Are They Really Hunts?

I have to be brutally honest about these planted bird shoots that we've put on the past couple of years, JHO won't be participating anymore for several reasons.

1) The biggest reason is the safety issue. Every time I've been out on a planted bird shoot we've had issues with folks who are not aware of where their muzzle is pointing or had fingers on the trigger while walking. Even after warning the shooter we've had the same issue pop back up again the same day which puts in in a jam over kicking someone out of the shoot.


In these bird shoots we're also mixing small groups together that have never shot with each other and it's caused some strife. I know I've hit the ground a time or two over the past couple years when someone swung too far and almost blew someone's head off. I know 2 people who've been shot in the past 2 years while at pheasant shoots like this and I don't want any part in any shooting.

2) It's a canned hunt. I grew up chasing pheasants in the frozen cornstalks of Iowa and Missouri and these hunts, or shoots as they should be labeled, are just not my cup of tea. The dogs do get a work out but that's about it. You walk up and kick the pheasant out of sparse cover and bang! Wild pheasants are a completely different game, they use their cover to best many upland hunters. That, and many times a bird gets pounded by 3 or 4 shooters as it flies across field, leaving a bloody mess you can't even salvage for a bite to eat. Antis also use this type of canned hunt in their argument on hunting being called fair chase. I've always been for fair chase and these type of shoots do not make the cut for me.

3) The other issue we've had to deal with is dog owner's who have NO control what so ever over their dog or dogs. The last hunt we had a springer flushing out a pheasant from our field even before we walked out, the owner was no where in sight. Later, this same dog came back and we hollered for someone to reel in their dog and no one around responded. We never did figure out who was letting the springer run all over other fields. The hunt before that we had to ask one person to put their lab up in his truck after the dog ruined several fields by flushing birds out of them. Some folks who think they have control over their dog are completely oblivious to the whole program. This issue has also caused some heartburn between groups at these shoots as they watch a loose dog flush out birds they just paid to shoot.



The bottom line, just too many folks in tight quarters swinging shotguns around with many of them newbies or just way too careless for me. The California DFG youth hunts are more controlled in that they have several mentors around the kid and only hand them a shell when it's time to shoot. That's great but it's still a far cry from a fair chase hunt. One young hunter put it best to me after teaching him to shoot pidgeons at the local dairy in Chino. We were on his first planted pheasant hunt and after kicking the bird several times the pen raised bird finally flushed up and he shot it. The kid turned to me and said, "This ain't no fun, let's go shoot pidgeons." So we did, leaving our 2 other birds for another shooter in the next field to finish off.

I'm not trying to dis the DFG or the pheasant clubs it's just I have to be truthful on how I've always felt about these shoots. I tried to go along for the kids and group shoots for the comraderie but it's just not going to work for me.

From the email. Wolf pack takes down a moose

Every once in awhile you get an email containing something worthwhile, something that makes you just say "WOW!!". No idea who the pic owner is on this one, email said they were from a treestand in Idaho. One heck of a view this person must of had.

Growing up around St. Louis MO I saw coyotes and feral dogs pack up like this and run whitetail deer. The coyotes would try and chase the deer down to the rivers where the frozen ice was a deathtrap for any animal with slick hooves. It usually ended with the deer too weak to stand on the ice and the canines would brutally rip the deer apart while still alive.

This is nature in one of her purest acts.

Recipe For Disaster. Idjits Who Drink While Hunting.

Skipping throught the blogs yesterday I spied this waterfowl hunting in MS piece on Holly's (NorCal Cazadora's) blog that I thought would be kewl to read. About half way through the article one pic just froze me in mid thought.

The Huntress Club: Duck Hunting Sorority in the Swamp


What kind of friggin idiot takes swigs of booze while hunting and then lets someone photograph the act and publish it? What kind of hunting group lets another bring the booze into the blind? Absolutely disgraceful. What a black eye to hunters and gun owners. Shame on the Swamp Witches as they call themselves. This IS NOT the message we want to send to the public. What part of gun safety did this gal miss? Drinking while hunting is also illegal in many states and I recommend if that is the case in MS, that the state cite her goofy azz.

Does anyone sane really want someone in the blind next them who's buzzed swinging a shotgun near their head? The unsafe act is bad enough but this is prime beef for the antis who will hold this pic up and exclaim that not only are men hunters drunken slob bubbas, their women are too.

