Henrique's Hog Hunt

Drawing from the mighty hunter himself

My nephew Henrique came visiting from Brazil to spend a month during one of the nicest summers I can recall here in Traverse City, but his mind was in something much beyond summer and the blue waters of the West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay.

As the old saying goes, "you can take the boy out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy," and as soon as Henrique arrived the only things in his mind were hunting and shooting, and maybe a bit of fishing.

As you may or may not know, Brazil has some of the most draconian (and ineffective) guns laws in the world, so prior to his trip to Michigan the only things that Henrique had shot were an old and very loose air rifle and some rounds from a just as old and maybe as loose 410 shotgun.

So, as soon as he arrived at my home he was at the backyard shooting my Crosman 3357 .177" CO2 revolver. I tried to introduce him to other air guns, but he was just in love with the Python lookalike. Some days later I introduced him to Sporting Clays at Cedar Rod & Gun Club, and on the following Tuesday he discovered the world of Trap shooting, and after dropping my daughter and grandson at the Grand Rapids airport it was time to explore Cabela's.

But all these activities could not quench Henrique's thirst for hunting. The problem was that we were (or at the time of this writing are) right in the middle of summer, not the most convenient time of the year for the Sport of Kings, and I had to find a solution or either he would go crazy or worse yet, drive me crazy. The only practical and affordable solution was a hog hunt, and after searching the internet I settled for Super G Ranch, in Morley, MI, about two hours from my home.

Before going on with the story I would like to make a few comments: I really believe in fair chase hunting, but like many other hunters, and probably many of you, I've hunted preserve birds before and hunted in large high fenced properties in South Africa, and found both to have a place in the modern world of hunting. And one of most certain places is in introducing new hunters to the sport, especially when a young aspiring hunter is visiting from a far way place out of normal hunting season.

So we are back to Friday a week or so ago, waking up at 4:30 AM (one must really be a very nice uncle to do such a thing!), getting dressed (in my case, as Henrique slept with his clothes on) and getting on the road (my huntsmobile was already loaded with all the gear.) After a pancake breakfast at McDonalds we arrived at Super G Ranch just after 7:30 AM and Les, the owner, took us to a 540 acres high fenced hunting area about a mile from his home.

As we drove inside the inclosure and parked the huntsmobile under a nice shade tree, three or four pigs came to us as to be fed, and we just ignored them, even a very large hog that slowly moved away.

Henrique geared up, which consisted of a brand new Ka-Bar knife on his belt and my 1949 vintage Winchester Model 70 in 270 WCF. I carried a range finder and my Ruger SP101 357 Magnum, the later more for psychological comfort than real need.

The plan was to walk around the 540 acres until we saw a hog and then approach to a reasonable shooting distance, a classic stalking by any other name, and we started down a two track that pretty much bisected the enclosure. After three or four hundred yards I noticed some movement just off the two track, and we approached carefully and saw two whitetail does. We stared at each other for what seemed like a long time and they bolted into the undergrowth.

Shortly after we came upon a very large cow, most likely pregnant, and shooed her away, before crossing a creek. From there it was uphill, and the temperature started climbing with us.

After another half a mile or so, Henrique spotted some animals. It was a group of four or five very large pigs busily making a meal of whatever they had found. The rangefinder read 130 yards, and we decided to approach and check for hogs. As we closed the distance it became clear that there were only sows. We talked a bit and Henrique said he really wanted a hog.

We abandoned the sows and continued our journey into the "wilderness." After sometime heading west we came across a little marsh and had to cross another (or maybe the same) stream, and then came across some rams. And although the rams would make a nicer wall hanging trophy than a hog, I rather eat porc than mutton (but I will rather eat lamb than porc), so we let them be. They also didn't seem to mind us being around, another reason to ignore the rams.

We started heading south and had to cross yet another stream, and once again uphill we found several rather small pigs, and even with the higher temperatures decided that they were not what we were looking for. But after turning east into the woods to sort of close the loop, I noticed movement far ahead. It was a sounder of maybe ten or twelve animals, and they were foraging leisurely heading for the stream.

We moved at an angle to cut their path and when the sounder crossed the two track that we had originally walked on, two hogs, a black and a red, started fighting. It was nice to see their battle while the large sows moved around, apparently ignoring the would be suitors.

While the hogs filled the woods with their squeals and grunts we approach to forty yards, I told Henrique to kneel, and he selected the black hog, sending a 130 grain Remington Core-Lokt just behind the left shoulder. The sounder broke out towards the marsh, and the black hog arched in the opposite direction, not traveling more than ten yards before collapsing.

Henrique wanted to finish the hog with his new Ka-Bar, but I refused to let the accident-prone young men to risk an injury, and told him to put another bullet into the back of his head.

