Pinewood Derby Time!

There are special times in the life of a father and son that should be looked forward to.  For example, the first time you take your son fishing, or the first time you take your son hunting, or the first time you play catch with your son in the yard.  All of these things have been very special to me as a father and I am so glad that I have been able to experience them with my son.  With that in mind, I have to say that I have been waiting for this day for a long time.  Reid is in the 1st grade this year and is in the RA program at our church.  RA's is a great program for boys in the 1st through the 6th grades where they learn a lot about missions, God, and being better young men.  It also means Pinewood Derby Racing and this year Reid and I are gunning for the prize!!

We give the boys an opportunity to choose between a pre-cut car design or a squared off block of wood in which to design their own car.  Reid and I chose the block so that we would be eligible for the "best design" trophy.  A pre-cut car does not qualify for that award.  The boys are all judged on design, artwork and the ability to go fast down the track.  The 1st - 3rd graders (Lads) race against each other in a double elimination tournament, while the 4th - 6th graders (Crusaders) race against each other in their own bracket.  A winner is named in both divisions and then we bring all the boys together to determine the "Car of the Year".  The car that wins that race is displayed in the RA room in a special case for the next year.  All of the boys want that honor!

Reid and I took his square block of wood and tried to decide what we wanted to do with this soon to be work of art.  We started by trying to come up with a theme for his car.  We talked about an Atlanta Braves car and a Lightning McQueen car and a hunting car and a golf cart car, but I was pleased to hear him say that he wanted a Go Eagles (Georgia Southern) car.  My mind went to work on how we could make his car unique.  It would be very simple to cut out a car and give it a Georgia Southern paint job, but I wanted to do something a little different.  Besides, if my mad skills can not produce a fast car at least I could make one that looks really cool.  I spent some time on the Internet looking at different designs and decided that I would try and incorporate the Georgia Southern Eagle logo into our car design.  I'll let the pictures take care of the rest of the story.

After a quick trip to Mr. Bill's to use his saw, we came back to my shop to do some sanding and shaping.  Reid helped me or watched me in every step.  He is full of questions and I was happy to give him answers!

This is the design that I came up with.  The Eagle head is the academic logo of the school.  The rear of the car is an Eagle wing.

The next step is adding weight to the car so that it will travel faster.  You want to be as close to 5 oz without going over that you can.  I cut out a section on the back and put 1/4 oz weights in the hole.  I covered it with wood filler and sanded back into shape.

The painting process begins!

What car would be complete without racing stripes?



Some detailed painting by Mom adds feathers and we are ready to race!

The big day finally came on Wednesday.  All of the boys lined their cars up for the official weigh in and the races started promptly at 6:00pm.  It became apparent fairly quickly that Reid and I were not built for speed with our car design.  Reid lost his first two races in the double elimination tournament in his age division. He showed good sportsmanship and did not act very upset at his loss, but I was sure hoping that we could pull out at least one race in the overall competition.  We did just that as we one our next race!  He was so excited and jumped up and down.  We were promptly eliminated from the tournament on our next race, but one win was all we needed to keep a smile on his face!

The boys are lining them up for competition!

The RA Crew!

This next picture is what it is all about!  Reid may not have won many races, but he took home the trophy for best design!  He was so proud and I was so happy for him!  He had a big time and I could tell that he was proud as all his friends told him that he had the coolest car that they had ever seen!!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

I can't wait until next year!!

Snipe Hunting! More to me than a practical joke!

All of us have heard the stories about taking some poor helpless non-outdoors type person out into the woods to do a little mythical "Snipe Hunting".  Most of the time you hear of the guilty party giving this helpless soul a sack to bag his prey in and telling him to clap loudly and make funny noises as he walks through the woods.  All the while you and your buddies are back at the campfire trying to contain your laughter as your victim is wondering around in circles, his path easily detected by listening to the outrageous noise he is making.  When he finally gives up and gets back to camp, he is met with good ribbing and he can check "Snipe Hunting" up to a life lesson learned! 

