Camp Traditions

[BuschPilot]

So whats your camp traditions? meals, fun time, work at camp etc.......lets see what you all do.

[jbdragon17]

Biscuits and Gravy... It's all about the food!!

[Nate McVey]

Jim Beam, High Life, Cribbage and Euchre!

[Coach1310]

Not a tradition per say, but the reason we all go.

Time without the everyday noise. Sitting around the fire. Being excited by the snap of a twig or that shadow that slowly show up at first light...when you keep convincing yourself its a deer's head, or nose or ear and its always the same tree or bush, good times with family and friends, reminiscing about the past hunts. Telling the same old stories that started as a spike and now is a 12 with double drop tines. Paying tribute to those no longer able to hunt. Not traditions, but the nuts and bolts behind it all. What about the deer.... even if there weren't any you would still go....you know it

[Scott K]

Eat, Drink, and shoot Deer! Its all about having a good time, getting away from work, and enjoying the quiet outdoors. Until bang...bang...bang... then its your heart is pumping your ears are ringing. Cant wait!

[Shack]

At grouse camp in late Nov., early Dec. our tradition is on the 3rd or forth day of camp, jump into lake with bar of soap and clean your self off. I have never felt so bad, but felt so good after this. It gives the trip a new start, or if you do it at sunset you sleep like a baby.

Also we find a nail in a tree kind of back aways from camp site we hang keys to the truck on during trip! Its been there for years and just a cool thing to find and remember every year.

[Harmonica Bear]

The biggest tradition at our place is the first ones there have to "set the camp to right" That means, opening all the shutters, starting the wood stove, unlock everthing, sweep the deck, get the chairs set up, get wood in the fire pit, start fire if necessary to create the right deer camp ambiance for those yet to arrive. You don't do anything, well maybe crack one beer, before the camp is set to right.

[Eye Slayer]

Buck Bottle

Everyone in camp brings what has become known as a 'buck bottle' - a bottle of booze of the shooter's choice. When that person tags a deer, they have to buy a round of drinks for everyone that helps them drag, clean, haul, weigh, and register their deer.

Food and Cleanup

Each person takes a day of deer camp where they are responsible for all the food and food cleanup for that day. It's a pretty good setup because it spreads the work around and once your day of cooking is done, you can coast through camp with ease!

Camp Opening

Opening of deer camp typically involved a couple games of euchre and a couple cans of High Life Light. Once everyone is in camp, we watch "Escanaba in Da Moonlight" and fire up "The Turdy Point Buck" to get psyched up right before lights out. No one sleeps that first night!

[bigdog]

Getting up tired, pulling on the long underwear and heavy socks, lacing up the Sorels and then remembering you forgot to put on your outer pants.

[colonel42]

close friends and family, camp fire, and stories. Couple bevies and the stories get better and better. After hunting with the same people for 20 plus years it is always great to meet up the Friday of opener and bring up the past. We alway make a trip down the road to a hunting shack of other friends and toast the new season. One of the best traditions is getting back to the camp on Saturday night and hearing all the stories of the first days hunt. Every one enjoy and be safe.

[101winchester]

Thursday night bonfire, Friday recovery. Oyster Stew and Hamms beer. Duck soup for lunch. Monday night Surf & Turf (Steak & Walleye)

[livintofish]

Get into camp on Fri and time to go to work, theres a lot of preparation for a big group when you hunt outa a old log cabin that dates back generations....first stock the wood and get a good fire going, get all the gear out and ready for the mornings hunt, and greet family and friends as the arrive, there is a buzz of anxiousness in the air as we all tell one another how were gonna get that big bruiser. Once camp is under control head out to the bar for a hearty pre-hunt meal, and socializing. Here we sit and go through a book of past years hunts, and what people saw, and shot, reliving those great memories and getting pumped up for whats to come. We get back to the cabin, check and double check that everything is in order for the 5 am walk. Trying to sleep the night before opener.....impossible...

[northerndave]

in the old camp there were several. alot of them I think I am guilty of starting, but not all of em.

Goofy things:

The shame stick, shame stick is a large stick hanging on the wall with a few raven feathers, a coyote tail & some other junk tied to the end of the stick. If you shoot & miss a deer or lose a deer (even worse) you get "shamed" with the shame stick, which involves no clubbing or smacking, just some shame stick shaking with some shame ranting.

Buck money, we put a dollar each into a buck box every night until someone shots a buck, there have been years were nobody cashes out till the next year.

mongolian warlord dager, rediculous costume type knife ordered out of "cheaper than dirt" as a gag, you shoot a nice buck & you have to surrender your actual hunting knife & wear the stupid warlord dager, very embarassing, even more so when you wear the blaze orange sombraro hat with it...

steak night is night before opener, BYOS, cooked over charcoal.

Wood fired sauna, everyone likes a sauna after a cold day of hunting, come out of there like a boiled chicken, sleep like a baby.

[UdeLakeTom]

My neice owns a Carbone's....on opening weekend, she brings up a hunters request for us. Pre-cooked. Mine is a garbage pizza that is about 3 inches thick. A small one takes me 2 meals to eat it.

[Grant Pearson]

part of the tradition at deer camp for me is having 3 generations (4th generation due November 13th) of hunters getting together, doing a little catching up over cribbage and drinks while doing a little ribbing and bragging. Also, first person in camp has to open up all the stands, cabin, etc. Second person in is usually designated camp cook. Also, anyone shooting a button buck puts $20 into a jar and must tag with their buck tag. The person who shot the biggest (by weight) deer gets any money in the jar.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

we dont have a "camp" but the weekend pretty much goes like this:

friday-take the day off scout in the am. get all the gear sorted out for me and my brother. clean the guns, hang the blaze out on the line to air out, go to the grocery store and the liqour store. friday evening we meet up with the other guys and pile into a suburban and drive around and glass likely spots to sit. friday night stand around in the machine shed and discuss weather, whos sitting where, where we meet to do first post and drive, whos land we have permission for, etc.

saturday: hunt

sunday: hunt

monday: skin cut process deer meat. we reduce all our meat to chops and trim. we bought a commercial vaccum sealer and package our chops in 1.25lb bags. all the day while cutting, we keep the grille going and feast on baby straps.

[Walleye Guy]

Old stories, Mich Golden Light (Friday evening), Jim Beam (Saturday evening), Cribbage. Saturday's dinner is always venison tenderloins sauteed with butter and mushrooms and homemade beer cheese soup.

Monday is usually the night we cut up deer while watching Monday Night Football.

[B@ssmaster]

Our "camp" is a little more laid back, just my father, my son and myself. The Friday before we have somehow evolved into a tradition of having a brew and watching "Ahnold" in "Predator". Makes you glance at the tree tops on occasion the next morning, just to be sure.........

[papabear]

The camp I hunted as a kid the kids chopped the wood, cleaned the dishes, poured the beer, and gutted the deer. All the adults had to take their turn when they were kids.

Sometimes the kids could trick one of the old guys itno chopping the wood by saying they didnt know how and show me over and over agian.

Fines for farting at the table, spilling beer, missing a deer,etc.

[iffwalleyes]

Sat Night supper

Chicken

Stove Top Stuffing

Twice bake taters

Pie

And Vension Tender Loins