Bitmap's Miscellaneous

More Birds

2009-12-18T08:48:00.002-06:00

My wife found someone giving away birds. I picked some up last night. We now have two more red hens and four white ducks.

The previous owner says the ducks are good layers and the eggs are large. I'm not sure what to do with ducks but if they lay eggs I guess I'll take them. They have more ducks and I may pick up some more.

Funny thing is these people had two hens and seven roosters. I told them I would take the roosters but I would just put them in the pot because I've already got more than I want. They said they thought they could find someone that wanted to keep roosters. LOL because I can't wait until I get a day or two off to thin mine out.

No pics yet but I'll post some when I get the time.

I just love this sign

2009-12-14T07:18:00.000-06:00

Pic of the Day

2009-12-11T07:48:00.004-06:00

That is Nancy Pelosi standing in for Stalin. A good match.

The original of the pic on his back:

Being in CA that guy must have big stainless steel ones.

Here is a link to the story.

Left wing to raise debt ceiling by >$1.8 Trillion!

2009-12-11T07:14:00.002-06:00

Hold on to that green toilet paper you carry around in your wallet.

Here is the link.

I LOL at this right before I cried:

“We’ve incurred this debt. We have to pay our bills,” House Majority LeaderSteny Hoyer told POLITICO Wednesday.

So if you have maxed out all your credit cards the standard procedure is to get another credit card and keep spending?

I wonder what Dave Ramsey would have to say about that. Actually, I don't have to wonder. I can guess that he would say something like "What is wrong with you? Are you really that stupid!?"

More nonsense:

Already in the Senate, there is growing pressure in both parties for the creation of a novel bipartisan task force empowered to force expedited votes in the next Congress on deficit reduction steps now shunned by lawmakers.

A task force of foxes to guard the henhouse.

Here is a good one:

As introduced Wednesday, the legislation sets no specific targets for deficit reduction, but its 18-member task force — 16 of whom would come from Congress — is promised immense leverage to force change if they can first come together behind a plan.

The operative part is "if they can first come together behind a plan." LOL. For a congressman, being on that committee will be sort of like his day in the barrel. He knows if he doesn't perform well while he's in the barrel then the other guys won't perform well for him when they are in the barrel. The difference between that committee and the barrel behind the bunkhouse is that congressmen would do almost anything to get on that committee. It will be one of the most powerful positions in congress. Think about it. The committee tasked with cutting spending. There won't be any corruption associated with that, I'm sure.

I've got a better plan. How about just cut the entire federal budget by 25% the first year. I mean 25% off of the budget of every program and agency. The reason I'm only calling for a 25% cut is that I want to ease into this and give everyone a chance to get used to it. Then, cut 25% across the board again next year. And the next.

Here is another quote from a guy that has a tenuous grasp of reality:

“It is December. We don’t really have a choice,” Obey told POLITICO. “The bill’s already been run up; the credit card has already been used. When you get the bill in the mail you need to pay it.”

That is House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, democrat from Wisconsin. He even used the credit card analogy but he obviously doesn't live in the same universe that the rest of us do.

Here is a hint Dave: When your credit cards are all maxed out it is not time to call the credit card company and ask for an increase on your limit. It is time to stop spending and start paying that sucker off as fast as you can.

I thought that was so simple that even a five year old could understand. This guy is the best they can find in Wisconsin?

More funnies:

Though Treasury can buy itself time by moving assets around, it is already coming close to the current debt ceiling of $12.1 trillion.

Is that referring to a balance transfer? Are you kidding? Max out your cards. Get a new card with the idea of transferring the balance so you don't have to pay this month. Then go max out all the cards again. Am I the only one that sees a problem with this?

Here is another:

Last spring, the Democratic-backed budget proposed to raise this to about $13 trillion, but given the current pace of borrowing, no one now expects that will be sufficient to get through 2010.

Ouch. Why don't we just quit playing around and raise it to $1 quadrillion? That way the rest of the world could quit worrying about whether we'll ever pay off our debts. None of this " . . . may default . . . " stuff like Greece.

We started the rabbit breeding process

2009-12-10T07:22:00.002-06:00

We took two of the does and put them in with two of the bucks last weekend. The does were willing and bucks were willing and seemed able. I guess we'll find out soon if they are going to breed like rabbits and start paying us back for the time and money we've put into them.

Now I've got to go build some nest boxes.

The Global Economy is FINE!!

2009-12-10T07:11:00.002-06:00

Looks like Greece may be the nation in the EU to decide that they just can't pretend any more.

Quoting former Bank of England policy maker William Buiter the article:

“We could see our first EU 15 sovereign default since Germany had it in 1948.”

So the President's "School Czar" is a pervert

2009-12-07T07:58:00.002-06:00

It isn't big in the news because people expect that sort of nonsense from this President. Sort of like a headline that reads "Dog Bites Mailman" would get no notice.

