More Hunting Thoughts...

Quick update on my weekend trip.

So I went bow hunting this last weekend. It was all right. I shot at a nice 6 point and hit it high. My arrow went through and through, but it didn’t look like a fatal shot. Or maybe it was, I don’t know. I wound up tracking the deer for 5-6 hours, but the blood trail dried up. Makes me sad. I hate the idea of losing a deer like that. Bow hunting really sucks in that regard. If I had shot it with my .12 gauge, I’d be deciding whether to do a full mount or a western mount on his dead carcass. It always feels bad to lose a deer. It’s part of being a responsible sportsman and ethical hunter. Crap. I’m really bummed.

In terms of the job, I didn’t hear anything last week, but then got a call from the hiring manager today , only to have him say they wanted to do one more, final, final round . So, still waiting. Damn it. The bonus is that I know the manager really well, so I hope I do OK. God I hate this stress.

Had a thought while I was sitting for hours on end in my tree stand. There is a thing called the Grand Slam of North American big game hunting. It involves hunting and killing all 29 or 30 species of big game in North America (the number fluctuates.) I began thinking it would be cool to try to do this, but I can’t afford it. Crap - - the average person couldn’t afford one or two of some of the big game hunts out there. But that got me thinking (as I’m wont to when left alone too long), what if you could do it, on a budget. I then thought it would make a great book – sort of a how to for the everyman. I did a preliminary internet search and could not, for the life of me, find a list of the animals on the list. I think I might want to look into this more. Here’s a list of what, I think, MUST be on the list. (Some internet searching was done, this is a best guess. I’ve excluded a few larger animals that would surely fit the bill, but are protected or prohibitively expensive/rare – like the muskox or the tule elk). I’ve also added turkeys to the list. They may not be considered big game, but GODS how I love turkey hunting…

Deer or Other Ruminants
1) Mule Deer
2) Whitetail
3) Rocky Mountain Elk
4) Manitoba Elk
5) Roosevelt Elk
6) Moose
7) Caribou
8) Prong Horn Antelope
9) Coues Deer
10) Bison

Bear
11) Grizzly
12) Black
13) Polar
14 )Brown

Cats
15) Cougar
16) Mountain Lion
17) Bobcat

Sheep
18) Dall
19) Desert Bighorn
20) Stone or Fannin
21) Rocky Mountain or California Big Horn

Others
22) Razorback Hog
23) Boar
24) Wolf

Not sure if they’re considered big game, but they round out the numbers
25) Osceola Turkey
26) Eastern Turkey
27) Rio Grande Turkey
28) Merriam’s Turkey

Wow. That’s an impressive list. I imagine one could spend a lifetime trying to bag all of those animals. And probably a lot of money… gobs of money... obscene, unholy amounts of money. Hmmm… More thought will have to be given to this. Maybe I could pare the list down, bearing in mind the efforts to remain frugal. Hmmm…

More updates later…