Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more!

First up:  Thanks to The Other McCain for linking our Rule Five hunt week posts.  Speaking of which:

The hunting season didn’t end with a big-game kill (grouse, that’s another story) kill, in part due to lousy weather – cold with a lot of rain – but mostly due to an old long-nosed mulie that made chumps out of loyal sidekick Rat and yr. obdt. on four separate days.  We tried varied tactics – pincer movements, ninja approach, bounding overwatch loops through the patch of brush where this canny old animal was hiding in every single case.

That old deer foxed us every time.  We saw a typical white mulie behind bounding off through the brush and heard pounding hoofbeats, but never got a shot.  We kept going back after it, but never got a good line to try a shot with the front-stuffers used in this early season.

Honestly, I’d rather hunt one fine animal like that and have it get away, than have a dumb yearling walk out in the trail fifty yards away and stand broadside, offering a stupidly easy shot (that has happened to me more than once.)

The upside of the hunt:  The grouse hatch was thick this year, and we got a bunch of them.  Photos follow.

Regular posts resume tomorrow!