The Trophy Rats Of Bradford

Over the last few days the English papers have covered this story of giant rats seen on an estate in Bradford.

The story goes that a Mr Goddard - who says that he and his friends go rat hunting a couple of times a week - decided to see if he could bag one of the bigger ones. They took an air rifle and headed to the edge of the estate.The group had heard rustling and scratching near the wall before he got the shock of his life.

'The first went right past but we got the second one. Then three more got away."

Rats in Indonesia and South America can grow up to three feet long, and witnesses say the rats in Bradford are just as big 'I've never seen any as big as this. The one I shot was absolutely terrifying. I was shaking, Goodness knows where the others went. I'm glad I don't live there.'

Estate resident Rebecca Holmes, 38, was in no doubt that large rodents are in the area - after having cornered one in her house. The mother-of-five said her cat Marie had cornered one in the lounge, but the rodent stood its ground - because it was around the same size as the domestic cat.

Carol Beardmore, who represents the Eccleshill on Bradford Council, sounding just like your typically pompous local politician, played down suggestions that hundreds of giant rodents were plaguing the estate.

She said: "I live on the estate and while I'm not saying we don't have rats - everywhere has rats - I am not aware of an infestation of giant rats." She added: "I live close to a wood ... and we have not seen anything like that, and if we had I am sure my cat would have caught it."

Just what kind of super-cat does this woman own? As Miss Holmes testimony suggests, your average moggy would have more sense than to tangle with a 30 inch rodent!

As we saw before the 'culinary solution' awaits the brave locavore!

Your Pal

SBW

Picture credit

Blogs Of Note And Weekend Reading

There are a few blogs that I've been reading lately that i'm not sure are getting all the readers they deserve. If your blog doesnt apear on this list it's not because I dont read what you write it's just that I've either not read your blog because you haven't commented on mine, I've already mentioned you, or I love your blog but you're not posting that regularly and I'm starting to wonder if you ever will again.

Lets start our journey with a real live journey-man 

Pathfinder Tom

Ever wanted to jack it all in and hit the road? Yeah me too! Well now we can without ever leaving the comfort of our armchair campfires. Tom has been to most places, and lived to blog about it. One of the many appealing things about the tales he tells is the super low budget he runs the whole show on, if he's got new gear he's either traded for it or dumpster dived it.

'I need an Axe and bastard file for my upcoming Maine wilderness adventure so my friend and Me took in the local swap meet and I managed to locate a 2 pound Axe head and a bastard file to sharpen it with for the grand total of 3 bucks - not bad. The Axe head is actually in fair shape but the file leaves a bit to be desired, but, ill make them work for me. At the same swap meet I was also able to locate 3 pair of Carharrt pants and 2 pair of Carharrt shorts for 4 bucks - excellent deal.'

I Don't Wear Pink Camo To The Woods

.

.....this buck is the largest whitetail taken in our household...

'A Wisconsin Chick's Journal of Outdoor (Mis)Adventures' Kari has a great voice that leaps off the screen as she blogs tales of her outdoor and toxophilite adventures with Hubbin and her little lad.

On: Taking a break from archery

I'm super jazzed about this 9 day gun season for reasons to numerous to mention, but I think the main reason is that the last time I hit the woods "packin' heat" I was 4 months pregnant. Then, for two whole seasons after that, I didn't go because...there was no one to watch the boy. Ah, but this year, my mother-in-law has offered to wo-"man the fort" opening weekend so my hubbin' and I can hit the woods. So very romantic, in a "back woods" kinda way, and that just so happens to be the way we roll.

On: Jewelry
I am not just the average chick when it comes to pretty much everything. I occasionally do to things like pee on scrapes during the rut (just to see what happens) or when I find myself with available "duty-free time" I go to the woods, or the range, rather then visit the spa or get my nails done. Well, when it comes to dressin' up and going out, I guess I'm a bit different there too. You see, I like love to wear raccoon ivory with my diamonds!

You read it right. I wrote raccoon ivory. It's not really ivory, like you'd find on an elephant, but rather just a fancy name for a raccoon penis bone that sits well in all types of company. Besides being called an "ivory," they are commonly referred to as: coon dongs, love bones, Mountain Man toothpicks or "insert your state here" toothpicks (and yes, they do work as such!) and as I like to call em', just plain ol' coon pecker s. 


