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Author
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Topic: Persistance Pays....
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted July 26, 2004 07:56 PM
At 11;30 AM yesterday morning, after less than 15 minutes of calling (with a call I made and a WB Custom), a lion came walking in.
Lion season opens next Sunday...
I called a lion. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
And as Forest Gump would say, "That's all I have to say about that"
Krusty 
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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Yellerdog
Knows what it's all about
Member # 356
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posted July 26, 2004 07:59 PM
Krusty,
Let me be the first to say "Congratulations and good job calling"! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) Good things happen to those who don't give up!
Yellerdog
[ July 26, 2004, 08:00 PM: Message edited by: Yellerdog ]
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Lee Smith
Remember, we meet at dawn.
Posts: 59 | From: Southeastern Michigan | Registered: Jul 2004
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varmint101
Knows what it's all about
Member # 41
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posted July 26, 2004 08:41 PM
Dude, that's pretty sweet!! Didja soil yourself? hehe
Matt
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"From my cold dead hands."
#135663262
Posts: 60 | From: Seymour, IN | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 26, 2004 09:18 PM
Good for you, Krusty. That's like getting struck by lightning. I guess coyotes should be routime, for you, after that?
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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RanUtah
Knows what it's all about
Member # 18
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posted July 27, 2004 02:58 PM
quote:
Didja soil yourself?
ROFLMAO!
Posts: 35 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 28, 2004 09:07 PM
quote:
And as Forest Gump would say, "That's all I have to say about that"
I think we deserve a little more detail, Krusty. Don't keep us in suspense. When do we get a full report?
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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brent Saxton
unknown comic
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posted July 28, 2004 10:53 PM
Congrads Krusty! I know you have been hard after them for sometime! It will all come togeather!
Kee
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Curt2u
Knows what it's all about
Member # 74
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posted August 01, 2004 07:30 PM
Well since Krusty is going to hold out on giving the details, I guess we will have to start our own rumor. I heard he shot it with a tranquilizer gun and kept it sedated in his garage till this morning when it was legal to finish him off. Any truth to that Krusty? ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Posts: 236 | From: NW | Registered: Jan 2003
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Redrider
Knows what it's all about
Member # 79
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posted August 03, 2004 10:22 PM
Howdy All!
Haven't posted here for a while, so here goes. And I promise to tell you all the truth....
We were camping/hunting near Ellensburg, but waaaay up high, 6800ft. (And yes, the spot will remain secret) We watched the Northern Lights before bed, it was a very special camp sight. I have never saw the Aurora Borealis before.
Krusty had woken up early in the morning and decided to go out and make a quick stand while I was still getting my shit together. I love to plink my Marlin .22 so while he was out I was shooting at our camp.
Krusty comes back an hour or so later and he is none too happy with me. Apparently he had called in some mountain goats and wanted to see how far down the cliff he could get them to come, how close he could get em, that's what callers do: see how close you can get em in. Then they heard my Marlin and fled.
So he comes back and says, "Goddam it, you messed up my stand." But honestly I figured he would be far enough away that a little 22 noise wouldn't bother any critters near Krusty. Live and learn.
So we go to check out this gnarly cliff that the goats came down and decide that we are gonna hike up there and check out where they live. And let me tell you, "top 'o the world" comes close to describing it. It was truly an awsome spot in this world of ours.
We were up so high that our normaly jungle like timber was now nice and thinned down to where you could acually see more than 20yds at a time. So we head in for a stand or two.
That's when the totally unexpected happens. Krusty is behind me about 20-30yds spuealing away on a WB and I catch brown movement out of the corner of my eye, and think, "Crap! It's another stupid Doe." But the only thing is, it ain't no stupid doe! It's got a white muzzle and long tail. HOLY SHIT THAT AINT NO DOE! And my heart fell out.
Let me tell you a million thoughts at once went through my head. Like "Dang its a week early." "That cat is hunting my Bro!" "What if he gets behind Krusty and Krusty doesn't know he is there" "What if this is the only chance I will ever ever get at a cougar" Alot of good callers in good country never ever get a big cat.
