Your Most Hairy Retrieve

[Mike Belt]

I used to hunt Benton County. I had to cross a narrow but deep creek headed back to where I hunted. It rained that night and froze. The creek came up to just under the log I had to cross. It took a while to negotiate my way across the ice covered log. I did so and headed back to where I hunted. Just before getting there I had to cross that same creek again. Here it was wide but not too deep...except it had rained all night and it was up to the top of it's banks up to 8 feet deep in places. I had to find me another log. I crossed over, headed to my stand, and climbed up. For the next 3 hours the bottom fell out. I was drenched to the bone. Just as it let up a little my buck came by. I shot him and he dropped on the spot. I gutted him and drug him to the edge of the creek. I'd planned on crossing my log again and dragging my buck across with my rope. The log had washed away. Hmmm now what. What the heck! I'm already soaking wet. I bailed off in the creek carrying my stand, rifle, and gear across first and then went back. I had always heard a buck would float so I grabbed a handful of antler and bailed off again. The deer took me straight to the bottom. I kept walking and made it out on the other side with my deer. I learned that day that a deer may float but not after he's been gutted.

 

[GreyGoose]

:lol:

 

[Crosshairy]

LOL Mike, good story :)

I had a creek-crossing adventure in Benton/Henry county as well (close to the line, but technically in Henry). My dad and I shot 2 deer on the other side of a creek a good ways from the truck.

We had to cross a beaver dam to get to them. We carried out gear back across, then went back for the deer, making separate trips for each one. By the time we got the second deer across, the beaver dam was crumbling apart and we nearly took a very icy bath. Great memories of a wild adventure :)

 

[WORM82]

I killed a small 4pt in the CNF that took me 6 hours to drag down hill through very steep rocky ravines and small stream beds. He rolled over me 3 times coming out of there and was almost completely hairless by the time I got him to the truck lol.

 

[DaveB]

My future BIL shot a doe and it slid down the hill to a cliff and lodged around an iron-bark tree. There was about a 30 foot fall to a mess of boulders, you would die for sure.

Took us quite some time to get to it not because the hill was steep but because it was slippery. Instead of climbing back up we went sideways until we passed the cliff, about 40 yards. That took us about an hour. Every step you had to triple check your footing.

 

[AT Hiker]

Cool thread! My hairy moments usually do not involve retrieving game, they usually start out with me walking in blind in complete darkness then come daylight figuring out how in the heck I made it in.
A few years back on some public land I killed a deer way back in a swampy area. Had to negotiate beaver ponds then cross a steep creek, luckily for me my buddy showed up to help me finish the drag out or it would have turned hairy real quick. After that trip I rarely leave home without a pack, no more dragging for me when I can quarter them up and walk them out. That trip was supposed to be a quick one, like promised the wife I would be home in time for dinner. I finally rolled in about 10pm.


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[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

Lol,I like hearing these stories

 

[catman529]

I've had some drags I'll never do again but nothing really sketchy. Keep these stories coming


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[Poleaxe]

Several years ago my buddy and I got drawn for cross creeks. We launched the boat and I got out at a random spot. I walked halfway up a big Ridge and sat down to rest. Already walked a mile. I saw a good spot on my map on my phone another 3/4 mile away. I sat down against a tree and 5 min later a doe stands up in front of me and I my doe in order to kill my buck so I drop her. While watching several other does feed a nice 7pt walks right up to me and I drop him right at dark. I gut em both strap my harness around them and attempt to call my buddy. No answer. Tried 6 times for help. So here I go with a dead flashlight, pack, 2 deer and gun. The first 3/4 mile was uphill. The next half mile was level dropping off the last half mile. My sole called "buddy" emerged 30yrds from the bank trying to help. I told him don't even touch it. Don't think I've ever been so dehydrated.

 

[csi-tech]

In 2010 I was getting ready to climb down from my stand after watching only does all morning. It was a warm November muzzleloader hunt in Northern Giles County. I have a Big Dog roof for my stand and it has a frame. I was wondering how good it would serve as a rest to enable more accurate, steady shots with my NEF Sidekick smokepole. I stood up, rested it and immediately realized it would work quite well. At that exact moment I caught movement coming out of the woods to my left. (I always keep both eyes open) I saw a buck with a massive body and lots of rack step out where those does had been earlier. I remember thinking how small the does were in my reticle and wondering how I could possibly miss this brute. At 155 yards I had to almost yell to stop him and when he did, I steadied my rifle on the roof frame, accounted for the bullet drop and rested the crosshairs high on his shoulder and fired. He turned and ran back into the woods.

