Watchin' for Bigfoot - 2011

[Ray Ford]

It just hit me that I have not started my 2011 thread on watching for Bigfoot--and it is May.  In fact, I believe that squirrel season opened here in Oklahoma yesterday, May 15.  I've got to get my Oklahoma Cur pup to the woods. 

Do you know what an Oklahoma Cur is?

I thought that I knew what a cur was.  The word "cur" always meant a dog of mixed, and usually questionable, lineage to me.  (And the word "fiest" generally referred to any small, mixed-breed dog.  I've posted somewhere about my grandpa and his little white fiest.  Grandpa lived, with the little fiest, in Big Coon Valley in Jackson County, Alabama.  That was well before I was born, but he told me about him several times.  When the corm patch started attracting 'coons, grandpa would slip out after dark with his shotgun and the fiest.  The fiest would heel while grandpa walked down the corn rows listening for a 'coon shuckin' out corn.  When he heard one, he would "sic" the fiest.  The little dog, white in the darkness, would usually bay the corn thief, and grandpa would dispatch it with the 12 gauge.)  But I've recently learned that the term "Cur" should be capitalized and spoken with the same respect as "Redbone" or "Plott" or "Bluetick" or "Black and Tan."

I'll pick up on this in my next post. 

And I'll tell you what my Oklahoma Cur is.  I hope the pup will be a versatile dog--a dog that will tree varmints and watch out for Bigfoot.  I have told you that a Bigfoot dog is not one that ranges out into the woods and finds a Bigfoot: he is one that hangs in close and warns you if one of the big hairy guys is slipping up on you.

[Bullet Maker]

  That's a good one Ray. I for one, would want my dog to hang close to me also. If the dogs go to far in the woods at night, they might not return. Or worse, there to far in the woods, to let you know, that Ol Bigfoot, is closing in on ya.   

[Ray Ford]

This is a continuation of my May 16 post.

When I was in high school/the 10th grade, I published 5 or so reader-contribution articles in a 'coon-hunting magazine.  I was a hound man, or kid, at the time, and I subscribed to the magazine.  Just recently, after not having seen the publication in years, I re-subscribed.  I was surprised!  There was relatively little in the magazine about hounds and relatively much about Curs and Fiests.  I soon became aware that there were registrys for Curs and Fiests.  (When I was hunting varmints, most curs and fiests were lucky to have a newspaper to relieve themselves on.  Registration papers were unheard of.)  Now, I have heard for some years about Blackmouth Curs, but Mountain Curs, Stephens Curs....  I could go through the magazine and make a list of such names.

Shortly after I re-subscribed to this magazine, an accident occured at my house.  My red and white screw-tailed bulldog nailed my Pit Bull/Staffordshire crossed gyp.  Now my bulldog was not an English Bulldog.  He looked kinda like an English, but he traced back to a part Shar Pei female that I had several years ago and to a giant Boston Terrier named Turds Lee.  He had a dab of English but also some cur.  He was a product of my own backyard, and I could detail his pedigree for several generations, but he had no registration papers.  He was a good dog.  (I'm using the past tense because I gave him into a good situation a while back.)  He was a resourceful male when the opportunity arose.

One of the pups in the resulting batch caught my interest.  I kept him.  He is less than a year old now but weighs over 50 pounds--bigger than either parent.  He goes crazy when he sees a squirrel.  I threw a road-killed squirrel into his pen a while back, and he ate it--hide, hair, and feathers.  I decided to name the big red critter "Dawg," and I assert that he is the first of a new breed.  He is an Oklahoma Cur.  Now, I just have to get him to the woods.  Maybe I'll take him up to Bulletmaker's place and check him out on Spenser Creek.  No telling what kind of critters we will find up there.  Maybe some squirrels.

To qualify as an Oklahoma Cur, a dog has to have a smattering of Pit Bull in his pedigree, some hunting instinct, and an attitude towards wild pigs.

