We have a large and robust local community of hunters and folks involved in shooting sports. Trap, skeet and target shooters enjoy their sport for much of the year and have gun clubs and shooting ranges available to join, including our own Winchester Gun Club on West Camino Cielo, off Highway 154.
For hunters, July marks the beginning of the fun seasons.
Rabbit and hare season is open and upland game birds (quail, chukar, etc.) add to the options. Varmint hunting is an option, and the months ahead will give deer hunters ample opportunities to get deep into our mountains and hills to become one with nature and bring fresh meat home to the table.
There are fun memories that come from hunting trips. Those memories commonly involve rustic camping, which is fun, especially when the locale is well away from established campgrounds. I’ve enjoyed many trips out onto the Cuyama Badlands, where you can get up into the canyons and find quiet, lonesome places to camp and hunt.
There is more life than at first meets the eye in places like the Cuyama Badlands, which look so barren at first glance. But if you sit still on a rock for 10 minutes while you blend into the scenery, and then begin looking all around, the amount of life is surprising.
I’ve walked across a big flat area with just two or three bushes within a hundred yards in any direction, and flushed a rabbit from at least one of those bushes. The tasty critters tend to sit very close to the bush in the little patch of shade provided. It isn’t much, but it is all the rabbit needs.
Jackrabbit can be hunted year-round, however they don’t taste nearly as good as cottontails in most folks’ opinion, including my own. So, I tend to just watch a jackrabbit run long and fast, and instead keep searching for a cottontail, or flush a covey of quail.
I recall training my daughter Tiffany how to hunt. She was just old enough to go through hunter safety training and earn her hunting license. She was already a good shot with either a shot gun or .22 caliber rifle.
On one hunt I can remember I had her using a .22 rife. I assure you that hitting a running rabbit with a .22 rifle isn’t easy. She flushed a cottontail, swung and rapid-fired four shots, missing every time. I growled, “Aim, damnit!”
She stopped rapid-firing and drew a careful bead on that rabbit as it raced across a wide dry river bed. At 80 yards, she pulled of a shot just as the rabbit was jumping up the bank on the far side.
Her aim was true, so dinner that night was a wonderful treat. I cubed up the cottontail meat and sauteed it in butter with peppers and onions. I made some wild rice to go with it, and out there on the land, that was a fine meal to remember.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
