I know that I said I would not be writing blogs anymore, but having some time to reflect on 2008, what the heck!

 

The OSSA and its members, need and should take the time to thank Jim & Vickie Rogers for their tireless efforts in 2008.  All you had to do is show up to the banquet & annual meeting to see the turn out.  It was over flow seating!

 

When the NSSA started to reform our classification system it seemed to me to be complicated and difficult to maintain. I don’t have a better system, but the punch system seemed to work fairly well. There is no perfect system that eliminates sand bagging. The recent Skeet Reviews contain articles (part one and recently part two) that try to explain our current system using examples, pictures, etc. If the NSSA feels the need to publish such elaborate explanations, maybe it is in fact to complicated? Just food for thought!

 

 

 

I am a bird hunter! I have made 4 trips to the upper part of Michigan (Houghton Lake area), harvested a number of pheasants that the State of Ohio has released and hope to make at least one more trip to the North before the end of December. If possible I will hunt the foot hills of Ohio a couple of times.

 

I have not hunted for deer since I moved to Ohio. The last time I harvested a deer was 42 years ago in Vermont. I say all of this to lay the ground work for what happened the week of gun season in Ohio. Since those who promised me venison had not come through, I decided to take things into my own hands (deer hunt).

 

Anyway, having cut down a number of trees around Sportsmen’s last year and I continue to do the same this year, I have become aware of several well traveled deer paths.  I purchased my deer tag and decided to set up a chair not far from one of those paths. On Tuesday I set up around 4:00 pm and sat until 5:15 pm, thinking all the time how boring this deer hunting (shooting) can be. Nothing appeared.

 

On Wednesday I left work early enough to stop at McDonalds to pick up a diet coke and apple pie. Arriving at the gun club I parked by field three and walked the 100 yards to my chair, sat down, enjoyed my apple pie,and sipping my diet coke. All this started about 4:00 pm, at 4:10 pm three doe appeared on my deer path. I looked down to the 357 mag. S&W laying across my lap, turned on the red dot and cocked the hammer.  Looking back up one of the doe was standing broad side at what later measured 45 yards. I put the dot just behind her shoulder and pulled the trigger. She only went 20 yards before going down. I sat there another 15 minutes waiting, all the while sipping my diet coke and wondering, now that I shot a deer “what am I supposed to do now”?

 

After all, it has been 42 years since I field dressed a deer. So I reached for my cell phone and called Chris Olson. Chris was at work only 15 minutes from the club.  I explained my situation and he came right over. Chris was very efficient and I learned allot. Now I have what has turned out to be some really great venison.

 

Oh by the way, the shot. Yes I was using a S&W 357 mag. with a 6” barrel (borrowed). After we examined the heart and lungs we determined it to be a perfect shot, clipping both lungs and centering the heart. All the while I was drinking my diet coke.  What is so hard about this deer hunting stuff?