The Hunting Files

PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Thanks for Bud Fields for the following article:

        We have ALL heard it stated that "PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT" and in order to achieve perfection, we are required to be dedicated and have our mental thoughts set for improving. I can recall one of my junior high basketball coaches instructing me on free throw shooting that IF I wanted to get better, I needed to remember that PRACTICE DOES NOT MAKE PERFECT but... ONLY PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.

        What my coach will teaching me was IF I was practicing but NOT practicing correctly, I was NOT going to reap the benefits of improving my shooting percentage. In other words, if I was practicing shooting with less than perfect form or perfect fundamentals, I was practicing TOTALLY WRONG. He watched my shot execution and literally "picked me apart" but once I started doing things properly, my free throw shooting percentage increased considerably.

        Now, over fifty years later, I still hear the coach's words as I practice for my fishing tournaments or practice shooting my bow or practice shooting my firearms, when I practice, I will only exercise PERFECT PRACTICE situations because I am still striving for perfection.

        I try to "break down" all facets of my shooting form insuring proper stance, proper control of my breathing, proper aiming and shot execution. I am a FIRM believer that IF I practice "half-heartedly," my accuracy will suffer. If the shot does NOT "feel right," I will NOT attempt it.

        I know it might sound like perfect practicing is NOT as much fun as just practicing but I guess that depends on what YOU expect to accomplish. Me, I expect 110% perfection EVERY TIME I execute the shot. I DO NOT want to risk a bad shot resulting in a wounded or crippled animal. I DEMAND my shot be lethal and the animal to expire QUICKLY and HUMANELY.

        I have been with countless archers that were preparing for deer season and their equipment was NO WAYS near "ready for hunting" but they talked about how they were anticipating opening day. I sure hope they spend more time in front of their targets preparing BUT.. if they are going to be practicing using "bad habits," they might as well start throwing rocks at the deer.

        I had one individual that was so "over-bowed," he could barely get the bowstring drawn back. Within three targets, he was "snap-shooting" from being fatigued. He really needed to get a lighter poundage bow. The sad thing here was he wanted to continue shooting but he was developing bad shooting fundamentals and his accuracy was suffering. He thought because one of his friends shot a heavy weighted bow, he also needed to do the same.

        Another young man could hardly hit the target due to erratic arrow flight. I mentioned to him he needed to check his "nocking point" on the string because I believed it had possibly slipped causing his arrows to flop up and down in flight. I saw him again a week later and the arrows were STILL flip-flopping. Again, another classic case of IMPROPER PRACTICE. It would only take a few seconds to attach a bow square to his string and check the nock point setting.

        Some of my "practice buddies" and I often like to have friendly practice competitions. This is merely to add a slight amount of "pressure" to make us shoot better or we might have to "buy the cokes" for the other shooters. We NEVER shoot for money. We even result to "shirt tail cutting" at times just to make it more fun. We will NOT harass the shooter during the shot execution.

        If I am practicing and I feel the slightest amount of fatigue, I stop IMMEDIATELY. I DO NOT want to start "rushing my shots" or making bad judgment decisions. I also try to make each shot the "money-shot" because most often, you do not get a couple practice shots before the deer arrives so your FIRST SHOT needs to be your BEST SHOT!! The ONLY way to insure your chances of PERFECTION is to remember what my coach ALWAYS told me..."PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.." DON'T SETTLE FOR ANYTHING ELSE....

 

Bud Fields

 

www.CamouflageNation.com

www.GutPileStyle.com

 

Amazing Indication Of A New Hunter From The Camo Nation?

We wouldn't have believed it, if we hadn't seen it ourselves!  

Bacon Explosion On Nitro !!!

By Big58cal  www.GutPileStyle.com  &   www.TheCamoNation.com

I decided to make my own version of the Bacon Explosion.  In making it though, I found out some very important tips for anyone else who decides to make such a monster of their own.


We start with the bacon mat weave.  For this, I had bought 4 lbs of thick cut bacon (two 2 lb packages).  This becomes important later.




After the bacon weave, the italian sausage came into play.  Two 1 lb packages of Old Folks Italian Sausage pretty much did the trick.




Now with the addition of a few slices of Provolone cheese, it's starting to look like something I could eat.




After being down in the garden and pulling some weeds earlier, I happened to think how good some fresh jalapenos would be in the creation.






