Hey Randy !
- Thread starter Trigger50
- Start date
Production company has plotted plans for me to go back home to Big Falls and show people where it all started. It would not be a big game hunt. It would be a grouse hunt, or as we call them in Big Falls, "Partridge."
It would be mostly humor. In Big Falls, ruffed grouse are food, not sport. We shoot them on the ground, on stumps and dead falls, under spruce trees, and only when all else fails will we shoot them on the wing. We proudly talked about shooting them on the ground with terms like "poleaxed," "slooshed," "Arkansawed," "ground swatted," "dusted" and many other terms that gave reference to the act of shooting their heads off and not wasting any of the breast or legs.
I can see some of you laughing right now, having done the same thing when you were younger.
It would be funny to go there and show how it is done. We would use Long Toms (our definition of a 12 gauge that has more than a 28" barrel) with full chokes, usually pump actions, but a semi-auto will suffice in the event you have to clear numerous grouse impeding your progress down the skid trail. A good grouse hunter can take the head off a grouse at 40 yards with a good set up like that. The best of them can do it at 50 yards. BBs in the breast is grounds for a serious "bawling out" by your father/uncle.
I would find great humor by the reaction of those who hunt grouse with $4,000 double guns, over dogs with names of French women, wearing their Orvis outfits and LL Bean grouse boots. I've watched some grouse shows like that, and it is worse than watching the fly fishermen that invade Montana each summer. I prefer the kids on the bank drowning night crawlers, catching a few on their spinning rods, then knocking out the fish on rocks before dragging them home to eat 'em.
Would then have a big grouse feast. Go to all my friends' hunting shacks (an upper Midwest phenomena) to tell stories, imbibe in the fine culture and language to be found there, spend some time with family and friends, and show people just how much fun you can have doing something as simple as ground swatting partridge, and not be the least bit ashamed of doing it that way.
The production guys are pressing for an "open mic" session at the local municipal liquor store, known in Big Falls as the "Power House," so everyone could tell their favorite story about the dumbass, snotty nosed kid, who moved to Montana. Probably need some serious edits on that one. If we picked up the bar tab for that evening, I am sure it would be standing room only.
Probably have to go down to the train bridge, where it crosses the Big Fork River, and show where me, my Mom's two youngest brothers, and my cousin tried to blow up the train bridge with a homemade bomb that consisted of a quart-sized paint can jam packed with as much gunpowder as we could steal from my Granpa's ammo depot, fused with some chainsaw starter rope soaked in Off skeeter dope. This attempt to replicate the actions of Butch and Sundance is testament to the fact that 7-10 year olds are heavily influenced by what they watch on TV, and why I am still amazed that I got through childhood with all limbs attached and only a few powder burns combined with slight hearing loss.
Thinking it might involve a description of how we would lay on the freezing rocks for hours on end, during peak run off, catching suckers by the gunny sack full, with our hands, stocking up on mink bait for the fall trapping season. Risking life and limb in the huge rapids of this river for some smooth tuba-lipped fish that tastes like rank three-day old wieners on the roller grill of the 7-11.
Hell, I could go on and on about things there that have had some influence on the TV show people get to watch. Mostly, it was the people who all went out of their way to make sure every day was a good day; that no young boys were left at home on opening day of deer season; that every kid in town owned a functioning fishing pole (yeah, we called them "poles"); and that no matter how long you have been gone or how far away you have moved, you are still one of us.
Would also be fun to visit/hunt with a bunch of the good old boys. Plenty of those to be found, but many of them are cashing in their chips.
Lots of color to a story from Big Falls, no matter what we were trying to hunt (heavy emphasis on "trying"). Just not sure how well it would play out to an audience who wants to watch a hunting show, not a show about small town Northern Minnesota, where hunting/fishing/trapping are serious parts of the traditions.
Some day I would love to do a deer hunt with all the tradition that exists up in that country, but there are so many other midwest whitetail shows, that I am not sure how many in the whitetail TV crowd would see the episode for what it really represented. Deer camps, thick swamps of spruce and balsam, bogs, brush so thick we would probably not get any footage of a deer. But if we did, hopefully some compelling story would be told.
