Deer Camp Traditions

[love to hunt]

Just for fun, what are some of the traditions you guys have at your deer camps.

Some of the things we do are:

1) Chilli for supper the night before opener

2) Always have a camp fire on Saturday evening

3) I always cook breakfast

4) My dad and I take a drive every year up to our favorite trail for a walk.

5) Mom always sends a kettle of beef stew, enough to feed the whole county.

6) In the shell peanuts are guarenteed to make an appearance in the shack.

These are just some of the things we do and have done for years.

Lets hear your stories.

[harvey lee]

I hunt out of state with some friends from Mn and North Dakota.

1-Everyone meets at the house Friday morning for breakfest and then we hunt at noon.

2-After the 1st day we talk about the past years with a few barley pops and my wife makes a pheasant supper with a few hor-durves{spelling}.

3-Second day-same thing except backstraps for supper.

4-Hopefully on Sunday we all watch the football game and talk about the weekend with more food and munchies from my wife.

A great time and a great wife.

I always hunt where my father use to hunt when he was still with us.

[BobT]

Our most significant tradition is that when a deer is taken, the shooter always gets the inside tender loins. That's not all bad because it is also our tradition that we cook them up for dinner that night. Yumm

Bob

[Rost]

When a young hunter in our group takes his/her first buck they must carry the jewels in their pocket the rest of the day. My sister wasn't even excluded from this ritual

[harvey lee]

She was only carring a new coin purse tell her.

[smg04]

every year during the 3b slug season saterday night is spent at stumpys in rushford for some burgers and beers

[MNmikew]

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every year during the 3b slug season saterday night is spent at stumpys in rushford for some burgers and beers

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Ahh, Stumpys. I hunted 3b several years ago and we too would frequent "the stump". I now hunt both northern Wisconsin and Minnesota so I have too many traditions to list.

[colonel42]

Who put traditions next to each other Opps sorry about that. Ah yes the traditions of deer season where do you begin?? Friday nights are the best. Steak dinner (you always buy your own so you get what you want) Upnorth that means a quick stop at F&D meats. Best in the state in my books. They season it like it should be done. Everyone that hunts brings out their special dish from home made salsa, grouse and wild rice hotdish, chili you name it. After a good dinner then a good ol relax by the outside fire pit and enjoy a few cocktail and lots of BS'en. By nine we are off on the wheelers visiting about four other hunting parties near by and just adding to the BS'en. Usually back by 11 and sit by the fire for last call and off to bed and try to fall a sleep. Oh what a night I can't wait until November 3rd. Happy hunting to all and to all good luck.

[perchking]

Cribbage, girly mags, Bombay Saphire Gin, Budweiser, and ahhh yes NO CELL PHONES...

[deepportage01]

We only have 2 traditions.

If you were the guy with the biggest buck last year you can count on a few things like, a big Xmas plastic Santa in one of your shooting lanes or a blow up doll in your stand

#2 When you shoot a deer you have to take a shot out of the boob glass that night before diner. it never gets old

Good topic L2H

[GerrySchoolcraft]

We have a tradition if you shoot a deer you have to take a shot out of the never ending bottle. It consists of all the left over booze from years past, knowbody really knows whats in it. Dad and I have a tradition putting up the wall tent every year, we yell and argue for 2 hours while my wife laughs at us and calls us idiots. We get done have a few drinks and laugh. 3 more weeks and it will be up, cannot wait.

[BuckRuttinFool]

First night is always a bottle of crown royal, a mean match of texas holdem , and the christmas edition of playboy.

[bigbucks]

We don't have a camp, as we all hunt around home. Our traditions are go find the deer I shot with my bow that night when my brother & brother-in-law roll in around supper time, or look at the deer I shot in the last day or two (usually). BS about the bowhunting & sightings from the last few days. Have supper all together as a family. Pretty tame, but still a good time. We always sit until around 10am opening day & then meet at the pickups to organize the first drive of the day & talk smart about who's already shot what.