Something of this magnitude just isn't complete without some onions.




Since we be po' and can't afford such things as prosciutto ham, thin sliced country ham with all of the fat removed is the next best thing.  I also had a couple extra pieces of bacon left over from the first package so I nuked them and crumbled them up on top.




Ahhhh, and now for the hot banana pepper slices.  I had wanted to add more pepperoni, but apparently we didn't have as much as I thought we had, so I only had enough for 1 row through it.  It still added some flavor though.




And now, here's the finished beast!




Remember those 2 packages of bacon??  Well is seemed that with as much stuff as I had in the creation, the one bacon mat just wasn't enough to cover everything and roll it up.  Enter the second 2 lb package of bacon.  I had to create another mat and toss it on top of the beast to hold it all together.

Rolling it up in the wax paper that I had it on and adding some plastic wrap to kind of compress everything and hold it together, it was ready for the fridge to chill a little bit until today.




Got the smoker going around 11:30 this morning, unwrapping the beast and putting it on the bottom rack, right above the water pan to keep it good and moist.  After about 7 - 7 1/2 hours I figured it was done.




After letting it cool a little, I cut into it to see what the damage was.






I cut off a slice and tried it...................  OMG!!!!  It will make your tongue slap your brains loose!

Since I figured that it would be a waste of all that good charcoal and wood just to smoke the fattie, figured I might as well throw a slab of ribs on there.




After eating half of the the slab of ribs, I didn't have much room left for the fattie, but it was still good.  I've got some biscuits in the freezer that are just begging to have some of that pork deliciousness slid in the middle of them.  Think I'll try that in the morning.

Big58cal  www.GutPileStyle.com & www.TheCamoNation.com

It's a Camouflage Nation !!!

 

www.CamouflageNation.com
Today is the day for The Camouflage Nation! If you like to do it outside.....you're gonna be among friends! With features that rival the ever popular MySpace social network, a free membership offers access personal profiles, chat, IM, pics, videos and more! Check it out....let us know what you think!

Real Girls Wear Pigtails!!

My name is Jerry Brandon(a.k.a. Mr. T).  My daughters names are  Candice (9) and Kassidi(6).  In late December, my wife Sheila (a.k.a. Lady_taxidermist) and I decided we would book a ram hunt for us and our daughters.  When we told the girls the news they we excited.  They both have shot a .22 before but now we knew they needed to hone their skills.

We started out practicing, grouping and shooting, through a scope.  Once they had gotten good at that we stepped them up to a big gun.  I knew my youngest (Kassidi) would need me to hold the gun for her so I was looking for a gun that my oldest (Candice) could handle.  I took my .223 in and traded it in on a .243 youth ultralite H&R because of the shorter pull length and a box of 100 gr. shells.  I got home and talked to the wife and let her shot it.  She said it needed a limbsaver on it.  I shouldered it and didn’t think it was too bad.  When the oldest got home she was all exited and wanted to shoot it.  Against my wife’s better judgment, I let her shoot it.  She shouldered it and pulled the trigger…….  As tears welled up in her eyes I knew I should have listened to my wife.  She had it tight to her but it still hurt her pretty bad.  After the fact, I realized that it probably did pack quite a punch, as the rifle weight was only about 4lbs and had a 20” barrel.

The next day I traded it for a regular H&R .243, a box of 75 gr. shells, and a limbsaver recoil pad.  Candice  got home from school and we went to the range.  She slowly pulled the gun to her shoulder and looked through the scope.  After several minutes of trying to convince her that it wouldn’t hurt she still could not pull the trigger.  My heart sank.  I had made my daughter gun shy.

Meanwhile, I had a friend that I had traded a .25-06 out of for the wife.  Candice had got back to shooting the .22 and asked why she couldn’t use it for the ram.  I told her she needed to shoot at least a .243 or bigger gun and that I would hold the gun for her if she needed me to.  She looked me square in the eye and said I’ll do it by myself thank you.  With that, I told her she would have to shoot the gun I bought for her.  Sheila said that I should let her shoot her .25-06, so back out to the range we went.  Candice and I made a deal, if she would shoot the gun once and didn’t like it we would go on a fishing trip instead. 

