Adventures in Learning to Hunt

I think I figured out why I missed the other day. I went to the local range and decided to just zero Peach at 25 yards for now. I can't see taking much more than a 50 yard shot in the woods I've been hiking, and my missed "perfect shot" made me question my outdoor "close enough to 50 yard, don't take too many shots" zeroing day. I set the scope to 5x and set up for my first three shots. Here's my second and third shot. (I jerked the trigger on the first shot and hit waaaaay outside the circle.) pew pew As you can see, my shots were about an inch or so down and left from my aim point 9the center of the 1 inch orange circle). Which explains why the squirrel leapt so high and far when my round hit an inch lower and left from his head. I must have scared the nuts out of him. So I clicked in some correction and tried a second group on target 2. I felt like I was wandering a bit, and the shot grouping reflected that. Some improvement, but n...

This was the day. I could feel it when I woke up. It was going to be a warm, drizzly day. Upper 30's, maybe into the 40's. And I could feel in my bones that today would be the day I shot at a squirrel. I dropped the kids off at school and reflected on the night before. I had been catching up on transcribing my journal onto the computer. On January 4th, I had been part way up a steep hill and heard chittering that I thought might be a chipmunk. Last night, on the 6th, I had done some more research and found that it was actually a squirrel. So that day, all of those critters I had heard were squirrels. Lots of 'em. And I knew where they were. So today HAD to be the day. HAD to be. I drove up to that same spot and decided to climb all the way to the top of that big, steep hill and glass the trees for the squirrels. Imma gonna climb that hill. It doesn't look that steep from here! My pack seemed particularly heavy on this day. I got a two liter water po...

January 4th would be my first foray into the outdoors for the new year. I had a new scope on Peach, which is actually designed for a .22 rimfire, and is adjustable between 4x and 9x. I needed to get it zeroed so I headed back up to the Whitewater GMA to get it accomplished. It was a beautiful, warm day at 38 degrees. As I approached my normal GMA parking spot, I noticed that someone else was already there. So I went looking for a different spot that would be suitable.  I found the right spot not too far down the road, but again I found the Rules Sign that forbade target shooting. Well, it seemed irresponsible to hunt with an un-zeroed scope. I wasn't looking to wound an animal after all. So I went ahead and hiked into a good spot. paced off about 50 yards, and took a few shots.  I got it zeroed in nine shots, and I figured it would be better to apologize to the WMA people for that than to apologize for crippling a squirrel. After a quick zero, I drove north a bit to a ni...

In my initial visit to Whitewater back in October, the nice lady at the visitor center had told me that the nearby WMA was just over 3,000 acres. As I was perusing WMA information I discovered that she had been talking about the Whitewater North Unit . The Main Unit is around 21,000 acres! On the 18th of December I decided to explore some of the 3,000 acre North Unit. This is a repost of my experiences that I wrote about on www.mydogshoba.com. Adventures in Learning to Hunt On December 18th, I skinned my first squirrel. Also on December 18th, I did not fire my rifle. Also, I've never shot a squirrel. How can all this be possible? It was an odd day. So, to start out, I headed off to the woods after dropping my daughter at school. The day started off well, as I walked the border of the woods and the cornfield, I flushed a grouse that flew off over a small rise. I noted where it set down and excitedly clicked the selector on the hammer of my Savage 24D over to the shotgun ...

It was a foggy morning that greeted me on December 13th. There were delicate crystals on everything. I headed back to Rock Dell to explore the part I hadn't been able to a couple days before. It was beautiful. The sun peeked out from time to time lighting up the landscape like sparkles off a lake. I was hiking to the woods across the prairie area, reflecting on my wish to see some mammals today, when suddenly I spotted a little mouse down in a deer hoof print. It was frozen.I set it on top of the snow. perhaps some fox or hawk would appreciate a frozen treat. Well. I had seen a mammal. I guess I'd need to be even more specific. I climbed into an oakey area with lots of squirrel sign and settled in again. And more deer beds. Fortunately, it was a beautiful - if chilly - day to spend time outside. I left the woods empty handed again, and would get even more specific with my prayers. How about a squirrel mammal, or a rabbit mammal. I mean, c'mon.  Tw...

The next day, December 12th, I finally made it out to the Rock Dell WMA. It spreads over 490 acres and is a mix of woods, cornfields, prairie and even a little river running through it. I was greeted by a sign that I had also seen at Keller WMA. The Rules It made me wonder if all WMA's had these same rules. I knew from reading about them on the interwebs that some WMA's had restrictions. Some you could only use a shotgun because pellets don't fly as far as rifle bullets. Some you can't hunt waterfowl. Some you can't hunt deer. These sorts of things. But both the Keller and now the Rock Dell WMA's had rules forbidding target shooting. It made me wonder if my adventure in zeroing up in Whitewater had been legal or not. The place I park to hike into the GMA doesn't have a sign like this. Still so much to learn and figure out. Rock Dell has some steep terrain as well, so I  hiked up onto a hill overlooking the river and filled with oak trees and set up t...

I decided to mount the scope from my crossbow onto Peach to see if that would make a difference. I headed back up to the Whitewater WMA Game Management Area that had such nice open fields and hiked out to zero the rifle. Zeroing a rifle is the process of firing rounds at a target of known distance and adjusting the sights to bring the bullet strike onto the bullseye. I've done it with open sights on my M-16 A2 a long, long time ago, but never with a scope. The process isn't much different. It was a perfect day for it. No wind to push the bullet around. Overcast, so no shadows to confuse the shooter. I set up a 50 yard target and got the scope adjusted so that I could pretty regularly hit the little orange dot in the middle of the black target.  It's there. You just have to reeeeally want to see it.  Having a scope definitely helped my old wonky eyes line up my shots better. I fired about 60 rounds total from between 25 and 50 yards, and even loaded u...

On December 4th I headed back to Keller to see if I could finally see some wildlife besides birds. I hiked back across the bridge out to where I had seen lots of sign and settled in to wait. Everything was still nicely flocked from the last snowfall. It was cold, but I was dressed appropriately and sitting alone in the still of the frozen woods for a couple hours was more a joy than a discomfort. I wondered what rookie mistakes I was making that I didn't know I was making. I know that I don't know what I don't know, and it's frustrating asking around at gun shops and sporting goods stores and finding little help to guide me. I'd like to have a mentor. Someone who can take me out on a hunt and teach me stuff that I don't know. But about every hunter I've met seems to be secretive with their knowledge, as if introducing someone new to hunting will impede their own hunting. I understand the desire for lack of competition, of course. But the number of ...

After a quick visit down to see Dad for Thanksgiving, I was able to bring the rifles home with me. Peach is a Savage 24D series M.  Opa is a Remington Model 33 that originally sold for $5 when his family got it for him in the early 1930's. There's a picture of him somewhere holding it. I like to feel the connection to my grandfather's when I carry these. Just a little piece of family history. On the 27th of November, I took them over to the local gun shop to have them checked out by a gunsmith. He deemed them in good shape, so I used their 25 yard range to do some shooting. After a hundred rounds or so, I felt pretty comfortable with them. So on the 29th, I headed out into the woods for my first actual hunt. It was a cold day. 24 degrees, and winter had finally brought some snow to our area. I was headed for the Rock Dell WMA after dropping off the kids at school, but stumbled upon the Keller WMA on the way, and seeing nobody in the parking lot, decided to g...