So I had to make a tough decision. So I made the best one FOR ME that I could in very SHORT TIME that I had. I was standing up, cause my butt got sore sitting on the log. When it stopped in an opening 60yds away I squeezed the trigger. To say that I was steady when I shot would be very untrue, I was extremely excited and shaking. I don't make a habit of poaching but dang this is a big cat we are talking about.
Ol' Tom jumped a good 12ft. into the air and was like a bucking bronco at the state fair. His back end trying to pass the front end with that "Holy Shit" look on his face, it was hillarious. He went outta there full bore and banging into everything in sight on the way out. We searched and searched and searched and.................. well you get the idea. No sign of a hit at all. We found where the bullet hit the base of a tree and with me at the spot where I shot and Krusty where the cat was we determined that I missed low. The last thing I saw out of the scope under recoil is a tree branch flying. Whether it was in front of the cat causing a deflection of the bullet or if I just plain had Cat Fever I couldn't say for sure. But I am sure I missed.
Krusty never saw the cat. So he had no part in my decision to try and shoot my first cat. Just throwing that out so nobody blames my bro for my decision.
I have been totally up front and honest, so now its your turn to do the same.
What would you have done? Am I a big A-Hole? If you think so tell me, I am trying to make sense of it all and would like to hear some opinions on whether or not I did the right thing. But if you would've done the same thing under the same circumstances then be as honest as I have and say so.
Thanks,
Redrider.
Posts: 27 | From: seattle | Registered: Feb 2003
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NASA
Knows what it's all about
Member # 177
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posted August 04, 2004 07:46 AM
What caliber were you shooting?
What makes you certain it was a male?
What distance was it from you when you fired?
[ August 04, 2004, 07:49 AM: Message edited by: NASA ]
Posts: 1168 | From: Typical White Person | Registered: Apr 2003
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Rich Higgins
unknown comic
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posted August 04, 2004 09:24 AM
Anyone else willing to cop to a misdemeanor on a public forum? How about a felony? No one?
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted August 04, 2004 10:57 AM
Curt,
Rumors can be an ugly and viscous thing, luckily this one is not.
There is no truth at all in the one you started...
No tranquilzers or gun, no garage, and no lion. LOL ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Red,
Well told story.
To answer your question... what would I have done, I have already discussed that with you.
I would have had a very hard time deciding what to do, just like you did.
But like you, I probably would have been very concerned for the caller... who was totally being back doored, and could have been in real danger.
I'd like to thank you, for covering my back.
NASA,
Red was carrying a mdl 700 BDL 30-06, one he recently inherited from our Gramps, and I just used at Bear Camp.
It has an odd german reticle (I think it's called) in the 4x scope, and to Red's credit, it has always bothered him, and he does not shoot it well.
We had hoped to find some rockchucks, and spend a day getting used to it (after I investigated the mt goat sighting).
As for gender, all cougars are Ol' Tom Longtail... it's just a thing ya know, we're simple folk.
I actually asked him later, if he had to pin a gender on it, and he said he'd guess it was female... he didn't remember seeing the high brow and nose that male cats have.
And the tracks left in the soft soil looked exactly like the ones BearmanRick and I saw in the snow last winter, which he told me were probably an 80 pound female cougar, so I'd guess the same.
"There is no excuse, for shooting offhand"...
I read that once, and it really sticks with me, appearantly Red isn't as stricken by it....
The cat was 55 of Red's paced steps away (50 yds) through a narrow alley in the old growth timber.
Rich,
I drove around on the Forest Service roads, without a drivers license.
Actually as long as Red and I stuck with the story that I was possibly in danger, his firing at it was totally justified.
Without hounds some of the predators have gotten a lot less afraid of humans, and as California and British Colombia are seeing, that outcome can be very bad.
I totally support my little brothers decision, made in the woods that day.
