The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
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A tubby suburban dad watching hunting and adventure shows on TV and wondering could I do that? This is the chronicle of my adventures as I learn to learn to Forage, Hunt and Fish for food that has lived as I would wish to myself - Wild and Free.
The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
3M ago
Morning is dawning the sun plays on the self seeded field of xxx pine. `I'm in the highest sheltered from the wind with my back to one block, a ride to my left and the fence line falling away infant of me.
Ive seen the little Roebuck break cover and cross the ride a while back, but now only the wind in the trees, the creaking of the dead lower branches, and a terrible racket coming from behind me. The way the seat is it's not easy to turn around that far.
Ahab is a notorious, and compulsive practical joker so my first thought is this is yet another of his practical jokes. Th ..read more
The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
9M ago
The Shrewsbury Red, all 11 points of him.
My friend Captain Ahab invites me to go stalking with him in Shrewsbury, where a herd of parkland escapee Reds are eating a local farmer out of house and home. He's been sending me pictures of some crazy big deer, one so big it couldn’t be lifted into the chiller. I've seen pictures and the slots left by monster Reds in Norfolk where they live by crop raiding rather than fighting for every calorie in the highlands. These boys get the same (or better) nutrients without the wind chill the fens are rightfully famous for so I'm pretty stoked t ..read more
The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
2y ago
There's a great trope of English life; the story goes that two guys in a shed, have a lightbulb appears over their heads as the bleedin’ obvious reveals itself, they go on to invent some world-beating innovation and then rise to greatness. Like most founding myths, it's usually somewhere between revisionist half-truth and outright bullshit. So its come as something of a surprise that for once I'll be able to park the cynicism and tell you a tale where the trope came true. Half true, it was one guy
Anyone who has ever slaved away into the night; tapping at a trickler, trying to get a s ..read more
The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
2y ago
While were making a list:
Few months back SSD and I made the trip to horse country to stalk with Mr 7mm
left me in a highseat and took South Side D stalking on another farm
It had been a while, at the far end of the field there was no clear backstop so I’d let some fallow walk on by and the light was starting to turn. When a most remarkable thing happened.
You know that sense that some kind of prey is pressnt, unseen but definitely present. Glassing the hegdes to left and right. Then starts an odd decidedly metallic ‘ticking’ coming from the hedgerow beneath me. To start wi ..read more
The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
2y ago
The idyllic nature of this shot can never show the sheer agony my butt cheeks were in after a couple of hours sitting on the bare metal slats that had once supported the seat
There's two trophies: a full freezer and a great tale. Ticked those two off, nearly got the other kind too. Nearly. Pull up a log, warm your hands by the fire, pour yourself a tin mug of scotch, this one has to be the most SBW hunting saga yet
Long term readers will remember the blogger known as Shooter and his Mountain Lion hunt. In the intervening years his kids have grown up a bit a ..read more
The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
2y ago
Back at the guest apartment i pack up, empty the safe, and take a forlorn look at the unused ice packs a vacuum bags. Hunting not Shopping
Im 400 miles from mi casa, my phone rings incessantly with work nonsense, i bid the chaps farewell and stifling a yawn hit the road. The panel van is slightly reluctant to go into first. The phone routes me away from the M6 and on to the M1. The traffic fairy is my co-pilot and southward i trundle. As the afternoon wears on i could feel better. After 200 miles my eyelids are drooping so i take the turn off for Leeds and rock up at The Norther ..read more
The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
2y ago
The road south
If you want to make Artemis laugh tell her about your plans for the hunt.
At last the bit I’ve been looking forward to.
During that perfect summer of the early pandemic South Side D and I had ventured north of the wall to hunt goats with our guides Alan and his son, the eagle eyed Bryce. It was a great trip READ ABOUT IT HERE I had high hopes of doing it again. Yeah. Right.
The drive down the west coast was as stunning as ever, the Irish sea as flat as that northern light that washes over it. The roads are refreshingly clear, unburdened by the ..read more
The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
2y ago
East Kilbride late one night . light rain
A few roundabouts off the ring road we find our way to a street of post war housing, Not built with the expectation of car ownership proving as popular as it’s become , I know this as a certain fact, as I've inched a panel van down it. Despite WCC’s characterisation of the area lots of tradesmen seem to live there. Their bastard vans are double parked the length of the street.
We finally find somewhere to park and start ferrying the shooters to the flat.
TheViking rented the flat sight unseen over the internet, its ex publi ..read more
The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
2y ago
Been through a few bipods over the last year or so at all kinds of exorbitant prices, some are a ripoff some cost less but are awful. All demand a degree of compromise. Of the bipods that don’t pan from side to side the fortemier and the RPA were best, the RPA is a Sako TRG clone and is more ‘hunting and range’, the Fortemier is a range bipod. GRS [who are famous for their stocks] have taken a few ques from both ending up at a ‘hunting fortemier’ compromise.
Pro:massive controls, all the catches are upsized for use with mittens in cold climates
There’s a lot less play in ..read more
The Suburban Bushwacker: From Fat Boy to Elk Hunter
2y ago
The world of tomorrow, cut short.
Theres a Russian expression from the Soviet era We wanted it to be different, it happened just the same
A statement of intent :
Casting this blog’s fine tradition to one side there is little or no spontaneity to this tale. Even the pseudo spontaneity of middle class professionals was brutally stamped out. Bookings were made weeks in advance and the departure time set in stone.There will be none of the usual struggles with escape velocity
A statement of fact:
No plan survives contact with the enemy, the Viking or ..read more