. . . To him who has once tasted the reckless independence, the haughty self-reliance, the sense of irresponsible freedom, which the forest life engenders, civilization thenceforth seems flat and stale. Its pleasures are insipid, its pursuits wearisome, its conventionalities, duties, and mutual dependence alike tedious and disgusting. The entrapped wanderer grows fierce and restless, and pants for breathing-room. His path, it is true, was choked with difficulties, but his body and soul were hardened to meet them; it was beset with dangers, but these were the very spice of his life, gladdening his heart with exulting self-confidence, and sending the blood through his veins with a livelier current. The wilderness, rough, harsh, and inexorable, has charms more potent in their seductive influence than all the lures of luxury and sloth. And often he on whom it has cast its magic finds no heart to dissolve the spell, and remains a wanderer and an Ishmaelite to the hour of his death.
Francis Parkman
My first Muzzleloader Buck, 10 degree buck....
Well, I hunted hard, as usual, this year for whitetail. I passed on plenty of decent bucks (such as the one I shot with the camera below) and had missed opportunities on some trophy bucks...was
beginning to think I had a Wolf curse, especially after having snow fall out of a tree and into my scope while a huge mountain buck ran off......
I ended rifle season without punching my tag, so I thought I would give a late
muzzle loader season a try. I've never taken a game animal with a
muzzle loader, so thought it would be a fun and challenging experience. I hunted a day on the
Selway, with little luck, and being down to the last day and a half of the season, I set out with my good friend Donny to hunt some areas he has access to.
It has been bitter cold the last few days, and figured the deer would be needing to move to eat and stay warm in the sub-zero overnight temps. The temperature had however warmed up to ten degrees when we set out on an afternoon hunt.
We saw some deer, out of range of the
muzzle loaders, and the cold temps were causing all sorts of havoc with the camera and other optics...as you can see in the frosty deer pic above. We were walking a canyon rim when two bucks came running out into the field about 75 yards in front of us. I pulled up the
muzzle loader and put the open sights on the largest of the two, and as he slowed his run to a trot at about 125 yards, I held at the top of his front shoulder and fired. He immediately folded with the impact of the 295 grain lead slug, then spun and ran about 30 yards crashing into a fence and brush, where he piled up.
He wasn't the biggest buck I'd seen this fall, I passed on quite a few larger than him earlier in the season, but for my first
muzzle loader buck I was excited, and
definitely will have to do more
muzzle loader hunting in the future......he turned out to be about a 15 inch 4x5, not bad for only one day of season left, and he will make some fine eating for the winter months ahead....
Well, I hunted hard, as usual, this year for whitetail. I passed on plenty of decent bucks (such as the one I shot with the camera below) and had missed opportunities on some trophy bucks...was beginning to think I had a Wolf curse, especially after having snow fall out of a tree and into my scope while a huge mountain buck ran off......
I ended rifle season without punching my tag, so I thought I would give a late muzzle loader season a try. I've never taken a game animal with a muzzle loader, so thought it would be a fun and challenging experience. I hunted a day on the Selway, with little luck, and being down to the last day and a half of the season, I set out with my good friend Donny to hunt some areas he has access to.
It has been bitter cold the last few days, and figured the deer would be needing to move to eat and stay warm in the sub-zero overnight temps. The temperature had however warmed up to ten degrees when we set out on an afternoon hunt.
We saw some deer, out of range of the muzzle loaders, and the cold temps were causing all sorts of havoc with the camera and other optics...as you can see in the frosty deer pic above. We were walking a canyon rim when two bucks came running out into the field about 75 yards in front of us. I pulled up the muzzle loader and put the open sights on the largest of the two, and as he slowed his run to a trot at about 125 yards, I held at the top of his front shoulder and fired. He immediately folded with the impact of the 295 grain lead slug, then spun and ran about 30 yards crashing into a fence and brush, where he piled up.
He wasn't the biggest buck I'd seen this fall, I passed on quite a few larger than him earlier in the season, but for my first muzzle loader buck I was excited, and definitely will have to do more muzzle loader hunting in the future......he turned out to be about a 15 inch 4x5, not bad for only one day of season left, and he will make some fine eating for the winter months ahead....
5 comments:
Robert,
I just
Sorry about that, messed up logging in. I just wanted to drop a line saying that I check your blog a couple times a week, but today was the first time I took a look through the wolfcomments link, and I'm still a little worked up over it. The thing that just hit me is that I'm wondering now if my reaction to the lunatic's hate mail to you is similar to their twisted reactions to your successful hunt? Obviously "they" were sickened by what you did. Personally, I was happy to see that you got one. I'm sickened by the hatred and ignorance and lack of humanity they espoused. I live in an area (much like you) where the majority of the people are still connected to the land, and hunting, fishing, trapping and logging are accepted as vital, sustainable means of supporting businesses, livelihoods, and family structure. For some goofy reason, MN still has wolves on the list. The S.S.S. method is rampant here, and I really believe that the state game agency has made the unspoken, unwritten decision that its easier, and cheaper, to "manage" the wolves that way than to try to hunt them legally. Our country is going to hell in a handbasket, I'm afraid to say. The sort of crap you've had to deal with makes me scared to think about the world that my 5 year old son is going to inherit.
I saw the picture of your 'trophy' in NG...you are really a sick person. I can't call you a man, cause you aren't! Wish it was your balls in that picture, that is, if you have any which you probably don't. Your friend Mitch calls us animal lovers 'ignorant'..well, ignorant are those who kill for trophies and photos and self gain. And he can't even spell "exposed" heeheehee! ignorant!Men with small dicks hunt!!!
Vivian,
Check out the dictionary (it's a book, several are published by a little company known as Webster) and then look up the word "espouse." Then add the letter D at the end. Then you have the word espoused, which is exactly what I meant to write. But good effort on trying to make your point, it really found a captive audience on this blog. And I kill deer to eat them. Have a great day!
Keep them coming Vivian...you call us ignorant..but the comments from you, and by people like you do more to show the general public which side of the wolf issue is truely ignorant than anything we as hunters could say or do...I suggest professional help or a healthy hobby such ans hunting or fishing to occupy your time and ease your anger issues..
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