Sportsmens Thread (Hunting, Fishing, Etc,Etc) (Read 4,569 times)

JIM,  I guess you do your fishing at the local grocery or military commissary?  Or at Mike's Fish & Chips in Payson.

I work to get my fish.

Google Maps my Friend.

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Here Belinda takes a beautiful section of wild salmon and puts lemons on it and a few spices. So much for wild taste.

Belinda and I had been married a short time and my friend Rick and I harvested a young bull elk in 1984. We spent days butchering it, and a deer also.

Belinda asked me what I wanted for supper one night and I said, "Lets have fresh Elk Steak" she responded, "Elk it is"

That night at the table I cut a nice bite of it, chewed it, and swallowed it. Should have kept my mouth shut, it was elk meat but the seasonings took the wild taste pretty much out of it. I just couldn't help myself and said loudly, "What the heck is this ?!?!"

She softly responded, "Honey its Elk Steak"

I just did not know enough to let it go and replied, " ELK, it tasted like beef from the commissary" 

Again Belinda responded softly, "Honey, I added a touch of seasoning salt for flavor."

Again I had no clue what I was starting and said in a loud voice with our 3 young kids at the table, "I go hunting in the wilderness in all kinds of weather, shoot wild game, drag it out, haul it home, butcher it, too have wild meat - and you turn wild elk into beef."

All I heard was, the G word.  "Gary, next time you cook it for us the way you like it."  She then sat down and started eating.

The Bull Elk harvested south of Mt. Saint Helens.

Jim, too answer your question....."You should have loved being at Griffiss.......... "

   I enjoyed Griffiss quite a bit and fished Delta Lake. Spent most of my time going home to NE PA too work the farm and do plenty of hunting & fishing.

 And yes I'll share a few more stories.

While I was growing up here in Ohio, we weren't allowed to shoot deer. In fact I very seldom saw any deer. But because they halted harvesting them for over 25 years the herds started returning. So after I returned to Ohio with my final assignment to WPAFB I got started hunting deer with my older brother and a bunch of cousins. The cousins lived in Athens County in SE Ohio. The farm was next to Fox Lake State Park which was open to Deer hunters. So every opening day we would take up sitting positions in ravens which came out of the public park lands.

Back then you could only use shotgun with deer slugs. So we would hear a bang, bang, bang, bang, bang followed with the shouting of obscene language and sounds of deer moving at great speed. Sitting very quietly we would await the deer moving in front of us. We tagged more deer on those opening moments than the rest of the season.

Since we were all family and friends we had an agreement that no one went home without a deer. So even if we wanted a nice rack, we would drop does if we had an opportunity. Then one of our team would use their tags to take home meat for winter. 

One season we had terrible weather for hunting. It was dry and warm.  Best time was cold and snow over an inch.  But we had gone several days with very poor results. I was still active duty and in fairly good condition so I was a driver. We would position several hunters at end of ravines and some of us would drive, by making noise and walking at steady rate. That would drive any deer in area ahead of us. Then the plan was for the sitters to drop any deer running out.  Well this morning I was walking in heavy brush and not going fast enough to keep up with other drivers. So after a while I heard the drivers finishing the drive about 250 yards ahead of me. So I went on a lumber trail and started walking out to rejoin them. About that time I heard a roar of huffs coming towards me. I stopped and waited. All of a sudden at least 12 deer came running straight towards me. They had backtracked around the other drivers. I shot 2 deer as they ran towards me and 2 more as they passed and went past me.  I yelled for some help and the guys came back to see why I emptied my gun. I ended up tagging one of the four does I downed. The other three went to family that didn't have any meat yet.

As I look back at my 15 years or so of deer hunting, I can remember 3-4 of my cousins/friends who never bagged a deer, but would shoot a lot. Those were the same ones who would use a couple 5 packs of slugs "sighting in" their shotguns.  My older brother and I never wasted any rounds "sighting in" a shotgun.

But as with other things, I haven't gone out deer hunting in over 10 years now. Mostly because of my physical condition. The bad knee was primary issue, but now that I have had it replaced I am just too old to do any good.

But yesterday I saw a pickup drive past me with two huge sets of antlers in back of truck. It's not gun season yet, but the bow hunters always harvest more deer.

As a side note about 20 years ago they started allowing the use of high power pistols to hunt. That brought out the "dirty Harry" guys with 44 mags with scope. Then two years ago the started allowing the use of big bore rifles. But only straight line shells. So my 30-06 isn't allowed since it is a tapered shell.

I never bagged any trophy deer, but my brother got a 212 point buck one year. It was best of county and in top ten for the state that year. And he got it within 100 yards of home we were staying in. It was laid up in a cluster of trees in open field, probably 15 yards in diameter.

Gary your thread brings back some great memories for an old guy like me. I fished a lot after retirement, but Ohio isn't famous for its big trophy bass. But we do get a few nice trout. The state started stocking trout, and stripped bass  in most waterways and lakes about 25 years ago. I mostly do catch and release, but I manage to bring home a couple nice rainbow every now and then.

Lorin

This one knows how to hunt !