Three Boys Hunting

My dad and I took #1, #2, and #3 sons, ages 6, 8, and 10, out to hunt this weekend. #3 took his first deer a few weeks ago so the older boys got first shot. My dad was going to sit in one of the ground blinds with #1 and #3 and I was going to sit in either the elevated blind with #2 if the wasps weren't too bad or in the other ground blind.

We pulled up to the elevated blind about 3:30pm to check on the wasp situation. #2 and I agreed that discretion was the better part of field of view so we decided to skip the elevated blind but I thought it would be a good idea to put the ladder up and unlock the door so we would have an easier time the next morning. I took the ladder off the truck and put it up to the blind, climbed the ladder, and unlocked the door. As I was climbing down I looked around and said "I think that's a deer over there."

I finished climbing down from the ladder and checked through the binos. Sure enough it was a nice buck. I took out the rifle that #1 uses, which was chamber empty and magazine loaded, and racked it. Then I got #1 out of the truck and said "This is your time."

He tried to shoot from kneeling but the grass and weeds were too high for him to see over. I took the rifle and he climbed into the bed of the truck and up onto the tool box. My dad threw a backpack up onto the roof of the truck as a rest and I handed him the rifle. My dad told me to turn off the truck so I reached in and turned the key. The doors were open so of course it started going "DING! DING! DING!" until I pulled the key. The buck was still there alternately looking at us and coming toward us. I climbed into the bed so I could watch through the binos.

The silly deer was walking towards us!! He stopped facing exactly at us and stood looking at us. I asked #1 if he could see him and he said "Yes. I'm lined up."

BOOM!!

The buck crumpled like a skyscraper that was imploding.

After some back slapping and hand shaking my dad and I walked down to confirm the buck was there and hadn't somehow slipped off through the high grass. The boy would have had tough going on foot because of the grass burrs. Sure enough the buck was right where we marked him down. We laser measured the buck at exactly 150 yards from where he fired. The buck had been facing directly at us and was looking slightly uphill. The bullet hit at the base of his throat. As close as I could tell he hit the exact center of the chest from the angle we were looking. The young man can shoot and facing a nice looking buck doesn't seem to bother him at all.

A nice looking buck.




Here is the big boy and his deer. That is his 5th deer. Not a bad record.


Here is the whole motley crew.

We loaded the deer onto the hitch hauler and I took the big boy and his deer back to the house to gut it and dropped my dad and the two younger boys off in the ground blind.

I finished gutting the buck and had just finished cleaning and oiling my knife and washing up when my dad called and said to come back because they had another deer. That was about 5:15pm. It was shaping up like a good day.

I pulled up to the blind about 15 minutes later and my dad told me that they now had two deer down because #3 shot another one. I'm glad I got back when I did or we wouldn't have been able to fit them all in the truck.

Here is #2 with his. He took his first, a 2x2 mule deer buck, last year. I wasn't there to see that one or this one. He shot both of them with his Grandpa. This one was about 75 yards away and walking when he shot it.

Here is #3 with his deer, which was also his second. It was about 50 yards away.

Here are the two little troublemakers together with their meat.

I was just about glad that they didn't want to go hunting again the next morning.

We've taken 5 deer this season and all have been whitetails. We have seen a few mule deer does and fawns. The only mule deer buck I saw was a little 2x2. He was with about 20 does and fawns. If he was old enough to be interested in such things he must have felt like a king.

We have enough meat for the year and then some. We may go after some turkey and pigs just for variety or we might take some more meat and see if we can't find some needy and worthy people to give them to.

We have been blessed with abundant game this year and are blessed to live in a place and time where we can take and use that game.

Good luck with your hunting this year.

Change you can believe in

Unemployment rates by county.

I can't really say how accurate that picture is. My gut tells me it isn't far from the truth.

Hussein warns that too much debt is a bad thing

What!!? Are you kidding?

I guess not. Here is the link.

From the article:

President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession.

This President warning about a need to reduce the federal deficit is sort of like the pot calling the kettle black.

