Return of the Booth Babes: The 2007 SHOT Show
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Stop It ... You're Killing Me
Professional hunters fascinate me in much the same way professional soldiers do because the odds are at least fair that, in the course of making a living, they will be either killed or mangled. And yet they persist. Before the advent of antibiotics, the PH's job was a lot more perilous than it is now. If you were mauled by a leopard or chewed by the lion, you might be able to survive the mauling itself, but not the infection that followed.
Of the PHs I've known personally, one was killed by an elephant and five were chewed by leopards. All five survived, although one man shot a colleague of his during another leopard encounter. The reason so many run afoul of old chui (which is Swahili, I think, for leopard, and a great example of onomotopoeia)is the speed with which they get at you. Leopards are not all that large (a 150-pound tom is a very big one) and they can conceal themselves behind nothing more than a clump of grass, so the first sign that kitty is around is when his dewclaws are sunk in your neck and he is trying to disembowel you with his hind claws.
I know of only one PH who did the job for a long time and never ran afoul of an animal. He was a French PH who worked in Zambia, and in 40 years in the bush the only injury he sustained was when a Land Rover hood fell on his hand and chopped off a finger. The most unlikely death was a PH who perished when an iron-hard spike of mopane wood punched through the floor of his Land Rover and into his femoral artery.
Tommy
Like LC said?
Let it go!
I don’t let the lesser bring me down to their level. There are those that cannot shoot past one hundred yards and lack the abilities to do other things. That’s perfectly ok! It’s the person that uses a cane pole that catches the big fish and a full stringer or it’s that hunter that comes out to the range that if he can hit a paper plate at 50 yards with an old beat up 30-30 that’s good enough and gets the big buck! But there are those that use themselves as a measuring stick to judge others. And yes I’ve popped off with some words I wished I never said, even on this blog.
A short measuring stick comes with a puny mind.
Clay Cooper
Posted by: Clay Cooper | August 07, 2007 at 11:45 AM
I hope and pray that woodsgurl4evr will rise to the top level of the measuring stick I use. 13 years old going on 23? Not good :(
Posted by: Clay Cooper | August 07, 2007 at 11:54 AM
Petzal knows how to stir the pot so all the kooks float to the top. Petzel, you need to have another look at Wayne, Lane and Craig, those are real outdoor writers.
Posted by: JimmieD | August 07, 2007 at 04:24 PM
I don't know who's more annoying. Tommy or Clay. You guys need to find something else to do besides spam this site with specious blather. Be pithy instead of pissy and we'll all be alot happier.
Posted by: james | August 07, 2007 at 04:27 PM
Tommy
Google "posted by: Dr Ralph"
curiouser and curiouser.
Posted by: Ed J | August 07, 2007 at 06:35 PM
Hey thanks for all the wonderfull coments about me! (she said sarcastically) O well i just brush it off.
Posted by: woodsgurl4evr | August 07, 2007 at 10:12 PM
I’m 14 and if I talked the way to adults like woodsgurl4evr, I’d get my head handed to me. I’m 14 going on 14 and I am going to cherish every second of it! I respect my parents and the elders around me, no mater what they say. It’s my Fathers job to set things right and He believe me he does!
Posted by: hillbillygirl14 | August 07, 2007 at 10:27 PM
Well you know....hillbillygirl4 really does have a point and after readin what she had to say i do realize what a slefish,know it all ball baby i was.Clearly my ego was writing checks i myself cant cash.So i want to truly say sorry to any one who i may have offended and if any of you (which most of you probly do)agree with the way i acted and think the same exact things i couldnt possibly blame you.Maybe this whole thing will be a learning experince for me...the leason learnt-Stop being a know it all little punk and leave the things that i shouldnt be a part of to those who should be.Once again im going to say how honestly sorry i am to everyone.I have disrespected those who honestly didnt do anything and i have basically made all of you think the same things.I wish i could in some way take it all back because honestly im not like i was at all and the reason that made me different on here is oblivious to me.I should of treated everyone like i should not like if i was superior.And i've noticed that i used the word "should" alot well should of and what was done are two totally different things and there is no excuse for what i've done. My dearest apologies once again.