In a word 'beguiling'

Hodgeman's Thoughts On The Great Outdoors

Although Hodgeman doesn't post that regularly I will never delete him from my RSS feeds. If you're looking for something a bit more thoughtful than your average blog, this is where its at. Living in Alaska he has more opportunity and more field time than armchair enthusiasts like myself will ever know. He hunts, fishes and gets out and about a lot.
One of the things I admire about his writing style is the way he creates opposing propositions and then, as if by magic, gathers them up into a cohesive whole, leaving the reader (this reader at least) with a feeling of having covered more mental terrain.

Here in his most recent posts he discusses the decline of the American Rifleman

Perfect Practice makes Perfect- Part 1
We've all heard the old adage that practice makes perfect but nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that perfect practice makes perfect and nothing else. Imperfect practice does nothing except solidify bad habits and instill a false sense of confidence in shaky abilities. Being a person interested in the shooting sports, I've noticed a few things regarding practice and some critical elements that I think we're missing very badly in the 21st century. African PHs (professional hunters) and Alaska guides share many things in common and one of them is the opinion that clients tend to overestimate their shooting ability by factor of (at least) ten. Both have gotten used to the practice of consoling a client who's shooting poorly by saying that "the light is different down (or up) here... you'll get used to it." Both have also gotten quite terrified of letting a new client shoot much past bayonet range until the client has proven himself a competent hand with a rifle and the pre-hunt ritual of "rifle zeroing" conducted under the pretense of calibrating rifle scopes after shipping is as much for checking to see if the client is "calibrated" as for the stated purpose. Sad to say but the American sportsman these days is largely a pathetic example of field marksmanship. Why would this be? The American sportsman at the turn of the previous century was a marvel to the sporting world with good aperture sights, early scopes and smokeless ammunition. Those early adventurers to Africa and Alaska were often men who spent considerable time afield with a rifle in their hand as well as men with more than a passing interest in riflery. The reputation of the Yankee marksman soared. These days a visiting sportsman is assumed a clod until proven otherwise.


Perfect Practice makes Perfect- Part 2
In my previous effort I decried the declining state of field marksmanship among Americans but I feel some apologetic words are in order. One, America remains one of the last places on this spinning orb that an average man can go out and for an average weeks' wages, purchase himself a high powered rifle and cartridges and then take that rifle hunting for a large game animal with a minimal amount of government intrusion. I think that is a very good thing. Two, the declining state of riflecraft in America is notable because we have the masses out in the fields shooting game.

While I don't pretend to know many European hunters, the few that I've met in Alaska seem to be a very serious sort of rifleman indeed. A couple of Germans and an Austrian in particular were quite savvy and their guide reported them excellent marksmen and wonderful field hunters. But, I'd wager those gentlemen were the exception to the rule and a random cross section of Europeans would likely have as equally bad field marksmanship as Americans- if not worse. It seems that Europeans have many more restrictions and provisos on the purchase and shooting of high powered rifles than Americans have and the men who pursue hunting there must be very dedicated indeed. When a rifle subjects you to the level of hassle and expense the average European endures to own a smokepole, I'd wager a weekend warrior you are not. 

Having taken instruction on both sides of the pond I would echo this. In the UK I've always (100% every time) been handed a rifle that's been proved empty in front of me and I've been expected to confirm its status immediately. In the US I've had a rifle put in my hands with the words "It's hot and ready to rock".

There's been some interesting discussion of the ethics of hunting on the blogs I read in the last year, but for the best commentary was Hodgeman's you might enjoy reading Hail Mary Shooting... and The 'Texas' Heart Shot

Alaska is just the sort of place to commune with nature, eating it and or being eaten by it"Bear Haven"- Just My Two Cents....
As an avid collector of gear, and owner of some of the most worst low-rent outdoor attire I chuckled over his take on the proper attire for a hunting trip.