More from the article:

With the U.S. unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, Obama told Fox News his administration faces a delicate balance of trying to boost the economy and spur job creation while putting the economy on a path toward long-term deficit reduction.

That is not a delicate balance. That is being stuck between a rock and a hard place. And the rock and hard place are closing in.

It just gets better and better:

"It is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession," he said.

" . . . in the midst of this recovery, . . . " LOL!! That is sort of like if you were in an airplane that is diving at the ground and the pilot came over the PA and said "It is important to recognize if we keep pushing the stick forward, even in the midst of us pulling out of this dive, that at some point, people could lose confidence in this airline in a way that could actually lead to it going out of business." Just keep pushing that stick forward and I'm sure we'll recover. We may pull a 5g outside loop and end up flying upside down if we're lucky and the wings don't come off.

The funniest part of this whole speach is that it was given in China. There must be some irony in that somewhere.

Green?

The "green" they keep talking about is gangrene, not green shoots.

A guy I know worked for a company in a department that was sold to another company. The people in the department sold were guaranteed employment for at least 18 months. Having a guaranteed 18 months of employment makes him one of the lucky ones.

Hold on tight.

He didn't really bow

He was just bending low so he could look into the man's belly button.

Ft. Hood Murderer Paralyzed from waist down? Oh WAAAAHHHHHH!

Pardon me for not really caring if this POS is paralyzed or in pain.

From the article:

"It appears he won't be able to walk in the future," said Hasan's civilian attorney, retired Army Col. John Galligan.

The only possible problem with this is that he won't be able to walk to the death chamber himself.

Would it be considered bad taste if I volunteered to push his wheel chair for him? I figure that I could put out the effort to push him at a good sprint and then let him go and make sure he misses the door. Smashing his face against the wall would be a nice send-off don't you think?

More from the article:

Hasan also has severe pain in his hands, the attorney said.

Ah. Poor baby. His wittew hands hewt so bad.

More:

Doctors who crossed paths with Hasan in medical programs paint a picture of a subpar student who wore his religious views on his sleeve.

I suspect he was going for sympathy because he couldn't cut it on his own. When I was in school they just flunked out students like that.

Here is a good bit:

"Is your allegiance to Sharia [Islamic] law or the United States?" students once challenged Hasan, the source said.

"Sharia law," the source says Hasan responded.

The incident was corroborated by another doctor who was present.

The source also recalled an instance in which Hasan was asked if the U.S. Constitution was a brilliant document, to which Hasan replied, "No, not particularly."

He sounds like a real winner. I wonder how the President missed recruiting this guy for his cabinet?

This really makes me feel good:

Even though Hasan earned his medical degree and residency, some of his fellow students believed that he "didn't have the intellect" to be in the program and was not academically rigorous in his coursework.

Hasan "was not fit to be in the military, let alone in the mental health profession," this classmate told CNN. "No one in class would ever have referred a patient to him, or trusted him with anything."

The first classmate echoed this sentiment.

Hasan was "coddled, accommodated and pushed through that masters of public health despite substandard performance," the classmate said. He was "put in the fellowship program because they didn't know what to do with him."

Does affirmative action apply to religious minorities? I guess it does.

He was "put in the fellowship program because they didn't know what to do with him."!!!!?? How about fail him and send him home? I don't know about now but when I was in school if a student couldn't cut it he was failed out - except for some athletes. They were coddled the way this guy was, no doubt about it.

The worst part of the article is the stupid picture of the goofball with his silly brain dead grin. I can't believe nobody has a less flattering picture of the loser than that.

I look forward to the day that the devil looks this guy in the face and says "You poor, dumb bastard. Wait 'til you see what I've got in store for you."

You can add me to the group of people . . .

. . . that have been attacked by a rooster.

Some of the free range birds have scratched the kids but so far they all stay far away from adults. None of them were involved in this. I went into the pen that has mixed reds and whites to get a couple of stray eggs. I stepped through the door and had to shoo several hens away from the door.

Suddenly, out of the crowd of hens came one of the big roosters in full attack mode. I was surprised because he hasn't given anyone any trouble before. He latched onto my left calf and gave me a nice scratch. The weather has been dry so I wasn't wearing boots which would have protected me. I don't know if he got under my pants leg or through it but it kind of irritated me.