Les' daughter came retrieve the hog with a front-wheel loader and we walked back to the hunstmobile. We met Les at the barn to skin and quarter the 260 pound hog, and some good conversation, prior to starting back home.

Tomorrow I will smoke one of the hams in my Big Green Egg and bring it to Cedar Rod & Gun Club for Henrique's farewell party prior to his return to Brazil on Friday.

Airgun Therapy

Walther LGR and Target Set-up

Last week while reading Vin Sparano's anthology "THE GREATEST HUNTING STORIES EVER TOLD" I came across Jim Carmichel's "The Great Jonesboro Pigeon Shoot" and that reminded me that I have been neglected one of the greatest form of shooting anyone, Professional Small Boy or not, can dream about: airgunning.

If you dive though the different posts in this blog you will come across half a dozen or so air gun related postings, but my writing is rather primitive when compared (if it could be compared at all) to Mr. Carmichel's.

Another great writer that also penned some fantastic airgun words is the late Peter Hathaway Capstick, who I believe coined the term professional small boy, which I still shamelessly. Two of the best Capstick's air gun stories are "Backyard Safari" and "Mini Sniping."

One or way or the other I have lived similar experiences as those described by these gentlemen. I may not have shot pigeons out of a court room, but I did that out of fertilizant plant and from the middle of a park in an undisclosed South American country, and while I have not bagged the dreaded bull Gundwan, I have stalked and terminated the dangerous saurian Ameiva ameiva, also known as "Jungle Runner" or South American Ground Lizzard.

I've also spent countless hours with friends or alone in my basement airgun range, mostly shooting at reactive targets for the almost instantaneous gratification of seeing a target flipping or flying. Many of the different targets that I shoot at are improvised: playing cards hanging from binder clips that are suspended from a cooper wire, spent .22 LR or center fire pistol cartridges set on golf tees (the only practical use that I have for an golf equipment), and any other thing that is same to be shot at. I also have a very nice Gamo running deer target (Gamo MTS 1000 Moving Airgun Target System to be more specific).

But with spring coming to Traverse City, and beautiful sunny days ahead, cold or otherwise it is indifferent, I just could not bear the thought of being in the dungeons and wanted a set-up that would allow me to enjoy airgun shooting in my backyard.

In the past, shooting an airgun in the backyard could put you in trouble with the law depending on where you lived in Michigan, but since July 1, 2015 airguns are no longer considered firearms, and as part of the provisions in the Air Gun Reclassification Package "these devices cannot be regulated on private property where authorization is given and the possessor takes precautionary measures to ensure that the projectile remains within the bounds of the property."

So yesterday night, when I stopped at the local Gander Mountain to buy my spring turkey license, I bought a Caldwell Resetting Airgun Target System Steel (if the Gamo is called the MTS, then this one should be called CRATSS), and this afternoon I inaugurated my new private outdoor range.

I placed the CRATSS in front of one of my archery targets to have a large and dependable back stop, placed a chair at about 20 meters and started banging at the target. Actually, my Walther LGR is so quiet that the only noises that I could hear were the hammer striking the valve and the pellet hitting the target (or the backstop if I did not do my part.)

The 10X scope on the LGR is dead on at 10 meters (the distance I generally shoot in the dungeon - sorry, the basement - and I found out that the first MIL-Dot above center was dead on at 20 meters, and when I moved to 30 meters I just had to go back to the center of the crosshair.

The cold wind blowing from the West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay easily pushed the pellets an inch sideways at the distances I was shooting, and with time the near freezing temperature started to take its toll on my finger tip sensibility. Finally, the setting sun started to play a torturing game of shadows and mirages. This was a great reminder of how much more challenging outdoor shooting is than when done in the controlled environment of an indoor range.

My next plan is to set a regulation Mini Snipping range. Of course I will have to get permission from my wife, as she is the only grown-up around the household. I will keep you posted on that, provided she allows me.

And tomorrow, the Brown Truck is supposed to bring me another Walther: a .22 caliber LGV high power spring piston. You know, professional small boys just cannot have enough toys!

A Blast From The Past

El Gamo Model 68

When I was a child in the 1970’s it was very common for boys to have air guns, but that was not my case. Although I got my first shotgun, a CBC 8 mm rim fire “Mini-Skeet” when I was around eight, my father would not allow us to have an air gun due to an accident that he had around the same age.

In Brazil air guns were almost always a break barrel spring-piston rifle, and my dad had a Diana .177 (4,5 mm) and one day when he was crossing a barbed wire fence it discharged accidently and the pellet hit him just outside of the left eye. He came home covered in blood and the family in shock started to pray for Santa Luzia, the saint protector of eyes and eyesight. My father carried that pellet deeply embedded in his skull for the rest of his life, and although he did not loose his vision, the trauma may have been responsible for an early cataract, which he had corrected by surgery before he was fifty.