Long way of saying, it is something we talk about every year. Just needs to be well thought out and worth the viewers time. When we have that solved, we will be there.
It would be mostly humor. In Big Falls, ruffed grouse are food, not sport. We shoot them on the ground, on stumps and dead falls, under spruce trees, and only when all else fails will we shoot them on the wing. We proudly talked about shooting them on the ground with terms like "poleaxed," "slooshed," "Arkansawed," "ground swatted," "dusted" and many other terms that gave reference to the act of shooting their heads off and not wasting any of the breast or legs.
I can see some of you laughing right now, having done the same thing when you were younger.
It would be funny to go there and show how it is done. We would use Long Toms (our definition of a 12 gauge that has more than a 28" barrel) with full chokes, usually pump actions, but a semi-auto will suffice in the event you have to clear numerous grouse impeding your progress down the skid trail. A good grouse hunter can take the head off a grouse at 40 yards with a good set up like that. The best of them can do it at 50 yards. BBs in the breast is grounds for a serious "bawling out" by your father/uncle.
I would find great humor by the reaction of those who hunt grouse with $4,000 double guns, over dogs with names of French women, wearing their Orvis outfits and LL Bean grouse boots. I've watched some grouse shows like that, and it is worse than watching the fly fishermen that invade Montana each summer. I prefer the kids on the bank drowning night crawlers, catching a few on their spinning rods, then knocking out the fish on rocks before dragging them home to eat 'em.
Would then have a big grouse feast. Go to all my friends' hunting shacks (an upper Midwest phenomena) to tell stories, imbibe in the fine culture and language to be found there, spend some time with family and friends, and show people just how much fun you can have doing something as simple as ground swatting partridge, and not be the least bit ashamed of doing it that way.
The production guys are pressing for an "open mic" session at the local municipal liquor store, known in Big Falls as the "Power House," so everyone could tell their favorite story about the dumbass, snotty nosed kid, who moved to Montana. Probably need some serious edits on that one. If we picked up the bar tab for that evening, I am sure it would be standing room only.
Probably have to go down to the train bridge, where it crosses the Big Fork River, and show where me, my Mom's two youngest brothers, and my cousin tried to blow up the train bridge with a homemade bomb that consisted of a quart-sized paint can jam packed with as much gunpowder as we could steal from my Granpa's ammo depot, fused with some chainsaw starter rope soaked in Off skeeter dope. This attempt to replicate the actions of Butch and Sundance is testament to the fact that 7-10 year olds are heavily influenced by what they watch on TV, and why I am still amazed that I got through childhood with all limbs attached and only a few powder burns combined with slight hearing loss.
Thinking it might involve a description of how we would lay on the freezing rocks for hours on end, during peak run off, catching suckers by the gunny sack full, with our hands, stocking up on mink bait for the fall trapping season. Risking life and limb in the huge rapids of this river for some smooth tuba-lipped fish that tastes like rank three-day old wieners on the roller grill of the 7-11.
Hell, I could go on and on about things there that have had some influence on the TV show people get to watch. Mostly, it was the people who all went out of their way to make sure every day was a good day; that no young boys were left at home on opening day of deer season; that every kid in town owned a functioning fishing pole (yeah, we called them "poles"); and that no matter how long you have been gone or how far away you have moved, you are still one of us.
Would also be fun to visit/hunt with a bunch of the good old boys. Plenty of those to be found, but many of them are cashing in their chips.
Lots of color to a story from Big Falls, no matter what we were trying to hunt (heavy emphasis on "trying"). Just not sure how well it would play out to an audience who wants to watch a hunting show, not a show about small town Northern Minnesota, where hunting/fishing/trapping are serious parts of the traditions.
Some day I would love to do a deer hunt with all the tradition that exists up in that country, but there are so many other midwest whitetail shows, that I am not sure how many in the whitetail TV crowd would see the episode for what it really represented. Deer camps, thick swamps of spruce and balsam, bogs, brush so thick we would probably not get any footage of a deer. But if we did, hopefully some compelling story would be told.