I am a firm believer that you should NEVER, EVER let a barnyard animal get the best of you and live.

I shook the little creep off and as he rolled over and regained his feet I proceeded to play a little game of soccer featuring him as the ball.

After scoring several goals on the side of the cage in my imaginary world cup game I think he decided that attacking people is not such a great idea for him.

He is destined for the pot in any case, but after this I'll enjoy putting him there even more.

Thank You

If you don't understand then you're probably here by mistake.

Comments on one part of the LWM "reporting" about Ft. Hood

I know it's called the "left wing media" for a reason but the active avoidance of any attempt to report facts still gets my attention.

Here is the "news" article. I use the term "news" very loosely.

The nonsense starts in the first sentence and doesn't slow down. Are you ready? Here you go:

The gun thought to be used in the Fort Hood massacre packs so much firepower, it's known as 'the Cop Killer,' federal law enforcement officials said.

First of all, I'm not sure what "firepower" even means.

Does that mean the handgun could hold a reasonable number of rounds in the magazine? To approximately quote Jeff Cooper: "Twenty misses aren't firepower. One hit is firepower."

Does "firepower" mean the handgun could fire a powerful round? The .22WMRF has almost identical ballistics and in over 40 years I've never heard anyone call it particularly powerful unless they were shooting squirrels and disappointed that the hole in the meat was bigger than what you'd get from a .22LR.

As far as it being called "the Cop Killer", I've never heard it called that. Did anyone ever hear the 5.7 called that before ABC made up the name? Probably one ABC "reporter" said "It's called 'the Cop Killer' " so that another "reporter" could claim that is what it's called. A form of quoting yourself when saying "you know what 'they' say" so you can look like an authority.

Give me a second to go lose my breakfast in the trashcan and I'll be right back to comment some more.










I feel better now. Next bit of nonsense:

The store's manager, David Cheadle, said that particular firearm can hold 20 rounds in a standard clip and take a ten round clip extension.

I was unaware that the 5.7 used a clip. I thought it used a magazine. I guess if you are going to make up the main points of the article then getting the facts wrong on minor points is not such a big deal.

Cheadle said with one clip and one round in the chamber, one could fire 31 rounds before reloading.

At least the store manager seems to have his arithmetic in order. I wonder if the "reporter" bothered to check, or was smart enough recognize the difference?

Why all the concentration on how many rounds the little handgun can hold in it's magazine? I guess since the LWM absolutely will not point out the moslem connection they have to try some smoke and mirrors to distract all of the idiots in flyover country from the real story.

Hasan may have used an expanded clip in the shooting.

He may have. He also may have stood on his head and spun around like a figure skater while shooting people. He may have decided to try eating a pork sandwich just once before he went tried to become a martyr. I fail to see how any of those are relevant. Someone please enlighten me on this.

I love this part:

On FN Herstal's webpage, the benefits of the Five-seveN pistol note that it can "defeat the enemy in all close combat situations in urban areas, jungle conditions, night missions and any self defense action."

Nothing like depending on the manufacturers sales and marketing team to get more irrelevant "facts" for your little hack piece. How effective a tool is doesn't seem to have any impact on what purpose the tool is used for.

If the murdering POS had a chainsaw in his trunk would we hear that the model he had was called "the cop arm-chopper-offer" or some other nonsense?

The second gun he had with him was a .357 S&W Magnum revolver

70 years ago that would have sent the LWM into a blathering fit on nonsense but I guess if something is that old it must not be effective and is only barely worthy of comment.

Here is my absolute favorite display of "reporter" incompenence and stupidity:

Cheadle said the agents were interested in a FN pistol that uses 5.7 caliber ammunition.

5.7 caliber!!? What, did he steal that off a navy destroyer? How did he conceal something with a nearly 6 inch bore diameter!? I'd love to find out what kind of holster he used to carry it around.

I guess the difference between caliber and milimeters is a little beyond the average "reporter" these days. They seem to be picked on what some half blind idiot thinks is good looks instead of actually being able to pick out the important parts of a story and get the facts straight.

