Inside the edge: A Professional Blackjack Adventure (2018)

[BoSox]

For a lot of my years I couldn't say that. It was a challenge for a long time to control my excitement and make the shot. I took a lot of shots and hit a low percentage of them. I learned how to be cool and to be very selective about the shots I take. Now, if I squeeze off I am certain I have the shot. When I am certain I hit what I aim at. I take few shots and rarely miss.

I was on a hunt to thin the herd in closed to hunting public land. I saw over 40 deer that day and could have shot at most of them. I just didn't like the shots. At around 11:30 15 deer came across my shooting area. I had plenty of shots that weren't what I wanted but I could have made. There was one good shooting lane they had to move across. I held on the lane as they walked across. Each deer walked across without stopping.The first, second , third, ... finally the fourteenth deer stopped in the shooting lane. It was about 120 yards with my shotgun after they passed even with my post. I sgueezed off and when the shotgun came back down from the recoil a solitary reed was shaking were the deer was. I knew I dropped it in its tracks. When the state warden/guide came to follow up on the shot (you are not allowed to leave where they post you and can only shot in a limited area) I kept directing him further and further away until he was sure I couldn't have shot that far in the thick woods and called me over. When I got to him I said it should be in between the two tree trunks laying on the ground about 50 yards ahead. It was. He looked back at where he posted me and just screamed enthusiastically, "what a shot". I looked back and it did look more impressive looking the other way. The cover was thick close to where I shot from and more open where the deer was so from my ground stand it was a wide open shooting lane but looking back to where I was it looked really thick to get a hole to shoot through. It was further than most people would shoot but it was not a long shot for me. On these hunts I want to make sure I hit every long shot (from other peoples perspectives) so I don't get a reputation for throwing lead around at shots I shouldn't take. I have gotten that exact same surprised yell from the trackers on many occasions when on these hunts to thin the herd in areas closed to hunting, "what a shot". Like I said I won't take the shot unless I am certain I have it.

The trick to making long shots with a shotgun is most people don't understand how much even a slight breeze will blow a shot (windage) from a shotgun at a modest range. I do. I know how much windage to allow for up to a windy day at long range. If the wind gets too crazy I don't consider 150 yard and over shots or in some cases even 100 yard shots. But when I do take them I almost always hit what I am aiming at because I only take the shots I am sure of. Most hunters only shoot their shotguns up to 50 to 70 yards. I shot a huge stag in 70 mile an hour crosswind during a white out at about 15 yards. It blew my slug over a foot of windage. I left the cover of the huge trees when the noreaster moved in because every monster limb that was due to fall but hadn't fallen yet was raining down from 50+ feet up. It was like big chunks of the buildings falling from the skyscrapers. About 20 minutes later two monster bucks had the same idea of vacating the danger zone under the monster trees. As they walked out of the trees and followed the thick brush I picked the one I liked better. I aimed for the heart and made a perfect shot not allowing for the wind (I naively didn't think I had to at such a short range). I hit it at the base of the neck about 14 inches downwind of my aim and dropped it in its tracks.

My best day fors learning windage the hard way, in the field, I had a nice stag at 150 yards with about a 15-20 MPH crosswind. I squeezed off a perfect shot (you can tell if you didn't). It hit the stag and he ran upwind of me and stopped. Now I only had to adjust for yardage due to the wind instead of windage and the stag was much closer. I dropped him and made sure to find where the first shot hit him. The breeze blew the slug from my shotgun about foot and a half at 150 yards. I climbed back up my tree and a little while later a monster stag came down the same trail. I knew the exact windage but he veered off the trail away from me for a 180 yard shot when he got to my shooting lane. All I had was a neck shot but I was sure of the windage. I aimed 2 feet upwind and squeezed off. The buck didn't drop but was definitely hit. It went 20 yards away from me to about 200 yards and stopped. I could tell it was still standing there but couldn't make it out. After it didn't move for a while I knew I could stalk it if it didn't move off before I got there. I marked where it was by a weird tree near it and snuck slowly through the swampy flooded mixed marsh grass knee to head high. I got to about twenty yards from where I saw it last and felt I would be exposed if I moved any closer. It was about 20 minutes later. After standing there looking for a while, I finally spotted the stags big black chest as he stood there but wasn't sure which direction he was facing. Finally he moved his head. That was all she wrote. It was an easy shot that anyone could make. The first shot hit the stag right where I wanted to but the range was so long the slug lost too much energy to do enough work on impact to break its neck. Nonetheless it anchored the stag long enough for me to finish the job.