The pic caption says she's taking a swig to keep warm. This is a fallacy as alcohol DOES NOT warm up the body, it acts just the opposite by fooling people into thinking they are warmer after drinking. Add another layer if you're that dang cold. Then agin, she may have a drinking problem and as we all know, alcoholics can find a million excuses why they need a pick me up.

It's unbelievable to me that with all the hunter ed and alcohol education out there we still have idiots like this endangering others in the field. The sad part is these fools usually don't off themselves, they shoot the poor SOB next to them. Then we get the lame "I'm so sorry" that is supposed to somehow mend the maimed or dead hunter.

Don't be afraid to speak up when one of these oxygen stealers shows up to your hunt. I flat out ask them to leave, even if that means they drive 300 miles back home. If it's not my hunt I simply ask the booze be put up until the guns are cased. If my request is not honored I ruck up and move on. I'm not going to suffer, or watch someone else suffer, due to this stupidity.

And just for the record, I enjoy my bourbon after a long day humpin' the hills and swamps, I just make sure all the guns are up first.

Guns and alcohol simply don't mix, it's a disaster just waiting to happen. I don't know many folks who could endure the guilt they would carry if they shot someone while drinking on a hunt.

New Year's Eve JHO hunt at Fort Hunter Liggett

This was our annual New Year's Eve JHO hunt at Fort Hunt Liggett near Jolon CA. The hunt was for hogs, quail and predators. Whatever we could find or track down. The weather was perfect for strolls on the oak covered hills, overcast with temps in the low 30s in the mornings going up to the mid 50s in the afternoons.

You hear a bugle sound retreat in the beginning of this video. Of all the time I've spent hunting FHL and training there in the military I've never heard retreat before. We were miles from the cantonment area and the wind was blowing the other way with a huge ridge between us and I could hear that bugle perfectly. Wild!

That's Eric (XDHunter) and REM3006 skinning the second hog, their "bald headed" boar. Rem3006 hit another big boar the night before and Eric tracked it late that night and the next morning but he said the hog wasn't hit that bad judging by the distance and the hills the big black boar covered.

My hunting partner Westy is seen at the end of the video creeping in on a bobcat we shot. There are several things I learned from trapping as a kid, you keep an exit picked out when wading in on a wounded bobcat. This one turned out to be dead but the hissing and spitting before it died puckered up both us a wee bit. Westy lost the flip of my two headed quarter so I got offer my encouragement from afar.



More info on hog hunting and FHL:

JHO FHL info page

JHO Hog Hunting Forum

CA Hog Hunting Info

Unleash The Hounds? "Spider" The New WR Elk

Well, that didn't take long. Boone & Crockett just announced the new word record bull elk, taken by Denny Austad of Ammon Idaho on Monroe Mt. in Utah last fall. The jackals were not far behind with jealous and character coloring posts dripping from their sharp fangs.



The shameless lynch mob mentality is one reason I don't think I'd want to shoot or even tell anyone about killing a large buck or elk, or anything. All the clueless fools who come out afterward to take their potshots really annoy me. It reminds me of a neighbor in MO (Randy Simonitch), who snuck up on a large whitetail buck (190+ P&Y) in a beanfield with his bow and whacked it. Suddenly every wannabe on the hunting forums was claiming it was a sick deer, or it had been hit by a car. No one could sneak up on a buck like that in a bean field they ranted. Total BS since not ONE of them was there or even had a clue. One azzhat claimed beans never grow that high to pull off the sneak. Obviously, he hadn't walked in the beans in Lincoln county MO that fall because I had to lift my bow as I walked through the beans, they were so high.



"Buzzkillers" it what I call them. If you don't know the facts of the hunt how can you besmirch someone's name with baseless allegations and innuendo? Word is B&C curry combed everything about the hunt so they wouldn't end up with egg on their face. So the guy has some money and can buy some help on the hunt, I'd do it in a heartbeat if that is what I wanted and had the money. And let's not BS each other, so would many hunters. If they cheated and blocked roads or interfered with other hunters on this elk then the proof needs to brought forward and the bull DQed. Until then, some folks need to hold their venom and hate.

And finally, being a forum moderator we've had to pull some of the trash posts over this elk on our forum. Yeah, you're sposed to be welcome to post your opinions on hunting forums, but when you go over the line and trash someone with your nasty rumors and allegations it's not going to fly. Why would it? Would you like it if the shoe were on the other foot?

Rant off

P.S. Doyle Moss was the guide and videoed the hunt. Check Doyle's site MossBack Fever for the video release.

