Skype Me

If you have Skype on your pc, you can now call me on my Skype account (jpkoppli). I don't think I know anyone else who uses this, but give it a shot... it's free after all.

www.Skype.com

Deer Gun Hunting - Opening

We had one of our best
opening weekends ever this year... Kirk shot a 10 point buck and I shot an 8 pointer opening morning. Opening day in the evening Larry shot a 6 pointer and Mark shot a spike. Somehow I don't have pictures of the 6 or the spike, but here are the 10 (hanging) and my 8 laying on my new hitch rack. :-)

My story: aound 10-something opening morning I saw a doe walking through the woods about 60 yards from my stand and angling away from me to the North East. I scoped it and confirmed it had no horns. I saw what I thought was a fawn out of the corner of my eye following the doe about 15 yards behind her. I scoped the fawn to double-check, and realized that it was actually a buck with decent horns. It started to trot after the doe, also angling away from me. I shot at the buck and it immediately dropped low and wheeled around running about 10 yards back the way it had come and stopped. The doe ran back to the buck and they both started walking away from me to the North West this time. The buck didn't seem to be hurt so I sighted in on it through the brush and tried to shoot again but my next shell had not gone into the chamber. I manually worked the next shell from the clip into the chamber and sighted in again on the buck... now about 65 yards out in some heavy brush. I shot again and heard a lot of commotion but could only see the legs of one deer through the brush. I wasn't sure if it was the buck or doe I was seeing so I waited, hoping it would come back into my line of site. It never did so after about 10 minutes I got out of my stand and went over to the area where I saw the buck lying there on its side. Apparently the first shot had only grazed off some hair on its back, and the second shot was directly through both lungs dropping it on the spot. The first shot should have been the easier shot, but luckily I got a chance to take a second shot or I would not have got him.

As for Kirk's story: I'm not sure, but I think the deer saw him and took off running, and before Kirk could shoot it ran into a tree and broke its neck, dropping dead on the spot... or something like that. He can post a comment and correct me if thats not what happened.

Larry had his come in following a doe and some fawns, and Mark shot his through the shoulders as it was running across a field.

We are waiting for Pete to shoot a fork buck and complete the string (10, 8, 6, 4, 2).

Rollo Family Goose Hunt

Subject: Goose huntin
Author: Rollo WunderDog (aka Big Rat)

It was a glorious cloudy weekend. Most people hope for a warm sunny weekend, but goose hunters prefer the cold cloudy snowy blustery days..
Pete Stromme accompanied Rollie Ruby and Reid Thomas on a goose hunting weekend near the Horicon marsh. Rollie's brother Tom Thomas lives in the town of Brownsville in the heart of goose country. The brothers have hunted geese together for close to 40years. Tom is an excellent goose caller, His old Ken Martin goose call sounds sweet to the honkers looking for a place to sit down and have a free meal.
October 22 was an overcast day with hints of snow in the air and on the ground from the previous nights white-out. The geese were flying early; you could hear them as we put out our spread of outlaw decoys. We placed three dozen decoys in a corn field that was picked two days earlier. We headed for cover in a fence line and waited. It was a short waitThe geese spotted the decoys and made a beeline like grandmas to a garage sale. From the time we set up, until we quit hunting, there was only one five minute span when there were not geese over the decoys. We filled all our tags, and just watched as flock after flock would stack up and try to land. Tom was more of an air traffic controller, than a caller. I will remember this hunt with a few memorable hunts that stand out in the last 40 years. Tom's wife Jane had a big part in our hunt being successful. Not only did she feed the ravenous hunters, while managing to sneak a day of hunting on Saturday, but was the designated church goer, and prayed for a good hunt on Sunday. The geese were definitely coming in on a wing and a prayer.

Bowhunting... Finally

I finally got out bowhunting for the first time this year... and its almost gun-hunting already. I had one doe come in last Saturday and there was a fawn in front of my stand Sunday when I got there. Those are the only 2 dear I had around me the whole weekend.

Larry did not get a buck he shot a couple days earlier, and Mark did get a doe Saturday on stand. Pete saw 14 deer from his stand Saturday, but no shots at any bucks. He saw none on Sunday.

We did see a bunch on the drive home Sunday night... all around the road, and one really nice buck. That figures. anyway sorry for the no pictures but I didn't take my camera.

Duran Duran

I got my wife Duran Duran tickets for the inaugural show at the Sears Centre in Barrington a week ago Thursday. We had seats on the floor 18 rows back. I had never been a huge fan but they were great. She had a good time & the facility was nice except for too few women's bathrooms she thought. Be prepared for $10 parking even though they don't mention it on their website... thats a whole other story.