Kicking Off PhoneSkope Monday

I like to shoot pictures of animals as much as I like to shoot with a bow and rifle, so when I got the opportunity to extend my photo abilities with PhoneSkope this year I was just a little excited to say the least. From this day forth Monday will be PhoneSkope Monday, where I will be sharing photos that others and myself have taken.  So to start you week off right here you go.

PhoneSkopes can be found here at www.phoneskope.com and use their product selector to get the correct setup for your phone, iPad or other.

Cheers

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Too many bears to deer hunt

  So I went out to my local prime hunting spot to try and shoot myself a nice Buck before pee shooting opens. So I geared up, and headed out solo. As I got to the mouth of the canyon I found lots of good fresh deer tracks and bear. Good stuff, was excited about shooting a bear, later this month. So me, myself and I thought it through and we would just be on the lookout for a few Yogis rolling down the trail.  No worries we've done this may times before.
  
  First let me say, I've had many run ins with bears, I spent a summer working at a camp in the Sequoias National Park and actively chased them around the camp and out of the trash bins. I have backpacked all over the East and West Sierras and had many encounters with no problems, but this time it felt different. The canyon I hunt in is one way in one way out, the trail I am on is it. Too thick and steep to try and run up and get away. So needless to say I was a little apprehensive, especially when I got to where my first set was. I think Gellystone was having a picnic basket convention and all of Yogi's kin came to visit.

  No joke at least three or four bears had been through there recently, especially the sow and here cub. The tracks were clean, defined and the sides were just starting to caving in, aka she just came through. Okay so I stopped looked, listened and nothing. Heart is pumping like the base line at a Puffy concert now, not sure who is hunting who. Wind started swirling and was most likely giving every deer in the area my current AO and with that I headed out to the mouth of the canyon where I had another set I could do.  I about faced and walked back out the same way I had come in and well wouldn't you know Yogi had decided to wait for me to pass earlier and walked back down the trail.  Let me tell ya it is strange to see bear tracks over the top of your own that you had made not 15 minutes before. Okay enough carnivore fun for one day I double timed it back to my last set and called it a day. All, I can say is that I am excited that Bear to open, but I need the right set to make it happen. Not a small choked canyon where I am all alone and no one knows were I'm at.

So to all the bears out there reading this, I'll get you Yogi and you little Booboo to.


The Bearded Boar

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I went hunting for deer and shot a Peacock

The day started off talking to a hunting buddy as I was about to leave and go to my spot a few hours North of my house and he replied "My wife is gone till Thursday, I've got some time lets go." I am always up for some company, so we rolled into my favorite spot where I had passed up on good 3x2 a week before. We unloaded the gear and started the stalk. Up the trail a ways there  were signs of deer and bear were in the area. 

  I crested a bend and glassed a grey shape moving along a trail then up an embankment.  My heart was racing, I brought my binos up and......A large male Peacock.  What the... Yes I said Peacocks, let me tell you how weird it was to see a Peacock about an hour and change from the nearest small town in the middle of a secluded hunting zone mind you. So we talked and decided we did not want the Peacock to sound the alarm that we were there, so at 60 yrds I let the Slim Stick do its magic. Feathers flew everywhere, bird rolls into some really thick stuff and commence us trying not to laugh too loud and scare the deer out of there.
  Upon inspection of the arrow, blood, a crap load of feathers but still no bird. My hunting partner kept looking for the bird as I walked up the trail looking for my 3x2 that I passed up on a few days before.  Let me tell you it is really hard to look in thick blackberry bushes and try to not to be too loud. Sadly both up of were struck out, no Peacock and no Deer.  As darkness grew near we headed back with vigor for we could hear Mama bear and her cub above us skirting our path. 
   At least we did not come home empty handed, as we were driving down the mountain we came across a nice rattler that was crossing the road.  We dispatched him and through him into the back of my truck.
  The next morning we did jump some deer, one was small and or too fast to see, more bear tracks and the march of death through areas even the dear avoid. But all in the name of hunting. So as it turns out so far this year Deer 3, Me 0, but Me 1, Peacocks 0.

I call it a wash so far.
Bearded Boar

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