but could not get a shot. This beast occupies a well known haunt, and will be the focus of next weeks hunt!

PRIORITY ONE, CLASS A RANGERS WILL CONVENE AT CAMP THURSDAY EVE TO READY FOR THE FRIDAY HUNT!!