Exploding Pumkins

If you have NEVER shot gallon jugs of water with a high powered rifle you just haven't experienced all of the good things in life, yet. A rifle bullet, traveling at 3000 feet per second, will pass right through a milk jug without moving it, if it is empty. Full of water, the bullets energy is transfered into the water, mushrooming the bullet, and exploding the jug into pieces.

Interestingly a pumpkin responds much the same way a plastic jug does. Not much occurs when you shoot it with a high powered rifle, until you fill the pumpkin with water. You need full pumpkins that aren't carved, the tops are still intact and they haven't gone soft. Drill a .25-.5 inch hole on one side of the pumpkin, just below the stem. Drill another opposite the first, but still on top. Put a funnel in one of the holes and pour water in until it runs out the other hole. Stuff the holes with rags, set it out in front of you at the desired distance (these were shot around 30 yards away) and shoot near the center and bottom of the pumpkin.

By the way, I have to credit my father with figuring this out. We will be buying 12 tons of pumpkins next year to celebrate with. I am recording these with my FLIP video with a 2x digital zoom. Sorry it is so small and hard to see!

Seth's pumpkin (he' my youngest brother), shot with his Browning, A-bolt rifle in .300 Winchester Magnum, a 190 grain Hornady interlock bullet and 70 grains of IMR 4831.

Jason's pumpkin (this is me), shot with a Ruger, M77, Mark II rifle in .300 Winchester Magnum, a 150 grain factory bullet from PMC.

Adam's pumpkin (my younger brother, see my other posts), shot with the same set up as Jason's.

Tyler's pumpkin (my oldest child/son) shot with the same set up as Jason's.

Corey's pumpkin (my second child/son) shot with a .30/06 rifle, made in 1917. It was my great-grandfathers. Seth inherited it and just restocked it. It is a dream to shoot. I'm not sure of the bullet or load because I haven't helped Seth with this rifle at all. We figured out the .300 load together, but he has acquired this gun between visits and I haven't had a chance to play with it.

Jantzen's pumpkin (Adam's oldest child/son), shot with Adam's .25/06 Ruger M77, Mark II rifle. He shoots 50 some grains of IMR 4350 and a 125 grain bullet.

Corey's First Two Ruff Gouse

In the state of Wyoming grouse may be taken using any number of weapons. We went up to Cottonwood Lake a few weeks ago for a Family Home Evening campfire cookout, and I had the .22 pistol along. A grouse ran off the road to the low side, and then flew back across the road into an alpine fir; it sat above the road on the edge of a steep embankment. Corey shot lots of branches off the tree before wounding the grouse. It flew higher up the mountain, across a little meadow to a red fir where it stayed. We ran out of ammo, so I ran back to the car to get more. Corey snuck up on it and dispatched it on the 6th shot. He was shooting low, so I had to keep yelling at him to aim higher. He finally shot it in the neck area. We photographed him the next afternoon with the grouse. We forgot a camera for the little outing and so we waited for good light.

I had Corey pose in a trick-shooting-pose to impress everyone!

He isn't very proud of this one at all!

Nice weather for the middle to end of October! A few day before Corey shot this one, Tyler and I had gone up in the same area to hunt elk--we saw 6, 4 of them were bulls, but we couldn't get on them--and ended up shooting one of two ruff grouse we spotted in the road headed down from Cottonwood Lake. I think this one is the 2nd grouse that flew off before Tyler could get it.

This next grouse was shot the following week up Star Hill. We were looking for elk again, this time with Uncle Adam. We spooked this grouse out of the bottom of the draw. Corey had taken his Powerline 880 pellet rifle and he crawled through the brush to get this grouse. He shot 3 times, hitting it once. It was pretty exciting, especially since we didn't see any elk. We did see a really nice buck rutting on the hillside with 4 or 5 girlfriends.

Cole Shoots the 20 Gauge

We went over the south end to look for ducks this afternoon. We fished Jackson Lake this morning, catching quite a few fish before the high pressure system moved in at 9:30, killing the fishing for the day. I wanted to give Cole a chance at glory since he didn't get to come along. We had a half dozen scouts bail on us this morning. If I'd known they weren't going to show up I would have taken Cole along. Anyway, we didn't find ducks, so Cole took the kick from the 20 gauge for the first time today. Then he hooked and lost a 12 inch Bonneville Cut right afterwards. Watch how he closes his eyes and flinches before the gun goes off. His first shot he didn't do that, but I think it kind of scared him. I hope I didn't ruin him by starting bad habits!