Too Switched On?

The other night I was heading north to a duck hunt at Kern NWR. It was dark, having just left a fine supper of Carnitas at the Los Pinos restaurant at the top of the Vine (Grapevine) as some know it on I-5, north of Los Angeles. As each vehicle passed me I began to notice the blinking displays from laptops, GPS units, cellphones, Gameboys etc. I've always been a gadget freak and nerd but I began to wonder just how far we've become addicted to electronics. Many of the cars whizzing past had several people using electronic devices in them.


RING!!! RING!!! RING!!!! Hold on a sec, gotta answer this call.

I can remember a time when you loaded up the truck for a vacation to get away from the ringing phones and never ending questions from work. When you arrived at the rustic cabin or campsite there was no phone to answer, no mail, nothing. It was you and the beautiful woods with no annoying distractions.

On the other hand, a cellphone is good insurance to have if you become stranded or have an emergency of some sort. Most of these folks were traveling for the Christmas holiday. The I-5 can be a boring haul with the Tule Fog causing California's deadliest pileups.

Where is the line for too much electronic gadgetry?

I know some families who can't go anywhere unless little Johnny has his Gameboy, it keeps junior occupied and quiet many parents tell me. The world Johnny has never seen is screaming by and his head is buried in the toy. Part of traveling to me as a kid was seeing the sights, the wonder and awe of seeing new places and new things. Is the next generation missing out in their enlightenment or is this the new world order? Do I need to assimilate or can we bend the folks who are constantly wired and tuned in, off?

BEEP!!! BEEP!!! BEEP!!! Be right with you, gotta answer this page.

I see folks everyday walking around with I-Pods in their ears or yapping on a cellphone as they blindly negotiate busy intersections or walkways. Hearing is one sense I want turned on when big buses and machinery are buzzing by me just feet away. I wonder how many have been squished when they didn't hear the yell from someone to "Look out!!". Some states like CA here are passing laws prohibiting the use of cellphones while driving to try and prevent accidents from inattentive drivers. Some of the cellphone ring tones are flat out annoying, especially in a movie or restaurant. One goof had a screaming elephant in his cellphone the had everyone in the local cafe jumping up and looking for cover, me included. It was that loud.

That begs the question. Is all this electronic bombardment ruining our situational awareness as outdoorsmen? If we don't hear that Towhee singing how would we ever know what one sounds like? If all we hear is music and phone conversations as we walk around outside we will never enjoy the funny chatter of a red-headed woodpecker scolding a squirrel for daring to invade his tree.


RING!!!! RING!!! RING!!! Excuse me, gotta answer this call, BRB.

Goin' To Hell For Sure?

I first started varmint shooting as a kid. We would skip school, grab our varmint rifles (usually a .22) and head down to the local dump along the Missouri River bottom to shoot the plentiful rats that lived amongst the trash. The dump was a perfect shooting gallery, just like at the carnival. There were different levels and ranges that the furry critters would run back and forth on.



The first time I was slapped on the back for splattering a varmint I felt a tinge of guilt. The giggles and snickers when a rat's head went sailing off or the red mist flying out from a groundhog made me feel kind of bad too. Afterward I wondered if this was what got you into hell? The trigger time made us better riflemen but what was the price we would pay? When you get to the Pearly Gates is this one adventure that is recorded on the "Bad Side" in the ledger of your life?

Fast forward to today and I'm still zinging the varmints that need shooting. Depredation many call it, which means plundering; to pillage [Latin depraedare to pillage]. The ground squirrels here in California do tremendous damage to cattle and horses when they fall into the ground squirrel burrows. Heck, I've almost snapped a leg bone or two due to them dern "squeaks" and their tunnels they have everywhere.

I catch a lot of flack over the varmint shooting videos I post. Many are antihunters or antigunners who rant on with all kinds of name calling and foul language. I'm not so sure about some of the other comments, some may be just folks who drop in on the link not sure what the link is about and they are neither a hunter/shooter or an anti. Shooting animals and giggling about it must appear to be pretty callous to the uninformed. Would a caution or advisory about the varmints being pests before the video rolls help?

Am I going to hell?

One old friend offered another opinion on this catch 22 situation. While at the range during a media event where the outdoor writers were shooting ground squirrels he overheard one old scribe from the south offer that varmint shooting may not get you straight into hell, but you were darn sure to be getting a warm room for doing it.

Lord forgive me, I wonder if they make asbestos in 3XL?