Hunting
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks."
Thomas Jefferson
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Sept 21
If a bad day of hunting is better than a good day at work, what is a great day of hunting?
Erik and I got up in the wee hours of the morning, to make sure we were in our area at sunup. It has been two years since we've been out there, and we didn't see anything different. The thing that was weird, was that all we saw was single bachelor bucks. No groups and no heards.
We found a small buck pretty quickly, and I let Erik take the first shot. This was a junvenile buck - or maybe just stupid. It watched as we stopped the truck, Erik got out, loaded the rifle, then leaned across the hood. He stayed broadside the whole time.
Erik did a good job and got the buck right at the edge of the left shoulder. We both wondered if he had missed, because he started to lope off in a circle. Then he suddenly sat down on his haunches, then laid down. This was all done by 7:15 this morning.
We looked at another couple of bucks. I played "stare down" with one, who refused to give me a broadside. He just stared in my direction.
I was starting to wonder if our shooting fortunes had reversed, because Erik got the first buck with one shot. I had a hard time putting shots in the right place, and scared off a couple of bucks. We were able to chase one that refused to move very far from where we were.
I took a shot at a decent buck, and I thought that I had missed. Erik was watching through the binoculars and said that "something was hanging down that wasn't his legs." It turns out that I had scratched the skin and meat down to the sternum. He was running off, but eventually laid down. I had to give him another shot to kill him. Mine was a done deal by 9:15.
After we got home, we made quick work of skinning and hanging the two bucks. We managed to peel them from butt to head pretty well. We thought about selling the heads to a taxidermist. (Laura doesn't want heads hanging in the house, and it's too expensive for us.)
There is a taxidermist in Saratoga that buys heads, so we had to head back in that direction this afternoon. The taxidermist was out today, and won't be back until Monday, so we'll find out about that later. If I can get enough for my head and cape, maybe I can go deer and/or elk hunting this year, also.
Antelope #4 for me, 3rd buck.
Erik's first hunting success.
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July 9
Erik and I got our antelope tags. That's the good news. The bad news is that I don't think that we're going to be able to go out and chase anything else this year. My wife complained that she didn't want antelope this year, but I had to tell her that it looks like that's all she's going to get.
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March 19
What is it about warm weather, and seeing Antelope on the hillsides that makes you want to go out and shoot something?
We actually only had a slight breeze today - which is highly unusual for Wyoming. The temperatures were in the 50s, and Spring was in the air. It would have been an excellent day to go out and burn up some ammo.
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January 2007
As per my reloading page - I don't know what will be happening this season. I still need gear, but I'm having to spend money on shop tools - due to a recently new job. My lack of success isn't helping, either. I will keep you posted.
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January 2007 Pt 2
It has been suggested that hunters get together with conservation groups, in order to help preserve tracts of outdoor land for hunting.
I have tried to look at the Sierra Club's web site. It made me sick. People protesting in fish suits! These people also tend to be city dwellers, that only every once in a while see the "great outdoors." Mostly in the form of hiking on a prepared trail, or camping in a prepared camp site.
Most of these groups back Democratic (read Liberal) candidates, who also want to take your guns and my guns away from us. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) - the same group that wants to find homes for all of the kitties and puppies at the local pound - wants to ban hunting, altogether.
As a camper and hunter I would rather give my money to groups like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Mule Deer Foundation, or - even though I don't hunt ducks - Ducks Unlimited. These groups preserve outdoors, and help in species preservation, without threatening to take away the guns (or bows and arrows) that I need to hunt them.
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October 2006
I'm starting to feel as if that popular T-shirt is about me. You know the one that says "Vegetarian - Old Indian word for bad hunter". We didn't even get a prairie goat this year.
The October weather was clear but cold for deer season, but again, all we saw were hoof prints, beds, and poop. No live deer. There was a slight snow shower the day or two that we went out looking for elk, but we didn't see any of those either.
One of these days . . . . .
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Okay! I had some kind of computer problem, now I have to update this page again. Somehow my upload didn't take, and I'm missing a ton of stuff that I have put in here for the last couple of weeks.
Erik and I were able to get leftover doe/fawn antelope tags for the Shirley Basin area. Next year, I'm putting in for area 53 again. I'm not going through this again!