**********************************************

I found a different article that did have one important and relevent statement in it.

Here is the link.

Here is the important statement:

The 21-year-old Fort Worth native quickly grabbed the civilian worker who'd been helping with his paperwork and forced her under the desk. He lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun.

I haven't seen much written about the helplesness of unarmed soldiers on a military base. This incident seems to me to point out the stupidity of "victim disarmament zones" and all that kind of stuff.

I mean here we are on a military base when some guy freaks out and starts shooting people and all the soldiers have to be saved by a civillian police officer!? Is that really the story I'm reading?

There must be more to it than that.

Seems to me that the attitude there was that everyone was in a "safe" zone and nothing bad could happen.

The lesson to take home from this is that there is no such thing as a safe zone!

Churches aren't safe. Schools aren't safe. Military bases aren't safe. I'm so sick of hearing nonsense from supposed shooters like "Why would you want to carry a gun in church?" This is the reason.

If you refuse to understand that no place is safe then I can't help you.

God bless the fallen and their families.

Pig manure on the loser that perpetrated this crime.

I hope we can all learn the right things from this incident, but somehow I suspect there will be more restrictions on our freedoms rather than less. The official response to things like this is usually like Mark Twain's description of a cat sitting on a hot stove lid. For the lazy people who won't bother to look it up:

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again - and that is well but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.

I had a good Saturday

I went out to my farm to see if I could meet up with one of the big whitetail bucks that have been hanging around. This time I didn't take the kids and my folks were busy so I went by myself.

I got up and out to the blind extra early without setting off any alarms and I got settle in to wait. It was fairly warm with the low about 50F with a breeze. Friday afternoon the wind was a steady 30+ so I was glad it had calmed down some. The moon was nearly full and the sky was clear so it was almost like daylight at 5:00am.

A skunk walked under my blind and I saw some of the local raccoons in person instead of on the camera. I saw Mr. Big early on along with a lot of does and fawns and some smaller bucks. I didn't see the 10 pointer or the two 8 pointers, though. The Steiner 10x50s really helped. I don't know if I could have seen any of those deer without them and all the deer were within 100 yards of me.

Finally it was almost legal shooting time and I saw Mr. Big walking off to the east and he disappeared into the brush. I said goodbye figured that if I waited long enough he would come back.

He did come back, in about 5 minutes.

The rifle I was using had a fancy Nikon 3-9x scope on it that I bought on clearance as a "factory refurbished" model two or three years ago for much less than retail. I tried to line up on Mr. Big with the scope down at 3x and I could see him but I couldn't tell which end was his head, so I cranked it up to about 6x and still couldn't see well enough so I went all the way to 9x.

Now I was in business. This really was a shot that would have been difficult with a scout scope. The higher magnification helped out. I held very well and steady and had a nice surprise break on the trigger. The crosshairs were exactly where I wanted them when the shot broke and I saw the muzzle flash through the scope. I mentally called that a perfect shot.

When the rifle came down out of recoil he was gone. All the other deer were gone. I looked throught he binoculars and the only deer I saw were a mule deer doe and her two fawns. All three of them were standing around less than 50 yards from where the buck had been standing and less than 150 yards from where I just fired a rifle which is expected behavior from mule deer.

I checked my watch - 6:49am.

I decided to stand by until 6:55am and then go see what happened. Even a well hit deer will often run and the brush is heavy enough there that he could possibly have gotten out of sight while the rifle was in recoil.

I was icy calm before the shot but I got the shakes a little while waiting that 5 minutes. Sort of delayed buck fever. Usually I don't have physical reaction at all, but then I usually have a visual confirmation that my shot was as good - either a wounded deer running or hobbling away or a deer visible on the ground. This time I didn't see anything.

Finally the time was up and I headed out. Here is what I found.



It turns out it really was a perfect shot. I hit about the 3rd or 4th rib back from the front on the way in and hit the 6th or 7th rib back on exit and I got both lungs in between.