About those shoes [and that camouflage]…
I also tend to abhor most camouflage clothing as it generally looks goofy anywhere but the field and in the field it’s often just plain ineffective. If I were a Southeastern U.S. deer hunter I might feel differently but in Alaska I just don’t see the point. Every year hundreds and thousands of hunters from the Lower 48 (affectionately and locally known as theCabela’s Army) pour into Alaska and bring their hunting attire with them. Not to sound snide, but you can spot a guy wearing Mossy Whatever (or similar pattern) out on the tundra at about 3 miles with the naked eye- its just too dark, the pattern is too dense and it appears nearly black at any kind of distance. Neither do dark, complex patterns work well in open mountainous terrain, ... There simply are very few open country patterns that work well up here, but solid color clothing in the right palette can disappear remarkably well over the variable terrain if you keep the extraneous movement to a minimum.

If I big him up a bit more do you think he'll post more often?

Enjoy

SBW

PS The only surefire way i know to find blogs worth reading is by following comments on this and other blogs. HINT.

Fresh Air Fund

A while back Sara wrote to me and asked me to publicise the non-profit that she's involved in and inadvertently showed me a glimpse of what I'm doing with my life .

As those of you who are still waiting for post from me will have noticed I tend to let everything else get in the way, and I despite my good intentions I did nothing about her request. Then by chance I read this post on a blog I'd never read before. The Fresh Air Fund is a very cool organisation, that match families living in the fresh air with children who live without it in the city. It works out so well that as of last year 65% of the children we invited back.

A couple of years ago I worked with a grey haired Scottish guy, with piercing blue eyes that could look into your soul, who had been a minister in Texas, and then in Mexico working with the very poorest people, at the bottom of the food chain. As we travelled we'd sit up into the night talking about the nature of the universe, the gulf between saying and doing and role religion plays in the world, one thing he said still haunts me. It was at the end of a story about why he left his comfortable life with his wealthy flock in Texas "they seemed to think if we told people about being christian that would be enough, I thought if we showed them being christian that would be a start". While I'm not what you'd call blessed with faith myself, I could see his point. We could change the world, if only we were wise enough to do it one person at a time.

Living in the city I'm not able to extend an invitation myself, but if you can I'd bet you'd find it the best thing you've done in years. Kids are kids; they delight in the smallest things and are naturally drawn to all that the outdoors has on offer. These kids don't have the start in life that many of us enjoyed, but with just a few days exposure, will surely become the outdoor advocates of tomorrow. So if you're concerned about the way the worlds going, the lack of options inner-city kids have, and the wholesale destruction of the natural world, here's your chance to make the most difference with the smallest amount of input. A week living with a little person (who may just teach you something about yourself), or a blog post to spread the word.

Thanks for your help
SBW
PS If you fancy sending a few bucks, a very cool donor is matching funds, for every dollar you send they'll send one too.

facebook.com/freshairfund
http://freshairfundhost.com

Yea Mini Cannon! Pt2

Still Lovin' Mini Cannon - just this time it's a more destructive kind of lovin'
SBW

Skull Pix 1

Today: rain stops play, and work.
As you've probably noticed I love skulls and skull motifs, and I'm not the only one.
Regular Commenter Goofy Girl pointed me in the direction of the excellent Skull-a-Day where skull art and skull-like things are posted. This afternoon I received an unexpected call from JonGee who is taking a break from his monastic studies and passing through 'Old Larnden Taarn' he's the owner of a VERY impressive collection of skulls from his travels and his day job. The main collection is in storage but in the meantime here's one he did have a picture of, on his computer.

For Five solid gold bushwacker points - name the animal that used to live in it- answers on a comment.

Your pal
SBW

Weekend Reading: The Farce Side Of The Trail

As a self professed fan of both Blackberries and humorious run-ins with the public [fishing and eating] I really liked this tale told at the River Daze Blog

Recent conversation between a certain grizzled blogger and a local metropark employee. The setting, an intersection along one of the more remote loop trails, whereat the smaller trail, rather overgrown, sports a sign which says: 

DO NOT ENTER - TRAIL RESTING.

Metropark Employee (MPE): That trail is closed to the public.

Grizzle Blogger (GB): I don't blame you. Can't have the unwashed masses traipsing willy-nilly all over their park.

