NorCal Cazadora

Guns, ammo and Google - an op-ed in the Mercury News

2012-02-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

I don't make a habit of blogging about everything I get published in newspapers and magazines, but I thought this one would be of special interest to hunters and hunting bloggers/website operators. It's an uphill battle convincing folks that there are legitimate uses for guns and ammo, but it's one very much worth fighting. If you'd like to comment, I hope you'll comment on the Merc's site. I

How to choose a shotgun for hunting

2012-02-05T19:59:00.000-08:00

Me and Sarah Connor in 2010 One of the hard things about taking up hunting with with few role models in your life is that you have to make a really important purchasing decision - buying your gun - with almost no frame of reference. Now, I love my shotgun, a Beretta 3901 I call Sarah Connor. When I am on, I can make some pretty badass shots - one will be the subject of my next Scene from the

Scenes from the Marsh: Oopsiecoot

2012-02-02T20:59:00.000-08:00

My marsh withdrawals continue, and I keep clinging to memories, knowing the next duck season is now nine months away. And the Oopsiecoot is a good one. It's appropriate that my last Scene from the Marsh was about Charlie's awesome sniper - er - ghillie suit. We've been having a little debate in the comments on that post about the effectiveness of ghillies, and the Oopsiecoot is Exhibit No. 1

Scenes from the Marsh: Charlie's ghillie

2012-01-30T22:31:00.000-08:00

Duck season ended here yesterday, and I find myself alternately relieved that I won't be getting up at 3 a.m. several days a week anymore, and sad that I've had to say good-bye to the marsh for the next nine months. What makes me feel better is replaying some of my favorite scenes from the marsh this season, and one of them was this: My buddy Charlie Read more... Last season, Hank wore a

Duck hunting: 'Cheap, fast or good - pick two'

2012-01-26T22:26:00.000-08:00

"Cheap, fast or good - pick two." This was a pearl of wisdom one of my students shared with me last semester. He was a photographer with way more professional experience than I have, coming back to school to finish his degree, and we were discussing how to price photo shoots. I have a whole book on pricing photography that didn't say as much as that little six-word phrase. I'm truly blessed to

How to act like a major ass when hunting public land

2012-01-17T11:33:00.000-08:00

The public land where I hunt ducks is incredibly crowded, but for the most part, hunters there get along just fine. Every once in a while, though, you get a hunter who thrives on being a major jerk. And if you're lucky like I was last week, you get to watch karma slap him around a bit. I was hunting surrounded by friends last Wednesday. Hank and Charlie were in my tule patch. Our friend Don

A raging case of TMI in a dark parking lot

2012-01-08T18:24:00.000-08:00

I've had many forgettable conversations with total strangers in dark parking lots at 5 a.m., but the one I had yesterday will stick with me forever ... kinda like the smell and taste of the last food you ate before going on a rollicking vomit-fest from stomach flu. I was preparing to hunt at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge with Hank and our friend David and the guy in the truck

Video: How to pluck a duck

2012-01-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

If there's one thing that makes killing ducks look easy, it's plucking them - especially if you like to eat them skin-on, roasted whole. Getting that down off can be a real pain in the butt. But a few years back, Hank hunted with a friend at a duck club that had a totally sweet operation for processing ducks, and the key feature was the wax pot. After plucking off maybe two-thirds of the top

Duck hunters: Buy this jacket!

2011-12-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite "discoveries" as a new hunter was the ghillie suit - I'd had no idea that human beings would actually want to walk around looking like Swamp Thing. It just seemed so ridiculous. But Hank talked about wanting a ghillie jacket for a while, and two years ago, I bought one for him for Christmas. He didn't get a chance to wear it right away because his Achilles tendon popped and

Coming up in 2012: A cool new book about hunting

2011-12-29T08:39:00.000-08:00

At the risk of appearing cruel, I've got a great new book I want to tell you about. What's cruel about it? The book doesn't come out until June. The good news is you can pre-order it. "Call of the Mild: Learning to Hunt My Own Dinner" (Grand Central Publishing) is Lily Raff McCaulou's tale of moving from New York City to Bend, Oregon, to take a job as a newspaper reporter. There are two things

On sluicing ducks

2011-12-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

It finally happened: I came home from a hunt with seven ducks last week, and while my shooting wasn't amazing, it felt like I'd gotten through my really bad case of the yips. Now, I'd love to regale you with the details of some of my incredibly awesome shots that day - the wigeon I dropped so hard he bounced three feet off the water when he hit, the spoonie I nearly dropped into my lap - but

Nothing like a little snap shooting to shake things up

2011-12-19T09:39:00.000-08:00

...And a partridge in a pear tree! (Don't freak out about the duck count - these aren't all mine.) Yesterday was our semi-annual mixed-bag extravaganza hunt in Amador County with our friend Evan, and the beauty of this hunt - aside from the fact that almost all small game is legal to hunt at this time of year - is that it's all snap shooting. Loyal readers know that if I have more than two

Salvation: How 'fighter squadrons,' the Tebow move and a perfect hen spoonie rescued my hunt

2011-12-16T19:05:00.000-08:00

I've had the yips something fierce this duck season. I mean, so bad on most days that I feel like it's my first year of duck hunting again - I can't hit a thing. It has been utterly demoralizing. I mean, I've heard of bad days, but entire bad seasons? God, I loathe failure. There have been some pretty fierce external stressors this fall that I can't control, but I've been trying lots of other