However to me, Snipe Hunting is not a practical joke.  In fact it can be some of the best wing shooting that you can participate in.  I found this out while I was working for East Georgia Turf Farms in Statesboro, Georgia.  I was fresh out of college and took a job with EGTF as a salesman selling sod and golf course construction jobs.  The sod farm was a beautiful farm with large fields of green, green grass always maintained to perfection.  In order to keep this beautiful grass ready for harvest, the irrigation system was run on a daily basis.  This led to drainage ditches that constantly held water, especially in low lying areas.  We even had some low lying small ponds that attracted several species of ducks.  Hunting on the sod farm was a company perk and one that I took advantage of on a weekly basis.  Although ducks and doves were always on my mind, the sod farm was home to another lesser known game bird, the Common Wilson's Snipe.

Snipe like wet areas just like the ones that we had on the farm.  It was not too uncommon in South Georgia to jump a snipe while fishing around one of your favorite ponds, but other than that you just didn't see very many of them at one time.  That was not the case on the farm.  These guys grouped up in groups of 20 or more and could be forced out of their homes by walking irrigation ditches through the fields.  Think shooting quail that have been flushed from a ditch.  They are very quick and dart around your shot pattern with ease, but they are not very smart.  I could walk up a group, fire off a couple of shots and then watch them as they gained altitude just to fly back over me again offering a third shot.  Then they would just fly down the ditch and light on the other end of the field.  Pick up your kills and start walking.  Get the group up again and start the process over.  Easy, peasy, lemon squeasy!  If you could shoot just a little you could get your limit of 15 on any given afternoon.  There were some afternoons when one field would yield my limit.  I have never seen more Snipe in one place than I did on that sod farm.  They were there by the 100's.  It was a blast!!  We had a good time eating them as well.  Batter and fry those bad boys and it was just like eating a small dove.  If you get a chance to chase these little guys, you should definitely do it.  I always thought it to be a combination of quail hunting and dove hunting and what could possibly be better than that?

I was reminded of my Snipe Hunting days by two different things last week.  The first was I jumped one of the little rascals at my Dad's pond while Reid and I were trying to catch a fish.  It scared me to death as it took off across the pond. The second was I read about a Snipe Hunting adventure on "The Maine Outdoorsman". (No link to the actual story because I don't feel like trying to find it again).  He was successful in killing ONE snipe.  It made me realize how lucky I have been with some of the hunting opportunities that I have had in my life.  I had never seen Snipe like that before and I have never seen them like that again.  I just happen to come along when the getting was good and was able to enjoy the chase that God provided.   I had some good days on that farm!  We would get up for an early morning duck hunt, change ammo and hunt snipe until lunch, hit the fields in the late afternoon for some good dove shooting and then hit the creek one more time for a few late arriving Wood ducks.  That is a day in heaven for a wing shooter like myself!!

I haven't killed a Snipe in over 15 years.  Like I said, you just don't see them that often around here, but I still have wonderful memories of the chase that the Wilson's Common Snipe provided!  As my buddy from Down East would say....

God love it!!

Otis Technology Hard Core Hunter Cleaning System- A Gear Review

I was recently awarded the opportunity to participate in a "gear review" for the Outdoor Blogger Network.  I simply left my name stating that I would be willing to accept a free product and provide the OBN with a review of how I thought the product performed.  I am in no way employed by the OBN or by Otis Technology.  This review is simply my opinion. (I hope that will satisfy the disclaimer police)  On with the review!

I am a clean gun freak.  In fact the little Browning that you see in the picture at the top of my blog is 20 years old and still looks the same as it did the day it came out of the box.  So you can understand my excitement when I found out that I would be reviewing a gun cleaning kit from Otis Technology.  The kit that I was sent is called the Hard Core Hunter Cleaning System.  As I opened the box and grabbed hold of my newest cleaning toy, the first thing that came to my mind was......tiny!  This little thing is a whole bunch of cleaning genius packaged up in a camo bundle that can fit in the palm of your hand.  I opened the little pouch and was really amazed at how much they put into such a tiny package.  Here is what is found in the kit:

Three memory flex cleaning rods, three forged brass tips, two obstruction removers, Otis 085 Ultra Bore Solvent, all caliber patches, small calibre patches, shotgun brush adapter, two patch savers (for shotguns), six bore brushes, lens cloth, and a bore reflector.

