I'm more into hunting than I am into fishing...but either way I've never shot myself in the head while fishing,
Fishing with rifle backfires on Thurston County man
I would make fun of this guy more for shooting at salmon in the river, but one of the guys I work with says that he has gone out shooting at carp more than once, and he's a pretty normal guy...so maybe it's not as unusual a hobby as I thought it was.
Of course, even my buddy at work says it all comes down to the angle. He said you want to shoot pretty much straight up and down, otherwise ricochets can become an issue.
I think I'll stick with a hook and a worm...not that shooting doesn't sound at least a litle entertaining.
10.05.2012
10.04.2012
Lessons Learned
So, after making a big deal out of my perfect stalk, and subsequent miss on a few bucks last weekend, my actual success story when I anchored my doe is very anti-climatic. It involves a dusty dirt road, and a couple of unalarmed does standing about 40 yards off the road. They stood there and looked at me when I pulled over. They stood there and looked at me when I got out of the truck, and crossed the road. They started looking a wee bit anxious when I brought the gun up, and remembered to hold my breath and selected the doe standing perfectly broadside too me.
Now, with the things I learned last weekend.
- If you are packing up to go hunting, and you are LOOKING at something you should pack to bring hunting(like, a head lamp)...DON'T say...oh I'll pick that up my next time in this room. You will forget to go back and get it.
-Shooting a deer in the morning, and being able to field dress it while the sun is up HAS GOT to be easier than shooting one at 6:15pm, and trying to gut it one handed while holding a flash light in the other hand, or clenching the flashlight between your chin and chest because you left your head lamp at home. The head lamp is already packed for elk hunting. While I have helped gut several animals out, this is the first one I have been 100% on my own to do. I think every other one I do from here on out will be easier.
-When you can't see what you are doing inside the animal, there is a potenital you are going to accidently carve up one of the tenderloins when you are really aiming for the connective tissue holding the belly in. This will make you sad later when you get a chance to look at your carcass under proper light.
-First looks can be decieving. Upon initial inspection, the hole my bullet left in the side of the deer was fairly unimpressive.
Upon removal of the skin though, you can see there was some pretty serious damage done to the meat under the skin. Yes, it's kind of graphic...you can always close your eyes and page down past it.
-When you have shot a deer and gutted it out in the dark, there is no better local for skinning out your kill than an all night carwash. It's nicely lit, and when you are done working, you can just hose everything off.
-The Havalon Piranta is a fine, fine knife. That blade is sharp, sharp, sharp. I used two of the blades to gut and skin that deer, but I only really needed the 2nd blade because I snapped the first one trying to work it through one of the knee joints. My bad...that's not what that knife is designed for, but when cutting on flesh, well, it was 'like buttah'.
-The SOG Revolver is a fine knife/saw. It's not as razor sharp as the Piranta, but the gut hook and saw function came in very, very handy. With both of these knives in my pack, I'm ready for just about any animal care situation. The afternoon before, I had seen a truck parked at the gas station in town that had a buck in the bed. The buck had been gutted, but it still had all it's skin on it. At 3:30 in the afternoon on an 84 degree day. THAT's the guy who will say he 'really doesn't like deer much'.
Now, with the things I learned last weekend.
- If you are packing up to go hunting, and you are LOOKING at something you should pack to bring hunting(like, a head lamp)...DON'T say...oh I'll pick that up my next time in this room. You will forget to go back and get it.
-Shooting a deer in the morning, and being able to field dress it while the sun is up HAS GOT to be easier than shooting one at 6:15pm, and trying to gut it one handed while holding a flash light in the other hand, or clenching the flashlight between your chin and chest because you left your head lamp at home. The head lamp is already packed for elk hunting. While I have helped gut several animals out, this is the first one I have been 100% on my own to do. I think every other one I do from here on out will be easier.
-When you can't see what you are doing inside the animal, there is a potenital you are going to accidently carve up one of the tenderloins when you are really aiming for the connective tissue holding the belly in. This will make you sad later when you get a chance to look at your carcass under proper light.
-First looks can be decieving. Upon initial inspection, the hole my bullet left in the side of the deer was fairly unimpressive.
Upon removal of the skin though, you can see there was some pretty serious damage done to the meat under the skin. Yes, it's kind of graphic...you can always close your eyes and page down past it.
-When you have shot a deer and gutted it out in the dark, there is no better local for skinning out your kill than an all night carwash. It's nicely lit, and when you are done working, you can just hose everything off.
-The Havalon Piranta is a fine, fine knife. That blade is sharp, sharp, sharp. I used two of the blades to gut and skin that deer, but I only really needed the 2nd blade because I snapped the first one trying to work it through one of the knee joints. My bad...that's not what that knife is designed for, but when cutting on flesh, well, it was 'like buttah'.