People would notice if the story was "School Czar is a Patriotic American" because that would have been NEWS.

"Global Warming" - I've said it before and I'll say it again

2009-12-07T06:57:00.005-06:00

"Global warming" is a scam intended to get commoners to cut back on their air conditioner and to drive little tin can cars so that wealthy people will have more fuel available for their private jets, limos, and 30,000 ft^2 mansions.

Here is your link.

If these people are really interested in climate change why don't they ban volcanoes and asteroids? Maybe they could put limits on the sun's output.

People angry at the government

2009-12-04T07:57:00.003-06:00

I saw the link to this over here and couldn't help but to borrow the link and add my own comments about it.

My first response to this was "Good. It's about time." After further reflection I have another reaction, which is that there are two kinds of people angry at the government.

One kind of people really want to use the government to take things from other people and give to themselves. These people want to use the government to do things to others they they can't legally do themselves. I think that these people are disappointed by the fact that they got what they wanted and it hasn't made them happy. Why would these people be angry at the government? As far as I can see the people in congress and the White House are doing exactly what they said they would before the election.

The other kind of people want to reduce the power of government. They don't want the government to do things for them. They fear what the government will do to them. As the federal government (and state and local governments as well) become larger, more powerful, more invasive, and more expensive, these people will become more angry.

Long ago government at all levels passed the point where it was keeping people from violating each others rights, enforcing contracts between free people, and protecting us from foreign invaders and began redistributing wealth and and enforcing the opinions and attitudes of some onto others. The people of this nation may finally be starting to recognize this, but I doubt it.

The people of this nation caused these problems by how they voted and the decisions they made in life.

Be careful what you wish for because you might get it good and hard.

*****************************************************************
Here is something I found interesting in the article:

A majority of those over 40 are Very Angry. Only 25% of under-30 voters share that view.

I'm surprised at that. I thought old people would be the ones pushing for more benefits at the expense of other people's children and that young people would not want to have their future wealth taken to pay for that. Somehow I got it backwards. I guess we are raising our children to want to be controlled.

Dope in the image of a Dope

2009-12-03T07:50:00.003-06:00

LOL.

Ecstasy pills molded in the President's image. Fitting.

Did I hear correctly about the "Seattle Shooter"?

2009-12-02T11:01:00.001-06:00

That he was a member of the nation of islam and something related to that called the "Seattle Black Foot Soldiers"?

Goldman Sachs partners finally realize the need for personal defense

2009-12-02T07:16:00.002-06:00

I don't have a reason for posting this, it just sort of caught my eye.

Here is your link.

I suspect most of those people are not big supporters of people actually being able to protect themselves and their families but that doesn't apply to them. LOL, at this point they are probably reconsidering their positions on the government restricting their rights.

I have to focus on one funny paragraph in the article. It starts out with this little gem:

Common sense tells you a handgun is probably not even all that useful.

Well, to be honest, handguns are generally low powered and are difficult to use well and nobody would pick a handgun over a proper rifle if they had the choice. However, to say that they aren't all that useful is idiotic. If they aren't all that useful then why doesn't the NYPD quit carrying handguns?

Here is a little bit of the followup to that nonsense:

Suppose an intruder sneaks past the doorman or jumps the security fence at night. By the time you pull the pistol out of your wife’s jewelry safe, find the ammunition, and load your weapon, Fifi the Pomeranian has already been taken hostage and the gun won’t do you any good.

What idiot thought that statement up? My advice is don't lock your personal protection in a safe. It might not be a bad idea to keep a loaded firearm (All firearms are always loaded) in your safe as a contingency plan but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have your personal weapon on your person. Oh, and get a real dog. I shouldn't beat up on the Pomeranian too much because they make great early warning devices even if they aren't big enough to be a threat themselves.

Finally, some reality invades the world of the author:

As for carrying a loaded pistol when you venture outside, dream on. Concealed gun permits are almost impossible for ordinary citizens to obtain in New York or nearby states.

That is a good reason to not live in NY. It is a fact that carry permits are difficult to get in NYC, but probably an organization like Goldman can grease the skids enough for these guys to succeed.

Three Boys Hunting

2009-11-23T15:52:00.009-06:00

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

2009-11-20T07:40:00.003-06:00

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

2009-11-18T08:33:00.002-06:00

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?

2009-11-17T18:06:00.002-06:00

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

2009-11-15T12:25:00.002-06:00

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

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

2009-11-13T19:36:00.002-06:00

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 . . .

2009-11-12T15:34:00.004-06:00

. . . 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

2009-11-11T07:52:00.002-06:00

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

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

2009-11-09T07:40:00.003-06:00

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

2009-11-07T23:28:00.003-06:00

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

2009-11-07T22:53:00.003-06:00

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

2009-11-05T18:32:00.004-06:00

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

2009-11-04T07:50:00.001-06:00

Here is the link.

Enjoy.