How fast a whole year can race by surprises me sometimes when I realize it’s gone, which happened to me the last week in September when our annual teal hunt was only a few days away.

I didn’t think decades could go by that quickly though. To think it was way back in 2000 already we were putting on our first group together of guys that wanted help getting back in the field. That year, about eight guys came from all over Texas; some came with their wives and sons, some were coming for the first hunt in twenty years, and one young man was a newbie fresh out of rehab.

In 2010, we had nearly twenty disabled hunters show up, including three wounded soldiers, and we’ve grown from one donated pond to more than ten. At our roast duck dinner on Friday before the hunt, no less than 50 people were there to make sure our tenth year was the best event yet.

Since a good friend of mine (Jen Armstrong) who is an aspiring photog offered to document our event for us, I thought I’d let her work tell our story…

I’d love to tell you how I rolled into Arcadia, WI, rested & ready to rock, but after a 2-day drive, some mystery pain in my hips showed up that I knew would make me miserable if I didn’t stay in bed for a day or however long it took for it to go away. I’ve learned that it just the way it is sometimes for disabled hunters, so I got to sleep in Monday morning and miss the beginning of my 5-day hunt. I was hoping I’d be able to get at least 3 good days in…

But that didn’t happen. After lunch on Monday, I popped a hospital-sized dose of ibuprofen and headed out with my dad & hunting buddy Kevin. Just couldn’t stand it that I might miss that one chance at a the monster buck that’s been running his scrape line through my dreams these past 20 years.

It was drizzlin’ cold that first afternoon hunt in Wisconsin, overcast, dreary, and wonderful. The kind of weather that big bucks go down in. “Those deer are just like you & me. They don’t like to sit still when it’s cold & wet,” is what an old hunter once told me. I sat like a statue in one of the primos matrix blind that our host Paul had put up for us 3 weeks earlier. The wind blew lightly but steady as the droplets tick, tick, tapped on the nylon material above my head.

Something about being in big deer country is special for someone who comes from where only little deer roam. It’s the little things, you know? I was mesmerized by the tall hardwoods around me, the different sights, sounds & smells rising up through the damp draw I was in. I sat there really still, soaking it all in. Still, and smiling. The pain was there but I hardly noticed it anymore.

I watch three different kinds of squirrel chase each other through the trees and then come down to scrounge up an nut whenever the mood struck. Several types of woodpecker, jays and one flicker happened by to keep me entertained too. The woods seemed to be alive with song, which contrasted the grey afternoon.

Three hours later, I caught the glint of antler on the back side of a 4 foot berm that had been made to catch water 35 yards down the draw…

All I could see was antler swivel back & forth as he checked for danger. For ten minutes, he stayed put, until a doe came off the hill on my left and got his attention.

Thirty minutes later, and just before dark, that doe had come back right by me and this massive rack was coming right at me & grunting! He passed by me at 8 yards, stopped and looked at me in the din of last light. I shot!

The money fish on the Florida flats is the speckled trout and the redfish. There are plenty of other fun fish to target, but these two are by far the most popular to anglers. What makes these fish so popular is they are plentiful, put up a good fight, and are great table fare. Speckle trout are really pretty fish. They have several spots along their body, thus the name, and are usually green and a silvery brown in color. They are easy to filet and are especially good pan fried in vegetable oil. Usually you know when you’ve hooked one, because they give their head a violent shake once you get a hook set. The big ones folks call ‘gator trout’. This might be because they have two sharp teeth in the top of their mouth, and its generally a good idea to make sure you have a pair of pliers when you go fishing for them.

Anglers use several different techniques to catch these fish. One of the most common is to drift along the grass flats using a live shrimp attached to a leader behind a popping cork. These corks pop when you jerk the rod tip, causing a commotion in the water that can drive fish wild. Generally you tie a leader onto the bottom of the cork 12- 18 inches long. This may vary though depending upon water depth and density of the grass. Trout love to hang out around potholes and around patches of sand. They hide in the available grass and ambush their prey.

Other great baits for trout include top water lures, live pinfish, and Berkley’s scented gulp shrimp or jerk shad. The two types of top water baits I use are poppers and ‘walk the dog’ type lures. Poppers are simply lures with a concave mouth that you cast out and give a few pops. ‘Walk the dog’ lures float on top of the water and you work back and forth by giving your rod tip several quick jerks. It does take some practice before this technique is mastered, but is deadly particularly early in the morning or just after a rain storm. Now, pin fish can be caught using a cast net and either fished on the bottom or drifted below a cork. This is the best way to catch big gator trout. The scented baits are great to fish with, and those can also be fished behind a cork. If the water I’m fishing is generally more than four feet or so I generally like to just hook them to a jig head and tight line them on the bottom.
Red fish are easy to identify because they are red. They have huge scales on them that remind you of coke bottles. Blackened red fish are excellent table fair. These fish are fighters, and some can pull like a small shark. Just like trout they love shrimp fished behind popping corks and will also take scented baits. Target these fish along the many creek mouths that flow out into the Gulf. Concentrate on fishing points and deeper holes. Red fish also love gold spoons, spinner baits with jerk shad, and jerk shad by themselves. Another red fish favorite is pieces of cut mullet.

Trout and red fish are awesome table fare and can be caught wading, from a boat, and a kayak. For more information on the Florida flats check out gulfcoastfishing.webs.com.

Camping on Florida’s Santa Fe River

The Santa Fe River is a tributary that flows into the Suannee. The Santa Fe is home to numerous springs, and the river itself can get gin clear when the water is low. The river is pretty, but packed with people particularly on summer weekends. A few buddies and me decided to spend a few nights camping on the river, not a one of us knew a thing about it.