The rules for shooting deer are 1/2 hour before sunrise until 1/2 hour after sunset. I fired the shot at 6:48am. Official sunrise was 7:08am. I was 10 minutes into legal shooting time.

After taking those pics I looked around and what do you know - the mule deer were still hanging around.
To the left of the deer is one of our ground blinds. We built it by screwing pressure treated 2x4s into some of those trees and hanging camo cloth over them. Being open topped they don't attract wasps as bad as an enclosed blind. When the weather turns cool in the fall the wasps swarm around any structure or anything else where they think they can find a warm place for the night.

One disadvantage to hunting alone is that there is nobody to take the pics. Here is one of my sad attempts to take a pic of me with the deer. You can see the double brow tines pretty well in this pic.
The Sneaky-Leaf stuff is from back in the unsophisticated days when I used to just sit down by a tree instead of actually making a blind. It served no purpose now but I haven't bothered to take it off the jacket. Sometimes after I've been in a blind for a while I get up and walk around and I guess the leaves might make a difference then, but I'm not sure about that. The Walker's Quad Muffs work very well. The only downside to using them is that the control knobs stick out a long way as you can see. Another downside to the Walker's is that they use N size batteries. The Peltor Tactical 6 muffs I used to use are much lower profile but the NRR is quite a bit lower. Howard Leight has some muffs with a good NRR that look like they are about as low profile as the TS6's and the price looks good, too. You should always wear hearing protection, even when hunting. For well under $100 you can preserve your hearing, so why wouldn't you do it? Spending $100 now is a lot better than buying hearing aids.

He was a load to get into the back of the pickup by myself. Always bring a come-along and you won't have any trouble.

Field dressed and with some ice still in him he showed 136 lbs on the scale. Not bad for a whitetail around here.

Here is one last shot. I prefer the pics to have a natural background, but I'll take what I can get.
The duct tape on the antler is to hold the tag on.

I am truly blessed to have a place to hunt and to live in a country where I can own the tools to hunt with and I can keep what I kill and use it to feed my family.

My season isn't over, yet. My two oldest boys haven't been out this season at all so I get to take them. Then we have does on the menu. Then there is mule deer season. Between the four of us we have 16 turkey tags and we've only used one. Then there are all those pigs - I might have to sit up some night with a pot of coffee, a rifle, and a light.

A tasty end to a noble bird

This was how #3 son's first turkey ended up.

I don't know what all magic my better half used on it but it was very tasty.

More pics of critters

Here is a nice looking buck. The date and time on the camera is messed up on this one. I think it happened when the memory card was pulled.

Here he is again with some company.

I want to meet up with this fellow.

This is a nice two-for.

Here is the motley bacon crew again.

The ladies have some company, too.

I hope to have a date with one of these guys, soon. I think there are enough so #1 and #2 sons and I can all get a nice one. Actually, all of them are nice and all of them are tasty and they all look the same when they are wrapped in cellophane.

It might be fun to be out here during the rut.

I have to say that I'm surprised we haven't had any pics of mulies. We've seen some does but haven't seen a single mulie buck.

Good luck this season.

Great Hunting Post at Wolf Tracks

Here is the link.

Enjoy.

#3 Son puts meat on the table

This young man is a killer. He has taken a step towards the world of adults. It was a step he enjoyed.

The day started with technical difficulties. When my dad arrived the day before to set things up in the blind he found a rather large wasp nest attached to the ceiling and covered with wasps. Also the indoor/outdoor carpet we put on the floor to help keep our chairs quiet had more wasps under it. This time of year they go crazy looking for a warm place and any structure is high on their list. My dad used a number of cans of wasp spray on the blind and then drug the carpet out and tossed it aside. This was no small feat considering he is allergic to wasp stings.

This left us with a blind full of dead and dying wasps and no chairs so the three of us got up at 3:30 am and headed over there to clean up and prepare. I swept out the dead bugs and knocked down the nest. Here is a pic next to my size 11 boot.