She prepared herself and shouldered the gun.  After a few minutes and several tears from both of us she pulled the trigger.  She looked at me through the tears with a big ole smile and said, “Daddy that didn’t hurt a bit!  Give me another bullet”!  After several times of me asking her was she sure, I gave her a few more shells to shoot and all was great.

To further prepare them, I made a poster board cutout of a ram and drew a dot on it were the kill shot would be and let them study it for a few days.  After getting more .25-06 shells, we went to the range and I set up the cutout.  The first thing Candice asked me was were was the dot.  I flipped the  ram around were the dot was on the backside and told her the rams we would be hunting wouldn’t have dots on them and that she would just have to remember where to shoot it.  “OK” she said and put the gun to her shoulder.  She took aim at 50 yards and the gun went off.  As we walked up to the target Candice asks, “ Did I hit it daddy?”  “Sure enough…..right in the ole pump station” I said.

So we were ready.  Sheila and Candice would take their trophies with the .25-06 and Kassidi and I would take ours with the .243.  Sheila had a little surprise up her sleeve as she had seen how Candice had taken such a like’n to her gun.  She bought me and Candice a T/C pro hunter chambered in .25-06.

I said all that to lead you to the point of the hunt.  We woke up at 5:30am Friday, March 20, 2009 to pack up and meet our buddy who is a camera man and head out to J.W. Hunting Preserve in Henrietta, OK.  The girls were super exited, as well as was dad.  We arrived at camp and met the owner, John.  He is a super nice guy that made us feel right at home the whole trip.

First up to bat was Candice.  She decided she wanted to do a spot and stalk on a painted desert ram.  John drove us out to the rifle range to check our guns.  Candice fired a shot and said game on, and out through the field we went.  We found the rams and set up for the shot.  We were in a draw and they were coming around the corner.  Just as they were clearing some trees to get a good shot, they turned and headed away from us.  We grabbed the homemade bois’d arc shooting sticks and proceeded to stalk some more.  We found a good place to set up and held tight.  The ram came in and out of  some brush and frustrated Candice.  We never practiced anything other than a broad side shot so she waited patiently.  While waiting for the ram to present her a shot, she began shaking.  She said “Daddy I don’t know why I’m shaking.  I’m not scared of the gun no more.”  I told her, “That’s OK, it’s called buck fever.”  After a few more intense moments the goat turned broadside and I pulled the hammer back on the ole T/C.  She asked the cameraman if he was on it.  When he said, “Yea, shoot it" she squeezed the trigger.  The ram dropped right where it was.  I turned to my daughter and gave her a big hi-five!  As we were walking up to her trophy she asked me why I was shaking so bad to which I replied, “Buck fever baby, buck fever!"  I was so proud of my daughter taking her very first animal.  As we reached the ram and looked back at where we had been set up I realized she had made that shot from about 90 yards.

Next up was Kassidi.  Not to be outdone by her sister, she decided to stalk hers too.  After about a 150 yard stalk we set up.  The ram presented himself with a perfect broadside shot, but the camera man could not see him because of brush.  After a grueling 4-5 minutes, he finally stepped out and presented a clear shot for both her and the camera man.  I shouldered the T/C and she squeezed the trigger at about 65-70 yards.  The ram took a few steps and down he went down!  The big smile on her face said it all, and I was shaking again!  When we got back to camp, Mr. John caped their trophies and Sheila helped them get the skulls out.

The next day Sheila and I took our trophies (Catalina goats) and the camera man also took a painted desert that day.  The girls wet a pole at the big pond in camp and caught several perch and crappie.  As it got dark, we lit the camp fire using hickory and grilled some beef steaks.   The day ended with a late night, swapping fish tales and ‘the buck’s that got away’ stories around the campfire while listening to the coyotes yelping in the canyon.

Another hunter in camp took a small hog that day.  Candice seemed interested in the pig, which the camera-man took notice of, so he asked us if we thought she would like to shoot one.  Of course we thought she would, so he mentioned for us to stop by his house on the way home (he is a seasoned hog hunter that runs dogs).

So, Sunday morning we paid up and thanked Mr. John for a wonderful experience and headed off to Rock Bottom Ranch in Boswell, OK for a day of hog hunting.  As we were on the way to the ranch, he called his hands and had the hunt set up.  They had put a wild hog in the creek bottom, bayed it up with some dogs, and headed back to the lodge.  Candice had no idea.  When we pulled up, the ranch hands where out front roping and acting as if nothing was going on.  We got out of the truck and went to meet the hands.  After a few minutes, they asked her if she was ready to go on a hunt.  Out came the trusty T/C and into the Kubota buggy we went to ‘search’ for a hog.  The hands loaded up their truck with dogs and went out to “locate” one while we were loading up.