The blood trail consisted of two small drops. I was getting very concerned. As we walked (with permission) onto an adjoining property. The trail ended at a sheer cliff that was every bit of 20' high. We looked left, looked right, no more blood. My heart sunk until my buddy said "Ummm....." pointing at the trees past the cliff. Blood was dripping off of the limbs left and right. Then he said "And there he is!" way down a hillside. He had run straight off the cliff, down into the leaf litter below. A coyote was hovering over him and staring straight at us. He abandoned the kill as I climbed down with a great deal of help. I was worried that his rack would have been busted up by the fall but I immediately recognized him as the biggest deer I had ever gotten on a trail camera and he had been on the lease his whole life. I had to drag him (he dragged me) to the bottom of that steep hill as my friend drove his Dodge 4X4 into that valley pointing almost straight down. We spun tires climbing out but it was worth every breath!

 

[csi-tech]

Several years ago my buddy and I got drawn for cross creeks. We launched the boat and I got out at a random spot. I walked halfway up a big Ridge and sat down to rest. Already walked a mile. I saw a good spot on my map on my phone another 3/4 mile away. I sat down against a tree and 5 min later a doe stands up in front of me and I my doe in order to kill my buck so I drop her. While watching several other does feed a nice 7pt walks right up to me and I drop him right at dark. I gut em both strap my harness around them and attempt to call my buddy. No answer. Tried 6 times for help. So here I go with a dead flashlight, pack, 2 deer and gun. The first 3/4 mile was uphill. The next half mile was level dropping off the last half mile. My sole called "buddy" emerged 30yrds from the bank trying to help. I told him don't even touch it. Don't think I've ever been so dehydrated.

Wow, just.....wow.

 

[Hunter 257W]

My worst adventure doesn't quite rank up there with most of these but it still wore me out. Years ago I had a hunt at AEDC and it was when they had just started allowing does to be shot, so I figured with deer everywhere, and does as fair game, I'd walk the fire lanes and roads in the old barracks areas rather than just sit and be bored waiting on a deer to come to me. Well, I parked on Wattendorf over near the Tullahoma side of the base and headed out through the woods. I kept going and going, when I'd get to a T, I'd randomly take a turn and keep on. When I'd gotten several miles from the truck, a doe ran out in front of me and I whacked it with a slug. All of a sudden, the distance I'd walked started to come back to me. Also I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to the exact route I'd taken. I knew I could get back to my truck but I sure didn't know how to go straight to it. :) I didn't have a drag or cart, but I did have a few twine strings from hay bales, so I tied one around the doe's neck and started out. By the time I got to the truck, all the hair on her shoulder and belly was gone and I was worn out. I had a hard time managing the clutch pedal in the truck on the way home!

 

[Mike Belt]

This one doesn't rank up there with hairy retrieves but rather sloppy retrieves. My first deer hunt with my ex cousin. I killed a deer and we decided to carry it out on a pole. We cut a sapling and strapped the deer on by it's hind feet and front feet and each of us threw an end of the sapling on our shoulder and away we went. I was in the front and my cousin was in the back. As we walked the deer swayed back and forth and would get to swaying faster and faster the more we walked. We finally stopped to take a break and when I turned around and looked back at my cousin I broke out into hysterical laughter because he was literally drenched in blood from head to toe. There wasn't a white spot left on his face. Turnabout was fair play so I got the tail end for the second half of the march and I ended up the same way. Needless to say that was a first and last.

 

[gtk]

killed an elk on the upper part of a mountain one morn, and the rest of the herd ran down the mountain and up the other side. where my buddy dropped another elk out of the herd..

one of the guys i went with brought his polaris side-by-side, and after quartering & fooling with the other guys elk all morn, he said he would just "drive" to mine.. with some creative driving, he made it to the elk, and it was some kind of hairy coming out with two bull elk and 4 hunters.. Two of us literally had to hang off the side-by-side on the uphill side, to keep it from flipping down the mountain.