Thunkin' & Plunkin'

[sm]

Just normal human nature for a young person to get all caught up in life and get in a hurry going nowhere.
Hunting and fishing is about the equipment, and limiting out.
One-Upping your buddies.
Showing off and bragging rights..

Normal part of human development, nothing wrong with it, just the way life is.

When one is real little, and hanging out with the older folks, like grandparents, aunts uncles, maybe that older set of neighbors, one is exposed to Thunkin' & Plunkin' - just , dadburn it all!
Little folks got all this input coming in and not being fully developed, it gets put back in the brain to make room for other stuff, like being a kid.

You folks have seen Thunkers & Plunkers, these are the folks that do Thunkin' & Plunkin'- just you didn't know it.

Deer Camp:
Folks too busy showing off trucks, with camo paint jobs, 4 wheelers, Guns, Gear, Camo Clothing...and looking at Thunkers & Plunkers the whole time and didn't know it.

Thunker & Plunkers are men and women, from young to old. They know who they are, centered, where they have been and have in a sense earned this Rite of Passage to be a Thunker & Plunker.

While some are wondering why that guy or gal is wearing a pair of khaki britches, and comment "those are a bit thin for this weather" Thunker's & Plunker's sorta grin, and are quite toasty with the flannel lining in them britches.

They are the ones that can make them doves in that special dish everyone looks forward at the beginning of Deer season. Coffee, chili, and man oh man that cobbler sure does smell good!

Kitchen is sorta sparse, not near as much gidgets and gadgets like at home, but dad-gum can they cook up a meal!

Laptops, video games, movies for most folks and the T&Ps are playing chess, checkers or Old Maid or Go Fish with a kid.
The kid with that blackberry cobbler on the side of his/her mouth for dessert later on...

T&P's retire early, as they are the ones that get up earliest - and have to get the others up, that stayed up too late.
Coffee, Breakfast, and the folks all head out with all the camo, trucks, 4 wheelers and newfangled guns.

T&Ps clean up, make another pot of coffee, sorta quiet with all them folks gone.
Head outside, some chairs, stumps make a neat table for the coffee, tailgate of a 20 year old truck claimed by the dawg ...
Old .22 rifles, and that new Pink Cricket for the little lady , or Wood one for the young man.
They look right cute and handsome with that hot chocolate mustache...

T&P's sharing with the kids, and with each other Thunkin' about life, and matters and - hold on - bushy tail done come around the tree and "pop", Plunk-ed another squirrel out of a tree.

Folks get back, all sorts of stories, but no deer.
Goodness Gracious! Look at that mess of squirrels!

Stories about the ones that got away, excuses about guns, loads and scopes, 4 wheelers got to go back to dealer...scratched spot on that Camo paint job on the SUV, tore them new camo britches...

Mess of Squirrels, scratch biscuits, gravy, that hot tea and black coffee...

"Yep, that is the squirrel you shot with your new gun!" -and -
Kid got more flour on 'em than in the pan, but hey, Thunker's & Plunker's look good in floured hands and faces.

These are the folks that sorta stay around camp, do the little things taken for granted, mentor the kids, and sit outside with .22 rifles...usually one 30-30 outside close - just in case - another six point meanders near camp, thinking the Thunker's & Plunker's are not paying attention.

"Yep, 20 steps, sitting in that rickety chair, we drug him up close the steps, but since you folks are back, and no deer to mess with - knock yourselves out...hanging room unlock, we'll start supper..."

Deer Hunting just one type of hunting Thunker's & Plunker's do, and a mess a squirrels just one example of the "mess they get themselves into".



Dove hunting and while they are actually shooting doves, Thunker's & Plunker's are catching fish at the same time...

I am going to stop here, and let that last sentence marinate a bit...

 

[Battlespace]

Yep, I sorta fit the mold. Guess after 50+ years hunting/fishing I just set back and watch youngsters waste time and energy on things that don't really matter very much.

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

After 40 years of hunting I get more enjoyment from seing one of my son's getting a deer/hog or whatever. I still will shoot a deer if it's big enough, but would rather let my son have first shot.

 

[MCgunner]

Yep, I sorta fit the mold. Guess after 50+ years hunting/fishing I just set back and watch youngsters waste time and energy on things that don't really matter very much.

Thing is, when I think back on it, I had a lot more time and energy to waste when I was a kid than I have now. The older I get, the faster time goes and the more I seem to be too tired to keep up with it.

 

[mustanger98]

sm, Your post reminded me of some of my earliest childhood memories of hunting, as well as some stories from my Daddy and Grandpa. One of those times down in central Alabama, I learned a Thunkers & Plunkers lesson about keeping that old .30-30 handy... two bucks showed up and no gun on the back porch with us. But too, there's stories about how Grandpa would stay in camp most times and cook and visit while Daddy and his mother's father would hunt all manner of small game and game birds. Grandpa would keep a pot of stew/dumplings going... anything Daddy and Granda brought in, it got cleaned and went in the stew pot. Sometimes I wish I could've been there with them, but it was all before I was born. Now, here I am 33 years old and most of that time, Daddy sharing his hunting experience with me, and I don't have somebody younger to share it with. Sorry to say this, but I feel like this screen could go real blurry real fast thinking about this.