After ½ mile or so, we stopped the buggy to listen for the dogs.  We couldn’t hear them, so we started it up and drove for another ½ mile or so.  We stopped again to listen, and sure enough Candice heard the dogs hollering up a storm.  We followed the sound of the dogs and found the ranch truck.  They were pointing over the edge of a cliff into the creek bottom shouting “there it is…..are ya ready?”

Candice looked down into the cliff with wide eyes.  You see, she had never even seen a hog in the wild much less seen all the excitement that was going on in that creek bottom.  She pulled her gun up, but could never get a clear shot because of the dogs.  So after chasing the hog down the creek half a mile, and several attempts of trying to get a clear shot, the hog finally backed into a hole in the embankment.  The dogs kept it bayed into the hole, while Candice shouldered the gun again (after crossing the creek and running through a briar thicket) and everybody was hollering SHOOT IT!  She couldn’t get a clear shot because of all the brush over the hog.  She took aim, and squeezed the trigger.  All went quiet.  Then all of a sudden…out came the hog!  She missed it slicker than owl poop.

As the hog exited the embankment, one crazy ranch hand plowed on top of, and tackled the mighty beast.  To make things a little easier for her, he grabbed a rope and tied the rear leg of the pig to a tree and cleared out all of the dogs.  The hog backed to the end of the rope and presented a clear broadside shot.  BOOM!  The hog went down upon impact.  The boar weighed in at 168 lbs.

After an exhausting and exciting weekend of hunting, we arrived home only to let Candice in on a little secret…..the work was just beginning.  After being instructed on proper skinning methods, she grabbed a pair of gloves and a knife and got after it.  She had wanted a full body hog mount, until we explained to her how many months of allowance it would take her to buy the form…..so she settled on a ½ lifesize.  But she was disappointed that she would not have the pig’s tail (her second favorite part of the pig…beside the nose of course).  So her and daddy came up with a plan…. Tan the tail and sew it to the back of her hunting hat, so she could wear it as a trophy.  She was excited about the plan, and giggled as little girls do when daddy told her she could wear it around and tell people…..

REAL GIRLS WEAR PIGTAILS!!!

Candice & her Painted Desert Ram

 

Candice & Kassidi with Candice's wild boar

 

Kassidi with her Painted Desert Ram

Both Candice & Kassidi learning when the "real" work starts

Rabbits Hunting - Feel The Burn!

Don'tcha just love it when the dogs catch a bunny?  A lot of people don't know it, but rabbits don't have unlimited stamina. The have no reserves on their bodies, and the fast-twitch muscle fibers build up lactic acid quickly. If the scent is excellent, and the bunny can't stop occasionally, he's had a bad day. I've even watched rabbits get ahead of the dogs, and then jump up on a rock or log and stretch their back legs out one at a time; similar to what a weightlifter does when he "feels the burn." A rabbit that makes two or three loops with the dogs hot on him, and then hits a hole is not a coward, he just needs some relief. A "cowardly rabbit" is one that hits a hole immediately. A rabbit usually knows where all the holes and inpenetratable log piles are in his area, although sometimes, when being pushed real hard, they may not pick the best one. A pack of beagles, entering a logpile from every angle, can easily push a bunny into the mouth of another. A dog discovering a rabbit on top of a mat of briars and honeysuckle can pull the whole mess down. A rabbit can also pick a hole that is too shallow or one that he used to evade capture as a youngster, but is now too big to go deep enough into. Every year where I work, we have a litter of rabbits raised next to the rear entrance to the plant. Each time I go out the back door and spot a baby, I'll take a few steps toward him and he'll make a dive through the chain link fence around the substation. Until one day, he tries the same thing and gets stuck right in front of his hams   About every other year I have to free a squealing juvenile, who is probably thinking, "WTF, it's always worked before?"

EllwoodJake  www.gutpilestyle.com   

Isn't It Time For National Pride?

Here's your chance to show some NATIONAL PRIDE..... pass it on!

Finally....there IS a cure.....