That's a lot of stuff and just about everything you need to give your gun a good cleaning.  So I gave it a try.  Since the shotguns have been put away already cleaned up, I figured I would give my new system a try on a couple of Browning pistols using the short cleaning rod.

This is a Browning Buckmark .22.  You can see me pulling the small pistol cleaning rod into the barrel with a cleaning cloth attached to the other end. (I had to remove the slide after this picture was taken because the rod wouldn't quite make the turn)  I found that the system was really easy to use and I especially liked the flex rods.  Most cleaning systems use stiff rods that must be attached together to run down a barrel.  This is why most cleaning kits come in a long box.  They have to be long to hold the rods.  Not the case with this system.  You just roll the rod back up when you are done and place it back into its section in the case.  After I brought the cleaning patch through the barrel, I simply changed the tip to a wire brush and pulled her through again.  Switch the tip, put on a clean cloth, and give her one last go.  Clean barrel!

You can see where the rods are stored in this picture.  They fit into the back of the kit, while all of your cleaning tools fit into molded rubber slots that ensure that they do not move around.

I spent some extra time cleaning my 9mm.  It comes apart easier and I could use more of the tools that came with the kit.  After cleaning the barrel, I went to work cleaning those hard to reach places inside the grooves of a firearm.  Guess what, this kit has those small tools that help you get into those small places.  I was able to take a tapered brass rod that was provided to run a cleaning cloth into grooves that had collected grime and burnt powder.  When I got finished, I had a clean gun!

I have to give this kit a thumbs up!  It is small so it doesn't get in your way while you are trying to clean firearms of different sizes.  It is easy to use because it is so well organized.  It has all of the necessary tools that I need to clean the guns that I own.  It can fit into any back pack which makes it extremely convenient to carry with you and I absolutely love the flexible cleaning rods!  They were so easy to use!

If you are looking for a cleaning kit in a small package that can be taken in the field or to hunting camp with you, then I highly recommend the Otis Technology Hard Core Cleaning System!

Trust me!  Like I said, I'm a certified clean gun freak!!

Justin Wilson Eat Your Heart Out! I Guarantee!!



Shoot it to it!

 I remember watching Justin Wilson on TV when I was younger.  He was a Cajun cook that made everything look so good as well as so simple.  His famous tag line, "I Guarantee! " would always bring a smile to my face.  I have always enjoyed cooking and I am not scared to try my hand at cooking just about anything.

Monday was a good cooking day.  I was off of work for Presidents Day, so I thought that I would prepare some tasty treats using my oil-less turkey fryer.  Since I got such good response from you my readers the last time I cooked up something, I decided to take a few shots of what I was up to.

The first picture shows a turkey breast being covered with some of my favorite seasoning.  This is all you need to do to get this bird ready to sizzle.

I have placed the turkey in the cooking basket and will add a little more seasoning.

This is what the inside of the oil-less fryer looks like.  It uses no top.  A ring of fire is lit around the bottom and heats up the container using infrared technology.

This is what you get one and 1/2 hour later.  It is really very good and just as juicy as it can be.

Since I was on a roll, I decided to do a little BBQing.  In the oiless fryer you might ask?  Yep, here we go!

Rubbed down Boston Butt in the cooking basket ready for some heat!

Cooked for 1 hour and ready for some sauce.  I injected the sauce as well as covering the outside.  I then wrapped it in two layers of tin foil and placed it back into the cooker for another 20 minutes.

This is what I got!  Want some???

Was it good??  Well, in honor of Justin Wilson......

I GUARANTEE!!!!!

On a side note, today is my Blogging Birthday.  I started Brave Eagles Hunt With Antique Brownings one year ago today.  Thanks to all of you who follow me and especially to those of you who leave me comments and words of encouragement.  I hope to improve on the blog and keep you guys interested in what is going on in my little world!  I have met some great folks during this past year and I hope that I will have the oportunity to get to know all of you better.  Thanks again for reading and here is to another year!

