Old School fun

[snert]

Today a local farmer called me to ask me to shoot a small hay field (6 acres) he had just cut. I normally shoot woodchucks with a bench, spotting scope, tripod, lawn chair, 17 year old son acting as equipment bearer...you know, faster, bigger, more advanced!

Tonight, instead, I grabbed the TC Contender carbine K-Hornet, bino's, hat and a pocket full of cartridges. In one hour I shot 6 and missed one. I confess I did shoot two in the high grass in fields not yet cut, but I managed to get a few from the offending field that had holes all over it. What fun! It was like old times when I had better legs and eyes, more imagination and less income. Walk a bit. See woodchuck. Lay in the wet grass. SWAG the distance. Estimate hold. Guess windage. Squeeze and watch for the hit, listen for the PLOOP and see the tail waggin'. I even bought myself a malt milkshake on the way home. I am still smiling.

After a cold hard winter, this is LIFE!

Snert

 

[jonbearman]

Sounds like a good day to me.Imagine actually shooting in new York.LOL

 

[Nomad47]

Great story, Snert. Ah, the good ol' days. I remember sneaking up on them with my 22 rimfire many, many years ago.

 

[MrMajestic]

Nice hunt! Cut my teeth on a .22LR hunting with my Father. 50 yards was long range and it was head shots only because we cleaned and ate the "young ones"! The big ones were stuffed back down their burrow. Miss the hunts but not the meals! ;D

 

[snert]

Sounds like a good day to me.Imagine actually shooting in new York.LOL

It is rather perplexing to be out in NY, where it is BEAUTIFUL this time of year, shooting a GUN, and being ASKED to do it.

Then driving into town and seeing Bumper stickers for O and his like-minded Albany crowd. What a disconnect!

snert

 

[Raythemanroe]

I just read you ate your woodchucks?

 

[MrMajestic]

Yes we ate them! When I was young you ate what was put on the table! :'( Dad was Depression Era and ate them or nothing at all. He said they shot Sparrows with a BB gun and ate them also. I have no interest in eating them now but perhaps I'm just not hungry enough! :-[

 

[thekriebles]

The good 'ole times relived!! Sounds like you had a really good time!

 

[snert]

I, for one, do NOT eat them. Pigeon is not bad though.

Just got in from another hunt. Got two with the 222 this time. 100 yard head shot, and a 200 yarder too. Then we spent some time taking care of pigeons and starlings with the air rifle. 30 yard headshots with the Marauder are like 200 yard woodchucks. Pictures to be posted when I figure out how...

I love retirement!

 

[timeout]

I, for one, do NOT eat them. Pigeon is not bad though.

Just got in from another hunt. Got two with the 222 this time. 100 yard head shot, and a 200 yarder too. Then we spent some time taking care of pigeons and starlings with the air rifle. 30 yard headshots with the Marauder are like 200 yard woodchucks. Pictures to be posted when I figure out how...

I love retirement!

We ate pigeons once every winter. We would go into the hay mows when they were heaped to the top at nite, with a flashlight. Catch us up a bunch and clean them. Aunt Minnie would make pigeon pie. That was a better time in this country for sure. I also love retirement. I am so busy that I have no earthly idea how I ever had time to work!

 

[MrMajestic]

Dad had Tumbling Pigeons, both aerial and ground. He raised them in the shed and when the numbers got to great Pigeon Pot Pie was on the menu. We would watch him off their heads with a flick of his wrist while their heads were clinched in the palm of his hand, their neck held between his fingers.
Being inspired by this post I took the .17 Ackley Bee out last night and added 4 to take the Season total to 42. Longest shot was 136 yards but the stealthy walk and using what was available for rests had me reminiscing also. Thanks Snert.

 

[gilream]

Great post. I too love retirement. Life is good.
Mike

 

[Preacher]

It always amazes me that most folks will have no qualms about eating a chicken that eats it's it's own droppings and other nasty stuff, but absolutely will not eat a critter that was raised on plain old grass, kinda like a grass raised steer...
I doubt I would eat the hairless one, that Nomad shot, but the young ones are fair game...

 

[CaptainMal]

Now that's how you do it.

As for eating it - my mind allowed it to happen twice. Both times the mind came to it's senses while eating.

"You are eating a rat"... is what the mind said to me.

 

[Raythemanroe]

It always amazes me that most folks will have no qualms about eating a chicken that eats it's it's own droppings and other nasty stuff, but absolutely will not eat a critter that was raised on plain old grass, kinda like a grass raised steer...
I doubt I would eat the hairless one, that Nomad shot, but the young ones are fair game...

Preacher, They curl up in a ball and eat their own fecal matter through the winters.. + The rodent thing is a bit of a appetite killer also..

At least don't eat a spring time Chuck, That would be just yuck!

Ray

 

[Changeling]

Yes we ate them! When I was young you ate what was put on the table! :'( Dad was Depression Era and ate them or nothing at all. He said they shot Sparrows with a BB gun and ate them also. I have no interest in eating them now but perhaps I'm just not hungry enough! :-[

When I was young I shot hundreds with a single shot Stevens .22 for the farmers and everyone.

We would skin and clean the small/young ones, cut into parts like a rabbit, put parts in a big dutch oven with lots of potatoes/onions/carrots/celery/salt/pepper/some water and slow cook in the ground covered with coals or on a height adjustable cross beam over an open fire/bed of coals. It was absolutely delicious.

 

[jonbearman]

Woodchuck feces is mostly grass remains anyways.I don't see anything wrong with eating marmots whatsoever. It is just what we have been told as young children and develop bias towards anyone eating something you have been taught as being disgusting. Any grass eater is edible and probably better for you than purdue.

 

[snert]

As for me, just based on smellin them after shooting them, I pass! Those 40 grain vmax make for a MESS I think I will just consider them a protein fertilizer for the farmer field. But, in case I ever HAVE to eat one, I will keep the recipe listed in mind. In the mean time, i am stiking with chiken' ;D

Still trying to figure out the photo thing.

Snert

 

[Acme7]

Pigeon or squab is an aquired taste, i will pass. But if you have eurasian doves infesting your area they are really good and like starlings there is no season or limit here.

 

[Raythemanroe]

When on the rotisserie, Do you leave the big rodent like teeth?

I have eaten Goose, Squirrel, Turtle, even tasted snake and frog legs but rodent hasn't made the menu..


Ray