It's Bushcraft Wednesday!

I know, it's Veterans Day, and that takes priority. But it's also Bushcraft Wednesday, so I'm posting this helpful hunting video. Spoiler alert, sometimes the hunter becomes the hunted...

Don't be a Student Stasi whining lib crybaby, get out in the field.

LSP

Scouting Coyotes

Scout the Farm

A parishioner's farm has been terrorized by coyotes lately, (they killed a cow) so I went to scout out the problem and see where the dogs were running.

Coyote Crossing

It was a beautiful day to walk the fencelines and sure enough, the coyotes had worn a path through the bank of a creek. A kind of coyote highway to rabbits, mice, chickens, goats and cows.

Tracks

I figured that might be a good area to setup and call; a safe place to take a shot and obviously visited by the offenders. If that didn't work, I could fall back 100 or so yards to a copse on high ground and try from there. 

Then it was back to the truck via a turtle shell, Polled Herefords and some chickens.

Polled Herefords

Great to get out in the field and remember, 2014 is the Year of the Gun. 

Cheers,

LSP

A Nice Day at the Beach

Beach Kit

I went for an armed stroll over at what my philisophical friend, GWB, calls "The Beach." The Beach is this swampy, snakey series of ponds out by Brandon. I thought that there might be fish and possibly dove or other small game, maybe squirrels, rabbits, even an unwiley coyote or a careless hog. You never know.

Gangland

So I got all quiet and tactical and went to scout out the Beach; there were plenty of dog tracks in the dark earth, which was still wet from all too rare rain. A big coyote had passed through recently and as I pondered that I saw a gang of turkeys. They were very unafraid and would have been an easy shot in season. I'll remember that spot for later in the year.

Spot the Bird

At the Beach proper I was disappointed to see there weren't any fish, but there was a large turtle who eyed me quizzically from the turgid depths of the pond. The air was thick with dragon flies and I waited, still, in the silence, which became loud with insects and birds.

The Beach

If I'd waited long enough something would have shown up and I would have shot it, but I picked my way through the swampy brush, keeping an eye out for arrowheads and associated archeology. You never know what you'll find, certainly not any dove, annoyingly.

I see there's a Putinist subculture in America. Well go figure.

Good hunting,

LSP

Get Out and Hunt

There's few things I like better right now than getting out in the field after Sunday's Masses and roving about with a shotgun in search of dove, or small game. Going solo is good, just you, the countryside, senses sharpened in search of game and the satisfaction of something for the pot if things go right. If they don't? An armed ramble about the fields and treelines is good too. But I prefer to go out with company, which lately means GWB and his bird dog in training, JEB.

We shot a couple of the feathered acrobats and missed far more, they'll fly again to fight another day, and most of our time was spent set-up in silence along the edge of a big field waiting for the dove to fly. I like that silence. After a while you start to hear the sounds of the country, insects, birds, livestock, far off dogs and... dove! Then it's up and at 'em with a vengeance.

But they're canny rocketeers. They'll swerve to miss the shot, take off at impossible angles like gravity defying UFOs and otherwise defy the shooter. One seemed to play dead yesterday, stumbling in mid arc, nosedive falling straight down towards the ground, then taking off like an insane experiment out of the Peenemunde proving grounds. Well flown.

Then it was back to the tailgate to clean the birds as the sun was setting and back to HQ to eat them.

Fried up the breasts with onion, garlic and chili sauce on a toasted bun with mayo -- sandwich style.

Tasty, followed up by a glass or two of the right stuff on the porch and the usual banter about Angelic alphabets, Benchmade v. Spyderco, the wickedness of Yoko Ono and the perversity of thinking that the more you're taxed the richer you'll be.

God bless,

LSP

Shoot Dove

I like September because you can get out in the field to shoot dove, which is what I did on Sunday evening with GWB.

GWB, all about Wittgenstein...

We started off by walking a tree-line or two and a large field; one dove was flushed out and went down before we set up on the edge of some tree cover and waited for the birds to fly. 

learning

They did that soon enough and after some brisk action we had a modest amount of dove for the grill. I always enjoy the excitement of the snap shot and the satisfaction of seeing the bird drop, for that matter, it's good in itself to be out at dusk in the Texan countryside. It's still, when the guns aren't firing, and gives well needed space to recollect.

get out in the field!

Thanks, GH, for letting us shoot on your land. A good time was had by all.

Shoot straight,

LSP