Video: How to skin a duck

2011-12-16T19:03:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know it's a coot, not a duck. I know - blasphemy, right? I mean, I love duck skin, and my favorite way to eat duck is roasted whole with skin on. But sometimes you get a bird that you know is going to taste "off." You know your mallards and pintails are going to taste great, but spoonies, gadwalls and wigeon can be a bit funky, depending on where you live and what those birds are

The difference between sufficient binoculars and good binoculars: Nikon Monarch 3 review

2011-12-13T09:25:00.000-08:00

I was hunting pigs one day with my friend Phillip when his binoculars caught my eye. They had a built-in rangefinder and they were a top brand. "How much did they cost?" I asked. "Three thousand," he said. Gasp! I asked what made them worth that much, and that's when he enlightened me: "Affordable" binoculars are fine for limited use, but when you use them a lot - for example, if you're a

Three chicks was the LEAST weird thing about this hunt

2011-12-06T08:28:00.001-08:00

"Three girls?" That's how guide R.J. Waldron responded when Hank let him know who'd be going on our San Francisco Bay diver duck hunt last weekend: Three of the five hunters on board would be women. It was a first for R.J., and the special considerations immediately became apparent when we met at the dock in Vallejo at 5 a.m. "Where's the bathroom? Wait, it's locked!" I run with a tough

Cyber Monday for hunters: A special offer for my readers and my new hunting store

2011-11-28T07:36:00.000-08:00

Hunters deserve some Cyber Monday love too, so here's what I've got for you today: First, I'd like to invite you to shop at my new online store. In it you'll find 32 hunting-related items that I absolutely love, ranging from ammunition to duck calls to hunting clothing. Almost everything you'll see there is exactly what I own, though I've had to make substitutions for some items that I

Hooked: Ten novice hunters get a taste of duck hunting

2011-11-20T20:19:00.001-08:00

I knew it had been a great weekend when we got to the end - the part where we take group photos. Ten women had gone through Delta Waterfowl's first California Women's Duck Hunting Weekend for novice hunters: two days of waterfowl instruction, followed by a mentored hunt in one of two sweet private clubs in the legendary Butte Sink. It had been a slow hunt day. Participants had gotten

California hunters: While you're busy hunting, who's going to bat for you and your rights?

2011-11-14T20:35:00.001-08:00

It's easy to get discouraged in California about the state of hunting laws and regulations. Hunters are a tiny minority, the Hollywood mentality rules and the Humane Society of the United States often gets its way (not to mention obscenely fawning media coverage). One thing I am grateful for, though, is the California Outdoor Heritage Alliance. COHA was formed by California Waterfowl in 2006

I am dumb, and other lessons from the marsh

2011-11-07T22:47:00.000-08:00

Me, not looking at ducks Now that I'm in my sixth season of duck hunting, I've developed this tendency to think I've got it down, like I'm the grande dame of waterfowling or something. On Sunday, though, I got a big, fat reminder that I still have a lot to learn. My buddy Charlie and I were hunting at the Delevan National Wildlife Refuge, and it was not a great day. We were not on the "X"

My first duck hunt of the season back at Delevan: Why five amazing accomplishments weren't enough

2011-11-01T08:45:00.001-07:00

Buy this decal here. At least five amazing things happened on my first duck hunt of the season back at the Delevan National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday. 1. I discovered my new workout routine – going up and down stairs in a six-story parking garage a few days a week – turned out to be great preparation for walking through ankle- to hip-deep water in waders. I’m usually sore after my first

A strange development: Losing my lust for the hunt

2011-10-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

Five or six weeks ago, I wrote a blog post that I never published. It was about being such a ridiculously compulsive hunter that I will hunt all the time, even if the freezer is full. Hank, who has always been more sensible than I, doesn't suffer from such a problem. At first I had delayed publishing that post because I'd been writing a lot and wanted to space out my posts a bit more. Then

Hitting bottom: The Stinky Butt Gadwall

2011-10-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

I have finally hit bottom. Yes, as Hank enters the final weeks of his Hunt, Gather, Cook Culinary Mayhem Tour - also known as The Incredibly Long Period When I’ve Had to Cook for Myself – I have found the bottom of our freezer. I have roasted the succulent mallards and pintails and teal. I have turned all the delicate cottontails into stirfry. Quite successfully, I might add, with that

Hunting ruffed grouse: It's insane. Therefore I like it.

2011-10-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

© Holly A. Heyser The first time I ever saw a ruffed grouse flush - which was, oh, all of three days ago now - I was dumbfounded. I was walking through Minnesota's Northwoods with Hank and our friend Chris and I heard that prrrrrrhhhhhhdddddt off to my left. My bird. The left side of the trail was mine. My head whipped to the left and ... wait, how the hell was I supposed to shoot at that

Hunting television, modern cavemen and honest drama

2011-10-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

Me, age 25 I was watching hunting TV the other night and becoming increasingly disgruntled. The show - its name is irrelevant because it's one of many like this - had this incredibly artificial sense of drama. Every time the host opened his mouth, he sounded like he was in a life-or-death situation. This is ridiculous, because, let's face it: Hunting is life-or-death far more for the