Posted by: woodsgurl4evr | August 07, 2007 at 10:47 PM
woodsgurl4evr
Please don’t become like my friends sister! She went 13 years old to an adult in just one night. Lost all those fun years for trying to fit in. Understand what I am saying! Enjoy your self and be you. I know when I graduate High School all my friends and people I know will be gone. What’s the problem of being you? My Grandmother told me, if your not happy at home, you will not be happy anyplace else. So please be 13 and do what 13s really suppose to do, the old fashion way, OK!
Posted by: hillbillygirl14 | August 08, 2007 at 01:57 AM
I'm going fishing with Grand Pa in the morning!
Posted by: hillbillygirl14 | August 08, 2007 at 01:59 AM
Wow Tommy, you really are crazy! I just went back to Hunting vs. Video Games to find your hermaphrodite diatribe on August 1 to explain why I nicknamed you that and WHAM!!! You think I posted that spam... believe me I don't need to resort to phantom "Tommy" posts to make you look like an idiot. Clay, I been dere, dun that, got the t-shirt, wore it out and am now cleaning my guns with it...
Posted by: Dr. Ralph | August 08, 2007 at 08:46 PM
P.S. Clay if you think I'm a Dumbocrat you obviously haven't been paying attention. In fact I'm afraid I may have run off one of my favorites RockyMountainHunter/'Ol gunslinger down south with my right wing rhetoric.
Posted by: Dr. Ralph | August 08, 2007 at 08:58 PM
I think the only person i really know how to be is me.I guess i never really looked at being myself the way you say.Thanks hillybilly14...you rock!
Posted by: woodsgurl4evr | August 08, 2007 at 09:09 PM
In my years of hunting (I;m 72 now), I;ve never hunted or killed any animal that was not table fare. For most of my younger life we only had small game here in the deep south, then the W-tail appeared. Now I go to the Rocky Mountains for Elk and Mule Deer. The taste of Elk is far supperior than W-tails in my taste buds. Once you hunt the Rockies and hear a big old 6 x 6 Bull bugle you are runded for life. Even after killing my first Elk, i still realish going back each year for another try. Some years lucky, some not. But, do enjoy hearing that bugle and the great outdoors. I do believe that the experience of hunting is just as important as the killing. I;m happy just to be out in the wild open spaces, filling my tag or not. My only wish left in life is to kill another 6 x 6 Elk and a 4 x 4 Mulie, to match the one's on my den wall.If my health would permit, I would go to Canada for a Caribou, but being disabled, and handicapped, thats impossible. Lucky, I as fortunatre to find a young gentleman in Montana who will take me out and care for me and my kills. Few strangers will be so kind. Meet this guy on NAHC and he responded to my request. Now we planning a trip for 2008. Wish me luck, as if alive then, may be my last hunt. For those interested, I use a Remington 700 in 30-06, and can/do shoot 3 shots at 200 yds that a silver dollar will cover. Pratice is the secrete along with quality Ammo and firearms. Good hunting to you guys, and if you will, pray that I can return to the Rockies in 2008. Thanks The OLd Gunslinger from way down South
Posted by: Old Gunslinger | August 08, 2007 at 10:06 PM
Dr. Ralph
You say, you been dere, dun that, got the t-shirt, wore it out and am now cleaning my guns with it...
Hold the presses, no Democrat especially a DemoRAT, would been dere, dun that, got the t-shirt, wore it out and “THEN” clean there guns with it...
By’GOLLY! Looks like Dr. Ralph I’ll have to eat crow on what I said about you!
Posted by: Clay Cooper | August 09, 2007 at 09:06 AM
woodsgurl4evr
Thanks for the kind words Sister woodsgurl4evr. In my life, I don’t rock. The one that really “Rocks in my life is Jesus!”
Posted by: hillbillygirl14 | August 09, 2007 at 06:28 PM
'Ol Gunslinger welcome back! You know you should really be warning people NOT to go out west... it is a terrible addiction. My best friend threatened to leave his wife any family if they refused to move to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He had never been there mind you, but we spent two weeks on an elk and mule deer hunt in Colorado and he decided half way through the trip that he was never leaving the Rockies! After some research and mind-numbing pictures of the entire town invaded by wapiti that was that. Of course his wife reminded him she would get the house and kids and he'd better make enough to pay some serious child support and the dream was over. He didn't even hunt in Tennessee the next two years. He stayed home and watched videos of mule deer, elk, mountain lions, sheep and silently planned our next trip to the wild, wild, west...