MPE: Huh?

GB: All that tramping about. I can see how a path would become exhausted.

MPE: Uh, well anyway, you can't go in there.

GB: Wouldn't dream of it. But I presume it was all right to exit?

MPE: Huh?

GB: The sign says "Do Not Enter." It says nothing about exiting. MORE


Great photography too
your pal

SBW

Pic credit to google images

Arrow Flight High Speed Video

                          

This ,as they say, is where the magic happens

No really, that's all. Watch it again.

SBW

3D Archery with Stickman

Ages ago I got an invite to spend the afternoon shooting recurve bows in an Essex woodland, and when diary's and childcare and work all worked out: what an afternoon it was. I journeyed to Romford; an easterly commuter town in Essex, where the girls are bright orange, and the Louis Vuitton handbags are made in China, to meet with my new friend Stickman from the British Bowhunters forum for a lesson in instinctive archery. And what a revelation it was. My previous efforts at target archery were less than distinguished. All that squinting at a pin wasn't making things easy and the lesssons were on a one-shot-and-get-to-the-back-of-the-line basis which didn't help either. I knew I wanted to learn to shoot 'instinctive', I just wasn't sure how I was going to. 

Stickman hails from the Kimberly - the diamond fields of South Africa - and has hunted most things since he was a lad, like many of the more experienced hunters I've met, his passion for the process of hunting itself had led him to traditional bowhunting; where the chance to take a shot is 
hard won, without the surgical strike at 100+ yards of a hunting rifle, field-craft and even dumb-luck become big parts of the contest. At these distances the chance to even draw the bow in the presence of an animal a major achievement. This is hunting at 15 yards or less. Hunting on an unlevelled playing field.

Note: really neat wrist guard with sheath for his field scalpel

One tale that he regaled me with illustrates just how much skill (and luck) is involved in hunting bare-bow. Stickman had been hiding in a blind near a water-hole when a 'Big Impala Ram' in fact the big-impala-ram-of-a-lifetime, had approached the water-hole coming within 15 yards (i.e 45 feet) of the blind Stickman was hiding in. Having been practising to the tune of 500 arrows a day in preparation for the hunt, he drew back and loosed an arrow. Only to be String Jumped. 

The arrow was travelling at approx. 200 feet per second, lets call the distance 50 feet to make it easier, so in a QUATER of a second the Big Impala Ram was able to sense the movement of the arrow and spring into the air letting the arrow pass harmlessly underneath him.  It gets better - if we call the speed of sound 1200 feet per second that means that the sound of the bowstring got to the Big Impala Ram in a twelfth of a second. When the sound of the string arrived at the Big Impala Ram in the next sixth of a second the  Big Impala Ram had taken flight. literally.

Stickman had invited me to the woods his archery club use for 3D archery - instead of the circles on an straw board the targets are various prey animals, there is a tradition of throwing in a couple of humorous examples.


My first shot was a master stroke of beginners luck, Stickbow was impressed, I was double impressed!! Obviously once I started thinking about what I was doing I was back to my usual lummox self. Where I would have remained if it hadn't been for the light touch of Stickman's coaching. In between the banter and storytelling he paitently coached me to - actually hitting the target! Both eyes open, none of that squinting and aiming malarky, just launching arrows that either grazed the target or pounded into it! Yea instinctive archery!

"Call for Mr O'Shay, a Mr Rick O'Shay?"

Ok There were a few that went astray. Although sometimes the arrow, seemingly by magic. regains its trajectory, usually it's found embedded in a tree. If you're lucky. 

A large part of the sport is the time spent searching for lost arrows, not always successfully. Opps! Sorry Stickman.

Any prey animal taken with a stick bow is a trophy - even this plastic fella

I was defiantly well taken with Bare Bow and even felt the first throbbing certainty, that tickle of obsession yet to come, archery is a lot like casting when fishing. The first time you cast perfectly you're hooked, the simple elegance of the motion, the economy of movement and the cybernetic connection between spring and soul. Launched by love and magic the arrow seems to fly on the wings of intention. Once.