Fishing "The Hole" with Tyler

A look up and down Jone's Hole

Tuesday and Wednesday of this last week I had parent-teacher conferences. Because we are at the school for an extra 8 hours, we had Friday off. So, we headed to Vernal, Utah, to see Kim's brother Kyle and his family. We went to the Vernal Temple, did some Christmas Shopping and fished Jones Hole for the first time.

It snowed bad on us Thursday night, on the way to Vernal. The roads were pretty treacherous headed over the top from Manilla, Utah, to Flaming Gorge Reservoir. So, Saturday morning, when we went fishing, we were a little worried about the road over to fish, and rightly so, it was pure ice for a good 10 miles.

We left home around 8, but got there fairly late in the morning--I had to get a fishing license and with poor roads we had to travel really slow--and started to fish around 10 am. On a cold winter day the 10-2 part of the day is usually the best. But this is a spring creek, flowing up through the strata capped by the Navajo Sandstone. So the water is a warm/cool 57 degrees year round making for fantastic fishing any time of the day and giving the fish a few extra months of growth over the freestoners.

There is a state run fish hatchery right where the water bubbles up out of the earth. After running its course through the rearing and brood stock tanks, the fish-food-rich water dumps into the creek, which is loaded with cuts, rainbows, and cuttbows, along with nice browns. The stream is 4 miles long, emptying into the Green. John Wesley Powell, on his exploration trip through the area, camped at the mouth of Jone's Hole. In his journal entry for the day he mentioned eating fish from it. The first mile below the hatchery holds some huge, football shaped fish that gorge themselves on the abundant insect life and fish food that flows out of the hatchery ponds.

Tyler and I walked down below everyone else in our group of 5. We found a nice pool loaded with fish. I counted over 25 fish in the run; the average of 12-14 inches, and the biggest pushing the 20 inch mark. We fished it for over an hour, landing 14 fish between us. This video shows one of the "average" fish we caught.

We finally pulled ourselves away from this honey-hole and headed up river, hoping to fish the pocket water and small runs fast. The problem was we couldn't fish fast as we caught fish everywhere! There doesn't seem to be any spot in the river that doesn't hold fish. There are just some areas that hold more. It averages knee deep and moderately swift, with lots of great holding water.

We covered maybe a hundred yards of stream before finding another big pod of fish on a flat. I hooked and landed 6 fish, losing 5 others. The smallest was 8 inches, the biggest was 13, with most being around 11-12. One of the rainbows I hooked jumped 3 times, clearing the water by 2-3 feet. Most head down river fast, pulling lots of line and belying their size by how hard they fight. Two from this flat were browns--I think they were paired up to spawn because I pulled them off the same bit of structure in a little run just off the bank in good gravel. The rest were cuttbows and rainbows. Tyler fished up through there after I did and hooked two more fish after I went fishless for 5 casts and had decided to move on.

Just before we got back to where we left the others, we found another deep slot next to a huge boulder. Tyler spotted a big rainbow and hooked him on his first cast. Unfortunately I didn't get the hook-up on film. But the fight is fun to watch. It didn't jump once, but it used the current to pull Tyler 20-30 yards downstream. This is one of many fish Tyler and I caught today. It was a really fun river to fish. Our average sized fish was 12-14 inches, with a few around 17-18, and a few around 6 inches. We caught most of our fish on egg patterns and wore out a half dozen of them on fish.

Tyler with his catch. The batteries died just before he landed it, so I had to change them out really fast to get this shot of him with the story. Tyler learned to hunt fish today. He would spot and cast to specific fish, catching them. He nymphs SO MUCH better, and I can't wait to take him on the South Fork of the Snake River, below Palisades Dam, this spring to put the hurt on some whitefish and trout. I hope Corey comes next time!

Fishing and Duck Hunting on Salt Creek

SHOOTING DUCKS

I took the kids over the south end, again this October, to Salt Creek hunting ducks and fishing for Bonneville Cuts. We had a nice time, finding quite a few ducks and catching a few fish.

Our first stalk went wrong on a group of 10-12 mallards. They flushed low off the water, keeping willows between themselves and the boys. No shots were fired and we headed down stream for another shot at smaller groups of ducks.

