daverichey January 3rd, 2010

A friend told me today about an experience he'd had yesterday. He was heading back to hunt rabbits on his land, and spotted a snowmobile coming toward him down a wooded trail.

He stopped, the snowmobiler stopped, and he asked the guy what he was doing on private property. The gent, apparently not too swift on the uptake, said "snowmobiling."

"Don't you know it's illegal to trespass on private property?" he asked.

"Yep," came the reply.

No respect for posted property.

"Aren't you smart enough to learn to stay off private land, especially if you don't have permission?"

"Apparently not!"

The trespasser had turned off his engine, removed his helmet, and was a white-haired man that my friend estimated to be in his 60's. The trespasser was old enough to know better.

"I was planning to hunt that area you just road through," the hunter said.

"Oh, rabbit hunting, I'll bet."

A magnificent grasp of the obvious.

He said it was difficult to believe the guy was acting so weird. He asked if the snowmobiler had permission to be on the land, and the guy admitted he did not.

The hunter considered taking the snowmobile key and escorting the man to the landowner's house, and thought better of turning the situation into a confrontational situation.

The snowmobiler acted as it he wasn't terribly upset about spoiling the man's hunt or trespassing. The clown asked my friend if he owned the land, and he replied he did, and so the man wondered what the problem was.

"The problem," the hunter told the snowmobiler, "is that you've just illegally driven your sled across the area where I planned to hunt. Are you just being stupid or is this hunter harassment?"

"I not trying to harass anyone," he said. "I'm just out snowmobiling. I live down near Grand Rapids."

"How would you feel if some idiot drove a snowmobile across your land?"

"Wouldn't bother me a bit."

My friend sensed the man was either incredibly ignorant of the law or trying to push the situation into something nasty. The man seemed to have no remorse for breaking the law, and his actions seemed to indicate that he was prepared to defend his right to trespass on someone elses land.

My friend wanted to go hunting and didn't want to deal with the problem any further.

Get booted off the land.

"Get off my land and don't come back," he told the trespasser, who gave him a long sullen look. He nodded his head once in agreement, pulled on his helmet, and took off.

He crossed the woods trail onto more land owned by the same man that owned the land. This guy was either a man with absolutely no qualms about trespassing, was ignorant of all laws, or more likely, didn't care one way or the other.

Most snowmobilers I know are nice people. Me, I could care less for the things, but do not begrudge their use by law-abiding people. This man was a trespasser who clearly felt he could go wherever he wanted to go without asking permission.

It's such behavior that has made more and more northern people post their land against trespass. The landowner takes pride in his land, and doesn't want people running over it without first asking permission. He's tired of picking up litter left behind by snowmobilers, and weekly clears the area of beer and whiskey bottles and makes sure fires started in a remote part of his land by partying sledders is completely out. He tacks up more "No Trespassing" signs, but none of his actions does any good.

One trespass incident from 30 years ago.

Such people eventually run afoul of someone who acts and doesn't bother talking to trespassers. This friend, who isn't a violent man, recalled an incident years before when trespassers on snowmobiles kept running across his yard, ruining his newly seeded lawn and shrubs.

It went on for four nights, with him yelling at the trespassers, and on the fifth night he yanked the last snowmobiler in line off his sled by his face mask, and hung a stiff right jab on the guy's nose.

That settled the issue more than 30 years ago, and the snowmobilers stayed off his property. He admits now that it was a rash act, and one he wouldn't do again, but northern landowners have had a belly full of people trespassing to hunt or snowmobile.

No one wants a problem, and especially my friend, but he also doesn't want to see his land misused by trespassers. This problem is not getting any better; it's only getting worse in the north country.

It's time for those who would trespass to learn to respect the rights of others. If they could ever learn that trespass is a criminal misdemeanor and punishable by law, perhaps they would grow up and run their sleds in area where the trails are groomed specifically for riders.

That would solve most of the winter trespass problems. Will that day ever come? It's not likely to happen any time soon.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Tags: dave richey, example, hunt, hunting, land, law, legal, Michigan, outdoors, permission. property, respect, rights, trespass, winter

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daverichey January 2nd, 2010

Years ago, while hunting snowshoe hares with a group of hunting friends, I was shot in the left hand and wrist by the only stranger in our group. A dozen or so birdshot were dug out of my hide, and my life has gone on.