By which time you've started to think about how you did it and the next arrow goes at a right angle to you, before burying itself in a pile of leaves.When fishing: the line is now tightly bound around the reel so you cant even turn the handle. But despite the set back, you've been tantalised, you've seen the magic, by then you know, you must, you will. If you could just send another few hours, if I could just spent another few pounds, stay up for just one more hour surfing for infomation. Whoa...

...whoa, you like to think that you’re immune to the stuff, oh Yeah it’s closer to the truth to say you can’t get enough, you know you’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to [Insert latest obsession here]

might as well face it, you’re addicted to [fishing, archery, deer, blogging, the american girl - delete as appropriate]

So many hobbies, so few pounds to spend on them. Such is suburban life dear reader.

Big shout to Stickman - for a great afternoon - One of the Good Guys

Your pal

SBW

Note to self: my victory over The Northern Monkey in last years archery competion needs mentioning again

American Storyteller(s)

Over the last few days I've been doing a spot of decorating at my mums place. I used the time to listen to This American Life online. Created by Ira Glass, Broadcast from Chicago on Public Radio International this is one of the most compelling archives of storytelling I've ever heard. There isn't one single episode that I've listened to that isn't praise worthy. If you like storytelling (and I'm guessing you do, as you're wasting what would otherwise be valuable time reading this) get an ipod and download the podcasts for those random moments when you'd like to feel smarter and better informed, or just fancy seeing the world through new eyes. For readers in the UK Mr Glass is a bit like an American cross between Mr Fry and that guy from D-ream who did the physics show. Clever, witty, with an infectious enthusiasm for the side issues that drive the story. Way Cool.


Poultry Slam is an investigation into our relationships with fowl and what our attitudes say about us, as ever on TAL the voices are diverse, and serve to counter point each other creating a 'whole' commentary.

"Humans have turned chicken and turkey into what we want them to be. 

Which means that chickens and turkeys are a mirror of ourselves." 

In act 3 Michael Lewis' piece about goose hunting is also very good.

Guns is a great piece of journalism, conflicting responses to gun violence, moments of terror and joy, how 'strawman' purchases come to be made, insight into the changing culture of violence among inner city kids and the HILARIOUS Sarah Vowell takes a trip home to Montana [thanks Chad] to spend some 'family time' with her gunsmith father.

'Some things were said during the Reagan administration, that cannot be taken back.'

As with my recent comments exchange with Hippo - realising that we in fact ARE our dads is the hardest thing to bear. And therefore the funniest.

Best thing on the radio.
Enjoy
SBW
PS Should you find yourself in need of an urbane felt Ira Glass this is where you get them from

Birds Eye View

Peales tiercel wearing camera way up over Jackson Valley from Jason Jones on Vimeo.

I saw this on Tom Chandlers Trout Underground and thought you might like it too.
A Falconer has trained a Falcon to fly with a camera harnessed to it, AMAZING
Your pal
SBW

City Boy Goes Deer Stalking In Scotland

'If you burst into tears I'll know you're not feeling up for it'  Niall - head Stalker

A life long supermarket carnivore heads north to stalk red deer on the west coast of Scotland. He wonders if he can survive, if the locals will eat him and if he'll be able to pull the trigger. During the trip London Media-Boy hunts woodcock, takes an unexpected dip in a burn and looks into his own conflicted feelings about killing his dinner.  Plenty of misconceptions,  some guts and gore, and the locals persuade him to read a Burns poem - in an english accent. Cringe.

Worth a look
SBW

Shit My Dad Says - About Bushcraft and Car Camping

The Maine Outdoorsman's recent post Car Camping For Dummies  reminded me of this gentle piece of advice from one of my favourite outdoor writers:

“Leave the real wilderness out of account for the present; go to some pleasant woodland, within hail of civilization, and start an experimental camp, spending a good part of your time in learning how to wield an axe, how to build proper fires, how to cook good meals out of doors, and so forth. Be sure to get the privilege beforehand of cutting what wood you will need. It is worth paying some wood-geld that you may learn how to fell and hew. Here, with fair fishing and some small game hunting, you can have a jolly good time, and will be fitted for something more ambitious the next season.”