[nitroant]

Well, lets see. I guess it starts in October for us

MEA Weekend- Anybody who can goes up the shack and we make sure the shack is still standing and in good shape. Check what is there for supplies (varies each year depending on how many snowmobile trips we make, don't want to run out of poop paper!!)We check on how much land was logged the past year and check all the stands to make sure they are safe and trim a few branches here and there if it needs it. We usually loose a stand or two a year to logging so we either move those or put up a few new ones where the loggers uncovered a good area. Cut a load of wood to be ready for next year. And if there is time we hunt a little grouse. Its also a chance for those under the age of 12 to get up there and see what its all about. Nobody under the age of 12 at deer camp. Thats a tradition right there all on its own.

Friday Night Before Opener- Dad and I make it to the shack by about 2:00 p.m. Get the shack open, get a fire going, stake out out beds (nobody wants to sleep by Ron, he keeps you up all night with his snoring and always sleeps in the same bunk) Get our gear ready for the morning and load in any foods that we have. As the day goes on more and more show up and and by the end of the night the bunks fill in toward Ron and the shelves are full of a weeks worth of food(well, we eat it all in a week, but really it probably enough food for 2-3 weeks). The topo maps come out and some aerial photos too. Anybody who was not around for MEA gets filled in on where the logging activity was and what stands are moved and where the new ones are. People start talking about what stand they are going to in the morning. Earl is starting to organize his kitchen and get ready for the first nights meal. I guess we drink a few beers during all this too. Opening morning comes and all hell breaks loose. Pancakes,bacon and coffee fill the air, oh and Earl's cigarette smoke. As the week goes on some leave for home others come up, some of us stay all week. We go into town and shower on Wednesday. Along they way we even pick up a few deer. The loins go into a bucket to be saved for the second Saturday nights final meal. We have a bonfire that night too. We don't have too many rituals for the young guys, well, except maybe to do the dishes!!! Not the greatest of traditions, but the same things happen every year, so I guess that makes it tradition. I look forward to it every year, but I also look forward to coming home to running water, daily showers and electric lights. 9 days in a 20' x 20' shack with 12 other guys can get to you, but I still would not miss it for the world.

[love to hunt]

Great read buddy, well done.

Totally captures the deer camp experience.

[89Bronco]

Opening weekend we usually have a wild game meal, pot-luck style, on Saturday night. Then either that weekend or the second weekend the people who are still around will head up to The Wooden Table for some beverages of choice....

And the sauna's always on! (SOW'-na)

[mntraveler]

There's not too many people yet around with the CORRECT pronunceation for sauna.

[Bad Catcher]

I have only been in camp once. This year is my second year, But the stories that the guys tell are great. We go up around MEA to check stands or build new ones with the young "Bucks". Then first rifle weekend is our time. Evening meals are the best, steaks, chops or fresh loins. Field and Stream has a nice "Deer Camp" article this month.

[jbdragon17]

Ours starts with a grouse hunt/deer stand weekend (only two weeks till we go for that).

Most of us leave Friday morning before opener to get there before dark, and start organizing our gear. Nice to get there in the light.

One meal tradition seems to be biscuits and gravy on the first Sat about noon. Then the gravy ends up on everything for the rest of the weekend.

LOTS of smack talking, a few wrestling matches, and the regular decision of who is going where in the morning. Oh yeah… A lot of "remember last year when so and so did that?"

[Blaze]

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...and the regular decision of who is going where in the morning.

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This conversation always makes me nuts. Nobody wants to claim a stand, but they all *subconsciously* want the same one - the one the monster was shot out of last year!

The decision is never made the night before - we'll all be standing in our blaze, checking clips and shells, and someone will bring it up again. Finally one guy says, "Well, guess I'll take the buck snort stand on balsam point" and 3 other guys groan and say "that's the one I was thinkin' about." Then the claiming goes on like an auction, everyone snaggin' a good stand til they're all taken...and the bucks are standing next to the shack when we come in from our stands anyway! Hah!