Because of the importation restrictions in place at the time, only Brazilian made products were generally available. CBC, Rossi and Urko made quite traditional break barrel rifles with wood stocks, and were the most common, but there was one that stood apart of the lot, the El Gamo.

The El Gamo was coveted because it had a grip “like a machinegun”. Initially the El Gamo was produced by a whole owned subsidiary of the Spanish company, but the in the 1980’s Forjas Taurus bought the company. Initially there were two models available, a single shot and a repeater – the Gamatic, and after Taurus took over a third model was added. It used the same folding steel stock of the Beretta/Taurus MT-12 sub-machinegun.

Even in face of my father’s objections I would shoot an air gun whenever possible, and one occasion I was able to had my mother’s brother Rossi on a long-term loan, but it eventually had to be returned.

Believe it or not, it was not until after I got married that I was finally able to get my hands on a El Gamo, but it did not last long. I got it from a colleague at work, and it was functional but in real rough shape. The barrel was wrapped in electric tape, and the plastic panels on the stock were painted black.

Even in that shape I shot several air gun matches at the Helvetia Gun Club close to Indaiatuba (SP), until a certain day when a “very helpful gentleman” said that he could refurbish the El Gamo for me. It would not take long, nor would it cost much. I don’t think that I need to tell that the SOB disappeared with my gun and I never saw him again. Since this happened about twenty years ago and ten thousands miles south of Michigan, I do not have high hopes that he will bring the gun back.

Last Friday I stopped by On Target Guns & Gunsmithing, on M-43 just west of Kalamazoo, MI, to wish my friend Eric a happy new year, and when I saw an El Gamo on the air gun rack I just could not leave the store without it.

This gun is known in the US as a El Gamo Model 68, and I started to shoot it in my basement range I was surprised by its performance. First of all it is very quiet and has amazingly little vibration for a spring-piston air gun, and although I was shooting it at only about thirty feet, it is surprisingly accurate. Well, it is no on par with my Hammerli AR-50 or my Walther LGR, but it was never supposed to be a 10-meter match rifle.

I got started by shooting shotgun shells and silhouettes, and I just shot a 10-shot string on an air pistol target and except for the first two shots; every other one was inside or touching the nine-ring. This is not bad when you consider that I am shooting an original condition open sights rifle off-hand, and that I currently have an incurable eye condition called middle age.

But the little El Gamo shines when shooting the Gamo Running Deer target. Just swing the little Model 68 ahead of the self-resetting steel target and pull the trigger and it is hard to miss.

In order to get full use of the El Gamo capabilities I probably will have to scope it, but I will do it in the safety of my basement, and no “very helpful gentleman” will ever get his dirty hands on my precious “blast from the past”.

Holiday Relaxation

As most of you should be aware by now I travel a lot, mainly for work, and therefore spend a lot of time away from home. I love my work, but a lot of time it is quite stressful. Therefore, holiday season is time to stay at home and relax.

From now to 3^rd January 2012 (the day I get back to work) I plan just to “do nothing” and enjoy my family.

Some of the “do nothing” includes one or two afternoons out for antlerless deer with Greg, taking my son pheasant hunting at least once, revising a book for future publication and a lot of indoor air gunning. The picture above shows my basement air gun range, and it was inspired by the ranges of Chris Martin (a.k.a “20 Cal”) and Tony South.

I used an old bookshelf to hold multiple targets. The big box at the top shelf holds two “letter-sized” targets and was presented to me by Chris. Currently it has reduced “Mini-Snipping” (.22 LR) targets.

The shelf below it has a number of reactive targets: in the lower part there are nine golf T’s that support brass pistol shells for precise shooting” or shotgun shells for rapid fire with my Crossman 3357. On the upper part, from a heavy gage wire, hangs a set of silhouette animals and from paper clips rang playing cards that only show their edge. When you hit the playing cards properly you can actually cut then in half. It takes a bit of practice, but it is very fun. This is the domain of my Walther LGR and Hammerli AR50, both Olympic grade rifles with scopes to compensate for my middle aged eyes.

Finally, on the bottom shelf I have another reactive target and some precision pistols targets, the later for my much cherished Feinwerkbau Model 65.

I also have a Gammo “Running Deer” moving target that is very fun.

It is important to mention that I only shoot soft lead pellets and there are appropriate target backers that will not allow them to ricochet, and I have a poured concrete all behind the bookshelf. In any case, I always use eye protection.

From my basement TV room I can shoot at about 10 meters, and this is the perfect set-up to relax during the holidays (my children will often join me), endure the cold Michigan winter nights or the humid and uncomfortable summer days, and the fact that my “wine cellar” is just a couple yards from my air gun range motivates some friends to visit for the after shooting “discussions”.

Life is too hard not to have fun!

P.S: My “macaw” and toy car are not targets!