Counting the days...

[Bigr Bang Thry]

Well, it's that time of year again...While many people would automatically think of "back to school" or "football season" when they hear that expression, those of us on this sight understand that HUNTING SEASON is what's really just around the corner. Small game seasons opened 21 days ago, but the real seasons that get me excited are coming soon. Coyote season opens in a mere ten days... ( oh, boy ! ), then archery season for whitetails opens two weeks later... ( oh boy, oh boy!! ) , and then on Nov 19, gun season for deer and bear opens... I'm not counting the MINUTES yet, but I've got all my hunting gear ready and by the door. Scents, calls, compass, flashlight, everything has been checked and re-checked. Nothing left to do but pack some food and figure out which outfit I'm going to wear ( Does this camo make me look... INVISIBLE ? ) I just checked, and there's STILL ten more days to wait. Damn ! I guess I'll go shoot my bow some more to waste time.

So, What makes YOU want to "git in yer four wheel drive an' go huntin' " ??

[JLA]

Dang they turn yall loose late in the season. Archery for Deer/turkey open oct 1 and ends nov 4

Rifle/shotgun for deer and turkey opens nov 5 and runs thru jan 1.

extended spike and antlerless opens jan 2 and runs thru the 15th.

Then we have spring turkey opening in april and ending in may.

Dove season is on now, started sept 1 and ends oct 26

spring dove opens back up jan 16 and ends feb 1

Coyote in TX is open season year round

Feral hog is alos open season year round

squirrels and bunnies too can be killed year round.

I love being a Texan..

[Brisk44]

Well dove season opened 2 sat.s ago and I have been awful excited about that. about 15 years ago I got a brand new Mossberg .410 pump in payment for some money a guy owed me and it was so sweet I stuck it in the safe without firing it to save it for dove season (which I just knew they would enact an year) ( I was only off by 15 years ) So I was really excited to get to take it out and use it. It is the sweetest little pump I've ever shot. I have been having a blast.

[JLA]

good on ya brisk. Im not much of a dove hunter. Gotta kill too many of them to make a meal, but it is good fun and i give them to my wifes cousins. they are big dove eaters.

[Zhurh]

Moose closes for us this sunday, bear will around another few weeks, snow pretty quick. I think nx week, I'm going to set for some wolves. With all the caribou gutpiles along our road; we've been seeing wolves quite regular. All one has to do is back trk into a pull off and sit on a chair in the bed; just can't sit inside trk. They hear so well. We actually toss moose & caribou hides & bones in certain places, gets their attention when they come trotting down the road.

[Brisk44]

Hey ZHURH My daughter is in Kotzebue Working for the National Park Service you ever get over that way?

[Zhurh]

Brisk, Kotzebue is clear across state from where we are at; along the Canadian border where the Yukon comes into Ak. Wife and I have been offered teaching slots out that way, but never tried that country out. I've hunted out on the Innoko River which was most of the way there; they have more moose than we do around here.

I had an old neighbor, Walt Mayer. Homesteaded his place in 1942, just died 3 years back, lived to be 95 and I never beat him once at dominoes; sharp old Iowan. He went back to Iowa in 2002 for a family reunion, hadn't been outta country in close to 40 years. He stayed 2 days and came back, ha ha. He told me he was worried he might die down there and he wouldn't get put in the ground in his Alaska. Some of those old timers that had been here years before statehood, man the stories they could tell.

[Brisk44]

I imagine you have heard some really great stories. You should post some I think they would make great reading.

[Zhurh]

Old Walt would tell me how much more independent Alaskans use to be; now they are all becoming just the same as Americans. I guess that's a process that occurs all over.

When he got here in the middle of WWII, there were still people alive from the Gold Rush of 1890's. He said those old gold miners ignored every law on the books and the govt couldn't enforce anything when so many people ignored them, ha ha.

Told me stories about crash landing his super cub, several times; making repairs, then cutting a strip so he could get back off the ground. About just flying around, seeing a lake he never fished, so landed and caught all kinds of fish to eat for a meal.

Told me one about Joe Vogler who started AIP (very conservative party up here). There was a one lane bridge in Fairbanks. Vogler and another political were arguing on the bridge about who was going to back up. Vogler tossed his keys over the side to make the point he wasn't ha ha.

Here's the last one for now. Back during statehood debate in 50's, Walt said most Alaskans didn't want to become a state, they wanted to remain a territory like the Phillapines, Peurto Rico, ect. Alaskans realized they couldn't afford to run a state govt and taxes would go thru the roof. The feds wanted statehood because the original agreement with Russia was a lease for trading rights for 100 years, not an out right sale of land. Feds were worried come 1967, the Russkies would demand Alaska back and maybe a war would start. There is some truth to this trading rights agreement, it wasn't a straight sale like we are now taught, but doesn't matter anyway because nobody will become Russkies today anyway. Feds were on the verge of losing the statehood vote, so they changed voter requirements so military could vote, then brought in 40,000 troops and threw the election. No joke, that is the truth and I have heard it from several sources, ha ha.

Anyway, old walt told me all kinds of stories was well respected in the Mat Su and to me seemed much more conservative than most conservatives I know today.

Sorry to go off track.

[Brisk44]

Those were some great stories and interesting history too. Thanks I really enjoyed them.

[JLA]

Old Walt sounds like a hell of a man and an outstanding american. I would have loved to play dominoes with him