-The SOG Revolver is a fine knife/saw. It's not as razor sharp as the Piranta, but the gut hook and saw function came in very, very handy. With both of these knives in my pack, I'm ready for just about any animal care situation. The afternoon before, I had seen a truck parked at the gas station in town that had a buck in the bed. The buck had been gutted, but it still had all it's skin on it. At 3:30 in the afternoon on an 84 degree day. THAT's the guy who will say he 'really doesn't like deer much'.
10.03.2012
You got it backwards!
Farmer dies inside pig pen, is eaten by the hogs
Now, it's kind of sad, because someone died, so I can't crack too many jokes about it...but, really, getting eaten by your pigs is one of those things that you only think would happen in books and movies.
On the positive side, do you realize he was still running his own farm at age 70? Good for him. I just hope that he really did die from some type of stroke, or heart attack, and that they didn't get him while he was still awake.
The last step is kind of important, too.
No real news that catches my eye, so you'll have to satisfy yourself with more hunting stories. I promise, I won't step by step through 7 days of elk hunting like this.
After passing up numerous deer on the side of the freeway, I finally made it to my happy hunting grounds. While I had identified several farms where I could hunt in the Pomeroy area, I really hadn't put boots on the ground prior to the season. So, when I spotted a few deer on a hill side, I figured that was as good a place as any to get out and start walking. Figured if I saw three deer, there might be another few I couldn't see...and there were! Half-an-hour of tromping through waist high, bone dry grass convinced me I wasn't going to be able to work any closer than 150-200 yards away from them.
I ended up walking a big 1.5 mile loop, and spooked several more deer. There is little more demoralizing as a hunter than seeing a mule deers white ass 'sproinging' away in that way that only a mule deer can hop.
With a lot of ground to cover, I got back in my truck and moved to another farm, and after walking in, I found a promising looking draw I decided to keep an eye on for a while, because it looked like 'deer country.'
What I was trying to zoom in(really, I was just looking for an excuse to play with my phone...it can zoom!) on were two bucks that confirmed my instincts were valid. About 20 minutes after I sat down, they popped over the top of the hill and worked their way down into the thick brush at the top of the ravine, where they promptly bedded down.
I waited an hour for them to pop out down below, and finally decided I was going to have to go in after them. The wind was blowing pretty stiffly right into my face, and for the most part, it was pretty easy walking through a freshly harvested wheat field.
For a while, I looked and acted like a real hunter. I shimmied in between the 3rd and 4th strands of a barb-wire fence(I had permission to be on the land, the guy just had a few fences running across the property). About half-way there, I dropped off my back-pack so I could start serious crouching approach. When I got about 40 yards away from where I thought the bucks where, I eased up to get my bearings, and as I did that, both bucks jumped up. Both were legal, with the bigger one being a 4 or 5 pointer. I brought the rifle to my shoulder, and promptly forgot EVERYTHING I ever learned about being a shooter.
I was looking at the bigger buck while I had the rifle pointed at the smaller, but closer, buck. I didn't pause half a second to hold my breath. I jerked the trigger instead smoothly pulling it. And I flat out missed. The deer was quartering away. It wasn't an easy shot, but you didn't have to be Annie Oakley either.
After doing everything else right, I was very depressed...and even more so because I then spent the next hour walking around in a circle to see if I could find any sign that I HAD hit the buck. It was then a much longer walk back to my truck than it had been walking away from it in the morning.
After passing up numerous deer on the side of the freeway, I finally made it to my happy hunting grounds. While I had identified several farms where I could hunt in the Pomeroy area, I really hadn't put boots on the ground prior to the season. So, when I spotted a few deer on a hill side, I figured that was as good a place as any to get out and start walking. Figured if I saw three deer, there might be another few I couldn't see...and there were! Half-an-hour of tromping through waist high, bone dry grass convinced me I wasn't going to be able to work any closer than 150-200 yards away from them.
I ended up walking a big 1.5 mile loop, and spooked several more deer. There is little more demoralizing as a hunter than seeing a mule deers white ass 'sproinging' away in that way that only a mule deer can hop.
With a lot of ground to cover, I got back in my truck and moved to another farm, and after walking in, I found a promising looking draw I decided to keep an eye on for a while, because it looked like 'deer country.'
What I was trying to zoom in(really, I was just looking for an excuse to play with my phone...it can zoom!) on were two bucks that confirmed my instincts were valid. About 20 minutes after I sat down, they popped over the top of the hill and worked their way down into the thick brush at the top of the ravine, where they promptly bedded down.
I waited an hour for them to pop out down below, and finally decided I was going to have to go in after them. The wind was blowing pretty stiffly right into my face, and for the most part, it was pretty easy walking through a freshly harvested wheat field.
