112-5-2011 Mon

12-5-2011 Mon
6:45 AM – 4:00 PM
Weather: NW10, fog/mist, 25˚, 30.39 rising, and one inch of snow cover (1153)
Location: Mississippi river bottom closed areas, Onalaska WI
Bagged: nothing
Partners: Dick

Comments

Duck season closed yesterday and the muzzleloader season was still open, so that meant we could hunt the refuge closed areas today. In past years we use to hunt the Tiffany Wildlife Area near Nelson, Wisconsin, but the Fish and Wildlife Service had changed the closed area boundaries and now that area is an open hunting area.
The start of the hunt did not go well. I was taking the airboat and we could not get the boat off the trailer in the wee hours of the morning. So, I positioned the trailer on a slope where we would have the help of gravity slide the boat off the trailer. The first little push from Dick and I did move the boat about an inch. Well from past experiences I knew the boat would now roll off easily since we had moved it ever so slightly. This is where the trouble started.
I went to remove the safety chain that prevents the boat from coming off the trailer in case the trailer winch fails. Well, I failed to tell Dick that he did not have to push anymore and as I was about to remove the chain he gave the boat another all you can give push. This last push spelled disaster for my right little finger. The boat now easily slid backwards, but unfortunately my little finger was now tangled up with the chain. I immediately felt this incredible pain and all I could see was the shredded finger from my glove, stuck in the chain.
I was very vocal in my expression of my pain and Dick asked what happened. I told him my finger got caught in the chain and that I seriously did not know if I still had my finger and that I did not want to look. Once the sting stopped and I calmed down, a quick glance down at my hand confirmed that yes indeed I still had all five fingers on my right hand. As Autumn said ” at least you will not be like grandpa Tolley” (missing fingers). I still had my finger, but it was not looking too healthy. I figured I needed to go visit a doctor, but it was the opening of muzzle loader season in the refuge areas and I did not want to miss it.
Dick asked how my finger was and I replied it hurt and it does not look good, but let’s patch it up as best as we can and go hunting. We managed to scrape together some gauze and duct tape, and bandaged the bleeding finger up. It is truly amazing what you can do with duct tape!
Muzzleloader hunting was not nearly as exciting as the finger episode, but it was a lot less painful. I ended up seeing three deer in the two hours I sat in the morning and Dick saw eight. Neither one of us fired a round; we were both waiting for a suitable shot and one never materialized for either one of us.
After about ten o’clock we made several drives and never moved a deer. All the drives we did do had already been pushed by other groups of hunters.

Observations:

This is the first time I had ever hunted this refuge area and I think I will do it again next year. I was very surprised by the amount of hunters that were out here. Unfortunately, ice up had not taken place yet and this allowed many more hunters to get out there than there would have been if we had ice instead of open water. There is no doubt deer were shot, but hopefully the hunters did not put too big of a hurt on the population.