Undecideds....To shoot or not to shoot...From the healthy, Norton virus protected notebook of your commish. Tuesday November 8th, 2005 8:15 PM Rambling after week 9...(or after weekend 1) Well here we go....another day, another dollar. Maybe I'm into clichés today, we'll see how that goes as the Ramblings progress.... So, how did you all do in the woods this past weekend? Better than me I hope. Well, actually, I did pretty good except for the whole thing where a guy should understand how his gun works. Yea, I know that by shooting the gun I'd never used before during the 2 or 3 months before the season opened would have been a great idea - you'd think the reason I'm bringing all this up is cause I shot and missed and am blaming my scope.....well, you'd be wrong. The series of events leading up to this story go as follows..... Friday, November 4th: Jon meets me at Arrowhead and we run over to Super America to buy our deer licenses (and by 'run' I mean take my car - and by 'buy' I mean, we attempt to buy). The girl behind the counter tells Jon that he needs a hunter's safety certificate to get a deer license....here's my thoughts....what a joke. All that law does is cause the law abiding folks such as Jon to sit on his rear all weekend either 1) at his apartment playing poker online or 2) at Black Bear Casino playing live poker instead of 3) in the woods not playing any poker. Any guy with less morals than Jon would have said, 'fine, screw the law, I'll save my $27 and go out and hunt anyway.' Don't get him wrong, I know that Jon really would like to hunt - this isn't just a convenient excuse not to. Anyways...back on topic, so the point is, Jon didn't get a deer license so wasn't going to hunt. I decided to take the gun he was going to use, our grandpa's old .308, which - according to my logic - would have a bit more range than the gun I usually use, our grandpa's old 30-30. Note that I have never shot that gun, but I wasn't concerned at the time. Saturday, November 5th: I get up early and have breakfast with the hunting boys - my dad, Kent Oliver and Walt Trader (that's Eric's dad for those of you who remember/know him). Then I head to Arrowhead for a few hours to work with Jimmy for the morning. I get in the woods at about noon or 1pm. About a hour later, a nice buck (either a big 6 or small 8) walks up towards me and turns broadside. Only problem being, the front half of his body was covered from my view by trees.....and he's only 30 yards away or so. I could have tried a shot at his back half, but decided against it since it was so early in the season and I figured he would have to take a step or two to help me out......but he was spooked and hauled ass out of there and I chose to avoid a running shot. So note, that I could have taken a shot at this point but didn't --- it'll matter more as we move to Sunday's part of the story. Sunday, November 6th: Up early once again to have breakfast with the guys and I'm out in the woods by 5:55am with the trusty .308. At about 7:30, a doe comes crashing through the woods and slows to a walk about 15 yards from me.....very VERY close considering I am sitting on a Coleman chair on the ground reading the DaVinci Code. So, following the doe, not surprisingly, is a BIG buck. Don't ask me how many points cause I didn't have time to count. As the buck stopped about 30 yards away (again, note how close the deer is - so no need for any extra range from the rifle), I had a very nice shot - not perfect, but should have been easy to drop the big guy in his tracks. I bring my gun up - he just stares at me - you know the look - think Mike Tice on a Sunday. I put my crosshairs just behind his shoulder.....and pull the trigger ---- 'click'. No 'bang'. And as the Yoopers say, "And then a flash of white, and there he was.....gone." Yes there was a cartridge in the chamber.... So what went wrong.....those of you familiar with the semi-automatic .308 action already know my problem, for the rest of you, know that the action of the .308 needs to be forcefully brought forward. Otherwise, you'll get no 'bang'....just a 'click' and the four letter word of your choice. And let's review....Jon gets no license - I use his gun - I pass up a Saturday shot which would have alerted me to the issue I had with the 'click'/no 'bang' problem - I get a shot Sunday which would have been easily accomplished with my usual 30-30 since it was damn close range - I get a 'click'. Also, don't get me wrong here - I'm well aware that this whole thing is all my fault for not shooting the gun before the season to familiarize myself with it, but I've already talked to a couple of our drivers here who have either had/heard of the same problem with .308's. Does it make me feel better? Not too much, but now I know. So that is my deer story from weekend 1. At least I know there are some big SOB's out there, so I'll be back out next weekend.....stay tuned for part two (I hope). Anyways....how about some football. Well, I came out of the woods in time to watch the Sunday games at Jon's apartment and get a solid nap in. The Vikings looked good and the Packers sucked, but to keep everything in perspective, the Vikings beat up a VERY BAD TEAM in the Detroit Lions and the Packers played very well considering their injuries against the big boys from Steel Town. As for the still to be decided BIGFFBL playoffs....I think we're getting close enough to start with the "If the playoffs were today..." Bulldog Champ - Team Smitty (its almost like the Red Sox championship run of
a year ago) Gonna be a tight finish I think.....except for Smitty who should run away with the Bulldog Division.....but who knows, that's why we play the games. Let's close with a little deer season humor.....my dad has been telling this one all week, so I might as well let you all into the fun.... Ole was heading out to the shack for the opening weekend of deer season and he asked Lena if she would pack up all his clothes and things for the weekend. She did so and wished him well on his way out the door on Friday afternoon. Ole returned after the weekend on Monday night and Lena asked how the weekend went. Ole said everything was great but that Lena had forgotten to pack him any clean underwear. Lena said, "dear, I did pack your underwear - I put them right in your gun case." Time for me to get dinner and sleep.....enjoy the week and feel free to post your deer stories on the message board. Need I say more? BIGFFBL senior writer Jeremy Carlson sounds off whenever he feels like it on www.bigffbl.com |