Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hell, I'm Still Here!--by Jon Sundra

I still do, tweaked a bit for better handling and performance. As to the original topic, my book should arrive next Tuesday, just in time to head to the beach Friday. Perfect beach read, I'm thinkin'.

I will have to order a copy, Hell I have a junkie old jeep. That’s way better than an old sports car!!

Yep.

Way mo better...

DF

One of each would be more than acceptable.

HuntnShoot;
Good afternoon to you sir, I trust all is well in your part of the world.

While this photo has been up here many times previously, with apologies I'll re-post for the sake of a couple thousand words on the matter.


On the subject of hunting out of a car, my first whitetail buck was shot just east of the Torch River in northern Saskatchewan and it ended up folded up whole into the trunk of a '74 Corolla - well mighta been a '73. I must confess it was a woolly bugger getting it out of there when it had rigored up a wee bit.

Lastly, I'll have to see about ordering Jon's book as I always enjoyed his writing and honestly it was his influence which led me to running fixed 6X scopes on my big game rifles for the past 35 odd years.

Anyway, again just some random Canuck thoughts on a hot Sunday afternoon and nothing more. All the best to you all this summer.

Dwayne

Love it!

Good read!!

Dwayne,

In 1997 I was one of several writers who put together a book titled THE COMPLETE HUNTERS CATALOG, and among other things we solicited short essays from a few dozen well-known writers. One was a Canadian, the late Jerome Knap, who along with writing quite a bit became a well-known booking agent for hunting and fishing trips.
(I am sure Jon knew Jerry, who I also contacted, asking him to write a short essay on handloading. He did, and it's in the book as well, explaining why handloaders always spend more money than non-handloaders.)

Here's Jerry Knap's story:

When still a young fellow I served a stint as a forest ranger in some of northern Ontario’s best moose country. One fall afternoon I was driving down a logging road in my government pickup when a scarlet-clad hunter jumped out of the bushes and excitedly flailed his arms about.
“Boy, am I glad to see you!” he shouted excitedly. “I just got a great big moose over there!”
“Congratulations,” I answered,” but what’s the problem?”
“The problem is I don’t know what to do,” the hunter stammered. “I’ve shot deer before, but no one told me how big a moose was. Can you come and show me what to do? And maybe take a picture of me with the moose? I’d be glad to pay you.” The man’s hands shook like poplar leaves in an autumn breeze.
“Yeah, I guess I’d better show you what to do,” I replied, shaking my head. “Payment won’t be necessary.”
The first problem was finding the moose. The man couldn’t remember exactly where to look, but eventually found the young bull, not very big as moose go.
The second problem was finding the rifle. While trying to take a picture of his moose, the man had laid his rifle down and couldn’t remember where. I finally found it 30 feet from the moose in a pile of slash. After emptying the magazine, I posed the hunter and his .300 Weatherby with the moose and took a roll of photos with his camera.
Next I dressed the moose, while the hunter marched around saying, “This animal is bigger than a horse.” It turned out he was a farmer from Indiana who’d had a bumper corn crop, so had decided to go moose hunting. He’d heard northern Ontario was full of moose, so drove up.
“How are you going to get this moose home?” I asked.
“Oh, I have a car on a side road up a ways.”
“Once this moose is cut up and wrapped, you’ll be able to get him into your car,” I said.
“Are you kidding?” the farmer said. “I’m taking this moose back whole! I want everybody back home to see him.”
I suggested he rent a U-Haul trailer, and that a few $10 bills would probably get a tractor with a fork lift from a nearby logging camp to load the moose. With that I left to do my job.
Returning a couple hours later, I found the Indiana moose hunter on the logging road with a tractor and a couple of lumberjacks, just finishing a bottle of Old Moose Hunter. The moose was tied to the roof of a big, late-model Buick.
The animal hung over the roof on all sides, and there was no way it would stay on for the ride down the logging road, let alone the trip to Indiana. Even worse, the moose had completely flattened the Buick’s roof.
“Well, that was a stupid fool thing to do,” I said, in slightly more colorful language. “It’ll cost a lot to get that roof fixed.”
“Don’t worry about that, son,” said the farmer. “In Indiana we got lots of Buicks, but we ain’t got no moose!”

John;
Top of the morning to you sir and thanks for the chuckle on the start of the last week in June - already!

I believe I can recall Jerome Knapp stories, but don't recall reading that particular one so thanks kindly.

The times were different back then weren't they?

Thanks again and all the best to you and Eileen this summer.

Dwayne

My wife, after her recent divorce, wanted to keep her sons involved in hunting. As she had, no other vehicle, she took them antelope hunting in her old work car.....a ‘76, Pontiac Bonneville Brougham. memtb

I remember getting strange looks during hunting season on poorly maintained, mountain top roads by hunters in 4x4 trucks while driving them in a 1996 Honda Civic hatchback. I took that car many places it probably shouldn't have been taken, on roads that it shouldn't have been able to traverse...

It carried more than one recently deceased critter in the back of it (deer & turkey from what I remember), but no moose. You had a decent amount of space in the back of that thing once you laid the rear seats down...

Jon Sundra--would you mind doing a write-up in a separate post here on the 'Fire extolling your favorite 3 to 5 rifle chamberings and give us the "whys and hows" of each? Something interesting and fun to read, like they used to publish in real magazines of the 70s and 80s?

DakotaDeer: I'll run the idea past the moderator, as I am not familiar with what's involved in writing article-like posts on this site. Thanks for your interest. JRS

That would be of interest to many of us here....

And fun too.

Jerry

+1

DF

+2

I was wondering what happened to the Boyd Jon Sundra sporter stock. I used one to build a custom pre-64/Krieger 6.5-284. It turned out well; I really like the stock shape and ergonomics.

Boyd no longer lists that stock. I don't like their current classic stock nearly as much.

DF

DF: That’s a real purty gun. But it needs to b a little more shiny

More sheen than shiny in the flesh. Picture gives it that effect.

It’s the shape that’s so neat. I wish Boyd’s still offered it. Boyd inletting is excellent.

DF

I designed that stock when I was consulting for them. When they decided they didn't need me anymore, they removed my name and it morphed into a slightly different geometry. Even when it wore my name, it was thicker in the wrist than I specified. JRS