POP DIED ON MY SIXTH BIRTHDAY........so the hunting memories I have of POP and SAM are my very first and fondest :-)

SAM.....was a wild ferret that POP had found in a trap n rescued out on his strawberry farm and tamed :-)

SAM was not a little ferret like the one's you see in pet shops these days......he was a real old fashioned wild American ferrit as big as POP'S ARM.....which at that time was bigger than my leg :-)

NOW anybody who has ever hunted behind a dog.....can understand and appreciate how a dog "WORKS"

But hunting behind Sam was like hunting behind a tasmanian devil :-)

He moved through the woods without making a sound.....sometimes like a snake.....sometimes like a squirel.........and just watching him.....watch the woods was fascinating.........ferrits are like GROUND FALCONS.......they can sneak right up and nail a stupid pheasant or partridge.....or go down rabbit holes and fetch you a sackfull of rabbits :-)

Pop used to snap a metal collar around his neck for hunting.....he explained that the collar made it hard for Sam to swallow....and he'd been trained with it to bring the back the game where Pop would imediatly field clean im.......rabbits/birds........then unsnap the collar and give Sam the hearts n livers which he gorged down whole like a snake would :-O

Sam was real freindly to me and POP n Gramp Walt MaGee.....But he HATED GRANDPA JOE PISANO......and most any stranger :-O

IF HE DIDN'T LIKE YA........He'd hiss n spit an come at ya all snarlin and teeth then fade back and reapeat like he was challenging you to a fight.

Think Tasmanian Devil :-)

YouTube - Taz Mania - Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty Part II

ehehehehehehehehe.....WAY NASTIER THAN "TAZ"

here kitty kitty kitty

To get to these cabins from the parking area was a 6 mile trip by horseback (THAT'S ANOTHER STORY ;-)

YouTube - The Byrds

RIDE EM COWBOY :-O

When I was a wee lad......Just up the street past the cemetary was Crossetts' Creek.....Which Started from a natural spring pond up on the Scully chicken farm...meandered across Christiano's land then crossed under Crossett Road onto the Malony Tenant Farm owned by the Wadsworths....then meandered thrhough the Wadsworth Homestead Farm till it crossed under RT63 and becomes FALL BROOK....an old indian encampment raided by Boyd and Parker where they slaughtered all the women and children while the men were out hunting :-(

ANYWAY......one day I was out woodchuck hunting with Robin Maloney the youngest son and we were way back up in the corner of crossetts Creek by the cliffs and I spotted a short eared owl killing a squirell :-)

Robin was off the otherside of the field so I sat down to watch through my scope......and the owl flew with the dead squirell up to a good sized branch where another owl came along to help cut up this squirell and neatly lay pieces of it on the branch.........about this time Robin comes along......an I say HEY COME'RE AN CHECK THIS OUT........so we both sat n watched......AND THEN.......one of the owls picked up a stip of meat and flew to a nest over in the cliff that had three babies in it

SO.......we got a bright idea (not really) and decided that we could borrow Robins' DADS block n tackle.......go down over the side of the cliff and get a baby owl.......and trian it like a hawk :-)

we were only gonna take one

and guess who got to hang over the cliff (Robin was bigger and more muscular from a life of farm work so he got to run the block n tackle :-I

BUT GUESS WHAT..........even though we had anticipated mommy n daddy owl coming after us (Robin had a semi-automatic shotgun he could fire one handed and we weren't gonna shoot mom n dad.....we thought the noise would scare em off.........BUT WE THOUGHT WRONG :-O

SHORT EARED OWLS WILL FIGHT TO THE DEATH TO PROTECT THIER BABIES :-O

and they got SHARP NASTY TALONS and wingspans of better n 3 feet

I remember quit clearly yelling "PULL ME UP..PULL ME UP"

Let me clue you now......How those Owls felt about those babies :-I

THAT'S HOW I FEEL ABOUT MY GRANDCHILDREN AND THE SOUL OF HUMANITY ;-)

Boyd and "Parker"

GEE........I wonder if COOKIE is a descendant of those Butchers :-O

hmmmmmmm :-I

Duck, the walleyes are runnin'.

Think I'm gonna catch some soon!

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Gin is good although you are a slut. - Luminox PM with regards to J04miller

Take a Hypodermic needle or sharpen the point on an ink refill thingie and use it to pump little air bubbles into night crawlers so they look bigger an float a few inches off the bottom.....you'll catch more ;-)

Hmmm, I'll tell the man of the house about that...........good plan!