Long way of saying, it is something we talk about every year. Just needs to be well thought out and worth the viewers time. When we have that solved, we will be there.
ID_deerslayer
Active member
Just reading your reply Fin is funny enough, watching an episode of it happening would be great!
Summitthunting
Well-known member
You had me at "French women and roller grill" roll the tape!
Fin, that was magic....sort of like going home. Hey wait....I like shooting partridge on the ground!
That episode would be fun to watch...
Would be even more fun if you could join us. We could walk the ditch grade behind your old house, follow the powerline over toward Junk Albert's, and probably have a limit by the time we got to Ridge Runner's old shack. That is always a good spot. Might even go by Brown Bear's place and see if he still has a picture of the One-eyed Squaw in his shack. You can re-tell 'Ol Bear the story of fishing walleye's with One Punch and see if he will fess up to breaking your Styrofoam cooler and nearly drowning in Red Lake as you and your old man struggled mightily to pull his 380 pound wet body over the back of your 16' Lund.
No guys, these names are not being made up. These are true characters; character by every stretch of the definition, from this little berg of 500 people. There are so many more. You were nobody in Big Falls without a nick name.
I have seen Jereep on his 'Gat when some ground slooshing was needed. I enjoyed many a fricassee dinner at the pleasure of his sharp aim, long barrel, and extra full choke. Once you get the hang of poleaxing 'em on the ground, you never lose that touch. He is proof positive.
See, Jereep was one of my partners in crime, until he left Big Falls for the sunny climes of Arizona when we were in junior high school. We then rejoined in our full scale assault on public decency when I enrolled, not attended, enrolled, at ASU. His parents view me as their third child, with my Mom seeing him as similar kindred.
Surely the highlight of our escapades would be how we managed to escape from a Mexican jail, leaving a brand new Toyota 4X4 as collateral, after convincing the Chief of Police that by providing our truck as ransom we would have to return for our sentencing, (not hearing or arraignment, but sentencing) the next morning. Not a chance.
When they walked me back through the long corridor for a medical exam, on each side of me were some of Mexico's most hardened sex-starved criminals rabidly screaming at me in some language a nineteen year-old Finlander from Northern MN had never heard (Spanish). Jerry and I decided we would take the chance of running and being shot in the back before staying the night in block cells, packed six deep with these mafiosos, with no facilities, in stench worse than an Oklahoma outhouse in August.
Never dreamed the Chief would release us that night with merely a new pick up truck needing to be posted for bail to ensure our appearance in the morning. Agreeing to pay my share of a Toyota 4X4 and skipping to the border seem very cheap.
"Jesus loves you" takes on an entirely different meaning when walking the gallows of a Mexican prison. Not a good meaning at all. Trust me on that one.
Needless to say, having to replace the spanking new graduation gift of our buddy Rich Jackson, a crazy cowboy from Rock Springs, upon our safe return across the border was the best money I have ever spent. Before or after. A new Toyota 4X4 was about $9,000 in 1984 ..... and we paid it with a smile.
And people wonder why I have never hunted Mexico. Hell, I have never returned and never will. If they promised me a desert sheep tag on that big island down there, I would tell them to stick it.
Anyhow, if we do this episode, I will do all I can to coerce Jereep to join us. Not only for his ground swatting talent, but all-in-all great demeanor and his intrinsic ability to put me in situations that are usually not good for my reputation.
fishing4sanity
Well-known member
I truly hope this episode becomes reality ................. it may even need to include the rest of the story down in ol' Mexico.
RobG
Well-known member
As a kid I determined empirically that my pickup undercarriage would miss a grouse's head by -1.5 inches.
mn taxidermist
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2010
- Messages
- 176
You need to do this Randy, the sooner the better. We have already lost some of the characters you talk about. The longer you wait more of them will be going to the happy hunting grounds.Not to worry though Big Falls always seems to come up with new characters. Our little town would be very happy to welcome you and your crew back home to hunt partidge or as the city people call them "ruffed grouse".
