Posted on 11/26/2005 12:22:28 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
CATO, WI (AP) - Deer hunter Ernie Englund didn't have a steady hand as he spotted the buck walking slowly through the woods last Saturday afternoon. But Englund stayed calm, patiently tracking the animal on the first day of gun deer season. Finally, at about 70 yards, he pulled the trigger on his Remington 1100 rifle - with the hook at the end of his prosthetic left arm.
"It was a heart shot," said Englund, 30, showing off the eight-point buck that will turn into venison steaks, chops and sausage.
"I've seen more than a dozen deer that if I had arms I probably would have been able to shoot them," Englund, a Kenosha high school teacher, said from the "Little Ponderosa," a cabin on Madson Road just south of U.S. 151.
The cabin and surrounding 30 acres are owned by Bill and Ellen Surfus. The retired local schoolteachers have let Englund and three of his relatives shoot from their land since 1982 after Bill Surfus met Englund's dad, Mike, through a business associate.
Surfus' invention of a makeshift turret allows Englund to hunt even though he was born with a 2-inch stub of a right arm and a left arm about 8 inches long. The turret can swivel the mounted rifle 360 degrees and can be maneuvered vertically.
Englund sits, as motionless as possible, on a stool hoping deer will come within range - about 100 yards. If he has to swing the rifle more than about 20 degrees laterally he has to get up and push it with his hip.
"But when Ernie gets up to do that, he makes a noise and the deer is gone," said Mike Englund. "He can't follow a running deer."
So there is a lot of luck involved if Englund is going to be successful. In fact, when he fired his rifle last Saturday afternoon it was the first time he had done so in eight years.
"But there's skill, too. The buck appeared in a 1-foot gap between two trees and Ernie shot it from 75 yards away," said the proud and envious father who has shot dozens of doe over the years but no bucks.
The father wasn't totally surprised, having raised a resourceful son who never let the absence of hands keep him back.
"I do most everything with my feet and mouth. Normally, I don't have the prosthesis on. The steering wheel on my Chrysler 300 is mounted on the floor. I steer with my left foot and operate a brake and gas pedal with my right foot," Ernie Englund said.
He said he carries a 196 bowling average. When Englund goes fishing, he casts the line with his feet. He plays pool, pinching the cue stick under his left arm.
"If you challenge me to do something, I'll do it just to prove you wrong," Englund said.
Surfus said he was motivated to develop a way to help Englund hunt after Englund, as an 8-year-old, helped build the "Little Ponderosa" by pounding nails with a hammer held by his feet. He played soccer and was the kicker for Bradford High School before earning his bachelor's degree from UW-Whitewater. He teaches freshman and forensic science at Bradford.
Most of them will fight captivity to the death, unlike some people.
Words have meaning irrespective of what you or I believe they mean.
In the same example: Other people could feel my forehead and subjectively think:
"He is warm."
"He is burning up."
"I don't think he is hot at all.
The only objective information is what the thermometer says.
Regarding climbing Everest blind: The whole world has a subjective opinion of the event, but there is no real way to objectively determine if climbing Everest blind has value.
I find no value in the man climbing Everest blind.
Does anyone make rifled slug barrels? I thought that is considered illegal because the bore is larger than .50. I thought that deer slugs are usually rifled on the outside so they catch the air and start spinning once they exit the barrel.
They don't because shooting, gutting and butchering is too sweaty, icky and dirty. They would rather get their meat from styrofoam trays.
There are sad dust covered animal heads on the walls of far too many places to prove that. Know what I mean?
No I don't. Most, I would bet all, sport hunters also eat the meat that they have killed. Not only that, they have something on the wall to remind themselves of the difficult task they undertook to feed themselves. Furthermore, Montana and other states have hunting laws that forbid the wasting of game animals. At the least, the meat is given to food banks.
But pushing one's self to the limits of athleticism or intellectual pursuits is a whole other thing. Very few can accomplish that.
You ever hike for miles almost straight up, following elk tracks? Then stalk it up close until you can get a good clean kill? Then gut it and pack it for miles back to your truck. It is extremely athletic and challenging. That's another reason most liberals don't hunt.
This is why sport hunting is fading away.
it's not. Especially in Montana. It is growing.
Most parents don't see any positive effect, nor do the children.
Depends. In most rural areas, sport hunting is growing. In the citys, the sport is fading. Too easy to eat from the grocery and to much work to get it yourself. That's why we will kick the liberals's ass should the time ever come.
