Huntin' with the littlin'

Only one of the youngsters wanted to hunt this year. Of course it was the youngest(7), she had to show up her big brothers but "only if it's a boy deer". We got out the .410 the week before and she shot a couple slugs. She did really well. We also pulled up lots of deer pictures on the internet and she practiced showing me where to shoot each one.

We didn't get out too early and since we only hunt our own property we are limited on where we go. We posed for a pic so everyone could see her hunting deer.

We headed out and walked along the edge of the field you see behind us, where bucks like to bed down and watch the house. We didn't find any fresh beds, but when we got over to the other side i saw the neighbor kid in his half of the woods cutting firewood, but I didn't say anything to her.

We snuck into the woods and she learned how to cross a fence and a creek with a gun. We found a stump to sit on, where we could see the edge of a corn stubble field and watch a trail in the woods.

She did pretty good with sitting still and being quiet. We talked in whispers about different ways to hunt deer, then came in after an hour or so when we got cold.

We went back out that evening without the neighbor being in the woods so I had a little hope we would see something. No such luck.

All of our kids have shot some and all have kill animals in the live trap by shooting them. So far the only game they have eaten is the deer I have killed or has been given to us.

I have made a deal with each child that I will clean their first animal of each type they kill but then it is up to them (with my help) after that. The middle child I think is saving that for later since he won't hunt now but says he wants to in the future.

 I remember as a child the one thing I feared most was the blood, gore and guts of cleaning animals I killed. After I had actually done it there was no problem but the worry affected how hard I hunted.

I am hunting this weekend so wish me luck.

Still clinging to my God and my guns,
Randy

The Lord hath provided meat!!

Went out and did a walk through of the woods this morning.
I was as much looking for trespassers as I was hunting. I have two days during muzzle loading season already scheduled off at work. But I give it a little effort during regular gun season and do a slow stalk through the woods. Many times I will find a deer bedded and be able to get a shot.

I had already snuck through the woods and was on my way back along the front edge just inside the trees when up jumps this little button buck. I could tell right away it was wounded. You can see someone shot it in the left rear leg. I was able to walk up to it and put it out of it's misery. So God in his infinite wisdom sent a deer I could actually hit and gave us many good meals to come. He knew normally I would let a little deer like this go, I'm sure he knows something I don't and am grateful for the meat.

In the picture you can see my bowie knife. I got it for $2 at a flea market two summers ago. It is Pakistani stainless that is not the greatest quality but it worked just great on the little buck. The guard has a sharp spot on it that cut my hand a little and I will take a file to it before I use it again. I have never used a knife this big before but once I got the hang of it the size was a real plus in how fast I got the job done. It was a little tight in the chest cavity cutting things loose but worked out well. I had it gutted and in the truck in less than 10 minutes.

Now I'm done hunting and need to go get more wood. I'm only allowed one deer up in this part of the state.
Maybe I'll get some writing done with my two vacation days after Christmas.

Still clinging to my God and my guns
Randy

New article on squirrel hunting

I wrote an article for a publisher at Helium about squirrel hunting.
The article was written to specs for this publication but was not the one picked out of the 25 or so submissions.
So it is now on Helium for all to see.
LINK
The specs limited the words and told what areas to cover.
Got to keep trying.

Still clinging to my God and my guns
Randy

survival pet peeve

Pardon me while climb up on one of my favorite soap boxes.
When you are putting together your survival supplies be sure and add some traps and snares.
Many "experts" tell you not to rely on hunting alone for your sustenance should TEOTWAWKI happen.
Which is good advice, but then they will go on and tell you to add some snares to your supplies.

Snares are well and good if you know how to use them. But you should also have a good collection of steel traps to go with them. Snares are disposable steep traps are more or less permanent. True you can buy a lot of snare material for what a steel trap will cost but the ratio isn't that great when you figure in how long they will last and how many animals you can catch with them. It just irks me that an otherwise prepared person can be so close minded.

The other thing that really bothers me is someone buying a few snares and thinking they are good to go.
I want to know how many hours they have put in the field trapping or snaring. How much fur has this so called expert put up? I have said before trapping is an art. One that takes a pretty darn long time to become proficient at and a lifetime to master. It would be the same as a man buying an AR15 with all the bells and whistles, 30 magazines and 2500 rounds of ammo and locking it all up in his gun safe and thinking he was well armed.

If you think you will use trapping as a food source or maybe even an income source TEOTWAWKI, I encourage you to buy a trapping license and put up some fur. Fur trapping will teach you how animals move in the wild and by learning to avoid catching certain non-target animals now, you have the knowledge you need to target those animals if you need them for food in the future.

Fur trapping is a great dry run for providing for your family in a time of need. It is a skill set that fewer and fewer people every year learn. Fur could also be a means of exchange if the system really tanks and having your trapping kit and skills to use it in place will put you far ahead of the game.

Now get out there and catch something,

Randy