Bad Preparation

Bad Preparation

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Old friend and long time Alaska resident outdoorsman Chad Hood tells a story of how not to prepare for a hunt: “A good learning experience, I was deer hunting in Hoona, Alaska, 35 miles west of Juneau, and I learned a lesson not to shoot too many deer in a day. My buddy and I, it was in August, and we were doing high alpine Sitka blacktail hunting, we were going to be out for a few nights so we hiked up into the Alpine country, and we got up about 430 in the morning and I saw 14 bucks feeding on a hillside. We were looking them over and I picked a good one out, shot him and he rolled down the hill. The deer continued to graze completely unfazed. My buddy saw one that he liked, shot him and he rolled down the hill. The deer continued to feed without moving. So we started walking towards them and a big buck came out and I looked at him and he looked at me and I asked my buddy if he was going to shoot it and he shot is so now we had three deer, quite a ways from the vehicle, just laying there. It turned out that day was the hottest day of the summer, it was 87° up there and up there, 87° feels like 100° down here, and my buddy is 140 pounds soaking wet. I asked him what do you have for water and he said I brought up a bottle of lemonade and a pint of whiskey.” It was hellish but they finally got the deer to the truck.
Previous ReportSalmon and dams
Next ReportChad's Moose 1