Speed Hunting

I am the type of guy that likes to setup camp in a large wilderness area and hunt for a week. I like the immersion and sense of leaving the fake world made of concrete behind. I can only do this once or twice a year due to family (wife and two kids), work (vacation time goes quick), and all the other responsibilities that rule the majority of my life.  The rest of the time I have to do what I have termed "speed hunting".  I might sit in a deer blind for 30 min before work or an hour after work. I might leave at 4 am on a Saturday and drive 2 hours hunt til noon them drive home to make it to some "thing" that can't be missed.  Believe it or not I have killed countless squirrels, several deer, and a few Turkey this way. There are many downfalls to this solution to a lack of time. One is that it is very stressful sometimes when I shoot a deer and have to hurry to beat the clock that is counting down to work or meat spoilage. Another is that the short time in the woods makes me seem like a bad hunter to the uninformed.  I will hunt for an hour and forty five minutes after work on day and someone will ask me later if I "got" one and I will say "NO".  They usually follow this with when we were younger it seemed like you got one every time you went hunting, what has happen to you big guy. I usually say "I used to not come back from hunting until I got one, now I come back for family fun night at the kid's school. There are some positive aspects of speed hunting. It has taught me to maximize my time in the woods and listen to my instincts more. I tend to appreciate just being in the woods more than I used to because I am constantly ripped from it. It can also be thrilling to be successful under such constraints. Several years ago a good friend of mine named Ron (read the legend Big Ron here) had gained access to a rock quarry near his house. You might wonder why this is of interest to a couple of carnivores, well the quarry was full of water which was frequented by mallard ducks. We had only a good hour of daylight before I had to be at work in the morning so Ron had his 10 foot Jon boat loaded on his truck the night before. It always tickles me to see Ron's short bed truck with various boats sticking out the back since there is always more boat hanging out of the truck than there is in it. As we approached the quarry Ron slammed on the brakes and said hold on I have an Idea. After he shared his treacherous plan with me we split up and put it into action. While Ron took the high road to the top of the rock quarry which is nothing more than a deep hole dug out of the bedrock with water in the bottom I waited patiently for his signal. He took his 12 gauge shot gun an hid at the top of the shear rock walls that encased the water at the bottom. He let out a whistle to signal me that he was ready. So I started walking down the old road that dump trucks used to use to get down to the bottom of the quarry. when I got to the bottom my presence flushed the three mallards that had been hanging out in quarry. The plan worked perfectly. the steep and high walls of the quarry caused the mallards to circle to gain elevation which brought them by Ron enough times for him to fall all three. The looked like shot down planes crashing into the water. The excursion was not only successful in supplying us with three ducks to eat but it was exciting as well. We had been so efficient in our time use that after using the Jon boat to retrieve the ducks we still had time to soak up the rising sun while we sat on the almost unnaturally blue water. So don't let a lack of time be an excuse for not hunting, try speed hunting until you can build up enough vacation time. Your pal the Envirocapitalist.