WOMEN CAN BE GREAT HUNTING PARTNERS - SAVE YOUR LIFE

From December 01, 2007 ON AIR JUDGE WYLD SHOW - Radio Talk

Excerpt from show prep notes. On air content may have been more or less. Not journalistic or debate notes.

Hunting/Pushing too hard. Lady with me, slows me down.

Maybe that’s a good thing. Full Section is a mile by mile. Several ravines…about two football fields across. Down and up… winter wheat field winding in between. Creating oasis of cover for pheasants.

I move fast. Always believed in walking fast. At the mall, at a job, in the house, outside. Save a big percentage of time if you speed up when walking. 3 miles an hour versus 6 miles an hour. Can still see as much.

Heavy boots, several layers of warm clothes, high thick grass, uneven ground, keeping eye on the dog. Back and forth along slopes of ravines can be 4 miles in one field. Gun heavy in the arms…ready to shoot at any time.

Tired but there was an oasis across a winter wheat field 80 yards across. Got to the oasis and immediately knew I had done too much. Exerted too much. Wanted the vehicle right there, right then….

Walk backed.. sort of hunting sort of not. Walked up the back of three separate hen pheasants. Perfect sighting and distance. Jump poop, hesitate, flap, and fly. But were hens.

Walked 200 yards and stopped. The faster I walk the sooner I’ll be out of there. Then realized that the faster I walked, the more quickly I drained. I stooped and breathed. Lungs not getting it done. Muscles numb and wore. Not numb and useful. I decided not to actually sit on my butt.

I walked another 150 yards. I stooped. Much lower this time. I put a knee down. The dog was wondering. I had pushed the dog so hard the week before. The dog was still wanting to move. I couldn’t.

Another 100 yards. Each time was less distance. Each stop was lower to the ground. I sat down on the ground. Imagining that giving up meant bad thing and was stupid.

Then 50 yards at a time. Rest…most of the time to the ground. Sometimes letting the gun rest on the ground by itself to give my arms a break.

100 yards from the Jeep. The strength came back slightly. Walked parallel with the Jeep. Not to the Jeep. Worked some low ridges in the field. Behind me a bird got up. I swung around aimed and pulled the trigger, click. The firing pin hit the cap in the shotgun shell but it didn’t fire…. Beautiful but no kill. Dad’s old green shells were unreliable. No more will I load those shells…..

the dog and I drove toward home 2.5 hours away…. Stopped at a small lonely field on the drive home because I saw a pheasant running into that field…. Scared up 7 roosters near the road. Not supposed to shoot there. I dragged my weary body through a mile of that field, shot a rooster, and saw several more fly away as we walked back to the Jeep after the kill.

Canceled two hunting trips in the last two weeks. Going out tomorrow.

ON AIR pointed out that if a woman would have been along, we wouldn't have pushed so hard to hunt the extra ridges.... not push so close to death. Mine. Appreciate the women in your life who save you from yourself, you are a real man to her.

Sincerely, JUDGE WYLD