Then the two sika stags tried to reach out from the grave and kill me as I drag both stags at once the mile and a half through the flooded swamps back to my car. The first few hundred yards is always the worst because of all the fallen tree trunk I have to pull them over and the deep muck and mire. I steered around as many tree trunks as was practical but that just made the drag longer. I was familiar with this drag and whenever I got two deer I always drug both out at once because I wouldn't have the energy to go back for the second after dragging out the first. I was younger and had more stamina in those days and once I got to where I had the option of several different routes back to the truck I found that once I got them going at a good clip on high ground they didn't resist much so I chose the option that avoided the swamp the most. The real work was getting them up to speed. I decided running with them in tow for about a couple hundred yards until I tired and then resting a while was the most efficient way to move them. Fifty plus pounds of gear and a couple hundred pounds of sika stag is a lot to move in the muck and mire. Thankfully I knew where the fingers of high ground were to help make the task easier after the first brutal stage on the way to the truck.

Originally Posted by moses
Not a bad idea 21er. But then wouldnt it be prudent to put a cap on words per post?


21forme responded:

"There's only one person that would need to apply to, and he's pretty much self-corrected the problem."


Originally Posted by Freightman
Unfortunately, there's a point to it. Though I do tire if the bull. Let's see what happens.


21frome responded

"Not really. You're instigating T3 to regress into his old ways - never ending, long posts."

Originally Posted by Three
I miss some shots but if I take careful aim I hit what I am aiming at.


bjarg response:

Of course you do.

Which led to Three's above post. People have to stop instigating, shame on you bjarg.

[21forme]

Tl;dr

[BoSox]

Excellent point Bosox. But to stop instigating would mean to stop posting altogether? Perhaps we all take a hiatus until Norm figures out Blue Oyster Cult?

The point I was trying to make, there is no instigating, people's writing styles are all different. Three, is free to write a long post if he wants, it is up to the individual if she/he wants to read it.

[BoSox]

I agree. So, in your opinion, were my two light hearted jokes a form of instigating?

I frankly don't know, as I am still reading Three's post.

[Freightman]

Originally Posted by moses
Not a bad idea 21er. But then wouldnt it be prudent to put a cap on words per post?


21forme responded:

"There's only one person that would need to apply to, and he's pretty much self-corrected the problem."


Originally Posted by Freightman
Unfortunately, there's a point to it. Though I do tire if the bull. Let's see what happens.


21frome responded

"Not really. You're instigating T3 to regress into his old ways - never ending, long posts."



Which led to Three's above post. People have to stop instigating, shame on you bjarg.

The deal allows verbosity once a month. I believe this qualifies.

[Freightman]

The deal allows verbosity once a month. I believe this qualifies.

Meanwhile, CNN is reporting isolated incidences of mini 3's roaming the streets, throwing rocks.

[Freightman]

Originally Posted by moses
Not a bad idea 21er. But then wouldnt it be prudent to put a cap on words per post?


21forme responded:

"There's only one person that would need to apply to, and he's pretty much self-corrected the problem."


Originally Posted by Freightman
Unfortunately, there's a point to it. Though I do tire if the bull. Let's see what happens.


21frome responded

"Not really. You're instigating T3 to regress into his old ways - never ending, long posts."



Which led to Three's above post. People have to stop instigating, shame on you bjarg.

I missed it. I was reading War and Peace.

[BoSox]

At around 11:30 15 deer came across my shooting area. I had plenty of shots that weren't what I wanted but I could have made. There was one good shooting lane they had to move across. I held on the lane as they walked across. Each deer walked across without stopping.The first, second , third, ... finally the fourteenth deer stopped in the shooting lane. It was about 120 yards with my shotgun after they passed even with my post. I sgueezed off and when the shotgun came back down from the recoil a solitary reed was shaking were the deer was. I knew I dropped it in its tracks.

Where was the fun in that? I always remember this scene in an old movie link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd9_2TRib3k

[Freightman]

Where was the fun in that? I always remember this scene in an old movie link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd9_2TRib3k

Deer hunting strategy
https://youtu.be/GZQAvtFO_uA

[BoSox]

Not likely. I miss some shots but if I take careful aim I hit what I am aiming at. I missed my first shot in many years this past hunting season. I took an offhand shot at a buck with my muzzleloader from almost 200 yards while 30 feet up a loblolly pine with a stiff crosswind. Besides the windage I needed to allow for the tree swaying some. The buck didn't even react to the shot. I knew I missed. It took me at least 4 or 5 minutes to reload my muzzleloader as I rarely need to shoot more than once so I am never prepared to reload quickly. I find I am better off watching the hit deer after the shot than worrying about reloading. By the time I reloaded and was ready to take another shot, the buck had moved more into the sun. The sun was setting while reflecting off the very wide tidal river I had canoed in on behind the buck so all I could see through my scope was a glare of bright light. It took another 15 minutes or so to get a shot I thought I could hit. The sun had hit the horizon so it wasn't reflecting off the water anymore. The buck was about the same distance away and a little more into what was a crosswind. After waiting for the sun to hit the horizon, so my scope wasn't lit up by the sun, I made sure I was well rested and waited for the wind to hit a lull. I dropped that buck in his tracks.