[KOTTKE]

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There's not too many people yet around with the CORRECT pronunceation for sauna.

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you said it, nothing says deer camp than a true finlander sauna, complete with a dip in lake vermilion regardless of ice,

and of course poker, poker, and more poker!!!!

[LundExplorer]

My grandma made a sign for our sauna on Vermilion... it says: Sow'-na NOT Saw-na!

[Jeremiah Johnson]

we set up the shack with the food, bunks, batteries for power, tp in the outhouse, guns, water. Then we go out grouse hunting/deer scouting. After that, we have a walleye fish fry, just delicious, have a couple beers, play some quarters, then hit the sack and eat a egg/bacon breakfast then chase da turdy pointer!

[jerk bait]

On the way North we stop at Shamps for lunch of free samples. Pickled turkey gizzards,smoked oysters,prime rib[blue haze in the air the next day]. "Woodpecker" in the tree after gutting a buck. Crown Royal, lots of beer, EJ, Pep schnapps. Friday party, Saturday am hangover[ not as bad as years past]. Saturday afternoon nap. Dump mice out of the bucket/antifreeze trap. Poker, lucky new guy usually wins. Somebody usually brings a comedy CD we listen during the Friday night bonfire. Tenderloins for dinner. I know I'm rambling I'm just typing as things come to mind.

[Bassboy1645]

We always apply for state parks and so far we have been drawn four years in a row... we hunt all over the state never the same place twice usually. so our only traditon is a good day or 2 in mid october scouting and pouring over maps, a walk in the park even if its more of climb up a cliff( Winona) or fall in the swamp( O'brien). The other only real traditon is nobody sleeps, grandpa brings and carries as he hunts 7 boxes of slugs, and we all BS matt about the wrong shells he bought for his bro 4 yrs ago now. OH AND STORIES!!!!!! No beer and we sit from about 330am until shooting light ends....call us crazy if u will but we mow the deer over.

[Johnny_Namakan]

I can't believe it's only 4 weeks away now, Yippie!!! Deer camp traditions, eh? Where do I start? First and foremost, the number one tradition/rule is, "What's said at the shack, stays at the shack!" We make the younger hunters wear earplugs all night. Our traditions have changed slightly over the past couple years, but still remain in large part the same. Our camp cook and head BS'er died a couple years ago, so we're all still getting used to the change, but we know he's there in spirit. Our whole group goes up on Thursday nights now, just can't wait until Friday. In a few years I bet it'll be the Tuesday before opener. We play a card game that started with my great grandpa back in the 50's and continues to this day called Bridge-Smear (sp?). It's like Bridge and Smear combined. Lots and Lots of argueing (in a good way) caused by this game though. Then Friday we all hop on the wheelers and cruise around BSing with other hunters. Then Friday we hit the hay early for Saturday's hunt. Since we don't go to bed until around 4 a.m. on Thursday we have no problem crashing early Friday. Then Saturday night we all kick back, eat like Kings, and tell lies. Nothing better than Deer Camp.

[No_Net]

We have a couple of traditions. The first is we all get to camp thursday or friday. We always do a lot of pheasant hunting the day before shot my biggest pheasant last year on the friday before deer opener 25 3/4in tail feathers. Always looking for deer to. Thats when we see the big one FIGURES We all go to a bar and eat and celebrate my uncles birthday(his land we hunt). Then hit the beds early. get up early saturday morning have breakfast and head out to the stands. Every year changes a little to.

[onthefly]

Playing Uno (with young cousins) in an old pop-up camper until we're all sleeping at the table!

[MNmikew]

Ok, so what is the "bucket/antifreeze trap" ? The lil buggers kept cleaning off my traps last weekend.

[fishnhooks]

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