alaskamarine
Cadet
- Joined
- May 27, 2005
- Messages
- 17
Well, this happened two years ago out duck hunting. We went up into a slough in search of beavers, muskrats and ducks. I was in front with my trusty .22 ruger, my 12 ga. was long out of shells. Suddenly a fat mallard took off in front of us, I brought it up to sight, imagine this, three people in a 16ft aluminum boat going about 10 knots up stream with the width about 10-15ft, and a mallard jumps almost straight up in front of you unexpectadly. I drew bead and shot three times, somehow I luckily hit it, right through the neck. It was a pretty fat duck to say the least and I was satisfied. But no, mother nature wasnt done throwing surprises at us. After the excitement had passed, we continued upstream. suddenly, the biggest beaver I have ever seen jumps from the bank into the river faster than my girlfriend uses 20 dollars off my credit card at a macys half off sale, it starts frantically swimming, wouldnt you if you were being chased by a big shiny thing that shrieks like the wind? Well, we all stood up, not the smartest thing to do in that boat and start aiming and firing. I was the first to hit it, a square shot directly in the head. We come alongside it and brought it into the boat. We marvel at it size, at first it looked just big, up close it is a monster. I examine the point where I hit it, right on the head with a .22 soft point lead. We figure we have enough game and start to turn around. We make our way about two more bends down the slough until I hear a scratching noise in the back. I assure myself it is just the willows scraping the boat, nothing to be alarmed about. It quickly goes away and I forget about it. I then hear it again, this time on the open river, here I do find it odd, willows growing 15ft out of the water, this I must see. I turn around and to my manical delight, a twisted mans fantasy, a monster beaver with blood on its fur and eyes, looking at me no more than 1 foot away. Now, for those of you unaccustomed to these monster rats, the have a tail of a deepish black and browinsh fur, some are bigger than 3 feet long, and those are considered small. Now, in my adrenaline panic I do not alert my friends in the front of my somewhat startling discovery, though I do manage to reach my .22 semi auto and aim, click, nothing. I had used all of my clip shooting at ducks and this fat beaver. Now, somewhere in my mind I finally think to tell my friends of this. They say the appropiate words and both reach for their guns. Keep in mind that we are in the middle of the river in a 16' aluminum boat with a 25hp evinrude going 3/4 throttle. The friend on my left gets his "trusty" 30/30 rifle out and quickly cocks and shoots. A 150 grain lead bullet fired at almost point blank range going 2500fps+ will easily pass through a beavers gut and most definately through 1/4 inch aluminum. What comes next even Cheech and Chong could write into their screenplays. He starts to laugh at me for being so scared of a beaver, still unaware of the hole created by his bullet. I quickly start screaming and appropiate words fly. Ever want to know how fast water can come in thorugh a bullet hole, one that has expanded and mushroomed through tough beaver? Ask me or one of my friends, theyll tell you though maybe reluctantly. We make it, barely to a sandbar, and when I mean barely, I mean being swamped in 5 feet of water. At that point in time I am glad not to be him. I struggle to get the rest of the boat close to shore, and through the 2 hours of that 15 foot pull, I am sure he learned his lesson. We quickly patch the hole and continue back down the river to home. We later figured that my shot must have grazed its head, and only knocked it out. Keep in mind that this is rural alaska, and not much boat travel on this patictular river. And since everything was good, we were too embarrased to call home under the circumstances.
<br /><br />welcome to iboats, alaskamarine. Great adventure, loved the story...I assume the "stupid human tricks" part was giving your credit card to your girlfriend? 
