I became an uncle for the first time today:

So, for the third time in about 18 months my “smarter” dog got sprayed after attacking a skunk…

We were working on blind retrieves in the tall grass behind my house when I saw her recoil and then lunge back towards a flurry of black fur. The smell hit me a second later. Stupid dog. I’ve washed her, rinsed her in every known scent killing compound known to man and the internet, and she still makes my eyes water. For the time being my neighbors aren’t going to be able to sit on their porch in a strong west wind.

Fellow Skinny Moose blogger Chesson brought back some great pictures from his trip to New Zealand. Take a look at scenery here and the hunt pictures here. Go check them out.

Cal Deer Association to Sponsor Sharing the Tradition Junior Deer Hunt

For the sixth straight year the California Deer Association (CDA) is sponsoring its Sharing the Tradition Junior Deer Hunt. Twenty-five junior deer hunters will have a chance to go on a free, fully-guided antlerless deer hunt on the famous Tejon Ranch. CDA is sponsoring these hunts in cooperation with Tejon Ranch, which at 270,000 acres is the largest privately owned ranch in California. Juniors and their accompanying adult will stay in one of Tejon Ranch’s lodges.

Junior hunters will be selected in a free, random drawing open to any junior hunter with a 2009 California junior hunting license and an unfilled deer tag. In addition, the following sponsors will supply the 25 lucky juniors with ammunition from Federal Premium Ammunition and Barnes Bullets, binoculars from Alpen Optics, and hunting gear from Hunter’s Specialties and Birchwood Casey.

A total of 90 juniors have already participated in the prior year hunts. Over 90% of them had never taken a deer before. Their success rate for these hunts has been an unbelievable 98.8%.

Entry applications must be received by October 14, 2009. Hunts will take place in the second half of December.

The 2009 Sharing the Tradition hunt applications and rules can be found at the following two websites:
California Deer Association: http://www.caldeer.com/tejon-hunts.htm
California Fish & Game: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/docs/SharingtheTradition.pdf

Also, attached in PDF form, are the application, rules and additional information concerning the hunts.

About CDA: The California Deer Association was founded in 1996, with its principal goal to improve California deer herds and other wildlife through direct financial support for habitat improvement and research projects. Since its inception, CDA has raised more than $3,000,000 to fund over 300 projects in California. CDA currently has 23 chapters with over 6,000 members. For more information on the California Deer Association, telephone toll free (888) 499-DEER or check our website at www.CalDeer.org.
Contact:
Jerry Springer at Jerry@WesternHunter.com, (209) 951-5188

Some of you may remember that dihardhunter got his first turkey this year in Kansas. I posted the link here. Short version: he flogged one to death. Great story, even better pictures.

Now he’s tried his hand at guiding pig hunters. Some parts of the story might sound familiar. Great story, even better pictures. Take a look here.

Guess the P&Y score on my 2008 Kansas buck. I’ve scanned the score sheet and you can see how you did after the break below…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve never understood the passion with which some people will defend their favorite minimalist caliber. .243 for elk? .223 for Midwestern whitetails? 30-30 for buffalo? Sure, why not. Any of those animals can be killed with a .22 long rifle. But that’s not the point is it?

Oh, but I know what you’re thinking:

I have two PhDs, one in ballistics and one in American Big Game History. I happen to know for a fact that 200,000,000 buffalo were killed with a 30-30 or smaller, and 300,000,000 elk were killed with a .243 or smaller. If it worked for the old timers it will still work today. Stop talking smack on my favorite minimalist caliber!

Right. I just said that you can kill all these animals with a .22lr. Obviously those listed cartridges worked in their time and would work today. You know what else worked in it’s time? Horse drawn wagons. Amputations without anesthesia. Mercury as a treatment for whatever ails you. Those things all worked in their time, but science provided us with better options. If someone’s going to cut your leg off, why not use anesthesia? If you’re looking at a 350 class bull in a meadow 250 yards away, why not be happy you’ve got a 300 magnum or at least a .270? If you can’t handle the massive .270 recoil you probably should be hanging with T. Michael Riddle and shooting something that can’t get out of the pen if you wound it.

Will that bigger bullet help you if make a bad shot? Yes. A .30 caliber hole in the liver is better than a .24 calliber hole. But that’s not really the question. A .30 caliber hole in the lungs is better than a .24 caliber hole. But that’s not really the point. A few years ago I was on a rifle elk hunt in Colorado that went bad when a guy who was way too pretty to be elk hunting shot a bull in the lower front leg. A massive tracking operation was undertaken in which they jumped that bull a couple of times. Let’s say you’re on that tracking team when the bull hobbles out into a clearing 150 yards away. Your opportunity is to shoot into a back hip and hope you get good penetration. Still want that .243? If you say yes you’re lying. You want a bullet with the mass and energy to bust through bone and maybe two feet of tissue before getting into the lungs. You want an elk gun. You never know what will happen on a hunt, but one thing is for sure… bad things will happen. Mistakes will be made, and sometimes you can’t wait for the perfect shot you promised you’d hold out for.

So now you’re thinking of extending my logic right? You’re about to argue that by my logic you should be shooting a .50 BMG or bigger. No. Obviously that’s stupid. What you should be shooting is whatever reasonable elk caliber you can shoot accurately and carry comfortably. For some that may be a .338 in a 6 pound gun. For some it may be a .270 in an 8 pound gun. But unless you’re a 12 year old girl I think we can all agree that you can do better than a .243.

What prompted all of this? I stumbled across this wonderful piece written by a real elk hunter. I bet he watches more elk get killed in a month than I’ve seen in my whole life. He tells the story of watching a bull get shot many times in the chest by a 7-08 and then run off (after getting shot in the jaw).

I get an incredible amount of Google hits from people checking for a health update on Tred Barta. I’m not sure why because I don’t speak Google and I certainly have not gone out of my way to position myself as any kind of expert. Nonetheless, since people are checking here anyway, I’ve added today’s update from Dan Harrison:

I talked to Tred yesterday and his spirits are high. They think they have the cancer under control hopefully!! He should be heading home in about 3 weeks? not sure.

I am trying to find a utv for him to get around the ranch on. We also ordered a special needs saddle that should be done in about 8 weeks.

Thats all I Know.

Thanks Dan

From here.

I know, two sports posts in two days… but this was just too good not to post:

The Trey Hillmans and Dayton Moores of the world always tell us about the magical and mystical world of baseball. They describe it as a game played in a kind of manly tableau of romance, a strange concoction of male heroism — you have to look into a guy’s eyes now and then — and a well-wrought detective novel. Little things, things that don’t show up in the boxscore, are of course, supremely important. And it makes them feel intelligent, although they are at root anti-intellectual, to adhere to this sort of gnosticism. Not everybody really knows the game, like those who really know the game. Scouts, it goes without saying, are part of the initiated, the wizard sleuths who know what to notice and how to interpret the signs. The oracles of this creed speak as all oracles do, in circles designed to confuse outsiders. Thus, we are sometimes told things seemingly empty: he’s a ballplayer, he plays the game the right way, and so on.

It is, fundamentally, a world enchanted by magic. A mythical world. Symbols and signs abound. Beginnings and endings, naturally, are of the utmost importance. How the first inning of the game starts, for the offense, is most important. Proper supplications must be made. If a good “bat-handler” can be found to bat second, much good fortune will be generated. His groundouts to second will be recorded by the spirit world approvingly. A dirty uniform, even if dirtied in missing a flyball or in being thrown out in a steal attempt, is both a sign of piety and a talisman of good tidings.

The rest here.

If you want to hunt during the first modern Tennessee elk season you better get in on this ebay auction.