But not as it had before. The man who accidentally shot me was kept two football fields away from everyone else after that. The accident cast something of a pall over the balance of my hunt.

I wasn’t serious wounded, but no one was about to laugh it off. It could have been a killing shot. And, to this day, it bothers me to hunt with someone I don’t know.

Politicians draw attention to hunting accidents.

Then, sometime after that, I heard about Dick Cheney’s shooting another man, and it gave me a flashback to my day, which was not enjoyable for me. The first thing that came to mind when one public figure shoots another one a Texas ranch hunt was “something very similar happened to me,” and the flashbacks return.

And that Texas case, the victim was initially blamed for sneaking up on the shooter without warning him of his presence. That is pure political spin or a load of crap.

Blaze orange hats can prevent becoming a statistic.

The ranch owner also blamed the victim, and for two days it was spin city in Texas and Washington, DC. Folks, I spent 20-some years involved with Hunter Education training, and I’ve been a part of the teaching and training process for nearly 20,000 adults and children 12 years and older.

Such accidents indicate the need for Hunter Education training.

How, I ask, are Hunter Education instructors supposed to react when one high-level politician shoots another at close range? The spin doctors covered up the hunting accident for a day, and then applied their own brand of stupidity to it by blaming the victim, and eventually more of the story came out because of media pressure.

It was apparent that the spinmeisters had no clue about hunting, hunter safety or ethical hunting procedures. They were dumb and clueless.

Hunters are taught many things while taking a Hunter Education training class. Chief among them is to always know where the muzzle is pointing. Another is to always, without fail, properly identify the target before shooting. Another is to identify everything beyond the target to ensure that nothing else — a barn, building, car, cow, human, truck or whatever — is in the line of fire.

That’s not what happened in Texas, and any hunter worthy of the name should be properly upset by the actions of the ranch owner and Dick Cheney. Not only was Cheney clearly and legally at fault, soon after the accident the cover-up began.

It took some time for Cheney to speak out and assume full responsibility for shooting his “friend.” If that’s how he treats his friends, no one would ever want to be his enemy.

A need for common sense, personal responsibility, and how to safely handle firearms.

Don’t try to rattle my cage on this one. This has nothing to with being Republican or Democrat. It has everything to do with a distinct lack of common sense, any semblance of rational and sound judgment, and a personal responsibility for safe handling of a loaded firearm.

It’s been said that Cheney has hunted for a dozen years or so. That’s like saying a person with a medical (or any other) degree is intelligent. All those years of training only means the person spent a large number of years in a warm classroom and passed his state boards, or in Cheney’s case, bought a hunting license. It doesn’t mean he has the intelligence or the necessary skills to safely handle a firearm.

It makes me wonder: Did he ever take any Hunter Education training? Did someone extend him the courtesy of looking the other way in terms of a previous hunting license or Hunter Education training card which is usually required to buy a hunting license?

Causes of most hunting accidents.

The vast majority of hunting accidents occur for one of a very few reasons: the shooter was incredibly stupid; carried the firearm with the safety off and a finger on the trigger; didn’t identify the target and everything beyond it before shooting; had no knowledge of proper hunter safety methods; was under the influence; or the victim was incredibly unlucky to be in the right place at the wrong time. One other situation — line-of-sight accidents — occur when a person is in the line of sight of the shooter but cannot be seen. All but the last one may apply in the Texas shooting.

All of those (and perhaps several other) factors were allegedly played out in the Texas sagebrush prior to the hunting accident some years ago. The facts remain that Cheney pulled the trigger without identifying his target or anything else nearby. He also made the ultimate mistake (along with the ranch owner) of trying to shuffle the blame over onto the unfortunate victim.

The U.S. printing presses that make money hasn’t made enough thousand-dollar bills for me to set foot within shotgun range of someone so incredibly stupid. One wonders if they were wearing Hunter Orange clothing (there are rumors they were); one also wonders if more than one beer was consumed as has been questioned by the media, and one wonders if the two men were actually friends.