After waiting for the sun to hit the horizon, so my scope wasn't lit up by the sun, I made sure I was well rested and waited for the wind to hit a lull. I dropped that buck in his tracks.

Was there any doubt by the readers that you were going to down that buck? Frankly i'm surprised it wasn't a squirrel. If you did not mention the scope I would have thought a muzzle loader was another name for a musket, that was an antique from the Revolutionary War days where your great, greattttttttt uncle was a minuteman who fought the British red coats.

[Freightman]

I have plenty of stories of failure. Not as many as I got older and more experienced. Pennsylvania makes you hunt with primitive weaponry during muzzleloader season but not the state I was hunting in. A muzzleloader in the state I hunt in simply must be loaded via ramrod down the muzzle. My muzzleloader is top of the line and state of the art. You don't hear many stories from people that were moments they got humbled. You hear their stories of success and learning. What follows is part of the tale of how very rare events tended to happen in threes for me that eventually earned my nickname, Three. It was the first of three such tight groupings of very rare events that happened to me in a weeks time.

From my younger days: The week rare events kept happening to me in three's earning me my nickname. I had gotten a nice stag in the morning and set my Dad up in my killer spot. I went to scout an area I had liked the look of nearby. I sneak through the woods and slip through the brush to look out on the salt marsh that interested me. I spot a big stag standing on the other side of the marsh feeding on the bayberry bushes at the edge of the marsh about 150 yards away. Back in those days shotguns were primitive weapons by comparison to what you see today. You didn't have a special barrel for shooting slugs or pumpkin balls as the primitive projectiles were called back then. You bent the barrel of you shotgun against a tree to change were it was hitting to sight it in and it got knocked out of whack pretty easily (not that I am saying that affected anything that follows). My point is I wouldn't consider a shot over 100 yards with that gun and only shoot that far if I was confident it would hit at that range on that day. The hour long ride in a four wheel drive had everything bouncing of the ceiling of the truck the whole way including the passengers. I stalked that stag across an open marsh of ankle high grass and a few small brush clumps. Forty five minutes or so I was at the last scrap of cover about 60 yards from the stag. The edge of the range that I would consider a sure shot. It was a huge stag much better than the one I already had. It let out a set of bugles as I rested to catch my breath and calm down to make sure I could take a steady shot after crawling across the marsh from piece of cover to pice of cover. The bugling made that task hard as it increased the excitement level but I did my best. I took 5 very carefully measured shots at the stag. It never reacted to any of them. I was really flustered at this point and was fumbling to get a shell out of the 5 shot box of shotgun shells. The stag looked over at me then casually took another bite of the bayberry bush. Then it turned and casually walked into the thicket at the edge of the marsh not worrying about me one bit. Those thickets were impenetrable without making a lot of commotion. I knew trying to get another shot was useless.

I am trying to pick up the shells I had dropped,while excitedly fumbling with the box of shotgun shells, from among the knotted marsh grass. I reload my gun and frustratedly walk the other way upset with myself that I blew such a perfect stalk with poor shooting. As I hit a brushy narrows in the woods, which I was going to use to keep the noisy woods walking to a minimum, a huge whitetail buck jumps up at my feet. I swing on it and miss as it as it runs at about 10 feet while is disappearing into the thick greenbrier. When I get into the next marsh there is another stag smaller than the one I already had standing out 20 yards away. I was so disgusted I didn't even try to take a shot. I just thought about how bad I would feel after missing two monster trophy deer of two different species to then kill a smaller stag. The one I killed early was a very impressive first trophy, especially for a fourteen year old, but it wasn't a true monster stag like the one that had humbled me. I was still on the high of getting that first big stag. Later, my Dad and his buddy said that most hunters had hunted their whole lives and never had the opportunity to take the trophy bucks I had seen. Deer were pretty rare sights back then. Hunting for food during the depression had almost eliminated them from the state. Deer only survived in really, really remote areas and on land protected by the federal authorities like military bases. Recent restocking effort from the severely over populated deer populations on these protected lands had reestablished a thriving herds across the state, which allowed deer hunting to resume across the state. But compared to what we see today deer were still very rare. As you can tell we hunted an area that had a high deer density and very low hunting pressure as getting there required special vehicles and special equipment that few owned back in those days. A realtor that was trying to get my Dad and his buddy to invest in the area had shown them this unknown gem of wilderness and how to access it. It was public hunting land that few hunted.

The next couple of decades are full of stories of limited success between lots of humbling experiences. I got nice deer every year, often big bucks, but nothing like what I messed up on. Eventually, with lots of experience I had fewer and fewer humbling moments and almost all became stories of success.

You've exceeded your monthly allotment of verbosity.

[Freightman]

Ya think? I was ballparking it. lol. T3's gotta be an interesting person. Level 4er.

Don't think so. Think he's just trying to show that he has a set.

[Gronbog]

You've exceeded your monthly allotment of verbosity.

You didn't need to quote the entire post to respond .