For a while, I looked and acted like a real hunter. I shimmied in between the 3rd and 4th strands of a barb-wire fence(I had permission to be on the land, the guy just had a few fences running across the property). About half-way there, I dropped off my back-pack so I could start serious crouching approach. When I got about 40 yards away from where I thought the bucks where, I eased up to get my bearings, and as I did that, both bucks jumped up. Both were legal, with the bigger one being a 4 or 5 pointer. I brought the rifle to my shoulder, and promptly forgot EVERYTHING I ever learned about being a shooter.
I was looking at the bigger buck while I had the rifle pointed at the smaller, but closer, buck. I didn't pause half a second to hold my breath. I jerked the trigger instead smoothly pulling it. And I flat out missed. The deer was quartering away. It wasn't an easy shot, but you didn't have to be Annie Oakley either.
After doing everything else right, I was very depressed...and even more so because I then spent the next hour walking around in a circle to see if I could find any sign that I HAD hit the buck. It was then a much longer walk back to my truck than it had been walking away from it in the morning.
10.02.2012
Trusting Karma.
Hunting, as a sport, has a lot in common with golf. Yes, in both you can do a fair amount of walking, although you can also get spoiled by riding around in your cart/ATV. Both activities also have a defined set of rules, but for the most part, once you are 'playing the game', you're on your own.
Maybe not totally on your own. In golf, you've got your pairing or foursome. Chances are, they are people you know and they have a very similar set of morals. They play along and chuckle when you take a 'mulligan', and tee off a 2nd shot. If you went home and told your wife you FINALLY broke 80, your golf buddy wouldn't remind you about the 3 putt you had on hole 11, so really you only got an 81.
This is much the same for hunting. Even if you are out with your 'hunting buddies' for the week, eventually, it will come down to you, your gun, and that animal. Each scenario is different, and as much as you may talk about things over a beer around the camp fire at night, you don't always know how you are going to respond to ANY situation. You can squawk about game wardens, but out here in the wide open west, well, I think I have encountered wardens about 3 times in 12-15 years of hunting. I've never once had one ask to inspect my vehicle. You are on your own honor.
Saturday morning, I found myself having to make those type of decisions early.
The Tri-Cities to Pomeroy where I was hunting is 110 mile drive, that takes about 2 hours. For 4/5's of that drive, you are going through some pretty rural areas...wheat fields, corn fields, alfalfa fields...and the wild Palouse. Deer country. When I left the house it was dark, but because I left a little later than I wanted to, dawn found me leaving Dayton instead of arriving in Pomeroy.
Over the next 20 minutes, I saw at least 30 deer, including two REALLY nice bucks. I wasn't yet in the area where my doe tag was legal, but any buck with more than 3-points on one side WAS legal. The part that wasn't legal is that I was sitting on Highway 12, a two lane paved road. Oh...and the farm house 50 yards behind me.
I was tempted. I pulled my truck over at least 3 times, and once I got out of the truck, and capped my muzzle loader. It was a NICE buck...at least a 5X6. And nobody had drove past for at least two minutes. And the deer and the rest of it's herd were moving, so it wasn't some fancy trap.
I didn't take the shot, obviously. No...I'm not trying to pat my own back...I'm not a hero, I just weighed the risk/reward, and decided it wasn't worth it. Would it have been nice to have a 5X6 in the truck by 7:00 in the morning, opening day? Oh, hells yes. And there is about a 96% chance I would have gotten away with it. There was no fence to go over, no 'No hunting/tresspassing' sign. Just that road, and even then, I had already jogged across the road, so while I might be shooting along it, at least I wasn't shooting across it.
Bah...in the end, 50 lbs of venison wasn't worth the 4% chance that some county sheriff drove around the bend in the road right as I was shooting. Or the several minutes it would have taken me to load 180lbs of dead buck(Heck, think big 220lbs!). Heck, in reality, if anyone in that farm house had cared, they were just as likely to thank me fo removing that dastardly deer from their life, as they were to get mad at me. It just wasn't worth losing my rifle, my truck, or the ability to go hunting for several years.
In the end, I just couldn't take that shot, or the next two that presented themselves. I had to trust that by doing the right thing then, I would be given the opportunity to be done right by later.
Besides, if I had put a deer in the truck that early on Saturday, I would have had to spend Sunday at home doing chores...
Maybe not totally on your own. In golf, you've got your pairing or foursome. Chances are, they are people you know and they have a very similar set of morals. They play along and chuckle when you take a 'mulligan', and tee off a 2nd shot. If you went home and told your wife you FINALLY broke 80, your golf buddy wouldn't remind you about the 3 putt you had on hole 11, so really you only got an 81.