Chuck Lunn, a trusted friend, (right) with a snowshoe hare.

Folks, if you or I shot someone, there would have been no one-day delay is posting the news. There are allegations that Cheney didn’t have a game bird stamp required to hunt quail. Was this man ever issued a ticket or did he spend time in court answering charges of illegal hunting?

There is an old saying: People should never analyze the ingredients of two things: bologna and politics. Time will tell whether politics prevailed, and this sorry breach of hunting safety and ethical hunting practices will be overlooked or cast aside for political reasons or will this become just a footnote in the history books.

Summarizing how I became an accidental shooting victim.

My involvement in being shot was simply going in to search for a lost hunter who was firing the standard three-shot distress signal. I spotted him walking around in circles, shooting in all directions and raised my hand as I yelled at him, and he shot in my direction. Fortunately, most of the No. 6 shot hit my coat and blaze orange coat but some on the shot went through a brown Jersey glove and into my hand and wrist.

This happened a number of years ago, and there was no trip to the hospital. I poured alcohol on my knife and the holes in my skin, and I removed the pellets myself. The wounds were bandaged by me, and we hunted the next day although everyone stayed a long distance from the lost shooter. They physical wounds healed nicely but the mental problems are still pretty raw.

He asked several times when we were going hunting again. It’s funny how that person was never invited on another hunt with me.

I dislike hunting with strangers, and whenever I’m on a hunt with someone I know and trust, and another person decides to join at the last minute, I often excuse myself from going along. If it’s impossible to remove myself from such a situation, my guts get tied up in knots.

I, perhaps like Cheney’s friend, have no desire to be around an idiot with a firearm again. Sadly, each year, some hunter will accidently kill another hunter. Sure, it may have been an accident. Qualified Hunter Education training could have helped prevent such injuries or death.

And, it also removes the personal anxiety and uneasiness associated with hunting with a stranger. There still remains the odd flashback to that day when I fell to the ground, rolled over in the snow, and looked down at a bloody hand and wrist. Writing about it helps a bit, but it’s not something that is easy to push into the past and forget about it.

Careless strangers and firearms, like mixing gasoline with an open flame, can lead someone into an injury or death. Been there and done that with a firearm injury, and want no part of mixing a hunt with people who may or may not have had adequate and qualified Hunter Education training. I’d rather hunt alone that go through such an experience again.Years ago, while hunting snowshoe hares with a group of hunting friends, I was shot in the left hand and wrist by the only stranger in our group. A dozen or so birdshot were dug out of my hide, and my life has gone on.

But not as it had before. The man who accidentally shot me was kept two football fields away from everyone else after that. The accident cast something of a pall over the balance of my hunt.

I wasn’t serious wounded, but no one was about to laugh it off. It could have been a killing shot. And, to this day, it bothers me to hunt with someone I don’t know.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Tags: accidents, careless, common sense, dave richey, death, ethics, hunt, hunting, injury, Michigan, outdoors, shooting, shot, think, tragic

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daverichey January 1st, 2010

"When you are fed up with the troublesome present, take your gun, whistle for your dogs, go out to the mountain." — Jose Ortega Y Gassett, Spanish philosopher and author of Meditations On Hunting.

The Spanish philosopher had it pretty much figured out right. He lived through war-torn Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, and those hunting thoughts probably offered him some solace while the whole world went crazy as Hitler and Mussolini ranted and caused untold suffering and death for millions of people.

Hunters still live in somewhat troubled times, and we face problems more immediate than having to listen to political hype and mind-bending thoughts of coping with complex social issues such as the ongoing political spin that has replaced news these days. We hunters face a world of increasing numbers, decreasing acres of available land for sporting use, a global need for fuel and the wrath of uninformed anti-hunter's. Michigan's residents live in a nearly bankrupt state, and politicians all seem intent to turn its citizens into people as financially and morally bankrupt as they are.

For many people, there is a very real fear of losing a job (for those that still have one). For others, trying to find a job and the high cost of medicine is a major troubling issue. For some, finding enough food to eat or staying cool in summer or warm in the winter is a never-ending problem. And then there is the fate of our armed forces trying to keep peace in areas that have never really known peace. I support our troops and hope you do, too.