And his honesty, in the hopes of a worthwhile discussion of what he did.
How many times around the campfire, not in "the public", have the "old timers" recommended to the young guys to "shoot and scoot" (or some variance of that)?
I am lucky I have him for a friend, if ya asks me.
"A good friend will bail you out of jail...
A true friend is sitting there with you, saying "Damn! That was fun!""
I know Red will be right there with me, in whatever decisions I make, I think he knows he can count on me.
Leonard,
As far as lion behavior, what I found most interesting, and the part I also find the scariest, is the lion came in on the wind at a 45° angle and would have arrived at my location (downwind of Red) without it's scent cone ever reaching me, and without a "security run" downwind of it's own... meaning to me, it didn't care who was there causing the prey to make a distress noise, and was willing to take away the meal.
I find it somewhat aggresive, but maybe that's just because I was making the "lunch sound".
I also found the lion's proximity to humans puzzling and scarey too.
It wasn't much more than half a mile off the gravel road, which goes to a lake and sees a fair bit of traffic. And there is a well traveled motorcycle/mt bike trail that parallels it another half mile or so past that... so the cat was travelling in a thin strip of old growth and cliff bands with a lot of "human presence" and lots of deer elk and some goats for large prey base...
Only a matter of time 'til a mt biker gets snatched here.
Krusty
[ August 04, 2004, 11:16 AM: Message edited by: Krustyklimber ]
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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RanUtah
Knows what it's all about
Member # 18
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posted August 04, 2004 12:18 PM
Krusty, I'd be real careful about posting about this in any public forum. While you may feel "justified" that your brother took a shot at it, your WDFW may not. Someone out there that may be hungry for that $100 to $500 reward money that they offer on their website. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif) After it's all said and done, you may not get into trouble but just having to put up with all the legal red tape isn't worth the hassle.
Posts: 35 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted August 04, 2004 01:24 PM
Yeah, I have to second all the free advice both of you are getting. It takes either Balls or stupidity, even if the charges would be hard to make stick without a witness. Like, maybe you are pulling our leg, and didn't actually see, or shoot at a lion. Also, kIlling a lion out of season is a lot different than scaring a lion with the intent to do bodily harm.
I don't know if your message board confession would be enough to convict, or allow a Game Warden sufficent cause to write a citation?
But, game code violations are not to be taken lightly.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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NASA
Knows what it's all about
Member # 177
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posted August 04, 2004 02:00 PM
I've never shot a lion, but a few bobcats, and gazillion feral cats. A near miss will spook them into a jump, but then they light the afterburners and skeedaddle. But you said, "Ol' Tom jumped a good 12ft. into the air...... was like a bucking bronco ..... His back end trying to pass the front end..... He went outta there.... banging into everything in sight." That much cart wheeling around sounds like a gut shot cat. Males are consummate nomads, females territorial, especially with cubs. A post-nursing female would still have a slightly distended stomach. I'm guessing you put a round thru that belly flap.
(edit) Oh, and would I have taken the shot? I have passed up 3 very similar opportunities in my lifetime.
[ August 04, 2004, 02:04 PM: Message edited by: NASA ]
Posts: 1168 | From: Typical White Person | Registered: Apr 2003
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brad h
Knows what it's all about
Member # 57
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posted August 04, 2004 02:27 PM
Never had the opportunity so I don't honestly know what I'd do.
I know one thing, if it ever does happen, I won't be keeping the ****** tail.
Brad
Posts: 346 | From: Glendive MT | Registered: Jan 2003
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted August 04, 2004 03:23 PM
Randy,
I too, would be careful about posting it, that's why I didn't have much to say about what happened at first, and as Red says, I didn't see anything.
Everything I had to say about what happened out there, in some non descript location in the middle of the forest someplace, is hearsay.
And I never discharged my firearm at anything other than a Mt Dew can, all weekend.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Leonard,
I will take the free advice, it's not bad advice from my point of view.