Get er done!
I enjoy some of the other shows on TV when they include old friends and family and do something different than just shooting a 350 Bull or a 170 whitetail. It brings back the memories of my own childhood spending many days on the old RR bed and in the cricks, just like you mentioned above. An episode of the good ol days and a simple life would be a welcome sight and reminder for all of us. Especially the midwesterners that grew up in a time when just seeing a buck was a big deal and shooting a Canada goose got your picture in the local newspaper
- awhhh, the memories,... thanks for the thread, and stories Randy, that just took me back to happy times for 20 minutes,...
I enjoy some of the other shows on TV when they include old friends and family and do something different than just shooting a 350 Bull or a 170 whitetail. It brings back the memories of my own childhood spending many days on the old RR bed and in the cricks, just like you mentioned above. An episode of the good ol days and a simple life would be a welcome sight and reminder for all of us. Especially the midwesterners that grew up in a time when just seeing a buck was a big deal and shooting a Canada goose got your picture in the local newspaper
- awhhh, the memories,... thanks for the thread, and stories Randy, that just took me back to happy times for 20 minutes,... 
deer_shooter
Well-known member
Sounds like an awesome episode. That's the stuff that captures the essence of the hunting tradition way more than the hooting & hollering, back slapping nonsense depicted on most other shows.
ihuntelk
Member
By any chance do you have Pat McManus in your family tree? I loved reading his stories because they were so true for a kid growing up in Idaho. It's even more refreshing to know there are (were) people all over this blessed nation, doing the same things.Brought back great memories about the awesome opportunities I had growing up. Thx
I wouldn't go to Mexico either if I were you. On my last trip, my buddy had to sign the title over on his brand new 4 door F-350 to me. I drove across the border coming and going and then signed it back to him in the states. They had him in their system from years ago so he couldn't take a rig across. Only time in my life I've 'owned' a new diesel!
I would hope that the memories and tradition of a MN ground sleucing would resonate with most hunters out there. You'll catch flack from some uppity-ups, but even they won't be able to deny that you hunt because that is who you are. It's part of your very being. Might be tough to portray, but I'm sure you'll pull it off. Looking forward to it.
-Cade
www.HuntForeverWest.com
I wouldn't go to Mexico either if I were you. On my last trip, my buddy had to sign the title over on his brand new 4 door F-350 to me. I drove across the border coming and going and then signed it back to him in the states. They had him in their system from years ago so he couldn't take a rig across. Only time in my life I've 'owned' a new diesel!
I would hope that the memories and tradition of a MN ground sleucing would resonate with most hunters out there. You'll catch flack from some uppity-ups, but even they won't be able to deny that you hunt because that is who you are. It's part of your very being. Might be tough to portray, but I'm sure you'll pull it off. Looking forward to it.
-Cade
www.HuntForeverWest.com
stillkickin
Well-known member
"and why I am still amazed that I got through childhood with all limbs attached and only a few powder burns combined with slight hearing loss."
Slight?
Slight?
I have many of the same type of stories. Be a little careful in that sometimes stories between 2 guys who know the story are funny to them, but not the audience. remember to tell the story to the audience and not relive it with your buddy. I am sure you know all that.
I would love to see that show. A wee bit on the "hows" of grouse hunting would be good as well.
As far as the deer hunting up there. You could play the big body angle of the MN northwoods bucks a little. A 200 lb dressed out buck up there elicits a "decent buck, pass the nachos" kind of response versus some places that is considered big.
So I am thinking about the Pat McManus angle. I might have to put up a special post just for this rather than hijack this thread.....
I would love to see that show. A wee bit on the "hows" of grouse hunting would be good as well.
As far as the deer hunting up there. You could play the big body angle of the MN northwoods bucks a little. A 200 lb dressed out buck up there elicits a "decent buck, pass the nachos" kind of response versus some places that is considered big.
So I am thinking about the Pat McManus angle. I might have to put up a special post just for this rather than hijack this thread.....
webejmn
New member
outta be fun, cant wait! already jonesn!
