As can be attested by posts of late, you know I am up to my arm pits in painting the inside of the house.  Yesterday I was quite busy in the bedroom prepping it for an all out painting attack today.  Well, here I was busy removing the sliding mirror doors from the closet when in walks Sherry.

Suddenly she says quite loudly, “What’s that”?  And she points up toward the ceiling above my head.  I still have the door canted toward my feet as I am pulling it off the slide railing it is installed on, as I look up toward the area she is pointing to.  And there it is a somewhat smallish doe fly.  Not your normal trophy, but in the off season one must take advantage of any trophy encountered.

I wonder to myself as I am writing this at this time just where that little critter had been hiding and why now to show itself on the wall above my head.

I said to Sherry, “It looks like a task for Bug-A-Salt”!  “Go get the gun, this one is yours”!  And she turned to go to the vault and brandish the weapon.

While she was out I kept a close eye on the little winged creature as I continued to carefully remove the mirrored door from its mounting and then took it to the storage area until we are in need of putting it back on its slide.

Returning into the room I looked up and there the little doe still rests.  Obviously not disturbed by my presence.  By now Sherry has the weapon and is slowly coming into the room like a skulking Ninja, gun at the ready.  Well, the gun was almost ready.  You see, she has only held the weapon a couple of times and this is her first time of actually using it.  She knew of the safety and had it off, what was not fully engaged was the slide cocking mechanism.  In order for the Bug-A-Salt weapon to fire the slide has to be pulled back toward the trigger and then slid all the way forward in its locked position.  A safety feature that is built into the weapon to keep it from firing in the hands of a novice.

A quick look back into the corner 0f the wall clearly shows the doe has moved slightly to the left and up closer to the ceiling.  A nervous maneuver on the does part.  Sherry moves in quietly.  I whisper to her to take careful aim and she is doing just that.  She takes another half step forward and to her right as she maneuvers around a small end table.  I’m thinking to myself, “Oh man, this is going to be good”.

Silence fills the room as she carefully squeezes the trigger, the report is unbelievable and the doe moves to the left about 5 feet down the wall and still up near the ceiling.  Oh no!  A clean miss!  Sherry cocks the weapon again, loading another round of grains of white crystals into the firing position.  And slips the safety off.

Quietly she slides to her left, around the end table and parallel to the double rocking love seat.  She has a clear shot from about four feet.  I have all the confidence in the world that she can make a long shot like this.  She is good with the 7mm Remington Mag, she has demonstrated that on several occasions and now I just know she can make this shot.  She takes her time aiming and again the report of the weapon is heard echoing in the nearly empty room.

The center of the shot pattern is very close to the doe, but slightly to the right of a direct hit, and it’s obvious from my angle the doe is hit but not a hit that will kill it any time soon.  It favors its left wing as it spirals down the wall about 3 feet.  Clinging to the walls surface it finally gets a claw to hang onto something that stops its fall.  It walks in circles again obviously favoring it’s left wing.

Sherry re-cocks the Bug-A-Salt and readies it once again for another shot.  I reassure her she hit the doe with that last shot and she nods her head in agreement, but she has a very determined look on her face as she moves quietly yet quickly to her left two more steps.  From her composure it is obvious to me that she is going to take this doe down even if it takes a full Bug-A-Salt magazine to do it.

The weapon is slowly raised and she is taking a very long time aiming at the beast just 3.75 feet above her head.  Report!!!!!  The doe spins to the right and then wings its way far over to the left and lands on the counter top next to the vanity sink.  Stunned by the blow of a very hard hit.  It wiggles some but is not dead.  I doubt it could even fly at this point and had she not brought her closed fist down upon it like a PETA freak does on the podium of an anti-gun rally, we might have gotten to analyze its wounds closer.  As it was, the doe was rather smeared beyond recognition.

BUT!  AH HA!  Sherry’s first trophy with the all powerful Bug-A-Salt!  The home owners a-salt weapon of choice!

Good going Sherry!  I am so very proud of you!  May there be many more in your future.  Perhaps we should invest in a second Bug-A-Salt for our home safety.

Bears Butt

Jan. 8, 2013