During the first week of this month, Erik and I went up into the Snowy Range to try and find some mulies. We saw absolutely nothing. Nothing except tracks, beds, and poop. I was about ready to give up hunting. It was not fun this year.
Thursday Erik and I went out to Shirley Basin to try and get our antelope. They had already been shot at for a couple of weeks, because the regular draw season started back about Sept. 25. So they were already a little gun shy. Then we were right above the ranch house, and it was a bunch of hills that surrounded a valley. There was no place to sneak up on the little buggers. We were skunked by a bunch of goats!
Its been getting colder here, so I'm hoping that that bodes well for elk season. Last year it was warm with a full moon. It was attempting to snow lately, and the days are colder, so maybe the elk will be accessible this year. If I can manage to bag an elk (even if I can see one!) it might make the misfortune of the rest of this hunting season bearable.
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Bad news part two. At work, last night, the fellow who I had arranged to go deer hunting with bailed out on me. I try to go with somebody who knows hunting and camping a little better than I do - which isn't very hard.
I was already trying to think of someone who I could hunt elk with, now I'm on my own again for deer season. Not to mention having to stay on top of the "left over" antelope tags situation, this fall.
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Erik and I got some bad news in the mail, yesterday (Saturday). We didn't get the draw for the antelope area that we wanted.
We were all set to hunt on the land of one of the ranching families that live here, but a tad further up north. One of the sons had recently moved back to town, and told us that it would be OK to hunt their ranch for antelope.
I have only made the draw for that area once since I have lived here. My first year hunting, when my friend Jim introduced my to "chasing prairie goats". We went up north, and Jim had already secured the permission to hunt the ranch land that we needed.
I got my buck that year, but I haven't been able to draw up there, since. I have tried to apply for tags ever since my oldest boy was old enough to hunt. But some how we never got drawn.
Then three years ago, I had a job opportunity that put me out in the middle of the desert, almost to Rock River, Wyoming. I didn't know how soon we were going to be able to move, so I found an area that was about half way between Medicine Bow and Rock Springs, and put in for that one. I have drawn there, two years in a row, and filled my tag both years. The first year, I got a stupid doe that just stood there and watched as I sat down to take a bead on her. The second one is that young buck that is displayed with me in the upper left hand corner of this page. (The full story is below.)
Now I get to keep my ears open for the "left over" doe and fawn tags that will become available in the Fall.
I did get my General Elk tag. That class is a given in Wyoming. I will wait until September to get my General Deer tag.
I've lined up with a fellow at work to go deer hunting with, but he doesn't want to go elk hunting. I guess I get to try and find a partner for that. If I could manage the time, during this summer, and early fall, before the seasons open, I could get some scouting done with my son Erik, and we could go it on our own, I suppose. I've got about a couple of areas in mind that I could take a look at. I suppose, also, that I could thank Jerry for showing me where his area is, last year! (Especially now that I have a pickup truck that can get down in there!)
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Erik and I finally got in a range session last week. We didn't do too bad. It felt good to get out and do some shooting.
Apparently some local groups have garnered the ire of a national animal rights group.
We have a "There Goes the Neighborhood" prairie dog shoot, out here on public lands. According to the radio news, we have made the "bunny huggers" angry. Too bad. Prarie dog dens injure cattle and horses, and their fleas carry Bubonic Plague (this is not exaggeration - a prairie dog town west of town disappeared last year due to plague, and we periodically find dead rodents on the fields and near the parks).
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It is now the middle of May, and hunting is on our minds.
Hunting in May? We have to think ahead, here in Wyoming, at least. Those who like to hunt in our state have already put in for their Big Game licenses, and should have got them back by now. Residents of Wyoming have already put in and recieved licenses for Mountain Goat and Bear, and such.
Antelope are pretty much a "draw only" option, so we have to have our fees in by the end of May. If you want any specific areas for Deer and Elk, you need to put your applications for tags in for those species, as well.
I've also been keeping an eye on the weather. I am starting to get interested in exercising my trigger finger. The snows have taken a temporary hiatus, and it is clear and warm here, finally. Unfortunately, other family plans have interfered with taking an hour long trip to the nearest range. And up here in the Rockies, you never know when the next snow will fall, clear up until the beginning of July!
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