Getting Ready!

Monday was a holiday for me and the kids.  Mama had to work so I stayed home and enjoyed the day playing with the kids and finding things to get done around the house.  With baseball season right around the corner, Reid decided to do a little practicing on his own.  First he set up his pitch back net and threw himself some grounders.  When he got tired of that he picked up his bat and went to the Swing Away machine.  I watched him for a while out of the window and then I figured I had better get out there and try and coach him up a little.  He has happy feet and will keep creeping around the pole if you don't watch him.  This causes him to get to close to the ball swinging back towards him.  You can see in the video that on the first couple of swings he has his feet in a good position.  The more swings he takes, the wider he lets his feet get and the worse he swings.  I'm trying to teach him to attack the ball out front right now and to keep a good solid base under him.  We can work on letting the ball "get deep" and taking it to the opposite field when he gets a little more advanced.  I'm sure my blog following baseball coach named Steve from California can give me some pointers on his swing and could also give me some pointers on coaching a 7 year old in the fine art of hitting, but for right now I'm just happy that he is making consistent contact and is improving his hand/eye coordination with this practice drill.

I shot this video in an effort to show him how he is letting his feet get too wide and how he is moving around the pole.  He wasn't very impressed with my high tech coaching method, but he did want to video his old man showing him how it is done.  Not my best swings, but not too bad considering I was swinging a 28 inch bat and had on my slippers.  His sister can be heard in the background asking to see the video.  What in the world did we do when we were kids and actually had to wait a week or so for pictures and such to be developed?  Steve, how was this???

My back will be sore tomorrow and my elbow, which is already screaming at me, will need some ice.  I have a bad case of tendinitis that needs to be healed up before golfing season!  Overall it was a great day outside with the kids and Reid had a fun time practicing baseball which I enjoyed seeing. 

I also did some cooking in the new oil-less fryer.  I'll post on that later in the week!  Happy Presidents Day!

The Clear Cut Gobbler!

With Turkey season 2011 fast approaching, I sat down tonight with my turkey vest to become reacquainted with all of my gear.  As I was checking all of my pockets for everything that a good turkey hunter needs, I came across a spent shell with the words "Clear Cut Gobbler" written on it.  I was taken back to a wonderful morning in April of 2010 when I had in fact killed a very nice 3 year old gobbler with a nice beard and 1 1/2 inch spurs.  It was not the biggest turkey that I have ever killed, nor was it the most memorable turkey hunt that I have ever been on, but it was still very special to me because it was my first hunt in which I did it all by myself.  My turkey killing machine father was not on this trip and the pupil became the master for once in his turkey hunting life.

This story starts on a morning hunt that produced no gobblers. Daddy and I had tried to get a bird to talk to us for most of the morning with no luck.  I have always hunted turkeys with my Dad and I let him do all of the calling and I also let him determine how we plan to attack.  If hey says lets go this way, we go.  If he make a suggestion to do something a certain way, we do it.  I really do not mind because he has killed more turkeys than me and usually gets his limit each year.  He hunts every morning of the season and is in tune with what the birds are up to.  Most of the time anyway!

As we were heading home, I threw out a suggestion that we stop the truck on the edge of the woods before we reached the clear cut and see if we could get one to gobble.  He stopped and I got out and grabbed a new box call that I had put in my vest.  He was content to let me call because it was later in the morning and we really didn't have anything to loose anyway.  I hit a few yelps and we had a gobbler thunder back from a long way off.  We quickly grabbed gear and headed for a place to get set up on the edge of the clear cut away from the truck and closer to the gobbler.  Daddy said to hit that thing again.  I did and the Tom fired right back.  We sat down and started the dance.  We called and he would answer but it became clear that he was not coming in our direction.  I sat up to get a better look and thought I saw something in the road about 400 yards away.  I fished out my binoculars and it was easy to see our big boy strutting up and down the road in the middle of the clear cut.  Hens were all around him and we didn't have a hope in calling him away from them.  We let him be.

I spoke up and said that we should try and walk into the middle of the clear cut before daylight and set up on that bird.  I didn't get the impression that Daddy thought that was the best of ideas, so I just filed it away determined to make my plan work.

