Mustangs Rule
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2021
- Messages
- 1,169
Eight years ago, I moved again. With absolute certainty this was the final move in my life. I am now 78 years old. I have a great group of fine friends, many half or even a third of my age. Only two are older than me. There were three, but one died two weeks ago. I live on the twilight edge of life. I am still healthy but cannot, do not take one tiny bit of my health for granted.
I moved to where the hunting is great. 7,500 people, 15,000 elk and 21,000 deer, so many hit by cars.
Grouse season has been open for almost three weeks, but I have not been out hunting them.
Instead, I have been recovering from yet another modern medical miracle. I had my second knee fully replaced. My preference for hunting the absolute steepest country wore them out.
Steep has been one of my major hunting niches I have refined over decades. I leave the human crowds behind and go where, by virtue of extreme gravity, the Mule Deer, Bighorn Sheep, Elk and even Mountain Goats abound in peace and in great numbers far from most of us. The grouse too!
I got my grouse hunting gear in order; a light handy shoulder bag, in it some 20-gauge shells for my Side-by-Side Ithaca SKB Shotgun. The feature that hooked me on it near instantly was factory sling swivels studs, the front one sweated neatly on the underside of the double barrel center rib. A sling is a must when going steep, or when crossing fast running water.
This is another hunting niche I have refined for decades. Amazing how little cold, fast running water keeps modern hunters from making a crossing to where the game animals are hanging out.
I have these LL Bean Canoe shoes, rubber and insulated, I use to cross in. I also cut off the legs from a dive suit too and make leggings; I like to be able to cross smaller streams like a deer.
Waders are clumsy affair which makes taking a leak or a crap a huge deal.
Once on the other game filled side of running water, as little as 50 feet away the 4x4’s and the trucks hauling quads drive by on forest service roads, going deep, going where more mechanical devices gather. I go where the game gathers.
Last deer season the deer were lucky. On the other side of a small river there was a little slit of a canyon. They hide there all day. They come out at dusk and return at dawn, just in legal shooting light by a matter of 5 to ten minutes. Such easy shots. The river there tightens to a smooth-running channel. Four five feet deep, smooth no rapids, with easy ins and outs. Just have to get near fully wet.
There and then the hunting is so easy, and I don’t have to cross until my deer is down. My bad knee was my reason for not doing this full dip crossing last season. That knee is fixed now, all ready for next deer season but this morning is about grouse, Blue and Ruffed grouse.
I will bring my cane. My knee needs a little extra support yet, and of course I will bring my Garmin Satellite Communication device.
I moved to where the hunting is great. 7,500 people, 15,000 elk and 21,000 deer, so many hit by cars.
Grouse season has been open for almost three weeks, but I have not been out hunting them.
Instead, I have been recovering from yet another modern medical miracle. I had my second knee fully replaced. My preference for hunting the absolute steepest country wore them out.
Steep has been one of my major hunting niches I have refined over decades. I leave the human crowds behind and go where, by virtue of extreme gravity, the Mule Deer, Bighorn Sheep, Elk and even Mountain Goats abound in peace and in great numbers far from most of us. The grouse too!
I got my grouse hunting gear in order; a light handy shoulder bag, in it some 20-gauge shells for my Side-by-Side Ithaca SKB Shotgun. The feature that hooked me on it near instantly was factory sling swivels studs, the front one sweated neatly on the underside of the double barrel center rib. A sling is a must when going steep, or when crossing fast running water.
This is another hunting niche I have refined for decades. Amazing how little cold, fast running water keeps modern hunters from making a crossing to where the game animals are hanging out.
I have these LL Bean Canoe shoes, rubber and insulated, I use to cross in. I also cut off the legs from a dive suit too and make leggings; I like to be able to cross smaller streams like a deer.
Waders are clumsy affair which makes taking a leak or a crap a huge deal.
Once on the other game filled side of running water, as little as 50 feet away the 4x4’s and the trucks hauling quads drive by on forest service roads, going deep, going where more mechanical devices gather. I go where the game gathers.
Last deer season the deer were lucky. On the other side of a small river there was a little slit of a canyon. They hide there all day. They come out at dusk and return at dawn, just in legal shooting light by a matter of 5 to ten minutes. Such easy shots. The river there tightens to a smooth-running channel. Four five feet deep, smooth no rapids, with easy ins and outs. Just have to get near fully wet.
There and then the hunting is so easy, and I don’t have to cross until my deer is down. My bad knee was my reason for not doing this full dip crossing last season. That knee is fixed now, all ready for next deer season but this morning is about grouse, Blue and Ruffed grouse.
I will bring my cane. My knee needs a little extra support yet, and of course I will bring my Garmin Satellite Communication device.
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