CLEAR -- NO WIND MORNING

Took off this morning at 8 a.m.  My son was with me and we were on our way to Iron County to help the farmers lower the vermin eating up the profits in their fields.  It was a great time to drive and talk about all kinds of topics and get together one on one with my son.  I really enjoy the trip to and from the hunting area a great time to converse, share ideas, and not be interrupted. 

We arrived and and set up the squirrel-o-matic in the back of the truck.  We started seeing chizzlers right off.  I could tell the varmints had been shot at recently as they were moving real quick and trying to get in their burrows and into the concealment of the grass or alfalfa.  My son said they seemed far away for our .22 l.r. firearms.  I told him not to worry as the closer targets would be back out in a few minutes.

 Rusty on squirrel-o-matic

Once we got set up and started to get serious about shooting the little rascals began to pop out of their hiding places and run into the dry plowed up area between the alfalfa and the rough desert terrain.  Chizzlers would stop and look all around in the dry no-man's land and then the carnage started.  Rusty was the first to fire and hit one on his first shot.  Many more were to follow the example of their leader on his way to Valhalla alfalfa.

{NOTE:  This kid is a naturally excellent shot. I asked him if he had practiced shooting lately.  He replied the last time he went shooting was with me.  I think it was 18 months ago.  Crap-o-rama, I practice shooting almost weekly and try to shoot better all the time.  He can shoot as well as me and sometimes better than me and only shoots when someone takes him.  He owns no firearms.}

We acquired targets and made them do the break-dance of death, plop and flip flop in the air, separate into multiple pieces, and just permanently retire for about 2 hours.  We were shooting bolt action .22's and the pause while loading our magazines was the only reprieve they got from us.  Rusty got into it.  He started to snicker from time to time when he would make a long shot.  I was truly impressed as he toasted them at from 30 to 116 yards.  I took my laser ranger finder and as we did a quick verification body count I ranged back to the truck to get exact distances.

I got a few at distance and was really please with my "luck."   I got a double at 124 yards.  I was more lucky than good on this one, yet the chizzlers were still laying there dead as heck even after the "luck" had all dissipated into the atmosphere. 

double

I also got a herd bull at 156 yards for my longest confirmed hit of the day.

There was little or no wind and we really scored well for the farmers.  We packed up at 11:00 a.m. and headed back to St. George as my son had a lunch appointment.  We had a great time and I will always remember going with Rusty to do something I like to do.  He told me he had a good time and that was icing on the cake!

FAST FIRING MORNING

I ran into a good friend at Karl's Jr. after picking up some lumber.  Our conversation, of course, turned to chizzler hunting and we set a date.  I was right in the heat of the effort in building a new house but I decided to take a morning off and go hunt some anti-agriculture varmints while sitting there eating onion rings.

It was a great drive to the location with my pal.  We caught each other up on our families and various topics.  We arrived at the northwest side of a circular pivot irrigation system around 9:30 a.m.  We had no sooner parked our truck when the chizzlers went nuts.  They were constantly crossing the bare earth "no mans" land between the desert vegetation and the irrigated alfalfa field.  We were shooting as we were setting up our individual positions.

I went through about 225 rounds of .22 l.r. ammo. all in all.  My pal was shooting a nifty new Mossberg MVP .223 Rem. caliber that used AR-15 clips to feed the bolt action.  He shot about 100 rounds of .223 Rem. and launched several chizzlers into a low orbit over the alfalfa field.  He was also exploding them into red mist.  I was really impressed.  After about an hour of this mischief he then switched over to a Ruger 10-22 and proceeded to nail dozens more varmints with his "little" rifle.  He is a good shot and not boastful at all.  I just noticed the consistent "plop, -- plop, -- plop" sound as he fired rounds and they hit their intended mark.  One can tell when the projectile hits vermin by the sound of impact even if you don't see the projectile strike.  {It's kind of a cool sound to me and others who hunt chizzlers.}

I had a well stocked nest of varmints about 60 yards out from my firing position and another good nest about 110 yards out.  I was using the stadia lines in my scope and really found the sweet spots on the stadia lines for the two ranges.  I would lay waste to one nest for a 10 - 15 rounds then move my point of aim over to the other nest and unload another 10 - 15 rounds at that group of profit eaters.  I would pause in my bombardment to reload my magazines and in a few moments start the whole adventure over again.  I did this for 2 1/2 hours.  It was amazing.  There were some big old "herd bulls" out that morning.  I was kind of proud to get three or four of them.  They are really lots bigger than regular chizzlers.

