2016. What a year! I started out with my passion-groundhog hunting. Coyotes and my persistent dogging of them has severely depleted the population. Years of 500 kills with a high of 634 are just dreams. The new norm is way down, only 217 this year. My yearly records show 140 single shot handgun kills and 77 revolver/auto kills. Lifetime totals are : rifles(before 1978)-835, single shots-8569, revolvers/autos-3461. Grand total: 12,865 groundhogs. For the first time the majority of my kills were with the lowly .22 LR (55) with my Quiet Gun, a suppressed Ruger MKIII. Groundhogs in fields are gone. Most kills are fence rows, abandoned buildings, trash piles. This gun is a SSK masterpiece
June changed my life. I passed out in the office, hit my head on concrete. A few days later dizziness and a headache led to a CT of my head which showed a massive blood clot in my brain. Emergency surgery followed. I had no speech for a week. I thought I was going to be a cripple.
Then a slow recovery followed. For 6 weeks I couldn't drive, shoot, or do any physical activity except rehab.
Deer permits (75) came right before my accident. I was able to take 7, the longest being 581 yds. with a 6.5/.284 Encore with a Burris 3-12BPlex and a 143 gr. Hornady ELD-X, which I found very lacking.
I was allowed to start shooting before I could drive or walk a lot. Permits were still good. A friend from GA volunteered to come to WV, drive me around, and clean all my deer. There are not many friends like that.
I was worried that I'd lost my touch. The first kill was 351 yds. and the second was exactly 500 yards. The Hit Man was back!!!
Then I had another health emergency that almost took me. I had another 5 weeks of recovery. Rehab to fight the ever present weakness. Problem here was the last week of recovery was WV fall bear season. I made a deal with my docs. I would watch a cornfield where I've taken 4 bears the last 6 years WITHOUT DOGS and fire no more than 3 shots. They agreed.
The first 5 days were fruitless due to some dog hunters trespassing and spooking the bears. Day #6 was uneventful until 5 PM. A large bear came up the river bank to the corn. I heard the wack of the 200 gr. AB in my .325 WSM XP at 160 yds, the same gun I'd done one two years earlier at 289 yds. He fell, got up and ran to the corn.
I found a good blood trail and marked it. I was still on restricted activity, but I'd made a deal with two teens to help me. Neither were home! I followed the trail a little and marked it, but got really tired. went to the farmer and he promised to get his cousin to trail the bear with dogs the following morning. That never happened.
I hate loosing game. Two weeks later the farmer started cutting corn about 1/2 mile to the left of the large hole in the corn in the photo(bear damage). He found my bear. I boiled out the skull. That's 5 bears, 7 years, NO DOGS.
I was finally released for all activities. WV fall turkey season was starting. I went to my farm where I'd had good luck. I sat for 2 days calling without luck. At 5PM on day #3 a flock of 40 or so birds came to a field to eat grasshoppers. I couldn't find a gobbler, so I shot the largest hen at 38 yards with my 7 1/2" FA .454 and 260 gr. Speer Mag HP. This tough bullet does not expand and only causes a 1" area of destruction. I shoot all my turkeys in the wing butt. I've had 41 one shot kills on turkeys with no losses with this combo. After failures with several other handguns, this is my only turkey set up
Next came WV deer season. I was skunked the first 3 days. Day #4 had a buck chasing a doe on my farm. He stopped 75 yds. away to catch his breath. A fatal mistake. 6.5/.284 XP, 130 AB hitting the tail of the lungs just as he started running. Dropped after 50 yds.
A typical WV 7 point-small horns, big body.
I had booked two out of state hunts before my health scares. I was weak, but determined to go. First up was mule deer in Colorado. I was the first handgunner here. They were suspicious of my gun, my abilities of long range shooting, and my stamina (grey hair and all). I just smiled.
The shot of my backpack was 188 yds. with my 6.5/.284 XP and 130 gr. AB. They were amazed that I could do that. It wasn't a monster, but I was satisfied all things considered.
Next up was Arizona for Coues deer. I've seen many handgunners doing this desert ghosts. I read Coues hunting required being in "sheep shape". How bad could the flat desert be? Well, the Sonoran Desert is not flat or hot.
First day was 25* at 4:15AM when I got up. We walked 3 miles in hilly, rolling terrain with 6-12" rocks every 6-12" on the ground. It was very hard walking. We sat on the tallest knoll in the area the entire day and saw about 50 deer. The largest were 3 bucks 1200 yards away. The 3 mile walk out was brutal on my out of shape body.
The next morning saw a route change, but still 3 miles in (GPS confirmed). We were where we'd seen the 3 bucks. I'd used my BogPod as a walking stick. It really helped and it was mandatory since the brush (with stickers) was chest high allowing no shots off my backpack.
A little after daylight a small buck came up a draw in front of us. ten minutes later another small buck. Ten minutes after that a larger buck. It was conference time. I'd wanted a super Coues. This one was above average and the largest one we'd seen. 9 1/2 miles of walking had wiped my body out. I was still out of shape. My guide recommended I take this one. I reluctantly agreed.
The BogPod with PBR rest was set up. My 6.5/.284 XP set there with a small sandbag below the butt. The 130 gr. AB dropped the buck with a double shoulder shot at 264 yds. My guide had questioned my ability on the shot. He was minded repeatedly about this. The little buck was not so little. He was about the size of a 3 yr. old WV buck, 120-130#.
The 3 mile walk out was brutal for me. I was totally wasted
My take on this hunt was that Arizona was "No Country for Old Men".
2016 was indeed a weird. My docs said I was lucky I didn't die X 2. I was given a second chance on life. I intend to make the most of it.
