masthead picture of sunset in Alaska


Hunting

Chris, Mike, and Tom, hunting
Me with Mike and Tom after a morning of hunting.

Truck at hunting area
My truck out in an area we hunt.

Getting Started


I started hunting as a kid. At first, I would go looking for, and catching what ever I could find; snakes, squirrels, and rabbits around home. When I got a bit older we had moved to a farm in Northeastern Washington with a ground squirrel problem. After we had been taught proper firearms and hunting safety, I learned to hunt with an old single shot .22 rifle for said ground squirrels. When my brothers and I started, dad gave us a box of .22LR shells (a boxes holds 50 rounds) and told us he was paying 5 cents a tail for ground squirrel tails, but we had to buy our own bullets after the first box. A box cost around 69 cents at the store on sale, so in theory we could make some money shooting squirrels. Well, we learned quickly that you had to be real good at placing your shot, or the squirrel would flop down into it's burrow before you could get to it and collect the tail. If you were not careful and wasted too many shots, you wouldn't get the 15 squirrels need to buy the next box and were out of business. It was good way to learn to hunt, and learn a bit about life as well.

My first turkey 2011
The first turkey I shot in the 2011 season in Northeast Washington

When I turned 11, I got my first firearm for my birthday, which I still have today; a Savage-Stevens Model 94Y single shot, break action 20 gauge shotgun. Now I was in the big leagues! I could hunt anything from squirrels to deer and birds. I've used that shotgun a lot over the years and still do sometimes. It is fast, compact, and with the right shells, you can do a lot with it. It is a jack of all trades, but master of none. Most of the bird shooting was on grouse. Wing shots in the woods were close and fast, and with that full choke barrel you either hit or missed clean. You really had to shoot well to get birds in close. It was a great gun for dealing with the crows that were always pilfering the garden and fruit trees, and they became very cautious after I had hung a few of their relatives up in the trees. It's also fixed a few foxes and racoons that went after the chickens.

Hunting camp
Turkey hunting camp. Mike and I have the same trailers.

Spring Turkey Hunting


When I was out on my own I did more deer hunting and really enjoy it. I'm not the kind of hunter you see on the TV shows though. I enjoy just being out in the woods, seeing, hearing, and smelling all that there is out there. I don't have to kill something to be satisfied with a hunt. I like shooting with both the gun and the camera. And sometimes I get so caught up watching, I just sit there and watch, and don't use either. But I do pull the trigger if it seems right at the moment. I don't get to do much deer hunting these days because I don't have enough time. I've fallen in love with turkey hunting, and having to choose, I would rather hunt spring turkeys than fall deer. And yes, my wife watched Bambi as a girl and is not a happy girl when I hunt deer. Happy wife, happy life; as the saying goes. This way it works out for both of us.

My second turkey 2011
I shot my second turkey of the 2011 season in the afternoon, and it started to snow right after I pulled the trigger. I think this was a Rio even though they aren't supose to be this far North.

I use to hunted turkey with my old Beretta 301 shotgun that I bought when I got out of high school while I was commerical fishing (I bought it at Eddie Bauer when it was still a local sporting goods store in downtown Seattle and had a gun department). It is a beautiful gun and shoots great, but I wanted to get a newer gun that would shoot the newer loads and had screw in choke tubes. I looked at a few different options, and decided to go with a Beretta Extrema 3. Wow! It is a great gun and it will shoot anything that is out. With the heavy 3 1/2 inch loads it can kick pretty good when practicing, but when you are pulling down on a gobbler, you don't feel a thing. I really like this gun and am glad I chose it.

I've been going turkey hunting with my best friend Mike and his brother-in-law Tom each year for a while now. Sometimes others will join us, but its usually the three of us that make it. The turkey hunts are my "Boys out" time each year, and is something I really look forward to. Some times we get birds, and sometimes we don't. But we always have a good time. I am going to put some more hunting stuff here via links, as I have time.

Hunting Trips


Turkey Hunting 2012

Turkey Hunting 2011

Turkey Hunting 2010 I didn't get to hunt in 2010 because there was a major break down on the boat I run (Western Titan) while I was in Great Britain on vacation, and it changed my sailing schedule, so that I could not make it workout to go hunting. Mike got 2 turkeys at the last minute as he was headed back to his truck, to go home.

Turkey Hunting 2009

Turkey Hunting 2008