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Post by spence on Nov 20, 2019 21:49:18 GMT -7
I decided to do a deer hunt today, so I was sitting under a tree when the sun came up. I take it on faith that it came up, because I never saw it. Thick clouds, medium soupy fog, dark, dank, damp, dreary, but I had fun. I did my part but the deer opted out. I watched a small doe feed along the edge of a patch of woods about 100 yards away for about 20 minutes, and I was mighty tempted, but she was just too small, too far away and too much almost dissolved in the fog. Got the old ticker ticking, though. I'm thinking I'm near the end of my deer hunting career. In spite of my best efforts old age is creeping up on me, and I'm not enjoying the chase as much as I did. I found myself actually glad I didn't score, today, because I was just too creaky, achey, cold and tired to hoist and dress out a deer in the field, then butcher, package and freeze it after the hunt. These days I enjoy other things more than the kill, and that grows apace. Today was very far from a loss because of one small happening which I wouldn't trade for a big buck. I always do a good job of sitting on a stand, I can remain unmoving for long periods. I was doing that this morning when I heard the soft flutter of little wings. I had my rifle lying across my lap, muzzle behind my left shoulder. I glanced down and saw a beautiful little Carolina wren sitting on my rifle barrel about three inches from my elbow. It stayed only a second, hopped over to my knee, bobbed and weaved while looking me in the eye, then was gone in a blink. They don't weigh much. I had the thought that I really should be living out there with such little miracles of nature rather than submerged in modern life with all it's politics, conflict, dishonesty and BS. As always, I felt better for having done it. I also enjoyed taking some pictures, as always. Spence     |
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Post by Sicilianhunter on Nov 21, 2019 8:01:34 GMT -7
Spence,
A most EXCELLENT encounter with nature by becoming a part of it!!
I always appreciate your views, not only in print but what your eyes record with your photos!!
THANK YOU
The Sicilian
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Post by brokennock on Nov 21, 2019 8:44:25 GMT -7
Thank you for sharing Spence. I truly appreciate your views on finding satisfaction and enjoyment in the whole experience, not just the end result, being the mark of success. Of course, as always, you seem to put my own thoughts into words much better than I can.
I'm wondering who from your past used that little wren to check on you? What message were they trying to deliver if any?
I "liked" (verb?) your thread even though your remarks on aging do make me sad.
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Post by Black Hand on Nov 21, 2019 9:10:58 GMT -7
Getting older isn't for the faint of heart. Find pleasure wherever you can and enjoy each day as if it might be your last, because it might be one day. Life is too short to waste on regrets (though they should be remembered lest we repeat past mistakes).
I haven't been able to hunt much this year - partially from a lack of time but also due to circumstances. I enjoy the walks and know the work starts once I pull the trigger. I appreciate the meat when it is available, though it might be tag soup this year. Only 2 weekends left in the season.
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Post by spence on Nov 21, 2019 9:32:32 GMT -7
If I were a Native American I could be call Man Liked by Wrens. Yesterday's visit wasn't the first. Several years ago a young friend and I were turkey hunting. I was a neophyte at the game, and my friend was showing me the ropes. He was doing the calling, had a bird interested, and I was primed and cocked, knees up, gun rested on them, and down over the gun ready for action. We were sitting in an area covered with a deep, loose layer of dry leaves, and I begin to hear a rustling sound from in front of me. I looked in that direction and saw the leaves being disturbed from beneath, and the disturbance was coming in my direction. Like a mole raising the sod, the critter was moving the leaves as it traveled under them. I assumed it was a mouse, or possibly a vole or shrew, and never expected to see it. To my amazement, when it got very near me a tiny round grey bird, a winter wren, showed itself and immediately hopped up on my smoothbore barrel about a foot in front of my eye. It sat there for about 10 seconds, bobbing in their characteristic way and twitching first right and then left, sizing me up.
We've had a pair of wrens living outside our back door for years, generation after generation, and we have been hugely entertained by their antics many, many times.
Wild creatures have been a part of my life, and I couldn't begin to describe how important that has always been to me.
Spence
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Post by jrmflintlock on Nov 25, 2019 9:29:49 GMT -7
Thanks for sharing your day with us! You truly have a gift of words. And your photos are always stellar!! Your stories help those of us reading them to look forward to times we get to spend outside, flintlock in hand, no matter how seldom.
Thanks Mr Spence!!
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Post by skychief on Nov 27, 2019 19:36:38 GMT -7
I'll echo the above responses (even at the risk of swelling the author's head a bit....looks as if that sock cap has enough extra room to contain it, if need be)!
Sounds like a wonderful hunt. I too am a lover of our feathered friends and have been so entertained by them through the years, at home and afield.
Sure hope you get out some more this year and share the experiences with us Spence.
By the way, great looking kit. That maple nearly brought tears to my eyes.
Will you tell us a bit about that rifle-gun?
All the best, Skychief.
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Post by spence on Nov 27, 2019 22:20:51 GMT -7
Hey, Skychief. The gun is a .54 caliber plains rifle with a Green Mountain barrel 34" x 1", 1:70 twist, hook breech, lock by Ron Long, double set triggers by L & R Lock Co.. It is steel mounted and weighs 9 1/2 pounds. I built it from a kit by a company called Ozark Mountain Arms run by Jean Arnaud. It was a well respected company when I bought the kit back in 1981-2, I finished it in 1985. It was my primary big game hunting gun for several years until I was seduced by a flintlock smoothbore in 1997. I've used it to take mule and whitetail deer, javelina and full-size Russian boar, groundhog and one unlucky blue grouse which lost its head. As the old boys would say, it will make 'em come.   Spence |
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Post by skychief on Nov 28, 2019 20:14:35 GMT -7
Yes Sir, it will make 'em come!
I know of the fowling piece seduction of which you speak (as you know). Still, I will always be a sucker for a half-stocked, caplock with a fine maple stock.
That 9 1/2 pounds sounds like it would be a recoil tamer...
You did a fine job putting her together. Thanks for the details.
Happy (later) Thanksgiving, Skychief.
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Post by skychief on Nov 28, 2019 20:18:16 GMT -7
Quick follow-up. Checking out your boar photograph and having eaten more ham today than anyone should be allowed, a question comes to mind to ask you and other boar hunters....
As a rule, how does wild boar meat compare to the tame pork meats we find in our grocery stores?
Thanks, Skychief.
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Post by spence on Nov 28, 2019 21:38:15 GMT -7
I've had very little of it, but it seems much like domestic pork to me. This one was a bit tough, but I had some from a boar shot by a friend which was as tender as the tame ones.
Spence
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Post by brokennock on Nov 29, 2019 9:12:41 GMT -7
I find it to be one of the few, if not only, game meats that we compare to domestic meat, that I find almost no difference between the two. Wild may sometimes be tougher, but most pork recipes seem to already take reducing toughness into account.
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Post by skychief on Nov 29, 2019 16:30:16 GMT -7
Thank you gentlemen.
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