While elk hunting in a remote dark canyon, I was down in some lodgepole deadfall. I jumped off one and landed square on a bear trap, buried in the pine duff. A giant old #5 Newhouse with teeth on the jaws, chain wired to a rotted tree and the rest of the old cubby rotted as well. The trap was about a hundred years old, and had probably been set by a sheep herder in the 40's or 50's.

Lots of reading material here. Kind of hard to believe all of it, but not sure how these stories could be made up either.
Especially when they find deceased bodies and have autopsy reports like they do.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.re...ch_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/

I think I've read thru this thread 10 times over the years....I'll hit 11 by the weekend....great stuff...just wish I had something unusual to contribute...

Lots of reading material here. Kind of hard to believe all of it, but not sure how these stories could be made up either.
Especially when they find deceased bodies and have autopsy reports like they do.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.re...ch_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/

Lots of reading material here. Kind of hard to believe all of it, but not sure how these stories could be made up either.
Especially when they find deceased bodies and have autopsy reports like they do.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.re...ch_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/

Man, imagine having a buddy read these and then throwing a stair case in their backyard!

Three years ago, I was watching a couple of my Mojo dove decoys and wondering if anything would fly by. It had been slow, but I was comfortable, the sky was clear and I was in the shade just staring at the spinning wings on the decoys and wondering how anything could resist them.

Then I saw a dark streak coming from the sky so fast I couldn't tell what it was. The next second, one of my decoys tumbled to the ground and a groggy hawk got up and started walking towards the other one.

I guess the one he hit was too tough.

I kick myself again for not having a GoPro capturing the action.

what type of rock is that??? looks like flint that has been flaked ...

your picture of a well brought up a memory for me from a lease in Llano county circa mid 1960s. out in the middle of a mesquite flat was an old well similar to what your picture shows with several very large old pear trees in the area but no sign of any old house or foundation, barns, pens, etc. And the pears were awesome and was a built in deer feeder when the fruit started to drop. The well was fairly deep based on rock tossed in & listening for the ker-plunk into the water. There is no telling how many deer carcasses made their way into that old well ...

Not unusual but cool as I can't remember seeing an owl out there even though we hear them nonstop. Opening day last week on our place this guy landed next to my buddy. Don't see that happen too often. Someone needs to mow as well. Hell it being this green in September is unusual. Few years ago all those oaks would be burned up by now.

Not hunting related but, here goes. After my Grandparents moved to assisted living, Dad and I were cleaning out the drawers at their home, among other things. I came across a gold plated pocket watch that was given to Grandad by my Grandmother. It was polished smooth but the gold plate was worn off.

Seems she had given this to him as a wedding gift, my Dad explained. The watch had a picture of my Mimi tucked inside the cover. WW2 had just started and Grandad was shipped overseas. He got caught behind German lines on a recon mission. Knowing that anything of value would be stripped from him, he made a tough decision. He would hide the watch up in his rectum. The GIs were marched into a detention camp 20 odd kilometers away, a very long way to go with a foreign object up your tooter. At least he knew Mimi was warm and secure. After the fall of the Third Reich he was carried back to the states. He wasn't doing well, due to not going to the bathroom for weeks.

He drank Milk of magnesia and the rumbling began. He screamed, "Katie bar the door", as he lunged for the toilet. After the explosion and the smoke cleared, he came out of the bathroom grinning like a Cheshire cat.. he was holding 6 gold nuggets. Largest the size of a gumball, smallest the size of a "big Mo" #4 pencil eraser. Doctors told us later that the gold plate combined with heat and pressure had created a metallurgical alchemy not unlike that of a grain of sand irritating an oyster to create a beautiful pearl.

They used the proceeds from the gold to pay cash for their first home in the "M" street neighborhood of Dallas. Paid $4800 in 1946. The appraisal this year on that home is close to 500k. RKO pictures made a documentary about my Granddad called, "G I time traveler", the untold story of 'Choc' Sanders. Errol Flynn played my Grandpa. Anyhow, I can't wait to tell my Grandkids about it when they're old enough to understand. That man was full of metal, error, mettle, rather.