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Gin is good although you are a slut. - Luminox PM with regards to J04miller

~4:04~


YouTube - Once Upon a Forest (1993) Part D


~6:46~

The Silver Fox

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Originally Posted by sparks
Yeah, you're way behind with that story!



YOU know the short version....I'll get to the rest of the story eventually

OK...I'll Finish telling the Fox story.........


It was an early October morning, a little over 30 years ago....It was Archery Season in Upstate N.Y. and I just happened to have an entire week off, because the company I worked for had just been aquired by General Signal Corp...and was going through a MAJOR CANNIBALIZATION...by Corporate RAIDERS...and most of the employees had been put on a "SKIP WEEK" unemployment plan........SO ...I really needed the Venison.

I was hunting a spot way up Groveland Hill on Walt Magee's Land....I had a tree-stand up there, and there were a lot of Deer in that area....some nice Bucks too.

I like to get into my stand about an hour before daylight to give my ground scent enough time to disperse before shooting light (deer have a better sense of smell than dogs)....while sitting up in the stand this particular morning...listening to the sounds of the woods as the little critters scurried around in the dark, and the morning breeze rattled the multi-colored leaves loose from the trees around me.....when SUDDENLY....this peacefull morning was SHATTERED by a sound that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT...I thought

It sounded like a mountain Lion fighting with a Wolverine...and LASTED well over a minute.....AND...it was still too dark to see....but I had a good Idea of where the sound came from....and was determined to GO LOOK.....as soon as the light permitted.

(curiosity)

SO......as soon as it was light enough to see ta shoot.....I climbed outa my perch and went looking....and along a hedgerow beside a cornfield........I found a Silver Fox, caught in a leg-hold trap......HE WAS BEAUTIFUL.

Now, I used to run a trap line when I was younger....and I still knew a few guys that were trapping in the area......and I had a pretty good idea who's trap this was......and how much money that pelt would fetch.......I coulda just whacked that Fox and sold the pelt myself.....BUT.....I just didn't see that many Silver Foxes around back than.....and I decided to set Him FREE.......BUT....this FOX didn't view me as a freind..(ain't that funny)..and would go into a maniacle freenzy everytime i tried to appraoch him.......and I didn't want him to twist his poor leg off.....so I sat down and started singing...

This confused Him....and I took my coat off non-chalontley....and as soon as his gaurd was down.....I flung my coat over the top of him and tackled him.... :-(

I hurridly opened the trap......Felt the bones in his leg......nothin seemed broke...........Then I jumped UP AND AWAY....... ;-)

It didn't take him long to get free from my coat....and once he realized that he was ALL THE WAY FREE.....he looked around for a direction yo flee.......kinda keepin me in the corner of his vision......then he went down a woodchuck hole about a dozen feet away......I COULDN'T BELIEVE that great big fox got hisself down that itty bitty hole :-O

And thats the whole FOX STORY.......but the very next day, I nailed a nice eight pointer from my treestand ;-)



http://www3.telus.net/theguardians/sunsets28.jpg

^I^
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If you don't KNOW where you come from...you WILL wind up going nowhere.

That goes for Ideas, institutions as well as individuals :-I

YouTube - - TRANCE Form America - 3of7


I'M NOT THE ENEMY OF MANKIND JAN :-I

I'M NOT GONNA HURT YOU

I MAY SIT DOWN NEXT TO YA....SING A SONG OR 3 ;-)

THROW MY COAT OVER YA AN WRASSLE WITH YA A BIT :-O

But that's just to get that TRAP off ya :-I

After THAT.....I'll juamp back clear......and let ya free ;-)

Duck, that is a VERY cool story. I love your hunting stories.

I love to hunt and fish too, but I never carry a weapon when I "hunt". I love to watch. It isn't that I couldn't/wouldn't shoot something, it is just that the man always has killed enough for food so why kill more?

My favorite deer watching story was a fall afternoon in a beautiful woods in WI. It was the "rut" so the bucks were very active. I got to see a big buck mark his territory by scraping the ground and peeing on it. Shortly after there was a fight between 2 bucks with the antlers and everything!

I've followed blood trails and helped pull deer out of the woods. I love hunting, but I've never killed. Strange, hey?

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Gin is good although you are a slut. - Luminox PM with regards to J04miller