[Ray Ford]

I know a young preacher--young compared to me--who recently bought himself a canoe.  He likes to canoe around lakes and up and down streams and to primitive camp.  We've made two excursions in the last couple of weeks:  

The first was to Okmulgee County (Oklahoma) where we checked out Deep Fork River and Okmulgee Lake.  We drove around to several parking areas put in place for the visitors to the WMA along the river--said to be one of the finest water fowl areas in the United States.  (It is, I know from experience, also one of the best 'coon hunting spots around, and, if there are such critters, could harbor a bigfoot.)  From one parking area, we hiked down to the river and back.  We also drove up into the Okmulgee "game refuge"--which is adjacent to the Deep Fork WMA.  (We called it a "game refuge" when I was teenager in Okmulgee.  Technically, it is a public hunting area and a wildlife management area.)  We also drove alongside the lake--which is adjacent to the public hunting area.  My friend thought Deep Fork looked a little foreboding and didn't seem to be too interested in tackling it with his canoe and paddle. The lake was more inviting.

Saw no sign of a bigfoot.

The second was to Bulletmaker's area.  We located a boat ramp on Oolagah lake and then a primitive area where a canoe could be launched.  My fried liked the primitive area better.  In the process, we discovered that the road west of BM's place had been worked over.  The washed-out, caved-in bridge had been filled and made into a low-water crossing.  We circled up around to BM's driveway with intentions to stop and visit, but his gate was closed.  Figuring he wasn't home, we drove back up to Foyil and ate hamburgers at that little place next to the highway before heading home.

Saw no sign of a bigfoot there either--nor of a cougar or a bear.

[Bullet Maker]

I wished you had called, cause both me and the wife were home. We were probably sitting in the cool house, and enjoying the A.C.  We always hide the car, so people will think were gone. LOL. It was just to hot for me, to be outside, finally got my tractor back from the shop. did some brushhoging, yesterday morning, but today, it was just to hot. I hear this Sunday, the temperatures, going to be really nice.

[Ray Ford]

It is supposed to take a 20 degree drop this coming week--from 100 to 110 down to from 80 to 90 degrees.  The cooler temperature could facilitate some field work--or squirrel hunting.  BTW, tell Mrs. Bulletmaker to stop harrassing those cougars.  The kitty just needed a drink.  

[Bullet Maker]

  OK, will do Ray, Oh! by the way, the wife said that if that was a Kitty, she don`t want to see the adult. LOL.
  Yes I see where Sunday morning is suppose to be nice, and the following week as will. Next Sat, I`ll have a work party, to hot today, and tomorrow, won`t be to much different. The coming week though is really going to be nice. It would be a perfect week for sitting out in the cool shade of a tree, and look for Bigfoot. 

 

[Ray Ford]

For the first time in a while--it has been way too hot--I went out to the gun range today.  I wanted to get a 200 yard test on a couple of rifles that I had previously sighted in at 25 yards.  One is a .30-06 Winchester and the other is a .300 Browning A-bolt.  Both of these rifles, when I bought them, had a BOSS.  I had a machinest/gunsmith, one who specializes in such stuff, remove the BOSS from the rifles and replace them with a BRAKE.  After this surgery, both shot extremely well at 25 yards, but I didn't try them at 200.

Today was not one of my good shooting days.  Some days I shoot better than others.  Some days I am not as shaky and see better.  I didn't hold as good of a group at 200 yards as I had hoped, but I could have killed a deer--or a bigfoot.  I'll try them again on a better day.  Almost always, when I shoot, I'm the problem is me, not the gun.

I was reminded of one thing that I have noticed about Winchesters--bolt action ones that I have owned.
They top load very easily.  This is not true of the Browning.  While you can top load the Browning, it is much easier to drop the trap door and load the magazine.  Just an observation.

Didn't see any bigfeet at the range.  I have previously opined that it is probably too noisy for them.