Herd bull circled in red

 
 I was joking when I told my hunting partner my trigger finger was sore.  He agreed his too was sore but he wasn't kidding.  My thumb and my trigger finger were dark grey from loading ammo.  His were dark also.  I don't know if I have ever experienced trigger finger fatigue before, it was a new and different situation but COOL.

Yes, I took many chizzlers out on May 16, 2014.  No, I don't feel sorry for them.  They were in the wrong field and eating the wrong farmer's alfalfa.  I was helping out and having a real good time doing it.  The chizzlers could be poisoned and die a slow and painful death or could be shot and instantly be transported to the big alfalfa field in the sky.  I was just helping out.

Work gets in the way of having fun.  I look forward to another run away day in the future helping out my friendly farmers.

DRAW A TAG? SO NOW WHAT ???

I am waiting.  Waiting for the big game draw results.  I need to know if I should be happy or totally dissatisfied with my ability to draw a hunting tag for the fall.  I like to hunt.  I like to get ready to hunt.  I like to day-dream about hunting.  I am so totally happy to remember both in my mind and through photos the wonderful hunts in the past years.  I am not alone among sportsmen who travel in my Goddess Diana worship circles.

The State of Utah Division of Wildlife Resources seems to have my hunting life and dreams in the belly of their contractors' computer belly over in Fallon, Nevada.  Crap-o-rama, I want to have a tag to hunt some big game every year.  I guess I could try to get a camel permit for the desert around here.  I could put in for and probably draw a Sasquatch tag for the mountains above Heber City.  Still I would really like to draw a deer tag or a bear tag or a bison tag somewhere in Utah with relative consistency.

I am not rich.  I can not buy an auction tag for $250,000 for deer or elk at the wildlife banquets --  I am out of luck and out of buck$.  I can recognize big game hunting is going to get harder and harder to do for the next decades.  I need to find an alternative.  I am going to start looking at Africa and good 'ol Namibia lots harder in the future.  I can buy a Namibian license, travel to the far away Kalahari desert, hire a great guide (PH is what they are called over there) and harvest 3 - 7 big game animals and return for less cost than a single elk hunt on a CWMU.  I have been to Namibia before, and I am sure I will go again.  "Utah We Love Thee" is the state song, however, Namibia is where the oryx run free and the kudu are home on the big red sanded range.  Tags are available .... 

WHAT A PLEASANT MORNING

Bounty Hunter 6 is back in town from Alaska and wanted me to go hunt chizzlers with him.  I agreed to go but with the condition we came home early as I had lots of work to do.  {I am actually trying to make a living here you know.  Besides, with the price and scarcity of .22 l.r. ammo -- it is harder to make ends meet.}  We left Santa Clara at 8 a.m. on May 8th.  We drove to one of the farms plagued with vermin and set up our battle station.  We started to shoot as soon as we got out of the truck.  We seemed to be surrounded by mostly teenager and baby chizzlers.  There were a few big old "herd bulls" taken out during the battle.

I was loading and shooting as fast as I could and still maintain accuracy.  We delivered lethal doses of lead to the varmints for 2+ hours.  I fired about 170 rounds.  The wind came up slightly and the area where we were was "shot out" so we packed up and started for home.  It was amazing.  While we were shooting I could hear the telltale "plop" sound from Bounty Hunter 6's .17 HMR as he connected over and over and over again with chizzlers.  Occasionally he would snicker loudly and I could hear it through my ear plugs.  I admit I too was snickering as I laid waste to tribes of chizzlers.  I even got to shoot some cannibal chizzlers.  When they started munching on their recently shot dead cousins I shot the cannibals as well.  The best bait to draw out the adolescent chizzlers is a dead chizzler.  The two dead chizzlers is even better bait for more chizzler targets to show themselves.

I had a dream I was taken hostage by some renegade chizzlers and was forced to fabricate a proto-type nuclear powered super revenge chizzler robot.  I was tortured and finally forced to make the mechanical beast for them.It was made of the only metal available in the chizzler domain, empty brass.  I have a picture below the dream seemed so real  ???

I need to quote my friend from Soda Springs, Idaho.  He and I used to hunt rockchucks lots.  We hunted so much we got in deep trouble with our wives year after year for never being home in the spring when the rockchuck season started up as the snow melted. We hunted with centerfire varmint rifles out on lava flows between farmers fields in the potato state.  It was great fun.  He said, "This is really fun but wouldn't be half as much fun if they shot back."