From CAMPING AND WOODCRAFT By H. Kephart


Which in turn reminded me of the forthright nature of the advice and commentary offered by Sam Halpern (Justin's dad) in the hilarious record of the trials and tribulations of child-parent relations 'Shit My Dad Says'

"I’m not sure you can call that roughing it, son… Well, for one, there was a fucking minivan parked forty feet from your sleeping bags.”


Sam Halpern is, without doubt, the least passive aggressive person in the world, and that makes him a great dad in my book.


SBW


PS Am I the only one having endless formatting errors in the new blogger layouts?

When They Gotta Go They Gotta Go, Whatcha Gonna Do?

O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us? 

Well I've a rough idea of what they'd be thinking if they'd wandered down the canal path and overheard us chatting the other night. Not good.


The Northern Monkey: Have you seen the swans on canal? There's a whole flotilla of the bastards, this morning they woke me up at dawn. There must be a way to shoot them, or at least scare them off


The Suburban Bushwacker: I stamped a pigeon to death this morning


The Northern Monkey: Any reason? Or you just fancied it?


I could tell you the rest of the story, a tale of tracking a wounded avian across the small expanse of a suburban car park, the pitiful sight of it's suffering and it's dispatch. But it's probably funnier if I leave that bit unsaid.


your pal
SBW

Picture credit goes to www.newsteam.co.uk/ story from the telegraph

As Much Use As A Chocolate Knife

Where to buy them
Nuff  Sed

SBW

For Fun - Writing Cozya Want To

Lots of us write blogs, not that we have any feasible hope of pecuniary gain, but first for the satisfaction of getting something down on the page, then because the unexpected approval of strangers is such a thrill, and then as the list of posts grows to take those first often faltering steps: new subjects and new styles of writing.

You know who you hope you write like, but is there a scientific way, a 'fair and balanced' way to find out who you actually write like? Take the paragraph above:

Do I have the voice of a man who was regarded as a churner-out of populist crud for the worst kind of 'penny dreadful' but now all these years later has 'classic' and 'textbook' status? We fished the same river maybe there was someting in the water?


'Check what famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them to those of the famous writers.

Any text in English will do: your latest blog post, journal entry, comment, chapter of your unfinished book, etc. For reliable results paste at least a few paragraphs (not tweets).'

Here's the link - let us know who you write like


Our First Hunt got me Margaret Mitchell - not too shabby, but frankly my dear ........ I don't give a damn

Hmmm-Bushwacker  James Joyce -  I fear those big words which make us so unhappy

I just Play One On TV Chuck Palahniuk - You wanna fight about this? Tuesday next is good for me, bring a friend.

Who'd have thought that Albert's Charged - Hog Hunting at It Finest would come out as Margaret Atwood?

Your pal

SBW

PS Chad, that last email - You're David Foster Wallace! LOL

Blogging: Rule 303

Erhm, I wish to report an oversight. it has come to my attention that there is a blog that many of you aren't reading, or if you are reading it you're yet to comment. I'm just as bad, I intended to write this post weeks ago. Rule 303 The Locavore Hunter is on my must-read list of blogs.

'Hunting (literally) for local food, some geeking about rifles, conservation and a dose of civil politics' 

He runs a course for people who would like to get up close an personal with their dinner call "Deer Hunting for Beginners" which he's had some success with and it's been featured in the New York Times
and We Love DC (as ever the comments are worth a read).

There are a number of reasons to consider learning how to hunt for your own food. Many people reading this probably feel a little bit bad about eating meat but not quite bad enough to actually stop. If you feel that you've been somehow dodging the ethics of meat and animal cruelty in your own life, there is no more effective way of facing the matter head-on than by learning to hunt and butcher the food yourself. As a hunter, the experience of the animal that you eat is up to you. A whitetail deer in Virginia can live a good and natural life in the wild and then have one bad morning before becoming food. Which is an ethically better source of obtaining meat? From a wild deer or from a pig raised in a factory farm under Auschwitz-like conditions?