 The chance to legally hunt is a part of our American heritage.

Each year, I deliberately confront myself with the question of why I hunt, and the problems that hunters face. I ask myself: Do I hunt for the meat, which is invariably delicious, to pit desk-weary skills against a wild animal, or do I hunt solely for the kill?

Few hunters I know feel a driving need to personally address such personal questions. Many wander through life turning their back on delicate, psyche-probing questions in favor of immediate gratification with a bow or firearm by killing a wild animal.

For many, the quick kill — to hell with hunting for a week or two — is more in tune with today's fast-paced society and is favored by some sportsmen. But, is the quick-kill right or proper? Not for me, it isn't.

That's a question best answered by each individual only after intense soul-searching and addressing the question of why they hunt. We must learn, as human predators of wild animals and birds, to look deep within ourselves to determine just what hunting is and what it means to each of us.

I can't answer those questions for you, and refuse to have you speak for me. Our reasons for hunting may vary, but only the more intelligent and far-thinking of us, will ever know and understand our personal motives.

Man’s social functions of family, home and work place greater demands on people today, and more so than ever before. Peers, whether we like it or not, can force many hunters into the world of the quick kill. Because of business and family commitments, for instance, many hunters don't really have much time to hunt.

Hunting must be managed for the greatest good of the resource, its habitat and its people.

The Department of Natural Resources caters, albeit indirectly and probably unintentionally, to that sort of hunter attitude. It has managed deer, in large part and for many year, for the sake of quantity rather than quality while making a determined effort to keep whitetail deer within reasonable bounds of their environment, food supply and social needs. Deer management has changed, in that this state has many areas that could support more deer. Their management policies in the past several years has been all wrong, and part of the problem is that biologists seldom get out of thw office and into the field to talk to sportsmen.

So, why you hunt or why I hunt is an age-old question that cannot be answered simply with a bland statement that “we like venison" or "we enjoy a few days with the boys.” The meaning is far more deeply rooted. It is buried deep within our ancestry, and goes back to a time when hunting was accepted by those who wanted to eat and when hunting was something everyone did as a matter of necessity.

Today’s sportsmen seldom hunt for food (I do because my family thrives on a wild fish and game diet); instead, perhaps it's a prehistoric feeling or need in each of us to relive our ancestry by hunting for food, for pleasure and for the kill.

The pleasure of today’s hunt is an intangible thing; it's a mix of cool air, sunrises, snow, wood smoke, a hint of winter, being with friends, hunting alone, being outsmarted by a wise old buck, and the kill, although the latter is anticlimactic in most cases.

These are just a few of the reasons why I hunt, but the strongest of all is to pit my skills against those of a wild animal I deeply respect. Yes, I kill deer (I hate the current buzzword "harvest" because we're not harvesting a corn field); we're talking about killing deer and other game animals and birds each year. Although that animal or bird dies by my hand, it gives and sustains my life and that of my family.

My respect for animals, birds and fish is never-ending.

I live through the animals I hunt. I learn about survival because of them. I learn to think more like the predatory animal I've become. I respect each animal and bird's life as much as my own.

Hunting should never be confused solely with killing. One can hunt without killing, although I'm not sure why anyone would choose to do so. We can hunt without ever firing a shot, but we can't be a complete hunter without killing an animal because all predators kill other animals so they may live.

Ortega said it best, and I thoroughly agree with his time-honored statement: "I don't hunt to kill; I kill to have hunted."

How about you?

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Tags: concept, connection, conservation, dave richey, family, heritage, hunt, management, Michigan, outdoors, practice, reasons, social, Thoughts

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daverichey November 8th, 2009

Tunnel vision occurs when a person is in a high-stress situation. It can happen often while deer hunting.

A big buck is seen approaching, and ever so slowly it moves closer, and after watching it for moments, the hunter decides he want to shoot that deer. There is a very strong desire to take that animal, and tie his license tag on its antlers. It's the great American deer hunting dream.

