Saturday, January 15, 2011

A Couple Interesting Experiences

In the week I've had two "interesting" experiences while out hunting at two different Wildlife Management Areas (WMA's). In the first incident, when I parked I noted there was one other vehicle, as SUV plastered in animal rights and environmentalist bumper stickers (bad sign, huh?). Well, on the way up the trail up to where I'd seen coyotes before, I heard someone coming down ahead of me (couldn't see them with the trees and a bend in the trail). More importantly, I heard and then saw two big dogs coming at me aggressively. They weren't friendly, one was trying to bite me, but I kept him off me and chambered a round in my rifle. When the two hikers were in view they said "they just don't like guns, don't worry." Really? Did you train them to attack hunters or something? I kept my mouth shut because I was pretty ticked off. And I was one dog bite away from shooting their mutts.

Now, fast forward exactly one week. I'm out in another WMA, where I've seen signs of bobcats before (and yotes too for that matter). I perhaps should have turned around when I saw how many cars were parked there (primarily out of state plates I might add, mostly CT plates) including one with a trailer taking up 1/3 the parking area (I should add there are some VAST snowmobile trails out there so trailers for them aren't so odd there, but this fellow decided to park at such an angle as to take up way too much space). Now, I head out to an area without the snowmobiles around (the trails were off limits and gated). A good ways into the woods I bump into some crosscountry skiers. Two of them. Now, one, a guy, was friendly enough and asked what I was hunting. The woman with him, however, wasn't. She said you "shouldn't be shooting things out here. this is a ski trail." Really? This is a WMA, controlled by the Fish and Wildlife Department, for the primary purpose of protecting wildlife habitat and hunting access. It's not a "ski trail," it's a trail used by hunters rather frequently and ends, if you follow it far enough, at a beaver pond (at which I also did some trapping in the Fall).

I swear, the next Greenpeace activist with trained hunter attack dogs or the next person telling me not to hunt on lands paid for with my hunting license fees and ammo taxes I run into, I should just take a picture of them and report them to a game warden, for interference. There's getting to be way too many antis and other fruits and nuts in this part of the state.

I was going to comment the other day on the shooting in Tucson, but I think the following will suffice: the shooter disgusts me, but the left-wing lunatic politicians disgust me too and proved what slime they truly are. That political hack of a sheriff who had refused to press charges against the killer for death threats in the past tried to lay blame on the tea party, etc., Sanders used it to try to fundraise for campaigns, Obama filled the memorial service with his new campaign slogan (incl. T-shirts, and putting it on all the seats), the usual anti-gun crazies in Congress proposed yet another ban on full cap magazines, and the nuttiest of all things, one stupid Republican from NY proposed a bill banning carry of firearms within 1,000 feet of any elected official, and another proposed banning any symbols or speech that could be perceived as a threat to Congress. Some real statist trash came out of the woodwork this time. They always try to use a tragedy to push their agenda.