Thursday, July 23, 2009

Night Hunting After-Action Report 07/23/2009

Colonel Cooper always wondered why so few people seem to enjoy stalking and hunting at night by spotlight. The Leopard Light he specified for the Steyr (now Mannlicher) Scout was for spotlighting leopards specifically. I can only imagine how much of a thrill that hunt would be.

The first part of this week, I noted the accumulation of SCORES of bird droppings on my car's hood. Per. DAY. A couple of days ago it rained pretty hard and the car was washed clean. The next day, scores of bird turds, again! This, of course, means war.

Tonight I strapped my second-brightest LED flashlight to the axis of my Daisy's telescope sight and loaded up, then stepped out. The light grey of the local doves stands out in stark contrast to the green and medium dark gray of the foliage of my trees, in the light from this torch. I went over by my car and shone the light (on the loaded rifle) up to the tree. Spotted. Sighted. Shot. Hit. Loud hit. Solid on hard feathers. Fly away. Dangit. Load up again, stalk for maybe half a minute. Spotted. Sighted. Shot. Hit. Fly away. Dangit. Stalk again. Spotted in profile, target angle almost 90ยบ. Sighted. Shot. Hit. Fluttering. Flapped down across the street.

Make that two to lightly winged and one probably dead by the time I write this. The local cats will be getting fat soon, I hope. I had been letting the birds be, because they only come around at dusk and I'm usually inside putting the children down at that time. Now that I know I can spot them, I'll be keeping my car's AO clear.

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