This is much the same for hunting. Even if you are out with your 'hunting buddies' for the week, eventually, it will come down to you, your gun, and that animal. Each scenario is different, and as much as you may talk about things over a beer around the camp fire at night, you don't always know how you are going to respond to ANY situation. You can squawk about game wardens, but out here in the wide open west, well, I think I have encountered wardens about 3 times in 12-15 years of hunting. I've never once had one ask to inspect my vehicle. You are on your own honor.
Saturday morning, I found myself having to make those type of decisions early.
The Tri-Cities to Pomeroy where I was hunting is 110 mile drive, that takes about 2 hours. For 4/5's of that drive, you are going through some pretty rural areas...wheat fields, corn fields, alfalfa fields...and the wild Palouse. Deer country. When I left the house it was dark, but because I left a little later than I wanted to, dawn found me leaving Dayton instead of arriving in Pomeroy.
Over the next 20 minutes, I saw at least 30 deer, including two REALLY nice bucks. I wasn't yet in the area where my doe tag was legal, but any buck with more than 3-points on one side WAS legal. The part that wasn't legal is that I was sitting on Highway 12, a two lane paved road. Oh...and the farm house 50 yards behind me.
I was tempted. I pulled my truck over at least 3 times, and once I got out of the truck, and capped my muzzle loader. It was a NICE buck...at least a 5X6. And nobody had drove past for at least two minutes. And the deer and the rest of it's herd were moving, so it wasn't some fancy trap.
I didn't take the shot, obviously. No...I'm not trying to pat my own back...I'm not a hero, I just weighed the risk/reward, and decided it wasn't worth it. Would it have been nice to have a 5X6 in the truck by 7:00 in the morning, opening day? Oh, hells yes. And there is about a 96% chance I would have gotten away with it. There was no fence to go over, no 'No hunting/tresspassing' sign. Just that road, and even then, I had already jogged across the road, so while I might be shooting along it, at least I wasn't shooting across it.
Bah...in the end, 50 lbs of venison wasn't worth the 4% chance that some county sheriff drove around the bend in the road right as I was shooting. Or the several minutes it would have taken me to load 180lbs of dead buck(Heck, think big 220lbs!). Heck, in reality, if anyone in that farm house had cared, they were just as likely to thank me fo removing that dastardly deer from their life, as they were to get mad at me. It just wasn't worth losing my rifle, my truck, or the ability to go hunting for several years.
In the end, I just couldn't take that shot, or the next two that presented themselves. I had to trust that by doing the right thing then, I would be given the opportunity to be done right by later.
Besides, if I had put a deer in the truck that early on Saturday, I would have had to spend Sunday at home doing chores...
10.01.2012
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Cherry Bomb!
While I was off hunting this weekend(trust me, there are many posts you will have to deal with over the next week breaking down my triumphs and lessons learned), one of our friends came over from the west part of the state to visit, and so my wife could teach her the basics of canning.
All told, my wife and her made up 70 cans of goodness, with one of them failing to seal. Recipes canned up include Peach Habenero Jam, Plum/Nectarine Jam, Plum/Nectarine and Serano Jam, Apple Sauce, Apple Butter, and Apple Plum Butter. I have tried some of the plum/nectarine/serano pepper jam, and it's kind of neat. Not something I would put on bread with peanut butter, but good on a cracker, and maybe excellent with pork.
While not canners, my friend and her boyfriend ARE brewers, so she brought over a couple of bottles for us to try. Since my deer harvesting activites kept me out too late the night before, I did some celebrating tonight, trying a Cherry Bomb Sour Cherry Ale, made at Beaver's Bend Brewhouse.
It's passable, and it might be worth the 4 hour drive to teach pressure canning at their house if the reward is a few more of these.
All told, my wife and her made up 70 cans of goodness, with one of them failing to seal. Recipes canned up include Peach Habenero Jam, Plum/Nectarine Jam, Plum/Nectarine and Serano Jam, Apple Sauce, Apple Butter, and Apple Plum Butter. I have tried some of the plum/nectarine/serano pepper jam, and it's kind of neat. Not something I would put on bread with peanut butter, but good on a cracker, and maybe excellent with pork.
While not canners, my friend and her boyfriend ARE brewers, so she brought over a couple of bottles for us to try. Since my deer harvesting activites kept me out too late the night before, I did some celebrating tonight, trying a Cherry Bomb Sour Cherry Ale, made at Beaver's Bend Brewhouse.
It's passable, and it might be worth the 4 hour drive to teach pressure canning at their house if the reward is a few more of these.
Success!
More details to follow(like after I'm done with some stinky, stinky laundry), but for now, it's enough to say that I didn't spend my weekend apart from my family in vain.
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