A Face Only A Mother Could Love

A Face only a Mother could Love

November 26th, 2008

I was running late, my plan was to be climbing into my Sportsman's Condo about 45 minutes earlier. I wanted to hunt the "magic time", the last 10 minutes of daylight. Because of a family commitment, I was now behind schedule, as deer were already in the south end of the picked soybeans.  My only option was to crawl into a small island of trees in located on the north end of the field and hope something came out.

With the wind in my face, and sitting with my back against a chest sized oak tree, it wasn't long before I spotted movement to my right. Three does and four fawns appeared. They bounded out of the woods and started to feed on the soybeans in front of me.

Slowly they worked their way to within 11 paces of where I was sitting. Having disabled their first line of defense (the nose) they grazed undisturbed.  Hoping a buck would soon join them, I fully expected at least one of those 14 eyeballs to "pick me off", but it never happened.  Yes, I was in full camouflage, Yes, I had the wind in my favor, but I believe what saved me from being "sniped" was my facemask.

Over the years I have been "spotted" by deer while in a tree stand dozens of times, even in full camo.  The lightbulb came on one day while hunting a wild rice marsh in Wisconsin. I noticed how the ducks kept flaring. I could not figure out why until I saw my brother, his face stood out like a Republican at an Obama rally. I made a mental note of it and decided to conduct an experiment.

I had a friend sit in a ladder stand dressed in camouflage with no facemask. His face was highly visible from a 180-degrees and hundreds of yards away.  Next I had him put on a facemask and I retraced my steps. The difference was amazing! He seemed to blend into the surroundings.  Deer can recognize a human face and relate it to danger.

Since that discovery, I always wear a facemask or cover up with camo paint. I even wear one while in my Sportsman"s Condo. The times I have been "busted" have decreased tenfold. And for those of us (like me) that are follicly challenged, it is even more important to cover up!

To increase your success, use the wind to your advantage and cover that face only a Mother could love.

-Good Hunting-

Mark
www.sportsmanscondo.com

"The Boy" Goes Squirrel Hunting

There's something to be said about a boy's first squirrel hunt.  I still remember mine, though it was quite a few years ago.  I think that in a lot of ways, hunting has gotten away from it's "roots" so to speak.  Too much emphasis today is placed on big game like white-tail deer, while everyone seems to had forgotten about small game, like squirrels and rabbits.  True, they aren't as glamorous as a big antlered white-tail, and I've yet to see any Boone & Crockett record book entries for squirrels, but small game hunting teaches the basics..............The basics of how to move, how to actually "hunt", how to handle a firearm, and just a basic appreciation of nature.  If you spook a squirrel while hunting, there'll be another on down the path a little way.  If you spook a deer while deer hunting, sometimes you may have to give up for the day.  This can be discouraging to a small child.

I had been telling my 6 year old son that I would take him squirrel hunting this year, but as is usually the case with today's busy schedules, we weren't able to actually go until about 2 months into the season.  With only being 6 and his first hunting trip, I decided that he could carry his BB gun if he wanted, but that was going to be as much firepower as I wanted him to have just yet!  Just like most every other kid these days, Mason is no exception when it comes to playing video games.  We limit the amount of time he can play, and what he can play, but usually when he isn't playing, he's acting out parts of the video games.  His favorite game right now is Pirates of the Carribean Online, with all of the sword fighting in it.  Little did I know that his video game playing would be one of the highlights of our first hunt!

We had to drive down to the farm to hunt before daylight, and much to my surprise, he was ready and raring to go at 5:00 AM when we had to get up.  We were able to get in the woods right at daylight, just as I had hoped.  After parking the 4-wheeler, I went through everything with him as far as watching where he was walking, looking around for squirrels, stopping beside trees, etc.  We stayed at the 4-wheeler for a little bit, and let everything quiet back down from us going in, and then headed out.

Since this was the boy's first hunt, I didn't want to take him on "too much" of an adventure, so I had decided that we would just stick to the old logging roads.  It was a cool morning, with little to no wind, but where we hadn't had any rain in quite a while, the leaves were dryer than a popcorn fart!  The patch of woods we were hunting though had quite a few squirrels in it, so I figured we would find at least one that was either mentally challenged, very brave, or at the least, blind and deaf!  Plus, since I was carrying a .17 HMR, if I could see it, I could hit it, which swung the odds in our favor a little.