We put out near Ellie Ray’s, south of Live Oak, campground and went upriver. The water was black stained and up from recent rains. Local’s told us the fish wouldn’t bite with the water low and clear, so this was good for us. My buddy Ryan and I were in his ghenoue, and we caught a ton of redbellies and a few warmouth’s mostly on meal worms and crickets. I did catch a small largemouth, but none of the Suannee bass that I had heard inhabit the river. The fish were small, but pulled bigger. The river has a strong current and the fish get strong from battling it. Mostly we just fished along the pretty cypress lined banks, and in the eddies. We got a lot more bites out of the current.

Finding a camping spot proved much harder than any of us had expected. We probably ran four hours upriver the first day before we found something suitable. There seemed to be a house around every bend, and due to the water level being up we could find no sandbars. Finally we found a small bluff that looked like would work, and there were no houses on this little stretch of river. We fried fish both nights, and they were extremely good being so fresh.

The second day we went upriver past Hwy 47 bridge, and found a great rope swing that we had fun on for a while, and then continued going up. This is when we ran into literally thousands of people floating down the river on tubes. We had to turn around then and fished our way back to where we had pitched our tents.

All in all we had a decent time on the river, but it was more the place you take your girlfriend, not a place for you and the boys to get away from everything. The fish bit well and pulled good, but were not massive by any means. The river was pretty though.

Now came the next important step in the process, finding the right man for the job.

It was another several weeks after sifting through a handful of recommendations that I came across a tip from an outdoor message board about a gunsmith whose shop was within a two hour’s drive from me. Instantly, I found Bobby Pitchford’s website and called to set up an appointment so I could come by to talk shop.

After meeting Bobby, I knew he was the man I wanted to build my rifle. We discussed what I wanted from this gun, calibers, and all the little details that would match it to my needs as a quad hunter: a mercury tube recoil reducer, kick-eeze recoil pad, moving the magazine release switch so my shooting orthotic wouldn’t hit it after the shot, the barrel type & length, the stock, pros & cons of fluting, and if I’d need to add a muzzle break or not.

A couple weeks later, I bought a used Remington 7mm mag from a site called AuctionArms.com for $340 so we could use its “action” for my new rifle and had it shipped directly to Pitchford Gunworks. A month later, my long-action stock from Bell & Carlson finished in mossy oak new breakup was also on the way. Now all we needed was to wait on the new barrel and Bobby said he’d call so I could come in and watch him start the build. (Below – the old remington action and new barrel & stock laid out before work starts.)

I arrived in Waller, Tx., early on (date) to watch Bobby get to work on my new gun. And it didn’t take long to see that Bobby is a master craftsman. He broke down the used rifle from auctionarms.com so he could salvage the action. These are the first few steps: separate the action from the old barrel and inspect the action and bolt to check for wear or any defects. Luckily, mine had not been shot that much and was in terrific condition according to Bobby. He disassembled the bolt and checked the working parts. Then he lapped the lug on the end of the bolt to smooth them down to a precise fit when the bolt is closed. The square lug between the action & the barrel was next to be removed and inspected. Its width is measured for precision down to a thousandth of an inch, which is about equal to the thickness of a sheet of paper. ‘Heck, everything seems to be judged to the thousandth in this shop.’ After a few quick measurements, Bobby says with a slightly frustrated sigh “It’s not bad… Let’s just get a competition grade lug and be done with it.” (Below – the old factory lug compared to the competition-grade lug guaranteed to pass certain measurement requirements.)

Next came the threading and chambering of the 26” match grade Lothar-Walther barrel with a 1400 contour and #9 twist. (We decided on 26 inches for barrel length because on magnum rifles you get better velocity with longer barrels. This allows all the powder to burn before the bullet clears the muzzle.) Bobby threads and chambers the barrel on a lathe that he custom-altered to better suit barrel work, for all types of barrels. (According to Bobby, he’s an inventor not bound by traditional gunsmithing ways. He said he’s always looking for what works best when building guns. Above – here is my barrel in the machine that rotates the barrel instead of the threading & reaming tools. It has already been threaded and Bobby is preparing the 7mm reamer for chambering.) Throughout the process, a coolant is pumped through the muzzle end of the barrel to ensure that every bit of filing debris is washed out the back and never touches the inside of the barrel.

Of course, everything is fit to the precision and feel of Bobby’s hands for exact specification that he holds in his mind from 20 years of gun making. The last bit of chambering he completes by hand. (Below – the 7mm reamer grinds out a new chamber as an oily fluid is pumped into the muzzle end of the barrel. The reamer is stationary and inserted into the spinning barrel.)

Then came the fluting process. We agreed on 6 flutes to allow maximum cooling of the barrel. Bobby started the 45000ths inch flutes 2.5” from the muzzle and ran them 17” back once my barrel was secured in the fluting machine. In all of 15 minutes, he was done.

Since we figured I probably didn’t need a muzzle break, and because I didn’t like the idea of all the noise it added to the shot, we nixed the option.

The only thing left to do was a “trigger job” where the existing trigger is enhanced by having all the sear surfaces honed by hand to a mirror finish. The spring is replaced with a Wolf spring and the sear engagement screw set for precise trigger pull.

After Bobby installed the recoil reducer into my stock, my rifle was ready for assembly, which was fine with me because I was itching to get it to the range. When we topped it off with a Leupold VX-3 4.5-14X40 with 30MM tube using Warne scope rings, it was ready to roll.