Hunting

Kathleen and I have had such a difficult time finding turkeys, pigs, and geese on public land that we decided to join a hunting club. We looked at a few of them but decided on a family membership in Golden Ram Sportsman' Club. The people who run it are super nice. Also, they set up their club so that there is a wide variety of fish and game. The other clubs seemed to be focuse on just one or two animals. We have our first boar hunt scheduled for September 10-12. I'm going to be using the Mauser, yes it is over a hundred years old but it is still accurate. Kathleen was going to use her shotgun but there are no copper or steel slugs available anywhere, and lead is illegal in California. So, I looked at the shelves in the ammo aisle at work to see what non-lead hunting ammo was in supply. We had more .243 WInchester than anything else, so I bought a Savage Axsis chambered for that cartridge for her to use.

Because of all the contractors, insurance adjusters, and delivery men commming into the house to deal with the destroyed bathroom and kitchen we decided to by a gun safe. The last thing we need is for a gun to be stolen and used in a crime. Becaue of my job I got a 45% discount on price of the safe. Basil helped me get it up the stairs. It was heavy but he is strong.

Basil finished taking the California Hunter Education course last week so I bought him field pants, suspenders, shirts, and a hunting vest. I still have to buy him boots and a hat.

The goal for this autumn is 12 boar, 6 turkeys (Two per person is the states limit for the autumn. We can take more in the spring.), and 3 bears. We might be able to get some ducks and geese, too but there is a drought. The state says if hunters dont shoot the ducks and geese too many of them will congregate in the little water that is left and die of disease. I am kind of torn about that. If they are under so much pressure from the drought I kind of want to give ever duck a chance to migrate through. But at the same time i don't want them to die of disease. I'm sure we won't go after them in the Delta or the central valley but we might take the boat out along the deges of San Francisco Bay. There is a similar problem with bears. The state wants hunters to kill lots of bears because the population has grown so large during the last 20 years that the biologists are worried about disease. We could legally take many more bears than three but we've never tasted bear so we don't know if we will like it. But we are sure we can use three bear skin rugs. We aren't going to go after elk or deer: They are too pretty. Neither are we going to stalk big horn sheep: Horses and mules are needed to get to them and carry them off the mountains.