The deer  stops, rubs a tree briefly, stands back to admire his handiwork, hits another lick on the bark, checks it out again, and then continues toward you. He stops, and can't smell the sportsman downwind of him or any danger, but he is in no hurry. He is being very cautious.

Anxiety can be your downfall. Fight it.

The anxiety level builds in the hunter after the third or fourth stop for the deer to putter around doing big-buck things, and then he moves forward again. He is now 50 yards away and will soon have his date with destiny if he stays the course. Your breath is labored and ragged, and you feel a bit light headed from anticipation, adrenalin shock and stress.

His antlers are big, possibly the largest whitetail buck the sportsman has ever seen in the wild. He stands, out of bow range, and surveys the area ahead. He doesn't smell or see any danger, but he didn't grow a rack with 10 good long points and a 20-inch inside spread by being stupid.

He stands, motionless, head up and looking around. He's not overly spooky, just being very careful.

Satisfied, he moves to within 40 yards. The rack seems to grow even larger the closer he gets. The hunter is sucking air, and begging silently for a 20-yard shot. The thought of shooting this buck makes him dizzy with excitement, and his heart is racing, beating like a trip-hammer.

Adrenalin rushes cause problems.

A full load of adrenalin is streaming through his system, and as the buck closes to 35 yards and then to 30, he stands behind a thin screen of brush. Jolt after jolt of adrenalin has the hunter as wired as a person drinking 10 cans of Ya-Hoo.

He offers a brief 25-yard shot but your eyes are riveted on that rack, and you don't want to make a mistake. He's coming, just let him move into the 20-yard range and wait for a broadside or quartering-away shot at this huge buck.

Finally, he steps into range, turns to offer a quartering-away shot at 20 yards. The buck stares off toward other deer 100 yards away in the field, and you slowly raise your bow, stare at the antlers again, come to full draw, aim carefully and turn loose an arrow.

The moment of truth.

There is a tremendous "twhack", and the buck races off while the arrow and broadhead sail off into the brush. Excited, feeling you made a killing shot, you climb down and follow the Game Tracker string to the arrow. There isn't a drop of blood on the arrow.

Tunnel vision had set in and when the hunter aimed and shot, he aimed at the major focal point on that buck — the antlers. He forgot to force himself to pick a spot behind the front shoulder. His continuous focus on the buck and his majestic rack was his undoing, and that is where he aimed, nullifying any chance of killing that deer.

Total concentration is paramount during the aiming process. Once I know a buck has antlers, and decide to shoot, I never look at the antlers again. I focus on the heart-lung area, shoot and the deer dies.

A buddy of mine went on a wild boar hunt to Tennessee with me many years ago, and I warned him against studying the length of the boar's tushes. These big curved teeth are fascinating, and my friend looked at the teeth, aimed and hit the boar in the top of the head. It wasn't an immediate killing shot, and I hollered to him to "shoot for the heart-lung area." He did, and the boar died a quick death.

Tunnel vision doesn't just happen to police officers in a fire-fight with the bad guys. It happens to hunters all the time, and most often to sportsmen with very little hunting experience. Believe it or not, it can happen with firearm hunters during the upcoming Nov. 15-30 season.

It can ruin a bow or firearm hunt, but there is no reason for that to happen. The trick is to determine whether it has antlers, and if so, is it what you want? Once that has been confirmed, forget about the head gear, and intently focus on the vital area.

Don't let tunnel vision ruin your shot.

Once you draw back an arrow and aim, or look through a firearm's scope or iron signts, do not look at the antlers again. Pick a tiny spot behind the front shoulder, concentrate on that spot, make a smooth release or trigger squeeze, and do not drop your bow or rifle hand until the arrow or bullet makes contact with the deer.

Big bucks come often to the television hunters, who never seem to miss, but for most bow or firearm hunters like you and me, it can be a once-in-a-lifetime situation. The timing is too important to waste by missing an easy shot. Deep concentration, and not tunnel vision, is the key to hunting success.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Tags: adrenalin, anxiety, concentration, dave richey, deer, hunt, Michigan, outdoors, shot, tunnel vision

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daverichey November 6th, 2009

Ever have a hunch? Or a premonition? Or even a gut check?

