A Neighbor's Gift

My father bought the farm “Buriti do Retiro” in the municipality of Morrinhos, southern Goiás state, central Brazil, in 1978, and at that time Goiás had quite a bit of “frontier” on it. We even faced some cattle rustling, and that was solved with a good barbeque party and the proper guest list (but that is another story).

Both my parents were fully licensed lawyers that could practice anywhere in Brazil (my mother still holds her license), but neither ever made a cent practicing law. My mother was a teacher and my father a farmer, and they only did some eventual pro-bono law work. It may appear strange, but that was their case.

We had an elderly neighbor that had a small property (that we eventually bought many years later) that got in a legal dispute for whichever reason with another much larger labor, but could not afford to hire a lawyer. As he risked losing his homestead, he asked for help and my father accepted to represent him.

I don’t know the details, but my father won the case, and when the old gentleman tried to pay him some amount, my father refused to receive any compensation.

One evening sometime later the old gentleman came visiting and brought a gift to my father, the skull and antlers of a “veado-campeiro” (Ozotocerus bezoarticus). The literal translation of veado-campeiro, a superbly beautiful animal, is field-deer or prairie-deer, as it typically occurs in more open or tree-less environments, different than the brocket deer that inhabits quite heavy brush and forests.

The typical veado-campeiro rack is a 3x3, and the gift that we received was exceptionally well formed and symmetric, and I would say of above average size. When we received it, the skull still had some dried skin attached to it, and there were glass marbles in the eye sockets, held in place by cotton balls.

In his typical unselfish way my father mentioned that the gift was very nice, but not necessary, and that the old gentleman did not own him anything, and that he just had helped a neighbor and a friend.

The old man insisted that my father should accept the trophy deer skull, and before leaving he finally said that it would not be proper for him to keep it anyhow, since he had poached it from our own farm.

In Uruguay...Once Again

The author and Ray Cato

Once again I am having the opportunity to hunt in Uruguay with JP Cacerias (jpdacosta@netgate.com.uy), and this afternoon my friend Ray Cato and I hunted perdiz (Nothura maculosa).

We had a most enjoyable afternoon, and besides watching some excellent dog work, we also got some birds and sent many more off with “two-gun” salutes.

The perdiz is the princess of the upland birds, and they occur in very high numbers in Uruguay, even this late in the hunting season, while the queen (at least in South America) is the much larger, but very similar in appearance, Martineta or Perdigão (Rhynchotus rufescens), but the later bird is protect in Uruguay and unhappily cannot be hunted.

Today I used a Stoeger/Boito/ERA 28-gauge side-by-side, and shot Spanish made ¾ ounces 7 ½ shells to shoot a 10 bird limit on perdiz, and for an inexpensive Brazilian made shotgun, it performed amazingly well. All birds that I hit fell hard, and the many that I missed were entirely my fault.

Hunting perdiz with a side-by-side 28 gauge shotgun is almost a soul searching experience, as this is what my father used to do. I probably will never come close to his 82% hit ratio, but just being able to enjoy the same bird with what is my opinion the best balanced gauge for upland hunting is a great reward.

By the way, JP Cacerias offers some of the greatest and most affordable upland bird hunting anywhere in the world, even if you include the airfare to come down to Uruguay. This trip was a last minute arrangement and I will only be here for three days, but the afternoon was so pleasant that it was worth coming.

The day could not have been prettier, and tomorrow morning we will go after doves and we will let you know how we did.

Just a Fine Evening

Young and Stupid

Yesterday evening I arrived home after a long drive from Guelph, Canada, and as my family is way and my dog in the cannel, there was no reason to be home alone, so I got my gear and drove go the Southern Michigan Gun Club, just minutes away.

To my surprise the clubhouse, skeet and trap fields were closed, and only the Mattawan scholastic group was present at the Five-Stand, so I left the club and drove to On Target Guns & Gunsmithing (www.ontargetgunstore.com), a place where I can always get some good conversation.

Within minutes of my arrival Eric Weeldreyer, one of the owners, invited me to have dinner at this home with his family. The venison “Sloppy Joes” were fantastic!

After dinner Eric took me around his property, where he grew up, and showed me some of the stands where he collected quite an impressive collection of whitetail deer.

Eventually I had to leave to go on some errands, and in my way home I had a very pleasant surprise. Just before getting to my subdivision, coming from Almena Drive, we need to cross a small “Whisky Run Creek”, and I generally slow down, as this is a very used deer crossing.

As I came down the hill there were two young whitetail bucks with their small antlers covered in velvet, not ten feet from the road. I stopped the car, turned on my emergency lights, and took several pictures. Then I asked the deer to get away from the road so they would cause no accidents.

It was almost as if I was not there. They just ignored me and continued grazing on the lush riverine plants. Finally I lost my patience and showed them away, with about the same success as Meryl Streep’s character in “Out of Africa”, and it was just in time as other cars were coming.

The popular saying is that “bucks don’t grow old and big by being stupid”, which is something that these two youngsters have not learned yet.

Anyhow, I hope that these young bucks are a good omen for a good 2012 deer season in "the land of the free".


Have a nice Independence Day!