The rains started in the Snoqualmie Valley last Thursday and things got wet fast. Friday mornings pheasant hunt was wet and windy, we got out of the woods when big branches started crashing around and we never found a bird. With the rivers rising and no end of rain in sight it was time to head east and get into a drier climate. On Sunday I packed up the shotguns and Lira and met Lisa for a 3-4 day trip to Ellensburg to hunt chukar, quail and pheasants and also, hopefully, to break my slump.
Monthly Archives: October 2018
One month in slump
The last bird we took home was a previously shot one Lira recovered.
Pheasant season has been going for about a month now and I’m in a slump which I’m hoping will break soon. We’ve managed to get in 14 days of bird hunting so far and have bagged 14 pheasants but this week Lira has worked her tail off and found 10 birds and I’ve missed or not had a shot on all of them. Up until this Sunday I’d been hitting the majority of birds but now I can’t seem to hit anything. What changed? I’m still shooting my Benelli 20 gauge, still using my Carlson Early Season choke, still using my Prarie Storm FS Steel, … I have started wearing gloves part of the time and yes, a few of my missed birds were because i didn’t get the safety off, I’m also wearing a jacket instead of a few layers of wool. I think the real problem though is I’ve got myself psyched out. Shooting is a mental game for sure and I know when I’m in a trap slump it gets way worse before it gets better.
What to do? Going to mix it up and head east. Go after some quail and chukar instead of only pheasant and hit the sporting clays course. Maybe I’ll pull out my 12 gauge, my only issue with it is that we don’t seem to find birds when carrying it and am convinced it has an old Italian curse on it, Probably hitting the local fields tomorrow then off to Ellensburg for 3-4 days and hopefully bringing something home for the freezer.
Muzzleloader mule deer hunt
This year my plan was to have an easy hunt to fill the freezer with a cow elk early and then have a challenge hunt to really push it trying to get a 3pt or better mule deer buck with my muzzleloader. Well, the elk hunt didn’t quite pan out so that put a bit of pressure on the mulie muzzleloader hunt. I knew if I’d done this hunt during rifle season I’d probably be able to take a deer but really I wanted the challenge of a true stalk and having to get in close, especially since I’ve been so lucky the last several years. Given the difficulty of a buck with a muzzleloader I decided to do the hunt at Red’s in Ellensburg and got access to their 16,000 acre Mt. Baldy Preserve and was the only hunter during muzzleloader season there.