My hunch or whatever it was almost made me vibrate in my elevated stand. I was all a'jangle, and only one thought bounced around in my head. Tonight would be the night. I hunt big bucks only or young does. A small buck doesn't interest me. Some years I don't shoot a good buck, and that is OK with me.

I sat as still as possible, was downwind of where the deer traveled, and was in my tree stand well before 4 p.m. Everything was set up, and only a faint breeze blew. It was as soft as an angel's kiss, and I was downwind of the trail.

The adrenalin was flowing

The longer I sat there, as immobile as a statue, the stronger this feeling grew. It was so strong that my neck hairs were lifting up. Jolt after jolt of adrenalin was coursing through my body, and even though I felt jumpy, there was no motion or noise.

The minutes passed with all the speed of a moving glacier. Time dragged by on tired legs, and soon it was 5:45 and I had yet to see a deer. As the minutes passed with dragged-out slowness, the feeling seemed to intensify. Something was close by.

Shooting time ended where I was hunting at 5:58 p.m., and that gave whatever was coming just 13 minutes to get on the stick and move down the trail to me.

I heard a twig snap behind me in a tag alder run. Deer? Perhaps some large animal? A buck?

Possibilities seemed endless, and yet the feeling persisted. There was something behind me, but what?

With two minutes to go I checked my watch again, noted the little remaining shooting time, and still nothing moved. There seemed to be a hush, and had I been bear hunting it would have meant a bruin was up and moving nearby.

It wasn't a bear

But this location isn't noted for bears. I've learned to believe in these feelings, hunches or whatever they are. Such thoughts have kept me alive when trouble was brewing, and it has alerted me to approaching bears or possible danger. My eyes kept flitting to the trail, and then the magic minutes and hours combined to force me to remove the arrow from my bow.

I stowed my bow, put the arrow in the quiver, and waited for my buddy to pick me up. I didn't want to move from my stand until I was picked up, and was content to let the vehicle spook the deer rather than me doing it by moving at the wrong time. There was no sense alerting the deer to my presence in the tree and ruining that spot for the rest of the season.

Five minutes after legal shooting time ended, the vibes grew much stronger, and like a ghost from a horror movie, out stepped a big buck. He was four inches outside of his ears on both sides, and although the brow tines were short, the main beams were heavy and each of the points looked to be 10-12 inches long.

It was a very nice buck

This beautiful 8-point was the first buck I'd seen in several days, and what continues to amaze me, was that I could feel the animal nearby. My body, for whatever the reason, is attuned to such things.

The same feelings occur when bear hunting, and this buck had established his presence on me two hours earlier. It just took him until dark to make his move down the trail but I knew he was there for a long time.

My binoculars focused on that magnificent rack, and I studied him with a calmness that even surprised me. You see, I knew I couldn't shoot and so I did the next best thing. I studied him and the doe that traveled with him.

His body was long and thick between the  backbone and belly as he moved through some high weeds, and his neck was rut-swollen, and he had tufts of hair missing here and there. He had fought some rutting wars, and was very alert to any danger.

He didn't move fast. One or two steps, stop, lift his head, and with the binoculars I could see his ears swiveling back and forth as he listened for any strange sound. I could hear that buck sniffing the breeze, and there I sat being treated to one of the greatest shows on earth without lingering long on any one spot on that buck.

He eventually moved on down the trail and was out of sight when my ride showed up. I loaded my gear into the vehicle, cased my bow, jumped in, eased the door shut with an almost inaudible click, and away we went.

I muttered: "What a buck!" He asked about what I saw, and listened to my story, and I'd been blessed tonight. No arrows were shot, but I saw the buck that would have made my day or that of any other bow hunter.

I could have cheated and shot the buck, but that is not me. I told the story to another hunter, and he said he would have shot. Who would have known?

Only me, I told him. I would have known that by taking a shot that I was no better than a common poacher, and whenever I would look at that buck, I would have known that I broke the law to shoot a deer.

Seeing that big buck was good enough for me. And tomorrow, when I look in the mirror, I'll know I did the ethical and right thing.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Tags: bow, buck, dave richey, deer, hunt, Michigan, outdoors, rack, shooting light

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