 

[Gbro]

Nice post;
That is my kind of "quality of Life"

 

[sm]

Thanks for the kind words.
I figured many would either fit the mold, or fully understand.

I was about 13 when I was called a Thunker & Plunker.
Fella that sired me, about all he did was sire me.

I had Mentors & Elders, and I bugged the fire out of them to get what they had.
They in like kind believed in passing forward.

My schedule was such, the fall of the year was busy, so getting off from work, being an apprentice, at age 13 was not always easy.
Most folks took off a whole week to scout and do all the deer hunting stuff.
I would get one day, maybe a weekend.

Deer out of season, is when I was not so busy, so Mentors spent time with me sharing about habitat, and behaviors.
Actually pretty nice if you think about it, for one, one was not as liable to get shot messing in the woods, we were not messing anyone up that was hunting, and we had the places to ourselves - right peaceful.

So early on, I would show up, and hang around camp, and learn the stuff Mentors did.
My thing has always been taking small game with a pistol. Heck, it is challenging, and fun!

Deer Season, everyone out and I am with the Mentors, outside, and got my pistol popping a squirrel from time to time, Mentors doing the same thing with Pistols or rifles...

I pull up to shoot and I froze. Mentors expecting to hear the pistol bark, instead I froze, and out of the side of my mouth , real low tone "deer".

Mentor eased his Model 70 in '06 to him, and peering intense for "what don't belong".
Piece of Buck "there" and another part "here" and from his angle he finally got "My bearings" and Buck presented the shot.
About 20 - no more than 25 steps.

"I ain't gonna get up and check"
"Me neither"
"Young'un don't need to" [me]

It was agree the Yankee Kinfolks that had come down South needed to mess with Buck "whenever they back, and if'n they don't lost coming in".

Lab- Collie mix dawg, was a hoot , he would actually go and retrieve the felled squirrels.

I got to where I liked this Thunkin' & Plunkin'

Learned what "butt-gone-to-sleep" meant early in life too.
Not a bad thing, just some words not in a dictionary.

That trip I helped install the good used stove.
We did not blow ourselves up, so we called it a good time at deer camp and we just sorta kicked back and let the world turn.

"What did you learn Young'un'? " Mentors always asked me this question
"Well, you still have the gift of leaving a tool behind an appliance when you install one" - I replied

One mentor was gifted in tools being left behind whatever he was working on,and if working on a vehicle, the tool always fell dead center where you could not reach it.

Consistent he was...

 

[sm]

Dove Hunting with Chicken Livers

Work smarter - not harder.

I posted earlier:

Dove hunting and while they are actually shooting doves, Thunker's & Plunker's are catching fish at the same time...

This ain't rocket science...

Opening day of Dove Season is a Big Tradition in the South.
Me and mine slap triggers on shotguns quite a bit, and so we know about pattern boards, loads, chokes, and all that.
We favor 28 gauge with target loads of #8.
Fixed choke is fine, heck we often just use Skeet Guns.

Equipment? What equipment? WE got guns that fit, loads that we know what they will do, a shell pouch, and we don't do camo.
Just natural earth tone stuff, and prefer full brim hats , like straw Cowboy, Aussie or whatever. Keeps the sun and rain off ears, neck and all - unlike ball caps.

Then again we have paid attention to the doves and habitat , so "natural" for doves ( any game including deer) to see us in jeans, white tennis shoes, oxford shirts/blouses, ...just normal stuff.

Grandma's have no problem popping doves wearing a house dress in a bright color and wearing a apron.
Especially out back near the clothesline, as the heathens tend to mess on the laundry on the line.

Decoys? Just toss some old towels and whatever on the line, and the heathens will come.


Chicken Livers "run" is part of the Tradition as well.

Pay attention, you about to learn something here....

That farm pond, the one with all them catfish in it- you know the one, the one where the 15# was hauled out of - the one the nice 3# - 4 # get pulled out of- yeah that pond.

Take a jug, say a Chlorine bleach bottle, and tie a nice cord about so long to it to the bank. [tree, homemade dock, stick hammered in the ground with a rock, whatever]
Now tie that 12# Cortland fishing line to the jug, and one of them blue steel "catfish hooks".

Before you retire for the night before Dove Hunting, bait them hooks with chicken livers, one tip is to use some 4# test line to secure bait a bit better.

Just toss these Jugs out, all over the pond and forget about them.

Get up early and do the Traditional Dove Hunt, and it don't take long to limit out.
So while some are cleaning the doves, others head to the pond and them jugs are just a dancing!

Pull that cord tied to the bank, and bring in the catfish.

Just use a nail to hammer the catfish's head to a tree, cut a slit around head, and yank off the skin with a pair of pliers.

I'm partial to fillets, so I fillet and just toss these in a cooler, and the head and leftover back into the pond.
Called 'natural recycling'.

Now, doves and catfish are some mighty eating.

See, you can have your cake and eat it too.




I know what is going to happen...

<crash, bump, scurry>
"Honey, can I have this bleach jug, and do you need anything from the store I got a hankering for chicken livers"

No wonder wimmin think guys are plumb nuts, she could have sworn it was the beginning of Dove Season.