Posted by: Dr. Ralph | August 09, 2007 at 08:44 PM
He should have taken her on a bear hunt with some Oreo cookies in her backpack! They do love Oreo cookies they do!
Posted by: Clay Cooper | August 09, 2007 at 08:51 PM
Hey hillbilly14 you should send me a message sometime to my email.You seem to be really kool so drop me some lines sometime at [email protected]
Posted by: woodsgurl4evr | August 10, 2007 at 08:41 PM
Dr. Ralph; Thanks for the reminder. As i stated earlier, had I gone to the Rockies 40 yrs ago, I'm sure I would live there now.Once that Bull Bugles, its over. Just tonight, I talked to my friend in Montana and we making plans for 2008. Being disabled/Handicapped I can;t hunt as most guys can,but i still enjoy the day afield. I always wanted to hunt Jackson Hole from Horse-back pack in for a couple of weeks, now thats out of the question. However, this friend in Montana has the equiptment for camping and If I'm up to it, we plan on staying in the tent, etc for the first 3-4 days o season opener. If unsuccessful, then will move to Motel with wife for my remaining stay. O can amost smell the Rocky Mtn Airy now. Good luck and pratice, pratice..
Posted by: Old Gun Slinger | August 10, 2007 at 10:15 PM
woodsgurl4evr
I maybe kool, but it’s not about me your searching for. Look in the mirror? What do you see? It’s not about the pimples, form of your nose, and the color of your hair or how many people who like you. If this is what you see, look deeper? Look what’s in your heart and that my sister is what you truly seek and believe me it’s not that boy at school and defiantly not a material thing! Grandma says a lot of things to me. When I was younger, they didn’t make since and now they do. woodsgurl4evr, happiness is not what you like to do. True happiness is the byproduct of what you have to do. Do the right thing now and live a happier life or take the fun part first part hearty and lose everything forever, perhaps your life! I don’t expect you to understand at the moment. In time you will. Sunday morning I’ll be in church and I’ll be thinking about you. I hope you’ll do the same. I listen to my elders and it’s like Luke Skywalker listening to Yoda. I think I know it all then fall flat on my face. Kool is what you choose to do and not to do. Sometime doing the right thing is the hardest thing to do. Kool is the inner light that shines out from your heart and in time I pray you’ll know the true name and He is the one that’s kool!
Posted by: hillbillygirl14 | August 11, 2007 at 01:54 AM
I read "Death in the Long Grass" by Peter Hathaway Capstick too. Just quote him directly and send people to find copies of the book. Good stuff, hairy chested stories of hunting in Africa before the end came.
Posted by: ASM826 | August 12, 2007 at 08:54 PM
To my way of seeing things today as compared to 40-50 yrs ago, is most hunters have short tempers and little experience of hunting. Hunting the woods is like a trip all alone, just you and the great outdoors mother nature has provided. In todays fast world, most guys/girls only have a few days to be out there enjoying what us older guys do yearly. So sad to see this generation of people living so fast they have no time left for relaxing the mind and enjoying God's gift to us. Some can;t change, but for those of you who can, by all means get out and relax and spend some time in the woods with what-ever gun you may have. Will be the most enjoyable day you spent in a long time. Give it some serious thought and do something about it,especially if you have young kids. If I was able, I would be in the woods every day I was able to go. Have a good day. Gunslinger
Posted by: Old Gunslinger | August 12, 2007 at 10:58 PM
David E. Petzal compared soldiers and PHs in the fact that both are prone to severe injury and/or death which is true of both. As a soldier and having served two OIF tours I am not insulted by that type of comparison. I saw nothing of David comparing the bravery of soldiers to PHs. It is very true that soldiers have bullets, mortars, and shrapnel coming at them but that is part of our job description, and we knew that when we signed up for it. Keep up the good articles David. I may not agree with everything you say or my opinions may vary slightly from yours on some issues but that's why America is so great. Everyone is entitled to their opinion whether they are right or wrong.
Posted by: louisiana hawgleg | August 16, 2007 at 12:22 PM