Author Archives: mseanb

Ocean Cove May 20, 2012

Met my friend Steven Liu up at Ocean Cove to get back in the water again. It was great visibility but the surge had picked up and it was a little rough outside the cove. I decided to stay inside the wash rock. There weren’t many abs to be seen after the die off last year and the area I was in was already pretty picked over. I decided to take advantage of the visibility to use my Riffe 75cm euro speargun. There wasn’t much kelp in the cove but I managed to shoot a couple Greenling. While poking around for abalone I ran into a Pacific Giant Octopus. Easily the biggest octopus I have ever seen anywhere. Was really something. I gently prodded him and he didn’t budge, right out in the open. Finally decided to head back in. While putting my gear away three scuba divers walked by me going down the boat ramp. Sadly the woman among them drowned within hours. We saw the rescue team working on her down at the boat launch but she didn’t make it.

Here are the greenling. The cutting board is 14″ wide. They’re about the size of trout. I fileted them and we sauted them in garlic butter with some sherry.

Turkey & Pig Hunt

Finally managed to make it up north for a Spring turkey hunt with my friend Dylan Carr at his Diamond C Ranch. I set out super early Sunday morning to get there in time to hunt all day. I met Dylan and his friend Harley and we set out right away to go try and locate some turkeys. We found a couple coyotes first and I managed to miss a 300 yard shot shooting just under one. Hopefully that cleared them out of the country and the turkeys could start talking. We would go to different spots and blow a hawk or crow call to draw out a ‘shock gobble’. Soon we had a Tom answering and set up to call one in. We had a little hen decoy out front with Dylan and Harley hidden behind me calling them in. This went on for a while until we figured they were not going to cross the creek to us. After a couple more stands and a major relocation we managed to call one in. It was pretty exciting with him answering and getting closer. Unfortunately he slipped behind us. Harley finally called me back to his tree and I was able to step out and shoot a huge tom at about 50 yards. He was just over 20 pounds with a 9 3/4″ beard. I was thrilled to have taken him. You don’t realize just how beautiful their feathers are until you see one up close. Iridescent blues and greens with another row of copper metallic all changing in the sunlight. Calling in a turkey is really an exciting hunt. I’ll definitely try to make this hunt each Spring.

After lunch back at the cabin we all grabbed our bows for some practice at the range they had set up with targets out to 50 yards. I was doing pretty well with some tight groups out to 50. I had hoped to kill a big boar with my bow or at least get some fresh pork to bring back for sausages. Although we’d seen some fresh pig sign in the morning there weren’t any pigs around. We had planned to drive about 30 minutes to another spot for a better chance. While we were heading out we spotted a big boar out in the middle of the green hills far off in the distance. Great luck for us. We headed way up high above and quickly grabbed our gear to start a stalk. We tried to ease down the rippling fingers and valleys towards where we had last seen the big boar. A couple does monitored our progress in the distance and a couple deer had bolted out below us, we’re hoping pushed by the big boar. We kept moving slowly down the hill side each crest hoping we’ll see him. Finally we reach another hill top and Dylan eases up and says he’s right there, forty yards. I ease out and aim low on the pigs chest for a heart shot but miss low. I quickly move back and we just wait. He didn’t spook. I knock another arrow, draw, then ease out once more taking my time, my forty pin just above his heart. I release just as he winds us and spins to bolt away. My arrow catches him from behind. We hear a solid hit. After about fifteen minutes we move up to the shot. My arrow has blood and paunch on it. We can track him fairly easy in the soft ground along with fairly frequent blood. We finally catch up to him in a creek bed where I’m able to put an arrow through the heart/lungs and that’s it. He’s a big nasty looking boar, black with Russian confirmation but small tusks. With a good deal of effort we 1 2 3 pull him out of the creek to a spot we can take some pictures. I’m really pleased, finally took a big boar with my bow on the ranch.

Action Shooting Club -April 14, 2012

Beautiful day in Castro Valley for the Action Shooting Club match. I’ve been so busy with the new job I’ve not been back since December. My goal is to try and shoot a clean match, no misses or ‘mikes’ or any penalties which I do despite it taking me way to long to clear an array of steel targets in the second stage. Some great new shooters are out today too so the competition should only get tougher in Production class. Today I finish Third yet again.

Stage One is called ‘Len’s Donut’ for the circle you need to shoot through at the start. Five hits on a small area in between no shoots. I did ok to start off the match on this one.

Stage Two is called “Which Way”. For some reason I choke yet again on the small steel and it takes like 12 shots to down 8 steel targets. I make up the rest of the stage shooting paper fast but still the time kills me.

Stage Three is called “No Donut” for the modifications made to stage one now sans donut. A fun stage I did ok on.

Stage Four is the National USPSA classifier. I think it’s just called ‘Six’. I take it slow and manage it in 5.67 seconds.