Tyler was the first to hit pay dirt. He shot this hen from a small group. He sluiced her off the water with the 20 gauge bolt action. Corey backed him up. Today was not a day for the sporting chance! The boys wanted teriyaki duck stir-fry and didn't give the ducks a chance to be missed on the wing.

Corey got first shot on the 3rd group we found, now that Tyler had a duck in the bag and blood on his hands. They snuck in on 3 unsuspecting mallards, snoozing on an outside corner of the stream. They made a good sneak and Corey shot another hen with the single shot 20 gauge the kids got for Christmas a year or so ago. Tyler watched the other ducks fly away without firing a shot! I couldn't believe it. Then he shot Corey's duck AGAIN because it "twitched"! You could have dropped a golf ball through the hole it left.

We had a "nice talk" about sportsmanship, not wasting ammo, and clean kills without destroying the game. They understand, a little better, today the ethics of hunting and I expect the more times we go out the better they will become.

Tyler and Corey with their kills, just before fishing the willow flat behind them.

FISHING

The water is low and cooler now, making for difficult fishing with spinners and such. Jared and I persisted and finally caught this smallish fish on a long, shallow flat, below a beaver dam. Corey caught a decent fish, but overall it was pretty slow fishing. The spring and summer can be incredible, especially with a fly rod. We have caught fish up to 14 inches, and lost some between 15 & 16. It is a great caddis stream!

Jared learned to cast today. He did really well. He listens to instructions and follows them well. I need to get him up on Cottonwood Lake, just the two of us, in the boat and let him cast and fish to his hearts content!

Antelope Season 09

Unit 89 Antelope Tags

Tyler, Adam and I all got antelope tags for unit 89 this year. Adam got a buck tag and a doe tag, I got a buck tag and two doe tags and Tyler got 2 doe tags. Adam and I had taken the 1st of October off to hunt the opening day of elk season, but changed our plans when we realized it was our doe antelope tags opened that day and we were limited on time. It is a two hour drive to Pinedale and elk can be hunted 20 minutes from home. So we decided to hunt elk another day and go get some antelope meat.

(Tyler's doe had really cool horns that looked like jerky!)

Right at daylight we spotted a small buck and three does right off the highway. Tyler and Adam snuck down to the fence, crawled under it and Tyler shot his first doe at 250 yards with Adams .270 WSM. It was a great shot! We took some pictures and then tried for one of the other does still hanging around. Tyler missed, shooting high, on account of his dad giving him the wrong hold over. He should have aimed dead on, but I thought they were 300 or more yards out (I couldn't get a reading with my range finder) and so we shot right over the back, just like we aimed to!

With the first of 5 does down, we headed south, turning off on to an oil road. We ran into small bucks and lots of does really fast. I shot my first doe and Adam got his. We had been hunting for less than an hour and had 3 does down. While Adam finished up his doe I spotted a really good buck. I snuck into 300 yards and missed him clean. He was really big and I still get sick thinking about it 3 months later.

We decided to hunt for him and to fill our buck tags before shooting the last two does. This proved much harder than we expected. We just couldn't find any really great bucks. We had all day and were pretty picky. There were antelope everywhere and the bucks were rutting hard. We watched dominant bucks tear up lots of sage brush and chase smaller bucks off from the herds of does. It was really entertaining.

We finally found the big buck again and I made a stalk. I had him at 100 yards and flinched--sank into the shot really--missing him again. I shot twice more as he ran away to make sure he was good and gone!

We found more antelope but there weren't any bucks big enough to shoot. One was really wide and pretty tall, but Adam didn't want him. Tyler decided to shoot a doe from that group, so he and I snuck in for a shot.

The country we were hunting in is very flat. The hills there don't break fast enough to clear sage brush and grass from your bullet path. Tyler had to shoot through some grass which deflected his bullet. He struck the doe too far back. The bullet angled through and broke the far leg. She ran for over a mile before I could get her put down. I sent Tyler back to the truck to tell Uncle Adam what had happened. Since I finished her off I tagged her. Now all I needed was a buck, Tyler still needed a doe and Adam hadn't found a buck he wanted to tag yet.

We headed down to La Barge, Wyoming, the southern end of our unit and hunted back to the north. Tyler shot his last doe an hour and half before dark. We still had two bucks to shoot and we weren't seeing many antelope in the surrounding area. So we headed back to where we had been that morning.

