There were no rabbits to be seen when I arrived there yesterday afternoon and so, after I'd sat there for a while, I ended up taking a few pictures of the Ivy-covered tree above my head.
I'd already noticed some Wood Pigeons grazing nearby but I'd ignored them in favour of a possible rabbit. But since it was now getting late and they'd - by this time - walked up to within twenty yards of me, I reluctantly decided to change the plan. I took aim, waited till the closest one had turned to give me a clean shot and fired.I'd run out in to the field to retrieve the bird - its feathers were spinning around me in the wind - and I was thinking that all of this commotion must surely mean the end of my evening's hunting. But no, when I finished plucking the bird and looked up I saw to my surprise that a rabbit had just appeared from a hedge about fifty yards away in the next field. I knew I couldn't hit it at that distance so I just sat and watched it through the scope for a while. To my surprise, it then ran towards me and stopped about twenty-five yards away. I'd been sitting with my elbow resting on the branches of a fallen tree and, while this had been fine for keeping an eye on the rabbit, the wind was moving the branch so much that I couldn't keep the cross-hairs steady enough for a shot. I shuffled sideways up towards the trunk of the tree, found a better support there and - despite some pre-shot jitters - fired again.
The rabbit was still kicking when I got to it so I had to grab it by the back legs and break its neck. Back in the orchard, I used the branches of the fallen tree to hold it up at waist height while I gutted it.
Walking back, my hands were messy with blood and feathers; seeing a rusty saucepan among the rest of the farm junk in the orchard, I turned it over in the hope I could use it as a washbasin next time and left it lying where it might collect some rain.I've never come back from the fields with a rabbit and a pigeon before. The pigeon will make a good lunch tomorrow and the rabbit can soak overnight and make another two good meals after that.
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Thanks for proving my point vs some OBS people. Shooting in the real world isn't shooting at a range and ingenuity and practice are required for the real world, no matter how accurate your rifle is in a machine rest. You often will get muddy, dirty, wet, cold, and uncomfortable too. And you got to dice things up with a sharp knife, too, I'd wager!
ReplyDeleteChin Chin,
Tom the Curmudgeon
HH,
ReplyDeleteI really like that second photo. I'm not sure what you did to it, but I like the way it came out. It's kinda like frosted.
Best Regards,
Albert
I'm going to add a little, this morning, to what I wrote here last night. I went hunting late on in the day yesterday and - what with the work in the kitchen after I got back - I found myself blogging at 1.00am and, rather than save as a draft and finish this morning, my relentless 'push-to-blog' made me hit the 'post' button before I fell asleep.
ReplyDeleteHi Tom, Yes, I'm often struck myself about the difference, the very great difference, between what happens when I go hunting and the rather idealised view of it you can pick up if you spend a lot of time reading net forums about hunting. My tendency, when I started, was to think that I was doing it all wrong and that the ideal version was the only version. But it's a tricky area though: ideals are a good thing to aim at - but the actual is very different to the ideal. 'How much can I tolerate being different from the ideal?' is a question I find myself asking a lot.
By the way - oh yes! - the now-sharp CRKT Mirage is a very handy implement in the field now! A world of difference.
Hiya Albert, & Thanks! I always wiggle the photos around in photoshop a bit before I post them. It's a compulsion! (I think in a way - relating it to the above - it's about making them a bit less disturbingly 'actual'). I do like snapping and fiddling with photos though. I've got another blog where I tend to post my other non-hunting-related photos (http://constructedspace.blogspot.com/).
Cheers folks!
HH
The internet isn't real life. Hunting is hunting. It isn't called "getting". I find your writing refreshing coming from a country where the elite have mostly oppressed the average folks in being able to hunt at all.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be a good self-study and are doing well. If I were you, I shan't worry about what anybody said about my methods and you are consistently putting meat in the pot. Those were the standards I accepted as normal on 3 continents, why should that be odd on an island?
Glad the sharper worked for you, I reckoned it would be easier than an internet post about proper use of wyoming stones.
Happy Hunting--Always,
Tom
Off to go do coyote patrol. May you have a fine day and some sunshine if truly lucky, friend is in Tenby and grumbling about going to the sea coast to be mired in rains.
Thank you Tom! Tenby is a lovely town - be sure to tell you friend to take the boat out to the Trappist monastery on Caldy Island nearby. It's a great trip and the island - and the monastery where you can take a tour - is a delight.
ReplyDeleteHH