Monthly Archives: October 2009

Shooting

The Ringer

My last trap shoot was in 1975, at the Moccasin Bend Trap Club, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we decided to make a family weekend out of it. The family piled into our camper and we took the leisurely two hour, drive from Sandy Springs, Georgia to Chattanooga and checked into the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, a real neat hotel converted from a bunch of old sleeper cars, complete with a dining car. The kids still talk about it.

We visited “See Ruby Falls”, as advertised on barn tops along the freeway and I hated the elevator ride down to the falls; the Incline Railway, Lookout Mountain Battlefield and Chickamauga, the site of the largest battle fought in the western theatre during our Civil War.

Sunday morning found us on the way to the gun club and I was going to surprise the “good ‘ole boys” in Tennessee. Being a real “hot” shooter out west, but not known east of the Mississippi, I “bought” myself in the Calcutta for the minimum amount, a whopping $3.00.

The featured event was the handicap shoot and I was placed with the long yardage shooters. As is said in trap shooting circles, “I was smokin’ ‘em.” Walking to the last station and leading the shoot with only two misses out of ninety-five clay birds, the thought of my potential winnings, Over $1,000.00 flashed through my mind. Quickly pushing the errant thought out, my concentration returned. And I barked, “Pull!”

The clay pigeon wobbled out of the trap machine, an easy, hard right bird, that I swung on, led and pulled the trigger; no bam, no ignition of the shell, nothing but a fluttering clay bird floating to the ground. The puller/ scorekeeper called out “lost bird” with me just looking funny at my trusty trap model shotgun.

A quick inspection told me that the trigger mechanism had failed. I had five minutes to fix the trigger, or get another gun, otherwise I would be disqualified and my only option was to get my ex-wife’s automatic, with a shortened stock.

Missing three out of the last five clays and finishing second, which paid $200.00, plus another $150.00 from the Calcutta, I thought, so much for a big “hit”! At least we paid for our weekend!

After this shoot, with my day job requiring so much of my time, and my kids being active in sports, at a very young age I retired myself from competitive shooting. As I have mentioned before, “Sometimes a good day job can really interfere with your avocation.”

Pictures

More Outdoors Pictures, October 9, 2009

Our Kids and Grandkids are neat and they do some neat things! As they get older (they’re still kids, however) their toys get bigger and the rewards they get, get bigger.

Warren Blesh owner of RRR Ranch in Mills County, sent me this picture of his Daughter and the nice black buck that she captured.

She got the buck but needed ten stitches to close up the wound in her forehead. Our Texas women are tough!

Randy Pfaff sent me this picture of one of his son’s and a nice mule deer he just nailed.

Suzanne, one of my Daughter’s, took this picture of Wesley, her boy and I baiting up my hog trap. The bait was successful and I caught a calf! We hurried so much to get it out of the trap that I didn’t take my camera and never thought about taking a picture of the calf in the hog trap!

Hill Country Happenings

Morning Walk, October 5, 2009

On Saturday the 3rd, we had a half-inch rain, followed by a two inches during the night! No walking on Sunday morning, but Monday, I did get a two-miler in.
Monday morning was cloudy with a heavy, dew as I hurried outside to start my walk and I saw the white first as three does rocketed over my fence, tails high, and into the thick stuff. No pictures since my camera was still in my fanny pack.
County road 408 was muddy, not slushy, as I finished my mile and turned around to head home, then I noticed something small and out of place – a crawdad.
My first impression was that it was an Opelousas Red, but it would be too far from home, so I guessed it was a local “mud bug” having strayed away from a stock tank. With the rocks it looks out of place. Maybe it was just out hunting?
Coming to a curve in the road I noticed animal tracks that weren’t there when I first came by. Maybe a coyote tried to sneak by me?
Closer inspection showed them to be a large dog. The tracks were round and if a coyote, they’d have been more oval.
Last Saturday a neighbor lost three of his hounds. Looks like this one was heading home and snuck past me when I turned the curve.
This was a good walk! I saw some unusual things and I worked up a good sweat!

Pictures

More Outdoors Pictures, October 5, 2009

Randy Pfaff sent me this picture of a six foot long red snake. What kind of snake is it – a red racer, a red bull snake, or what? It’s a big one and quite perturbed by Randy’s attempt at identification!
Dave Lazor, a friend and softball buddy who moved away from our salubrious climes on the Gulf Coast to the rainy, chilly northwest, Washington, to be exact, sent me this picture of two nice steelheads that he recently caught in the Columbia River.
Several friends sent me these next two pictures are of a Texas Power & Light construction crew near Halletsville, Texas and two surprising finds they encountered inside one of their culverts.
First are seventy-eight, rattle snakes!

And, topping the snakes is an eighteen-foot alligator. This gator is probably seventy or eighty years old! Just think, in my post on April 6, 2009, Poor Planning, I wrote about a supposedly gator free, wade fishing trip that I took on a ranch outside of Halletsville.
Now they tell me!

Hill Country Happenings

Morning Walk, October 1, 2009

Many may think that I’m spoiled or else very blessed to be covered up with deer all year. That’s not the case. Right now in Mills County, water is everywhere, acorns cover the ground under our oak trees and deer really have no reason to move around.

Yesterday morning our part of the Texas Hill Country had a heavy dew, almost a sprinkle and as I stepped out for my walk, I thought, Maybe today I’ll get some good pictures, because the last two walks have produced nothing. Walking east on County Rd. 406 for three quarters of a mile the only things stirring were three cows near a stock tank and some goats milling about getting ready for the day’s grazing.

Turning around and heading for home, still nothing and approaching my yard, confusion reigned, deer were running everywhere and I thought, Wait a minute, this is my yard, why all the deer? Trying to snap off a “shot” was as hard as “trying to heard cats”. Snapping off five quick ones with zero results, I was still left with no pictures, only mind pictures of the six deer running around, jumping the fence, tails up, beating a quick retreat out of my yard.

At least walking worked up a good sweat!

Ancestry

A Family Affair

In September 1861, in a scene that was being acted out all across the South, two young Texans, Will Collins, 21 and Levi Sanders, 23, left their homes, wives and young children in Henderson County and rode their horses to Dallas. There, they enlisted for twelve months service in a sharpshooter company, Company I, 6th Texas Cavalry, Confederate States Army. Col. B. Warren Stone signed up both. The Confederate Congress later extended their enlistment for the duration of the war.

Levi’s horse was worth $125.00 and his double barrel shotgun and Bowie knife were $25.00.

Levi, my maternal, Great Grandfather and Will, my Great Uncle, were brothers-in-law, Levi having married Susan, Will’s sister. They served together the rest of the war, getting sick with measles and mumps like most of the Texas troops. These men were tough and courageous but these two diseases hadn’t made it to Texas and easily swept through their camps.

In May and June, 1864, based on their service records, Levi was on special orders from Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk and Will was on detached service, his horse being unserviceable. There is a mention in their company’s reports that these men went back to Texas for horses and even came back with them!