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Well folks, figured I'd take my turn to start the gun thread for the day since I'm still up and ya'll are about to get up for the day. Good luck to all that are going out - be safe, watch the drivers, and shoot straight!
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Figured I'd share a story that occurred on this day 6 years ago. It would have been my second year hunting.
It was the Saturday of the guns season and all things looked good for the day - snow on the ground and cold temperatures had the deer moving, plus of course, by the end of the week, the deer have been running all week. This particular year was the only one that my older brother hunted with my dad and I (we laughed last week at a brotherly joke that occurred that week). At breakfast this morning my father was reviewing shot placement on his paper plate and I said "Hey, what about if I see a coyote? Should I shoot it?" We all agreed that there was no chance that we'd see a coyote, but if so, it'd be fair game.*
We drove out to the woods and hoofed it in, me toting my 870 that I had bought the summer before working my first job. We sat in the woods staggered, my father in the middle of the woods, my brother sitting over a bowl, and I walked the furthest down to a thin strip of woods between two fields. I carried my five gallon bucket in, picked a tree, and waited. Some time passed, perhaps an hour of light or so, and I hear something in front of me. To this point, I had only hunted a handful of times, and this would have been my second or third solo sit - I had no idea what I was doing. I saw something skirt in front of me, dip into a small depression in front of me, and suddenly there's a coyote standing 25 yards broadside. I raised my gun and pulled the trigger! BOOM! Coyote down...
In my excitement, I forgot that we were hunting deer and rushed to walk up to my brother and father. By doing so, I pushed deer towards them, and I remember my father scolding me for talking to my brother loudly when there were deer in front of him and I scared them off...he was excited thinking that I had just shot my first deer...nope, coyote! We walked down to it, and, without a camera, decided that we'd drag the thing out at my insistence to have a picture taken. I will never do that again! Stinky bastard!
*Pretty crazy that this was 6 years ago and as gun-only hunters, we were in disbelief about seeing coyotes around our parts. Last year I saw 5 during daylight and this year I've seen 2.
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So that's my fondest memory of the Saturday of gun week...good luck TOOzers!
--
Figured I'd share a story that occurred on this day 6 years ago. It would have been my second year hunting.
It was the Saturday of the guns season and all things looked good for the day - snow on the ground and cold temperatures had the deer moving, plus of course, by the end of the week, the deer have been running all week. This particular year was the only one that my older brother hunted with my dad and I (we laughed last week at a brotherly joke that occurred that week). At breakfast this morning my father was reviewing shot placement on his paper plate and I said "Hey, what about if I see a coyote? Should I shoot it?" We all agreed that there was no chance that we'd see a coyote, but if so, it'd be fair game.*
We drove out to the woods and hoofed it in, me toting my 870 that I had bought the summer before working my first job. We sat in the woods staggered, my father in the middle of the woods, my brother sitting over a bowl, and I walked the furthest down to a thin strip of woods between two fields. I carried my five gallon bucket in, picked a tree, and waited. Some time passed, perhaps an hour of light or so, and I hear something in front of me. To this point, I had only hunted a handful of times, and this would have been my second or third solo sit - I had no idea what I was doing. I saw something skirt in front of me, dip into a small depression in front of me, and suddenly there's a coyote standing 25 yards broadside. I raised my gun and pulled the trigger! BOOM! Coyote down...
In my excitement, I forgot that we were hunting deer and rushed to walk up to my brother and father. By doing so, I pushed deer towards them, and I remember my father scolding me for talking to my brother loudly when there were deer in front of him and I scared them off...he was excited thinking that I had just shot my first deer...nope, coyote! We walked down to it, and, without a camera, decided that we'd drag the thing out at my insistence to have a picture taken. I will never do that again! Stinky bastard!
*Pretty crazy that this was 6 years ago and as gun-only hunters, we were in disbelief about seeing coyotes around our parts. Last year I saw 5 during daylight and this year I've seen 2.
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So that's my fondest memory of the Saturday of gun week...good luck TOOzers!