Daddy was out of town working and I got the ok from my wonderful boss to come in late for work on a Wednesday morning.  I told my wife that I was going hunting and her reply was, "but your Daddy is out of town."  I told her I was going alone and she asked me "do you know how?"  Hell yes I know how and I was going to prove to myself that I could do this on my own using my own tactics and my own calling.  Daddy had hunted earlier in the week, but he had not hunted the clear cut gobbler.  I was determined!

I parked the truck and gathered all of my gear.  I was going to have to make a 1/4 mile hike to get to the place where I saw the Tom the weekend before.  I made it in plenty of time and set my decoy up in the middle of the road.  There were no trees in the middle of this clear cut so I backed up to an old dirt pile and set up my little blind in front of me.  I waited for daylight and for the woods around me to come alive.  Since the gobbler had responded to the box call the weekend before, I figured I would try that this morning.  The box call is a Wet Willy box call from Knight and Hale.  It has a high pitch and sounds great.  It is also loud and the closest roosting turkey to my location would have to be over 250 yards away if he was there at all.  He was there!  He started responding to my calling efforts right off the bat.  I mixed in some soft calling from my mouth call and then I just shut up.  He kept thundering the clear cut and boiling my blood at the same time.  I would let him go on for a while and then I would softly purr.  He would fire right back so I knew that he knew exactly where I was.  He gobbled a few more times and I let a few minutes pass.  It got to the point where you start to wonder if the turkey is on the ground or not, so I reached over and picked up Willy.  I hit a few notes and he thundered back, still in the tree.  I sat the call back down on the ground and looked up.  Standing not 50 yards directly in front of me was two bright red heads.  As my eyes focused and my brain caught up to what was happening, it became clear that my gobbling turkey was still in the tree, but these silent turkeys were already here.

The bachelor pair, made up of a young jake and his studly paint brush wearing friend, were making their way through a clean area among the cut out tree tops.  They stepped into the road just South of my set up.  They saw the decoy and the big boy started to put on a show.  He blew up and started his best "come to me moves".  His buddy was trailing right behind him as they moved closer towards me.  I was able to slowly lift my Browning NWTF Turkey Special and fix my florescent sight on the big gobblers head.  I would like to tell you that I sat there and watched the big bird strut around a few minutes and admire all his beauty, but that just ain't me.  As soon as he got close enough, I let him hold it.  He didn't take it very well and his day was ended just as fast as it started.  His little buddy took off when he saw me jump up from my stand.  I gathered my stuff, admired my bird and called Daddy!!!

I believe my exact words were "I got 'em!"  He knew what I was talking about because I told him the night before what I had planned.  I sent him a picture of his spurs and was headed home.  My total hunt time was less than 30 minutes.

Remember how I said that my gobbling gobbler was still in the tree?  You can see where this is going.  Since I did not have to use my "come to work late ticket" on Wednesday morning, I asked for another on Friday morning.  Permission granted.  This time Daddy was going with ME.  I parked in the same place.  Set the decoys up in about the same place.  I let Daddy pick the set up spot and he chose one better than I had on Wednesday morning (that's why he is the pro).  We got settled in and I showed Daddy the direction that the birds had come from and where I thought they would be roosted.  I sat back and waited for him to start calling.  He finally asked me what I was waiting for.  He wanted to see me in action.  I got Willy again and sang a little song that cut out across the morning.  BAM!  He answered!  We played cat and mouse for a while and things finally got quite.  I got ready.  I heard Daddy say "there he is".  Would you believe that there was again two turkeys?  One jake, one gobbler, walking down the same path as two days before.  Daddy told me to shoot the gobbler and that he was letting the jake go.  He did some soft purring on his call as I readied the Browning.  I dropped my second clear cut gobbler of the week not 15 yards from where I dropped the first.  The pupil had become the Master!  At least for that week!

I'm ready for this season to begin and to get in the woods with Big John!  I'll still let him do all the calling and decision making, but at least now I know that he might just ask me what we should do!  Besides, he went out and bought himself a Wet Willy box call for his own use so I must be rubbing off on him.  I wonder how long it will be before we try that clear cut again?!

