What I Learned Being A Hunter

Hunting was an essential skill in America. And yes Joe, those hunters were the Minute Men and Minute Women who won the Revolution against England.

The Minute Men. Every one a skilled hunter and outdoorsman.

In addition to growing your own food, being a skilled hunter was a matter of life and death in Colonial America, especially if your crops failed. Flint locks and later cap guns required time to load and you only had one shot, or your prey would be long gone. Knowing the territory was also essential. These skilled marksmen and women could shoot at hundreds of yards and knew their surroundings intimately. George Washington's battle advantage was as a young man he surveyed a lot of the territory they fought on and knew it like the back of his hand. Major factors in why they won the Revolution against England.

From First Freedom by David Harsanyi, an excellent book which explores America’s history with the gun:

I never in my life saw better rifles (or men who shot better) than those made in America. - British colonel George Hanger

The reason why so many officers fell is that there are amongst the provincial troops a number of enterprising marksman, who with rifle guns, and I have been assured many of them at 150 yards, will hit a card nine times out if ten. - British general James Murray

Why I became interested in hunting

I was a fisherman but not a hunter. My dad was into baseball etc., but not into the outdoors. He was also a clarinet player in a big band before he and my mom were married. My “uncle” Howard, who was actually my dad's cousin, was a hunter as his dad, my great uncle Al, before him, who was quite an accomplished hunter and outdoorsman. I remember a painting in his den a friend did of him in the woods bear hunting. That is where I first saw mounted deer and bear heads. Hunting was something that intrigued me. In an earlier post, I featured the inside of the church I attended growing up.

Uncle Al was a general contractor. Working from a window washer’s seat, he spray painted the domes with a coating used on ships to preserve them when it was decided the parish couldn't afford to redo the original copper plating.

THAT was a job!

Uncle Al died when I was still young. He was something. Texaco used to make toy trucks, cars, planes and even ships. Uncle Al showed up one day with a Texaco oil tanker for my younger brother and myself that you could actually put in the water with a little motor, propeller and batteries! It was almost three feet long! He loved Christmas and would set up his big Lionel trains in the den in a display that took up half the room and of course go all out on decorating the house.

My introduction to hunting

I approached Howard to ask if he would teach me about hunting. We started with reloading since he also reloaded bullets and shotgun shells for himself and his hunting buddies. Reloading is quite a precise skill. Modern rifle cartridges ignite with 50,000 to over 60,000 lbs. of force per square inch. The cartridges are generally brass and reusable till they show signs of wear and stress. They are resized in a press and checked for proper length and shape. Next a primer is pressed in. Then the shell is filled with powder. Then a bullet pressed in. You work from reloading manuals with pretested loads for pistol, rifle and shot gun cartridges with various powders from different manufacturers measured out in grains, with one grain equaling 0.0022857 ounces. Each gun has specific powders and bullets weights it prefers to obtain its best accuracy. You pick a couple of powders. A few are common favorites. You then carefully increase the load to try to get better accuracy, watching for signs of too much pressure. Some careless reloaders have actually blown up their guns. Some with serious physical consequences.

I researched different cartridges for their accuracy and versatility since I was only buying one rifle at the time. I picked the Winchester .270, a .277 caliber cartridge, created in 1923 from the .30 caliber 30-06 Springfield cartridge. It was extremely flat shooting and with a bullet range from 90 grains to 170 grains. Versatile from ground hogs to elk. Howard owned two Winchester model 70 bolt action rifles and I liked the way they felt and shot, so I bought one in the .270 caliber. A Bushnell 4 x 12 magnification scope with a bullet drop compensation feature and Redfield scope mounts.

Collectorsfirearms.com Winchester model 70 xtr similar to mine.

I bought some cases, bullets, powders, primers and a set of .270 reloading dies. Howard and I took several trips to the rifle range while I developed different loads for different size bullets. We had a lot of fun. There were always other shooters at the range, and we sometimes would try each other’s rifles. One guy was going to Alaska for a moose and grizzly bear hunt and was sighting in his .375 H&H Magnum which has a recoil of 38 lbs. Like getting punched pretty hard in your shoulder. He invited us to try some shots. My .270 had a recoil of only 17 lbs. It was still fun to concentrate on hitting the bull’s eye while trying not to dwell on the punch that was coming.

We planned that I would going hunting with Howard and his friends the following hunting season. Deer season in Pennsylvania starts the first Monday after Thanksgiving. That never came to be. Howard had worked in a steel mill since he graduated high school and was making a good living. Then all the mills in Pittsburgh closed including the one at which he worked. There went the pension! It reopened under new ownership and if he wanted a job, he had to start all over again, of course with a pay cut. So, he was in his 50’s, crawling into the kilns to jackhammer them out just like when he was young. I know it wore on him and he was getting abdominal pains. The quack doctor he went to was treating him for an ulcer. The pain got so bad he was hospitalized, at which time they found he actually had advanced colon cancer! This fine physician, incidentally, was busted collecting $2 million from Medicare for blood tests, then made up the results! Never even got kicked out of the hospital because he was on the board!

I visited Howard often and he taught me things about hunting that we realized he would never be able to show me. I remember the last time I visited him when he was already unconscious and breathing rapidly. Then slow down like he was going to stop. Then speed up again. I just sat there with him and talked to him. I thanked him for the time he spent with me and all he had taught me. He died the 1st of December at only 54.