Commercial meat is typically filled with hormones and antibiotics and is fed on grain that required high amounts of petroleum to fertilize and transport. Wild venison is free-range and free of hormones, antibiotics and the cruelty of captivity. If you are concerned about 'food miles' and the impact that your own diet has on the environment, hunting is a very practical way of addressing this. There are wild deer in high numbers in nearly every area of the Eastern US. Many people reading this can either hunt literally in their own backyards or could be helped to find land within 25 miles on which they can hunt for deer. Literally, you could be measuring your food miles by looking at your odometer.

His commentary on firearms legislation is a welcome improvement on most of the blogosphere's cut 'n' paste rantings.  None of the boring indignation, asks more than he answers, pins a tail on the elephant in the room, worth a read. As is his coverage of Ebay's firearms policy

His 'rifle geeking' extends to running a weekend course where you can turn a vintage Mauser 98 into a modern hunting rifle which you get to take it home with you on Sunday afternoon. Have a look here.

This piece might have been written with The Northern monkey in mind, rifle choices from $60!
Bang For Your Buck: Comparing Surplus Rifles For Sporting Conversions

What will be, I imagine, of particular interest to regular readers is his interest in eating aliens, those non-native disrupters of the ecosystem, and how to bring about 'the culinary solution'to their invasion plans.

"Work and hunting for food were interfering with each other so one of them had to go".

See you over there, 

SBW

Pic credit to John Athayde

I Just Play One On TV

True Story:
I was sitting on a bench eating a sorbet - a woman, with the belligerent tone of the holiday maker, demanded

BHM: "Where'dja get the ice cream"

Not 'Say Honey' or 'Excuse me' just "Where'dja get the ice cream" [face like a slapped arse]
I, on the other hand, was able to remember my manners [just]

SBW: One block, turn right and it's the fudge store.
BHM: Oh tell me that's a fake accent
SBW: Of course it is ma'am, I just put it on for the tourists

It's the small things that make this life bearable, dear reader.
Keep on keeping on
SBW

The Wild Gourmets Book Review

I quite liked the first series of the TV show and watched a couple of the second series but it didn’t really capture my imagination. So when MCP gave me 'The Wild Gourmets: Adventures in food and freedom' for Crimbo I was intrigued. The authors have managed to pull off the difficult trick of showing hunting in a positive light on mainstream TV. The show is aimed at a foodie audience who, while liking the idea of wild food, may still have some trepidation about up-close-and-personal knowledge of their dinner’s demise.

Guy Grieve is a good deal more interesting a character than the series lets on. Bored of his desk-jockey life at the The Scotsman newspaper; he actually did what so many of us occasionally dream of doing and de-camped to Alaska to live in a self built cabin for a year. I know he’s Scottish and they’re tougher up there, but it’s still no small achievement. You can read more about his adventure here.

Tommi was a former winner of ‘Masterchef’ a TV show with a self explanatory title.

Where ‘Tommi’ shines is that she shows just how frikkin’ easy it is to cook nice food over burning wood. I’ve never believed that campfire cooking should automatically be burned around the edges. She makes some really nice looking food and clearly has a sense of adventure with ingredients.

All great cooking TV has to be to succeed is to show the audience how small the step beyond their comfort zone is, and then entice them to take the step with pictures of the result and the cook being praised for the result. She makes a good fist of it.

Most TV cooks in the UK have used ‘Chocolate and Chilli’ as a cipher for adventure, the mindset that chocolate is always served as a sweet food is so completely ingrained in UK food culture that even when it’s become a cliché of foodie TV it’s still able to elicit a fission of excitement and squeals of unexpected delight at the dinner table. Here’s Tommi’s take on Venison and Chocolate. Feeds 10

Ingredients
2kg shoulder or haunch of venison
olive oil, for browning
2 medium onions, diced
2 carrots, diced
5 celery stalks, diced
2 parsnips, diced
5 garlic cloves, chopped
2 dried chillies, crumbled
500ml game stock (or stock made from bouillon cubes)
½ bottle full-bodied red wine
100g dark chocolate, finely grated or chopped
1 tablespoon redcurrant jelly
For the marinade
1 bottle full-bodied red wine
4 garlic cloves
1 sprig of rosemary
4–5 sprigs of thyme
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
10 juniper berries, crushed
salt and pepper
Method: 

How to make venison braised with chilli and chocolate
1. Make sure your fire has lots of hot embers (or preheat an oven to 190°C/gas 5).