I love you Pops!  Thanks for teaching me all that I know!

Recreational Hunting Project Gone Wrong!

Sometimes the best intentions do not always work out the way that you want them to.  I am going to go on record and say that I really wish this project would have worked!  Being a wing shooter at heart, I would have loved the opportunity to chase a larger game bird here in the deep South much like my friends in the Great West get to chase their beloved pheasants!  However the project that I am about to reveal to you did not work, and us Southern boys are still chasing doves, quail and ducks to get our wing shooting fix.

Fitzgerald Georgia is a unique little town with a great deal of history.  You can read a little about our unique history in the post in which I met a challenge by The Downeast Duck Hunter to post some old pictures with captions about our past.  We are truly a town to be studied if you are a Civil War buff.  Sadly though, Fitzgerald has become more famous over the past few years for another thing all together.  We have been on the national news, featured in magazines and even shown on The Price is Right wearing a T-shirt proclaiming our town's "claim to fame".  What have we done you might ask?  Have we embarked in a great industry that will benefit millions?  Nope.  Have we uncovered a medical cure that could save lives across America?  Nope.  Have we been named the number one small town in The USA?  Nope.  What could it possibly be that would garner such national attention???

Brace yourselves now!!!!!..................We have chickens!!!!!!

Yep, we have wild chickens that roam our downtown area and weave in and out of parked cars as they make their way to and fro from the medians that divide our streets.  They live in back yards and flower beds of homes in the downtown area and they have started to make their way to homes on the outskirts of town.  These wild chickens are actually Burmese Jungle Fowl and are really quite pretty.  The rooster shown here is full of color and has a lot of personality.  The hens are mostly dark colored and smaller.  They have shorter tail feathers.  How did they get here?  Well that's the direct result of a hunting project gone wrong.

You can read a little about the project here on the City of Fitzgerald's website or you can just stick with me and I'll fill you in.  Back in the 1960's the Georgia DNR decided to try and release these Jungle fowl into the South Georgia habitat in hopes that they would become a game bird that could be hunted by Georgia shotgunners.  I guess you could call them a poor man's pheasant.  A group was released just up the road near the Ocmulgee River.  Well these guys didn't take to the South Georgia countryside to well and they decided to move to town.  Less foxes, coyotes and hawks to deal with would probably be my guess as to why they decided to take in the lights of the greater downtown Fitzgerald area!  Apparently downtown Fitzgerald is the perfect habitat for these Jungle fowl because they have been here now for over 30 years and they seem to be thriving.  It is hard to ride down any street without seeing several chickens just doing what they do.  The people of Fitzgerald either love them or hate them.  I for one like the little guys as long as they are not in my yard.  They can tear a flower bed up in a heartbeat. 

These chickens tend to stay downtown and tourist who may be visiting our fair city just love to take pictures and follow them around.  They are fairly use to people by now and they will let you get close enough to take a nice profile shot.  Just don't mess with a Mama who has here bitties with her.  My son found that out at a very young age.  My mother had taken him to play in one of the City parks on a pretty summer day.  He decided that he wanted to chase a chicken and struck out after the wrong one.  The mama hen turned on him and ran his little behind back screaming for his life.  You don't want to mess with a Rooster either.  We have one that lives here on the grounds at the bank.  I have gotten pretty close to him and he has spurs that I'm guessing are about 1 1/2 inches.  He could do some damage.  No neighborhood cat or dog wants anything to do with them for that very reason!

So Georgia's game bird project moved to town where its only enemies now are on-coming traffic.  I'm not sure that the Jungle Fowl sport hunting project would have taken hold anyway.  I have been told by several people who have tried to make this bird dinner fare on one occasion or the other that they taste nothing like chicken and are not worth wasting your time to prepare.

So come visit Fitzgerald so that you can learn about the Colony City where Union and Rebel soldiers united in harmony after the Civil War and where you can also see the World Famous Burmese Jungle Fowl of Georgia in what is now its natural habitat!!

Got to go!  There is a chicken tearing up my flower bed!!