I take the game laws very seriously too, and passed on the chance to shoot a large bobcat in the road last winter, because it wouldn't have been legal.
Mostly, because I don't really want to kill a lion, and if Red had been the caller I'd have wanted to let him have a chance at seeing it, I think I'd have waived at the chance to shoot this lion.
But I'd have done what I could, or had to, to make sure it didn't get to him either, and dealt with whatever red tape found it's way to me... and I would not have said much more, than I did in my original post, about it.
Balls or stupidity... YUP!!! Red's got plenty of both!
NASA,
I think Red used a little too much "artistic license" as he got deeper into his story, and that you see more in your mind's eye than I saw in the tracks on the ground.
The cat did jump, but the overhanging branches would have prevented it from going more than about 8 feet up (without going out of Red's sight), and the tracks where it appeared to run away were running over small trees and brush it was all in a more or less straight outbound line, no spinning or stopping, no flattened grass from rolling.
I was wearing khaki shorts and rubbed through all the shallow grass, and the three small pines behind Red's shot, I didn't find a single trace of blood anywhere there, or for 70 or 80 feet down the cat's outbound path.
We actually took quite a bit of time and tried to figure the whole scene out.
I found a spot in the dirt where something had freshly cut in, at the right side of the base of a tree, and found where the bullet bounced off an inch or so under the ground.
Red took the bolt out of his rifle, and I played the cougar, crawling along it's tracks. When I got to the spot the cat obviously lept into the air from, we could see the spot on the tree was low, and right of eachother as we took turns looking, and being the cougar... he probably shot under it's chin, not it's belly.
Slightly low and right of the shoulder, the cat was travelling from the left to the right, it jumped away from the tree about 4 feet, turned 90° to it's left directly away from Red, and ran down off the edge of the ridge, where thicker timber and the steep hillside prompted me to go back, (I was chicken) I wasn't crawling in, under the spruce trees, down a steep bank, after an aggressive, scared cougar that might have cornered itself on top of a cliff, and be coming back up.
I think it heard the shot and the impact to the tree at the same time, jumped up and away from the one closest to it, and caught Red's body recoiling from the shot, and exited stage left, post haste, fully intact without losing a single drop of blood.
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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NASA
Knows what it's all about
Member # 177
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posted August 04, 2004 03:41 PM
Krusty, it's a shame you didn't at least get to see him.
Posts: 1168 | From: Typical White Person | Registered: Apr 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted August 04, 2004 06:47 PM
quote:
and the tracks where it appeared to run away were running over small trees and brush it was all in a more or less straight outbound line, no spinning or stopping, no flattened grass from rolling.
Just so you know, Krusty.
A well hit animal will straight line it. Whereas, normally, they will weave around brush and boulders, a gut shot cat will scrape up against these things, and tend to run over them.
Also, an injured, or scared cat will gain elevation, almost 100% of the time. It's not in their nature to go down hill, under these circumstances. So, if you see a cat headed downhill, he will probably die, or is hit in such a way that he can't escape.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Redrider
Knows what it's all about
Member # 79
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posted August 04, 2004 10:36 PM
I have thought alot about what I did, and I aint real proud of it. But I'm not loosing any sleep over it either. If you don't like me because of it I really dont care, I'm not that sensitive. But I will think about your viewpoint with an open mind. I did what I did under the spur of the moment and now have had time to reflect on the whole thing. That is why I wanted other folks opinion on it, to make sense of what happened. As I said, live and learn. I will do things differently next time, if it ever happens again at all. I got caught up in the moment and made my decision, I can live with that I guess. I do respect all the critters out there and dont plan on taking any out of season. But dang geeez, it was only 5 days early. I know, I know, early is early... But after watching some beastie walk by, I would probably look in the mirror and think "that's cool, you did the right thing."
And as far as the WDFW Internet Hunting Forum Police banging on my door, I won't hold my breath.