I have hunted the patch of woods enough to know about where the squirrels usually were, so in areas where there usually weren't any squirrels I made sure to point out the other things Mason would need to know.  When we would stop at a tree to look and listen, I pointed out different trees, leaves, plants, bird calls, etc.  We whispered about this and that, me asking him things, and he asking me about things.  I could hear squirrels cutting further up on the side of the hill, or down in the hollows, but didn't want to go after then.  This was going to be just a leisurely walk in the woods, with a little hunting/learning mixed in.

After sneaking around for quite a while, we still hadn't gotten any squirrels and I could tell that Mason was starting to get bored.  As we started going down a hill, I could see some limbs moving up ahead where there were some squirrels cutting.  I pointed them out to Mason and told him to really watch where he put his feet as we slipped a little closer.  We stopped beside a pretty good sized beech tree and watched for a little while.  I could see a fox squirrel every now and then through the leaves on down the hill a little bit, so I told Mason to stay there at that tree while I slipped on down the hill a little to see if I could get a shot at the squirrel.  I had told him earlier that morning that if he saw me put the rifle up to my shoulder to put his fingers in his ears to protect them from the blast of the rifle.  Me wanting to go on down the hill away from him was to mainly get the blast of the rifle away from him.  I moved on down the hill about 20-25 yards, found a tree that I could get a good rest on, and finally found a hole that I could thread the little 17 grain V-Max bullet through.  When I turned around to motion for Mason to put his fingers in his ears, I almost completely forgot about squirrel hunting!  Up the hill, diligently standing by the tree where I had left him, Mason was locked in an epic sword fighting battle with (from the looks of it) several imaginary foes!  LMAO!!!!!  I had gotten on him several times that morning about shuffling his feet in the leaves and making noise.  He had apparently listened to me on that part of "moving quietly", but not on the part of "moving slowly".  He wasn't making a sound, but his arms were flailing wildly about, his stick/sword vanquishing foe after foe!!!

After whispering "MASON!" loud enough for him to hear me, and shaking my fist at him, he quit sword fighting.  I motioned for him to put his fingers in his ears, and I turned my attention back toward the deaf, dumb, and blind fox squirrel.  At the crack of the rifle, the squirrel folded and hit the the ground with a very audible "THUMP".  I scanned on around the other area to see if I could see any others that the rifle had provoked into moving.  Seeing nothing, I turned around to check on the boy.  He was all grins, pumping his fist in the air.  I motioned for him to come on down there toward me.  Once he finally made it down there, doing his best not to make very much noise, I showed him which tree the squirrel had been in and how to "mark" the tree so that he would be able to find it once we got down there.

We found the squirrel without any trouble.  After I picked it up (mainly to make sure it was dead) I handed it to Mason.  He said, "It's warm Daddy."  "Yeah it is buddy.  He was alive just a little while ago but I shot and killed him.  The good Lord put this squirrel out here for us to get so that we can have something to eat."  This kind of exchange continued between the two of us, with him asking questions and me answering.  I had shot the squirrel in the head, and in normal fashion for the little V-Max bullet, part of the squirrel's head was missing.  This too provided a good learning opportunity to the boy, and from the look on his face, it was really hitting home what I had been telling him for several years about being careful with guns, that they can kill, etc.  It's one thing to see a hole in a target, but a whole other thing to see a dead animal with part of it's head missing.  Since that time, I've noticed that Mason is a little more careful around my guns and even with his Nerf guns.

I peeled the bottom of the squirrel's foot back and put a stick under the tendons to carry it with.  Mason was done.  He wanted to go back to the house to show Momma and Nanna Carol our squirrel.  We hunted for just a little while longer and then started making our way back toward the 4-wheeler.  Back at the house, I let Mason tell Momma & Nanna Carol about his hunt, with me adding little bits and pieces every here and there.

If I had gone hunting by myself that morning, there's no doubt I would have gotten a limit and been back at the house in very short order.  But this hunt wasn't about me.  It was about "The Boy".  It was about a father and son getting out and spending time together, both learning from each other.  It was about learning from Mother Nature and actually listening to what she has to say.  But mainly, it was about passing down the hunting heritage to the next generation, so that they too can be self sufficient and appreciate all of the wonders around them each day.  Even the wonders of a little 6 year old boy sword fighting by himself in the middle of the woods.

Big58cal