now something civilized

Now that the public election has officially come to an end, it is time to get back to my main Fall activity, clinging to guns and religion. I like that phrase.

Today I was out with my 12 gauge shotgun trying to rustle up some venison for my hungry family members who love venison jerkey. I watched as several deer fed in the recently harvested corn field. They were 150 yards or so away from me on another property. I tried two of my calls in an attempt to persuade them, in deer language, "come on over here, it's great over here." They looked my way but showed no sign of checking things out.

Then I heard some rustling in the leaves as an animal crossed the ravine behind me. It was a coyote, and he was stealthily moving closer to the same deer I was watching. I thought, "If this coyote takes off after those deer he'll chase them into the next county (literally I was hunting very close to the Putnam/Hendricks County line.

What should I do? I decided to shoot the coyote. He was unaware of my presence and I had a good angle on him. Chances are the deer would be undisturbed due to being quite a distance away.

I shot, he kicked a couple of times and then slid down into the ravine. The deer looked up momentarily from their meal of field corn and went back to minding their own business, eventually walking completely away from my line of sight.

About 20 minutes later I saw a buck coming my way from the direction where the deer had disappeared. He was on a line toward me that would lead him very close to the dead coyote. He came closer and closer. He stopped and looked and saw the coyote. I thought for sure he would turn and run but instead he walked right up to the coyote as if to take a sniff. I thought, "that is a dumb deer", and decided at that moment to shoot him.

Predator and prey lay in the back of my pick-up truck. The family will snack on jerkey when they visit for Thanksgiving Day.