Wassaw 2008

[tsubaki]

Well we once again tempted fate at hunting whitetail deer on a barrier island.
This is the first thread for you that want to catch up.
http://www.wellcraftv20.com/community/showthread.php?t=5467&highlight=WASSAWAs
As mentioned in the previous thread this type of hunting is not without peril.
Not to forget the heat, cold, rain, rattlesnakes, sandgnats, mosquitoes, poor boating weather or God forbid having boat problems.
See, you must bring everything that you may need to survive for 4 days and nights, and to hunt with primitive weapons. This does mean all food, water and all camp materials you can tote. The only thing afforded to you is the use of the deer cooler to keep the harvest from rotting, everything else, you***8217;re on your own. If you wish to shower, bring such needed stuff, bathe in the river or go without.
This trip the temperatures ranged from 44 to 78 degrees, all in all very pleasant. No thunderstorms, or tropical influences to aggravate us.
We started the first day loading my neighbors boat, first sign of trouble was the batteries acting dead. After cleaning the terminals we are on our way. About half way to the boat ramp his alternator light comes on, I tell him lets go back and check it out. Well, bad alternator so we use my old truck to pull the boat hobo***8217;s to the ramp.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/2007-1.jpgAfter leaving the ramp we noticed the boat wanted to list excessively on either side as if full of water, well we knew that wasn***8217;t possible and thought it was the amount of weight we loaded in it.
After about a 30-45 minute ride to the islands dock, we unloaded, anchored the boat (you are expected to stream anchor) pitched camp and headed to find a suitable hunting location. Naturally I want to go as far from other hunters as possible, so here we go on a 3 ¼ mile trek. Finding a couple of good possibilities for deer we put the stands up and returned to camp (no hunting allowed on the first day).
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While at the prehunt meeting, I kept staring at the boat. One of the game wardens came up behind me and whispered ***8220;is it supposed to float like that?***8221; After telling him ***8220;no***8221; he volunteered to take me to it to see what the problem was. Getting to the boat we could see water was almost 4***8221; from the top of the transom, we got a leak! The boat is too full to run it out with the motor, so I just crank it up and let the bilge run (non automatic) for about an hour till we found the source.
Apparently, during the installation process, they pulled the hose for the bait tank tight and it took till now (as fate would have it) to break the barbed fitting off the pump. Being below the water line it quickly filled the inner bottom and deck with water. After removing the hose and having just enough to reconnect to the broken pump we figured it was best to beach it till we were comfortable with the ***8220;repair***8221;.
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[tsubaki]

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/2008-6.jpg
You do the math, first day 3 ¼ miles there 3 ¼ miles back , second day we did it twice in order to eat lunch at camp and check the boat, third day we decided to come back to camp to eat, check the boat and find something closer that actually had deer (so far no deer and we’re up to 26 miles of exercise). Which we did, only 1 mile from camp but in the opposite direction. You are expected to be on your stand and not move at certain hours, in order to conform we didn’t have much time. I found a place that looked promising but the only problem was having to sit on the ground, there were no decent trees to climb. Now out of time I just sat and laid back against an oak tree dropping acorns on me.
After about an hour, this 8 point eases by at about 25 yards and across a lagoon (naturally), I shoot and could see across the smokepoles cloud that he was hit. Being worried from losing another deer a couple of weeks ago, I thought it best to retrieve him immediately. Wading *** deep in the lagoon, I then thought of the nice gators and snakes I have seen here, got him and drug him back to my tree. I’ll be if less than 30 minutes later a doe walked the same place, I figured I done tempted fate enough and let her go. About another 30 minutes went by and a doe walked within 21 FEET next to me, well yes she got shot!
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/2008-9.jpgNext morning, figured it wouldn’t hurt trying it again, same place. Sure nuff had a doe and yearling feed to within 25 FEET of me. I couldn’t help it letting them go also.
We didn’t hunt the last days afternoon hunt for having to get the boat off the bottom, low tide was going to be all morning long the next day and we HAD to be gone before 12pm.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/2008-7.jpg
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/2008-8.jpg
All in all a great hunt, we returned not only alive but intact and scored (this time). The neighbor will have an automatic bilge pump and a way to preclude the bait pump before the boat leaves the yard again!!
Total hunters 30
Deer kill 17
Largest deer 114lbs 8pt

[tsubaki]

Bike carts
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/2008-3.jpg
Shower
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/2008-4.jpg
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/2008-18.jpg
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/2008-16.jpg

[bradford]

Great post and pics! Should have taken the trusty V though and saved yourself all those headaches. Goodwill was throwing out one of those bike carts, but I got there too late. What kind of fire sticks ya'll shootin'?

[tsubaki]

Took a CVA St Louis Hawken for backup.
I had a CVA MagBolt 150, neighbor had a CVA Hunter Bolt.
All shooting sabots with .4295 Hornady 180gr XTP
Don't know why they call it "primitive" when in-lines, scopes and compounds can be used.
Ought to be percussion, flint, sidelocks, and long or recurve.
At least they won't allow crossbows but then again they are about as primitive as you can get!