There is no need in this day and age in America to be "self-reliant" in terms of seeking food.
With growing concerns of various stock yard diseases, more people are raising and hunting their own meat. This again is why we will kick the liberals ass, should red & blue slug it out. We are self-reliant. The liberals are looking for a handout from the gubmint and the UN.
Sorry I took so long to reply. I had much to say and took a time out to stir my pot of venison chili.
I believe Cabelas sells a rifled barrel. It is also very easy to buy rifled choke inserts for various sighted shotgun barrels.
"Regarding climbing Everest blind: The whole world has a subjective opinion of the event, but there is no real way to objectively determine if climbing Everest blind has value."
Ah, I get you. I meant that whether or not you used the word correctly depended on what you meant to say. Words may have objective meanings, but my estimation of your usage of them is subjective :) I'd say you used the correct word for what you meant. Arguably, since there is no way to objectively determine the value of climbing mount Everest, blind or not, you could also say that it has no objective value.
Plus when I called the insurance company it was "The deer ran into vehicle", I think both of them were trying to commit suicide because they turned and ran into the Explorer.
I'm hip to the fact that you're a metrosexual who thinks meat at the mega-grocery store is fresh. When the rubber hits the road, and it will, and food is no longer available in the vast quantities it is now, are you going to know how to harvest your own? Ya think I'm off target?...Witness the near riots on "Black Friday" by some people to buy cheap crap even cheaper than normal. We get a major hit from AH terrorists that disrupts the "food chain" and see what happens.
"Get off the phone ya big dope!"---Mark Levin
FMCDH(BITS)
Here in the Metro Detroit area a few weeks ago the ever clueless WXYZ's Bill Proctor on the morning news TWICE during that news hour reported that police were looking for the perps in a shooting and the weapon that was used was a....
SMITH & WESSON .45 CALIBER GLOCK PISTOL....!!!!!
Yes, you read that right.
Did I have fun with emails that day.....ROFLMAO!!!
"but has anyone looked at transporting animals to other States....or sterilization for animal population control? Probably not looked at too much. Too costly, even though these are are better options."
Boy I just returned home and found this post, and what a laugh!!!
Where do you propose relocating millions of deer overpopulating most states? Don't send them here to Tennessee, we don't need 'em. Texas? Central Park?
This one statement illustrates how little you actually know about what you are trying to debate.
And, has me convinced you probably live on the 48th floor of some concrete building in a concrete jungle, never have been exposed to nature, except through Disney movies or maybe a trip to the zoo.
Birth control? Yes, the HSUS has studied it to death for the past two decades.
IT DOESN'T WORK. Why do you think the HSUS doesn't invest some of the 50 million or so $$$ they raise annually to provide birth control for deer?
Maybe while they are at it, they can provide some for poor little defenseless dogs and cats, cause they (or most other AR groups) sure as heck don't spend any of those millions spaying/neutering stray domesticated animals.
Before you spout off any more, answer one question for me. Do you eat meat, wear leather, sheepskin, silk, or take any medicine? You keep dodging that question. Come on, answer the question.
You remind me of someone who just likes to argue. You crave attention.
Go back to PETA's web site and have a lively debate over whether cockroaches have feelings too, or whether there should be a ban on mowing your yard, since all sorts of little grasshoppers and other bugs are mutilated from this human activity.
How's your bean curd?
Here in the southern half of Michigan the only long arms you can use for deer are shotguns and black powder due to the restricted hunting areas and the close proximity of houses and such.
Hunting doesn't even put a dent in the deer population down here anymore. Your best bet is to fortify the front of your vehicle with steel bars and cruise M-59, I-75 or any of the sub arteries around Troy, Rochester, Pontiac or wherever........
He/she's a troll that has been allowed to spout his/her ignorance on every hunting and tobacco thread over the past week or so that I have followed.......
There are sad trucks full of sad animals heading for the slaughterhouse. Do you eat meat FS? If so do you realize you could get the same nutrition for less money and a lot less animal suffering?
Frankly, what is your solution to the over 60,000 deer/vehicle accidents that occur here in Michigan annually and the millions of dollars in crop and landscaping damage due to our over abundance of deer?
You oppose their hunting so what is your solution to the problem?????
Michigan by the way ranks second in the country in auto accidents due to deer collisions..........
You sure about that?
HERE - from the Billings Gazzette
And.........here they try to blame the lack of Hunting on 'development'
They would allow students a day off from school on "opening day of hunting"???? That sounds like an edict from another Planet.
Ridiculous.
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