We got the chairs and our gear up in the blind and I left may dad and the boy in the blind and took my dad's truck off a ways to park it. I'm not used to remotes and accidentally set off the "Panic" alarm. Lights flashed, the horn honked, it was fun. After getting that thing shut off I headed back to the blind. Generally I have time to scout this out and make sure I know where the road connects to the path up to the blind but not this time. I was out there in chest high tumbleweeds walking as the crow flies until I crossed the path. The weeds were so thick that even my red flashlight didn't help much. I finally made it to the blind and we settled in to wait.

We saw lots of whitetails around. A total of 10 or 12 in a couple of hours but none of them were withing the boys range. Part of the problem was the new computer chair that my dad saved from scrap at someones office. It squeaked every time he moved and it rattled on the floor, which the lack of carpet didn't help. We did see the big 10 pointer but he was about 125 yards away and moving the other direction. We also saw the two smaller bucks that were together in one of the game cam pics. One was a nice looking 8 point and the other a narrow 6. They played around at about 100 yards for 20 minutes or more but wouldn't come any closer.

Finally I looked around and saw a cute little spike about 50 yards away and he was coming right at us. I started getting the boy ready and got the rifle up to where he could rest it on the edge of the blind. The spike was now about 30 yards away and looking at us. We had more shuffling around as the boy tried to get lined up. Before he could shoot the spike became alarmed and ran away. Better luck next time.

After another long wait about 40 or 50 turkey came walking up on every side of us. It was getting near 10:00am and the boy wanted to drop the hammer on something so we gave him the green light. Here is the result of that.




You have to be carefull shooting turkey with a deer rifle. He hit it low near the pelvis and basically blew both legs to shreds without touching the breast. That is about the best shot you can make with a high powered rifle. I'm glad he made it but it was luck.

We went back to the house for some lunch and to warm up. Then we spent a little time with shooting .22s and he took a few more practice shots with the deer rifle.



The forward mounted scout scope really works great for kids because it solves almost all the eye relief issues. With the wide eye relief range I can pick up the rifle and use it without any trouble except I have to push the cheek rest over to get my face down on the stock far enough. How wide is the eye relief range? Something like 18" on that model. One rifle that fits both adults and kids is handy.

We went back in the afternoon and went to a different blind. The deer had been hanging out within 40 yards of this blind. The wasps had gotten very active around the other blind. This blind is made of trees that were in sort of a trapezoid pattern with 2x4s screwed into them to make a shooting rail and camo cloth hung on the 2x4s. We saw a few turkey but the deer weren't coming out to play.

I scanned around, then looked at the boy and at my dad. When I looked up again 5 seconds later there was a whitetail doe standing just a few feet on our side of the tree line and within range. I put the rifle up on the rail and grabbed the boy and pushed him up behind it.

The doe was facing directly at us. First she had her head up, then she put it down to pick some leaves off a fallen branch. I thought she would never move and he would have to shoot her through the top of the neck. Finally she started walking to the side and then I was afraid she wouldn't stop. The foolish deer did stop to take another look at us. At the sound of the shot she went down like someone dropped a '58 Buick on her. One leg wiggled a few times and that was that.

We decided to wait a little while and see if another deer would come out but they were done for the day. With mule deer one of the best methods of attracting them is to shoot one, hang it from a tree and start gutting it. It is best to have a buddy with his rifle handy while cleaning deer during mule deer season. I've had them walk up to within 25 yards of me while cleaning a deer or turkey on several occasions. Whitetails aren't like that, though. They are more suspicious by nature.

A little while later we went out to tag it and get some pics and we noticed a few things.

Here is the deer. Note the leaf still in it's mouth. Also, look closely at the head. This was a buck but the antlers hadn't broken the skin yet. Also, check out the tail.

Here is the closeup of the lack of tail.

That is the second whitetail I've taken that was missing it's tail. I don't know what got it but it was healed up completely.

Here are some more pics.


This youngster sat in the blind in the cold from about 5:15am to almost 10:00am. Temps in the high 30s early on and they moved up to the mid 40s by the time we broke for lunch. The kiddo didn't complain about it and for the most part sat like a bump on a log. He's a trooper.

We had a big weekend and got a start on filling the freezer up again. Tonight my better half is going to fix the turkey. I can't wait to get home.