A few pics of this fall.....

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted! We've had a pretty good hunting season so far... Nash got a whitetail doe with his recurve bow, Mom got a nice 4x4 mulie, and I got a 6x5 mulie with lots of character... with my Mauser! :)









Now we just need to get Dad and Nash a buck!

Ben

Shooting sticks

I made a new pair of shooting sticks out of some 5/8ths dowel rod. I candy-striped them and wrapped some electrical tape in the "V". I've taken them out a time or two now, they're proving their worth.



They are a nice compliment to my main pair, the old stand-by.



The nice thing about the older pair, being thicker, I can fold them out and have a really handy walking stick. But the new ones are nice because they're lighter and easier to grab with thick gloves on and carrying a butt-pad to sit on at your calling stand in the same hand.

You can make your own shooting sticks, bi-fur-pod, whatever you want to call 'em, by getting your instructions on Varmint Al's Hunting Site.


Ben

Dad has to have fun too!

Late this morning, Dad, who likes to look with binoculars or a spotting scope at the big hill across the road, spotted a coyote on top of the hill laying down. We kind of gave up on it because there wasn't really a good way to go up without getting picked off. We went on with the day but kept our eyes on the coyote. Later in the afternoon, Mom looked through the spotting scope and saw it was limping really bad on it's right front leg! Now that changes everything! Dad, Nash and I got our gear and started after it. Here's a picture of the coyote on the hill, about 1/2 a mile from our living room window. You can see it holding up it's leg.


Long story short we hiked up the hill in knee deep snow, huffin' and puffin'! We got to the top and took a minute to glass, and Dad spotted the yote. It was too far to shoot, so we dashed around the hill and got set up. We got close enough and BAM! he dropped it in it's tracks, DRT!
Here are some pictures.






It was a little female, looked like this year's pup. She has an old injury that looks like a lion or another coyote got her. Dad's first coyote of the season.

Thanks for looking!

Ben

Bobcat hunt

We cut another fresh cat track yesterday. We turned Tug and Cap out, but kept them on leashes because they are still quite green. Both of them, Cap in particular, did great! We found at least four different bobcat tracks and a huge lion track. We hiked a looong time! We didn't tree the cat but had a blast anyway! :) Here are a couple pictures.


From left to right, Tug, Dad, Cap, Me, and Bill. Nash took the picture so he ain't in it.

~Ben

Been a while!

Wow, it's been a while since I posted! A lot of fun stuff has happened, Dad shot a mulie the last day of season, Nash shot a coyote, etc, etc! :)




We've bird hunted some with our friend Cliff.



Dad and I have been calling alot lately, I missed a yote a few days ago, but that's hunting.

~Ben

The Birthday buck

Well, sort of! :) Two days before, I should say. I finally got my Mulie yesterday!! Here's the story.
Dad and I have been hitting it hard, so we got out a little late this morning. We had several new inches of snow, so there were tracks everywhere! We got to one of our honeyholes, and Dad said he was going to look off the other side for a change. He came running back to the Jeep saying "Big buck, big buck!!" I grabbed the .30-06 and followed him. We looked over the hill and there he was! I held dead on to his shoulder, and touched it off. It hit right under him, so I jacked another in(please note my blood pressue is rising rapidly!!) and shot him. I would have smoked him right though the boiler room, but the wind took it a bit and it hit in the ribcage. He started walking humped up like they do when they get hit, so me and Dad dashed back to the truck to drive up to where we could get in position for a killing shot. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, he had gone by. But we found good blood and started tracking him. A few times we almost gave up because we wouldn't find good blood, but every time, we found a little bit. We walked for about a mile and a half when Dad said that if he wasn't in the bottom of the next coulee, we would go home and let him lay up and die and come back the next day. As we topped the hill, Dad was like "There he is!" He was laying down, and when he saw us he stood up, and I shot him, he wobbled, and fell like a sack of potatoes!! We were PUMPED!!



Can you say big grin?



We gutted him, and he was jelly on the inside. We headed back home to get Mom and Nash. I walked in and Nash said "Did you get one?" I held up my hands which still had blood on them! Mom and Nash came out and were VERY excited! We got the sled and went up the coulee from a different way, which was all flat so we could drag him out easily. We got there and two golden eagles had plucked some hair off the bucks rear quarter.
We took a few more pictures before we pulled him out.







Thanks for lookin'!

~Ben
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