Free Diving in Maui

Kari and I had a great vacation in Maui this month. Managed to spend a lot of time free diving and tried out my GoPro HD HERO2 camera with a housing for underwater video. I mounted the camera on my left wrist. It was a challenge to aim it accurately. I would think I had the image in frame but was often shooting high, placing the action low in the frame. In widescreen much of the action is below frame so I had to keep it at 4:3.

Most of the footage is off the reef at our favorite hotel, the Fairmont Kea Lani, in Wailea, Maui. One day we took a kayak trip to snorkel off of Makena to a spot they call Turtle Town.

Action Shooting Club

Back to the Action Shooting Club. Haven’t competed in eight months so didn’t expect to do too well. Somehow I managed to take Third yet again.

The first stage was called ‘Don’t Forget the Plates’ which I choked completely. Somehow had my front sight buried in the the middle of one little steel plate and inexplicably sent five shots over the top of it before realizing I needed to hold a little lower. After that I managed to get through with a single mike.

Stage Two was unnamed. Very fun stage with two close dynamic targets and then short sprints to three more close arrays of targets. I aced this stage winning it for Production Class.

Stage Three is “Occupy Chabot” which was pretty straight forward. It used the old classic targets with no steel or no shoots. I rushed one array for a single mike.

And the last stage was the USPSA classifier called “Easy Street” I did ok on this one, probably qualifying at my current C level.

Coyote on Trail Cam

The lack of any good bucks on the trail cam this year has been disappointing. Just one odd shaped fork horn is all I’ve seen. Checked the camera today and was pleased to see two sequences of a coyote. Looks like the same guy I caught previously

Big Fork Buck

Hunting with Dylan Carr for a late rut hunt at the Diamond C in Humboldt County, California. We were looking for several big bucks, one in particular called ‘The Teacher’ but the weather wasn’t cooperating. Much of the ranch was socked in with thick fog. The first day we spotted this very big fork horn which captured my imagination. Late the second day we spotted him again from far away. Confirmed it was him through a spotting scope and then decided to try for him. We made a quick drive to the lower part of the ranch, hiked a ways, crossed a rocky creek bank, and eased up to a large rock formation. Dylan eased up and saw his doe in some trees. He put his pack down and had me come forward to set up saying the buck’s coming out any minute. I spun the power setting on my scope up a little and settled right in. Just as I did the buck emerged and then stopped broadside. Had him lined up perfectly and took the shot. They both ran over the ridge and we were pretty certain he was hit hard. We headed up to where he was at the shot but couldn’t find any blood. We walked just beyond the ridge and there he was down, shot perfectly behind the shoulder.

Couldn’t be more pleased with this old ‘management’ buck. You don’t see too many big fork horns since they are usually shot as management bucks. I have always wanted to take a big fork horn. He’s a great trophy in my book. We set up to take some pictures and the sun even came out for us. All the pics here.

Alpine Road

Alpine Road from a little ways west from Skyline. Followed another bike for a while until he waved me through. Part two is a little bit past the junction right where the road leads you to Portola Park. Great day on another fun road that takes me home.

Tunitas Creek with my new GoPro Camera

Finally bought a GoPro Camera and my inaugural footage is of my favorite local road Tunitas Creek riding my ’97 DR350SE using the helmet mount. It was about 15 minutes long so put the first half of the ride to a couple of my favorite Santana songs from Moonflower which seems to capture the feeling I get every time I turn off of Skyline down Tunitas and head for the coast.

Abalone Diving at Fort Ross

Went Ab diving Saturday. Folks on the net had warned of poor visibility but I just felt like diving so ended up back at Fort Ross. I decided to take the steep trail down to the south cove, the one with the rope your use to back down the trail. Got in the water about 9am. Several harbor seals were sunning themselves on the rocks. As suspected the visibility was pretty poor, maybe 3 feet at best. Appeared to be a plankton bloom. My first dive I find a legal abalone upside down in the sand so picked it up, was over 7 inches, dropped it in my bag. Second dive two more abs upside down, both legal, one about 8 inches. Wow can’t believe my good luck, was thinking it would be hard work to find some legal ones at Fort Ross with poor visibility.

With my limit in the bag I decide to look for fish with my pole spear. Literally every rock hole I peer into; abs upside down on their shells! Starting to get a little concerning. I must have seen over 25 in that state. Was thinking maybe they were feeding on the bloom but probably the bloom is killing them. I hope that’s not the case, reports form Timber Cove north of Fort Ross also said many abs were seen upside down there too.

I searched for any sign of fish for an hour finally with one darting out of the hole. I looked up to see a nice blue leaving and just as I took aim he turned away and I just missed him. After that decided to pack it in. Would have loved to have a nice rock fish filet to go with the abs but had to stop at Robert’s on my way home for some Halibut instead.