I was using a Rem 700 BDL 30-06 w/Leo M8-4X. Handloads using 150g. Win. PowerPoints. It was 50yds. I think even if it was gut shot it woulda as Krusty said "sprayed the tree." It was just running scared, not hurt. That's what it looked like to me.
By the way, the first thing Krusty said was "A COUGAR???? What are we gonna do with that????" His moral compass never wavered a single bit. That's why he navigates most of the time in our lives.
Redrider.
Posts: 27 | From: seattle | Registered: Feb 2003
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DAA
Utah/Promoted WESTERN REGIONAL Hunt Director
Member # 11
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posted August 05, 2004 05:54 AM
You guys sound like Liberals. Seriously. All this "time to reflect" and "others opinions" and "moral compass" crap. I've been wondering just why in the heck anyone would make a post like this. But, I think you just told me, honestly why you made the post. And it's not just because you're a simple minded moron, as it first appeared. It's because you were actually looking for some of the things you just talked about. I'll never understand liberal thinking if I live to be a thousand years old. Instead of looking for validation and solace in the opinions of others, you should have just shut the heck up.
- DAA
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"Oh yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em." -- George Hanson, Easy Rider, 1969.
Rocky Mountain Varmint Hunter
Posts: 2676 | From: Salt Lake City, UT | Registered: Jan 2003
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Rich Higgins
unknown comic
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posted August 05, 2004 07:19 AM
DAA expressed my thoughts exactly. CDOG just addressed the subject of heavy fines to discourage this conduct on another thread. Read your game regulations to learn your states position on poaching. The majority define "TAKE" as the attempt to kill or just the pursuit of a game animal unless otherwise regulated. They do not differentiate between shooting at or shooting into a game animal. Just put a fishing line in the water in front of a game warden five days before season begins, regardless whether you catch a fish or not.
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Bofire
READ MY LIPS!
Member # 221
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posted August 05, 2004 08:16 AM
I have hunted with both these guys, I have never seen them do anything illegal. Red is certainly not a dummy or a fool, he made a decision on the spur of the moment and was honest about it. Personally I would not have told the story or written it here, but maybe I am paranoid. The laws are the laws and enforcement is what it is but my reasons for not shooting at that time are differrent.
When I was young and hunting was a sport with points for who got the "most, first, and biggest" I hunted with an aggressive fevor, was bummed if I did not score. I may have done something then, that seemed right if not quite legal. Here is the problem.
As I remember hunts, kills, I get some of my greatest pleasure from reliving it, showing off the trophy, with a poached animal, all you can remember is the poaching, it is not warm and good feeling, it is not a good memory. It is something to hide and try to forget, but ya just cant.
Lighten up on Red, how many of us have made a bad decision on the spur of the moment.
Posts: 322 | From: Wild West | Registered: Jul 2003
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Rich Higgins
unknown comic
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posted August 05, 2004 08:26 AM
Lighten up on Red, how many of us have made a bad decision on the spur of the moment.
Bofire, the bad decisions continue everytime he posts on a public forum and justifies or excuses his actions and thereby publisizes them further.
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted August 05, 2004 08:48 AM
Maybe it's not their fault? Last night, on the No Spin Zone, he said Seattle was: "San Francisco Lite". So, it's the air they breathe.
Just kidding.
I can understand wanting to share their adventure, but it has not, and will not gain these guys an approval rating.
The sympathy I have, such as it is, and as may be apparent(?) is that the California law protecting these animals is stupid. I don't have any more sympathy for a lion than I have for a sewer rat. Respecting law is a good thing. Writing good law is a challenge. How many people ignored a bad law, driving 55 miles per hour, when it was the law of the land?
As it is with mustangs, eagles, burros and introduced wolves, there will be people that don't agree with certain laws, and kill every one they can get away with. I don't endorse that attitude, but I understand it. Lions have gone from varmint to a protected species in a relatively short time, without much in the way of justification; unless you consider the emotions generated by the bunny hugger campaigns. Hunting seasons are not designed for success, by sympathetic managers. We are the saps.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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