It was a toss of the coin to take the V, maybe in a couple of weeks at the gun hunt.

[willy]

Nice job, never been on a hunt in terrain like that, pretty cool

[CaptJJ]

Great pics, always wanted to get into hunting. Looks like it coul get expensive.

[CaptJJ]

A professor at the University of Minnesota was giving a lecture on 'Involuntary Muscular Contractions' to his first year medical students.

Realizing this was not the most riveting subject, the professor decided to lighten the mood slightly. He pointed to a young woman in the front row and said, 'Do you know what your a$$hole is doing while you're having an orgasm?'

She replied, 'Probably deer hunting with his buddies.'

It took 45 minutes to restore order in the classroom....

[tsubaki]

willy, hopefully, during the gun hunt I will remember to take the camera while actually hunting. Those were taken at the camp the last day before leaving.
Besides the marsh, beach, tide differences to over 9 foot, sand dunes up to 30 foot, cactus, sandspures, palm trees and palmettos, those are a few more things that make it "different" hunting there.

[chumbucket]

Cool trip. Nice going. :clap:

[fishingwithblue]

I just camped on Petite Gauke Island Hammock a couple weekends ago. It was beautiful. We cruised up the ICW from St. Cats during the day. It was a great trip. Those barrier islands we have are amazing. How would one go about getting to hunt Wassaw? I'm trying to get on Ossabaw......I have never hunted on either.:beer:

[tsubaki]

blue, there is a 2 year (+) waiting list for Ossabaw, Wassaw quota is a roll of the dice. Applications start in August. Ossabaw is State, Wassaw is Federal (two completely different animals).
The primitive weapons hunt on Wassaw is "walk on", I suggest you try it (with the option to leave early as most new commers do) to see if you want to apply for the gun hunt.
Wassaw has an uncaney ability of very quickly adding certain repeat visitors and even quicker breaking others from ever comming back. THIS IS NOT AN EASY HUNT!
If you really want to pursue this for next year, let me know. I probably can't be more complete and direct than in these two threads.

[fishingwithblue]

I need to re-read your first post, thanks

[tsubaki]

Finally getting to post about the gun hunt 12/11-13.
You are allowed to arrive the day before and must leave before 12 noon Sunday.
Ended up dragging the V (with It's old partner) to the ramp.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/truck002.jpg
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[tsubaki]

A couple of pictures from the stand of how the islands interior looked after a fire last year.
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[tsubaki]

And a lagoon shot with a resident.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/truck014.jpg
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[tsubaki]

The amount of crap in the boat for the 5 day event.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/truck020.jpg
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/truck018.jpg

[tsubaki]

V nestled snuggle y in her bed.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/truck006.jpg
And a nice moon for the whole event!
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/truck004.jpg

[tsubaki]

This hunt was one for the record books (to quote the resident manager).
Out of 100 accepted applicants, only 60 (or so) bothered to pay for the permits. Of them only 30 or so showed up.
There are a certain number of deer that are needed to be removed each year in order to maintain the herds general overall health and the islands holding capability.
This hunt produced 11 deer. For the year, about 70 needed to be harvested.
Well bad weather should have been the major contributing factor. Rain on the first day of arrival and then promised rain the first day of the hunt.
Followed with temperatures from 33 to 70 for the whole hunt, not to mention the wind. 15 to 25 the whole time starting from the SW then finishing from the NE.
The cutest thing was the mini hurricane that came thru Thursday night at 10pm, dropped the barometer to 29.6. I swear the winds were between 50 and 55 mph from 10 to 11:30, but can only confirm 47 mph. Imagine camping in that!!
Well our camp didn't scale, but we survived.

[tsubaki]

Forgot to mention. The V got the pleasure because my neighbors boat ended up with a bad starter (covered under warranty) and is sitting in Bass Pro's yard for that, the busted pump and various repairs.
The islands generator for the managers residence and the cooler went out also Thursday night, so he had to ruff it too.
We had to abandon a trio of hunters in their boat at the dock when leaving Sunday. Their motor failed to start, we tried everything, even gave them my batteries to try to start the engine to no avail. Our boat (as was everyone elses) was so loaded we wouldn't be able to tow them the 15 miles to the nearest ramp.
THIS IS NOT AN EASY HUNT!!

[willy]

wow Tsubaki look at the pics from my weeked in PA and look at yours, how extremely different. But both beautiful

[fishingwithblue]

I have already let it be known throughout my house I will be attending this hunt(the primitive one anyway) next year with no exceptions! I'm really excited....did you guys quarter and ice the deer when the cooler went down? Any hog sign?

I've never been the "drop me off at my stand" hunters....I think hunts like this make you a better hunter.

Thanks for these awsome post.......I reread the old Wassaw post once a week. Damn it's good to be back on the coast.

[tsubaki]

Neighbor came up with a couple of more pictures.

The storm front that snuck up on us and NOAA.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/huntingdanny001.jpg
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V
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/huntingdanny005.jpg

[tsubaki]

Beachfront and others.
http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/tsubaki3/huntingdanny022.jpg
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