2. Cut the venison into 2.5cm cubes, removing large bits of fat or gristle. Put these into a double-layered plastic bag, along with all the marinade ingredients. Set aside for a day in a cool spot in the river (or in the fridge if you have taken your quarry home), turning every so often so that all of the meat comes into contact with the marinade.

3. When you are ready to cook, remove the venison from the marinade, setting the marinade aside for later.

4. Heat a large casserole over a high heat until it is smoking hot. Pour in a tablespoon of olive oil and when it is very hot add the venison cubes, 6 or 7 at a time, so that you are not overcrowding the pan and thus bringing down the temperature of the oil.

5. Brown the meat on all sides for 1–2 minutes, letting the pan get hot again between each batch and adding more oil if necessary.

6. When the meat is all browned, set it aside while you brown the vegetables.

7. Add a tablespoon of oil to the casserole and sweat the onions for 5 minutes before adding the carrots, celery and parsnips. Cook for a further 10 minutes, allowing the vegetables to start caramelising without letting them burn. Add the garlic and cook for another 5 minutes.

8. Return the venison to the casserole, along with the reserved marinade and the rest of the ingredients. Bring up to a gentle simmer, stirring to melt the chocolate into the sauce. Cook in the Dutch oven (or preheated oven) for about 90 minutes or until the meat is tender and falling apart.

lf you're a regular reader  I think you’ll quite like this book as a read, and find the recipes easy to follow and delicious to eat. If you’re looking to expand someone’s foodie horizons I think you’ll find its the perfect gift.

I’m still waiting for our friends, those bon viveurs afield, NorCal and HAGC to hit our screens. 
I can see it now ‘She Kills it & He Grills It - The Holly & Hank Show’.

Your Pal

SBW

Old School Kit: The Acme Thunderer

I must have had this whistle for over twenty years, a lad I used to know brought it home one day, having had a near miss with an absentminded pedestrian whilst cycle-dispatching. He gave it to me, and in the intervening years I've made quite a few people jump out of their skins with it. Really it is 'double bastard' loud. Solid brass with thick plating and a cork 'pea' ball. Which, while we're passing: travels as just over 800 meters per hour - who knew?


"There is no whistle available today, from any source, that doesn’t owe its existence to a concept or design pioneered by Acme. The Acme Thunderer alone had sold over 200 million"


It doesn't get anymore old school than that. As our friend The Bambi Basher said "everyone should have an Acme Thunderer"


Cuckoo, Crow, Jay & Magpie, Duck, Quail, Curlew and Predator calls also available




Catch you soon
Your pal
SBW

I Want One - A Not So Occasional Series Pt17

Partially in response to Colorado Caster and the mighty Josh of Lands On The Margin commenting on the high-ticket nature of the I Want One series, and partially as I'm hoping to vist New England during shotgun season, abet on a severly restricted budget. I thought it was time to have a look at slug launchers. As luck would have it The Gun Nuts at F&S were doing a round up of possible options. In a land were firearms ownership isn't controlled [much] economies of scale mean some handsome deer-slayers are available from new at prices even I can occasionally afford.

The Harrington and Richardson Ultra Slug Hunter Deluxe

Priced around a feasible $300 and claimed to be a 'true tack-driver', this single shot shotgun has a 24" fully rifled heavyweight barrel. Which if my understanding is correct will offer favorable harmonics and better long-range accuracy.

It's offered with a 'walnut-stained' American hardwood stock in the Monte Carlo style to promote rapid eye-to-gun alignment. 12 and 20 gauge versions available, and even comes with a set of scope mounts.

Interestingly Harrington and Richardson use their own proprietary design of Ultragon™ rifling to guide the plastic 'sabot' or casing that encloses the slug trough the barrel. This is designed to make less impression on the slug than the 'lands' of conventional rifling and should greatly increase accuracy. 

Of course this post wouldn't be part of the I Want One series if we didn't top it off with a Schmidt & Bender Zenith 1.1-4x24 a snip at $1699. Perfection.

Happy 4th of July Folks

SBW