My first deer hunt

My first deer hunt was at the family farm of a friend who is also the brother of my wife before I really knew her. It was 85 acres of fields and mostly oak woods with a train track splitting it in half. Excellent for all kinds of game. There were tree stands, but I picked a spot to set one up for myself. Back in the woods was a cabin built by their uncle, my friend and his friends when they were younger. It was pretty ingenious with a first floor and loft where you slept. When you walked in the door, on one side was a wood burner cook stove, where you cooked on the top and it had an oven box where you could bake also. On the other side a kerosene heater with a flu pipe connecting the two that ran under the loft floor to keep it warm at night. We arrived on Sunday and checked our stands to make sure they were safe. Then relaxed, ate and drank some beers.

The great realization

I walked out to my stand about an hour before sunrise. Carefully climbed up and got comfortable. Then sat quietly waiting for daylight, paying attention to all the sounds around me. Away from the city, you can see millions of stars. You can even see the Milky Way. Before daylight, the birds become active and start calling and moving around. You gradually start to see things as the sun gets closer to rising. Closer, then further away. Then you start to see and hear the animals moving around. It keeps getting lighter and because you are quiet and not moving none of them pay any attention to you. Then you realize you are a part of all this and it is all part of you! YOU are part of creation! And Creation is perfect!  Everything that lives, plants, animals and people are all connected.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Genesis 1:31

We, humanity, are the wild card in the equation because we have been given free will to screw it all up.

I have done my best to describe it to you as Howard tried for me. But you must experience it for yourself. Find a wooded or wild area away from the city. Familiarize yourself with the area so you can navigate in the dark with a flashlight and pick a spot. Sit down and get comfortable so you don't have to move and wait. It is truly glorious and puts everything in perspective. Hunting is not just about shooting something. If more people in the world did this we wouldn't be in the situation we are in.

What else did I learn from hunting?

• Gun safety:

  • EVERY GUN IS LOADED!

  • NEVER point a gun at anything you do not wish to shoot!

  • ALWAYS open the action on a gun before you hand it to anyone!

  • If someone ever hands you a gun without the action open, OPEN IT and see if there is a cartridge ready to fire!

  • ALWAYS be able to see exactly what you are shooting at! The whole body! And NEVER shoot into bushes because you THINK you see something!

  • ALWAYS be aware if there are other hunters, people, domestic animals, structures, etc., in the near area.

  • ALWAYS have a backstop in back of your shot. Be aware where your bullet is going. Bullets can fly for miles.

• Marksmanship:

  • Use eye and ear protection. Safety glasses and either a headphone type or something that fits in your ear.

  • Be familiar with your weapon. How it feels, handles and shoots. Practice shooting till you can hit a target consistently. Quality high power rifles come out of the box able to put three bullets in a 1 1/2” group at 100 yards with factory ammo. With practice and your own good loads, you can get that down to 3/4 or 1/2 inch. Shooting at anything closer will take care of itself. Anything farther and you will have to know the distance and how much your bullet will drop.

  • Give yourself a good steady position. On a bench, laying on the ground, propped against a steady object, or sitting and spreading your knees out, then brace your elbows on your thighs and steady your rifle.

  • Squeeze the trigger slowly. Don't jerk. This happens because you are anticipating the noise and the recoil. Have someone hand you the weapon with you not knowing if it is empty or loaded and fire it. If empty, you'll be surprised how much you jerk! Do this till you don't react anymore.

  • When you are ready to shoot, take a breath, exhale slowly and hold it as you squeeze the trigger, so your barrel is steady. As you breath, your gun barrel goes up and down.

  • Follow through. Do not lower your weapon or take your eye off your target until you determine if you hit it or missed.

  • Same for a pistol. You should be able to consistently hit inside a five-inch circle at 25 yards free hand, since that is how you would be shooting in a self-defense situation. Anything closer will take care of itself.

• Outdoor skills: Note, these are also pretty handy if you choose to hunt with something else like a camera.

A non-typical, (unusual antler shape), White-tail buck from a recent camera hunt.

• Learn how to move slowly and while you are listening to sounds around you, listen to how much noise your feet are making and keep it to a minimum by not stepping on branches or other things that will make noise.

• Look ahead and off to the sides slowly for any movement. With practice you'll notice the least little bit. Get a wildlife book and get familiar with the pictures of animals. You will rarely see one out in the open. You'll only see pieces. Then it will jump out at you all at once what you are looking at. It is pretty neat.

• Only stop behind trees, bushes or other objects. Never out in the open.

• Learn how to follow a trail. Deer are pretty obvious because they use the same ones and actually wear out a path. Other animals leave broken branches or leaves out of place in trees and bushes or on the ground. If you look close you may even see actual foot prints you can compare to your wildlife book.

• Learn how to survive in the outdoors. How to build a shelter. Get water. Make a fire, etc.

Fun fact: A handful of Frito corn chips make excellent fire starters, even in a pouring rain. I found that out when my wife and I went camping and the three-day weather prediction “changed”. (Yet these “experts” know what the climate will be in 50 years!) The flame is blue, like propane or natural gas.

• Sportsmanship:

  • NEVER take a bad shot! Only one you are sure you can make and kill the game cleanly and humanely.

  • Never waste anything. Show some respect and humility for the gift you have just been given. Always clean your game quickly and properly. Then get it refrigerated as soon as possible.

Next:

• My most memorable hunting experiences. Some were very “interesting.”

• Do I still hunt?

• Why hunting and related skills are important.