A nice buck was down in the flat with some does. He wasn't very big, but he was nice enough. I had less than a half an our to hunt and I didn't want to drive back there for one antelope. Adam hadn't seen a buck he really wanted, but with so little time he was feeling the pressure too.

I ranged the hill the antelope were under at 458 yards. My shot was high, just over his back. He ran a circle with his does and then headed up on the bench above. Just as he topped out and was going out of sight I squeezed the trigger. I heard the bullet strike but couldn't believe I might have hit him at that range, running, especially since when I shot he was almost out of sight over the rim of the bench. I asked Adam if he heard that, He said he did, but figured it had to have been a rock! The hold wasn't right for it to be a rock so I went to investigate and found I'd hit him! My first antelope buck, and welcome to it!

Adam and Tyler headed for higher country, hoping against hope to find a buck before daylight ran out. They got to a junction of roads and Adam asked Tyler which way they should go; there wasn't an antelope in sight. Tyler says he was praying like crazy that they could find a nice buck. He really felt they should go left. Adam followed Tyler's advice. They came to a fence with a roads paralleling it on both sides. Adam asked which side they should go on, Tyler said left again. So off they went on their wild goose chase with 10 minutes of daylight left.

A hundred yards from the final left they came to a shallow draw. They had reached the edge and were slowly making their way into it when a group of antelope with a shooter buck ran out. Adam stopped his heart with a quick shot, they threw him whole into the back and headed for me! It was an amazing day! We got home so late, tired, bloody and wiped out from cold, wind, and taking care of 7 antelope that day!


Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the bucks or other does in the field. The task of shooting, skinning, boning and taking care of 7 antelope in one day, especially if you are picky about the buck you want to shoot, is overwhelming! We have decided to put in for unit 93 doe tags next year, south of La Barge. We can kill does on the 10th of September in that unit and then hunt 89 for bucks later in the year. It is an easier tag to draw than 93 and there is lots of land to hunt we haven't even seen yet!

Tyler and I are really excited because next year Corey will be hunting with us! We are going to keep the body count at 6 or below, I don't want too many antelope!

Videos from Francis Lake

I didn't want to reformat everything on the other post, so I decided to put the video segments here.

This video is of our morning catch that we ate for breakfast. I shows our camp and some of the surrounding views. This is the same area we stayed when I was 12 years old. As a matter of fact the plants we camped over were probably fertilized by Jason Thimmes puke! The good news was that the worms, their can, and the kielbasa sausage were all gone!

Corey has just started to fly fish, so this was a great place for him to practice. I put a beetle pattern on and he went to town, catching quite a few fish. I love this video because the fish catches him by surprise. If you look closely you will see the fish has Whirling Disease. Notice its deformed body. The disease affects its spine before it calcifies, within the first year of life.

Tyler has really been enjoying his fly rod. He is getting pretty good with it and it was fun to watch him slay fish in the small stream at the head end of the cirque. Corey is so competitive that he moved too quickly and wasn't letting Tyler get any of the unfished water, so I had to get after him a little. Tyler is patient, though, and takes things in stride--definitely NOT like his dad. Tyler missed two fish in grand style in this video, it is fun to watch. I am much more like Corey. Maybe that is why my brother Adam doesn't like to fish very much! I took all the good water, leaving him with nothing.

This is Kim fly fishing for the first time since we lived in Provo, Utah, 9 years ago. She did really well once she got the hang of things again. I wish she liked to fish more! She does really well, and I'd love to take her out to do it more often. She has this SICK addiction to quilting, crafting, and other undesirable hobbies. So, if she has time to herself, it WON'T be spent fishing with me!

I love this video because it shows how much my wife has changed since we first got married. She used to go fishing with me, grab worms and take care of the fish. Now she gets grossed out, squeals, and makes me laugh the way she carries on! I sure had fun watching her and the boys catch all those fish at Francis; it was a wonderful trip!

This video is of Kim destroying the fish population in Francis Lake. It is a nice brookie that gets away after fighting Kim and Tyler for life. It is fun to watch!

I had to take a quick video before we left the basin completely. We had just topped out and we decided to take a quick rest before making the 7.5 mile decent. I had to rib Corey a little because he came prepared for absolutely NOTHING but fishing; he is definitely my son!