Hunting Update 2007:

Thanksgiving weekend was a great time in the mountains! The weather was great and SK-1 put three nice Sika deer in the freezer:

Thanksgiving Day 22 Nov 2007: SK-1,2,&3 enjoyed an awesome traditional Thanksgiving feast with friends. We all gathered at Jon & Noriko's place for a truly family-style event. Many of the younger folks from our jobs attended too, but they left early. We hung out with the "older" folks until late in the evening enjoying the friendship, conversation, and great food! Today was a great day!

Friday 23 Nov 2007: SK-1 and Guest Hunter. Jarrod Agent, headed to the mountain with high hopes, but this quickly faded with little to no game moving. 15 minutes before quitting time a monster buck made the mistake of showing himself and that was the last mistake he ever made! Standing broadside at about 20 meters through thick underbrush, the bullet found a path straight through. Check out the photo of this fine animal we were able to take. Ole' Jarrod sure knows his way around the mountain. He can not only shoot, but he can track, field dress, and butcher with the best of them. It was a pleasure to have him along and that buck will make a one-of-a-kind trophy for him when he returns to the states!

Saturday 24 Nov 2007: KS-1 took to the mountain early enough to spot a very nice "Ma-Jika" (Original Japanese Sika) with a cute, well-balanced, "basket" style set of antlers. A well placed shot from about 60 meters put him down instantly. The antlers are very small compared to the modern Japanese Sika but his 4 year old body will feed us well. I also made some venison chops and we will be trying out a new European recipe with them later this month!

Sunday 25 Nov 2007: Today was the Tamaho Bunkai Makigari (Tamaho Hunting Club Group Hunt). We had 18 members show up and hunted a very large tract of land on a fairly steep mountainside. At the morning hunt our members took one nice buck and seven management deer (this year the government wants us to reduce the doe population so they set a target of one doe per person per day).
In the afternoon hunt the drivers only stirred up 4 deer (two small does and a 3 year old buck) and SK-1 was able to connect from his blind with a bullet through 50 meters of light brush. Our freezer is now full!
After butchering all nine of the deer taken, it was good to get home in time for a late dinner with SK-2 and get some rest before going back to the office on Monday.

It was a good weekend!

SK-1 OUT