Just Fudding Around

I spent another couple of hours fudding around this afternoon. I went back to the spot where I went last Sunday, which is a walk-in access area not too far from where I live. It was another beautiful day, about ten or twelve degrees warmer than last week.

Once more, I didn’t see anything that I would shoot at. I spooked up a pheasant, but I wasn’t going to bother to take a shot: first, I don’t have a license for pheasant; second, I was carrying my .36-caliber flintlock rifle, which is hardly the gun you’d want to use to shoot a pheasant on the wing.

I saw some other folks set up with a temporary blind at the edge of a cornfield on the property. They were trying to call in geese–which I considered a bit optimistic, given that it wasn’t all that close to dark. But there ya go. I saw them not long after I entered the access area. So I drove around to the other side of the area and walked in from there. I didn’t see anyone after that.

I have a license for muzzleloader season. I saw several spots where it would make sense to set up for deer. Because this is a walk-in area, no one can set up a more-or-less permanent blind. I think that I’ll just go in with a stool and make a quick brush blind. The best camouflage, of course, is woven out of stillness and silence.

Below are a few photos from today.

As noted, my rifle is a .36-caliber flintlock. It has a Pedersoli barrel and lock. It’s in the poor boy style, with a curly maple stock. I had it loaded with 45 grains of 3F Swiss. It has little recoil with that load.

I don’t bother wearing camo. After all, I’m wearing a blaze orange cap. I don’t think that wrapping the rest of myself in camo is going to help all that much. And a gray shirt will blend in a bunch anyway.