Leaderboard

Some of my thoughts: Trapping There are four schools of thought in trapping. 1) Leg hold trap - The trap is designed to hold the animal by the leg until the trapper can dispatch the animal. In the case of a large dangerous animal, this practice has gone the way of the dodo. You can still by grizzly sized leg hold traps but they are illegal to use. But many states still allow leg hold traps for coyote, bobcat, etc. The upside to the leg hold trap is that a complete trap line can be contained in one gunny sack, making logistics a snap. In the case of a Sasquatch, in theory at least, I suppose you could use a leg hold trap and tranquilize it. But because of the illegal status of such a trap, and the fact that you may be catching bear in the trap? It's a legal mind field. 2) Conibear trap - This trap is designed to crush the neck of the animal humanely, killing it instantly. The biggest conibear trap in the world is a 330, which is not big enough for something that is reportedly as big as a Sasquatch. 3) Live trap - Many states including mine, now require all trapping to be done with a live trap. They are a logistical nightmare for the trapper. And this is within the context of bobcat, coyote and other small fur bearing animals. The size a trap would need to be to attract and capture a big foot would not be logistically feesible. A static built trap would be feesible, but because it's not relocatable would make the trap utterly useless. 4) Snare cable - Super portable and great for logistics. Designed to catch either the leg or the neck depending on the set. But I've never seen a manufactrued snare that would be big enough for the job of snaring a Sasquatch. I really don't think trapping is the answer to solving this mystery. For one it's indiscriminate, and right now it's under a lot of pressure from many anti trapping groups. Spot and stalk This usually involves a good set of binoculars and hours of glassing good game areas. And also generally a high powered rifle and a good scope. Once the animal is spotted the hunter works to get into a down wind shooting position to cleanly take the animal. The problem I see with this approach is that it requires areas that are condusive to glassing. Many reported bigfoot areas are heavily timbered and the animals are reported only active at night. Add to the fact that your probably going to need to take a long shot? Only adds to the risk of killing a hoaxer. I don't like this approach to the Sasquatch pro kill question. Calling Many hunters use calls to call in game, and they do this successfully right across the spectrum of game animals. From ducks to turkeys to coyotes to bear to elk.......it works very well. Some calls are designed to sound like a potential mate while others are designed to sound like potential prey. The down side to this is what does a Sasquatch sound like? What is he attracted to? There is SOME potential here, if a system could be perfected. But I think for our goals of taking ONE and only ONE, it may be folly. Although BF researchers do claim success from call "blasting". Lure and bait One can lure an animal in many different ways, but the two most successful ones are similar to calling.....potential food source, potential mate. I see BF researchers using ape pheremone chips and I also see them using small caches of food. I even witnessed one man using wind chimes and other curiousity type lures. I think this one has a lot of potential, hunters have used these techniques to ambush prey for eons. And it seems to have been successful for the "skookum cast". I like this approach because it almost assures that the hunter will be within close approximity of a animal and can judge it's authenticity hopefully successfully. I've even thought about getting it dead to rights and then shouting a verbal challenge before actually shooting. I think any hoaxer is giving it up at that moment in time. But I'm 99 percent confident that at 50 yards I can make a positive ID between something real and something being hoaxed. Tracking As the name states, a hunter cuts a track and follows it to the source. Dogs can also be used in the pursuit, depending on the species and country. In northern Europe and Russia, they use Laika's to hunt everything from Boar to Moose. But in the states the main "hound" game species are Raccoon (most popular by far), Bear, Bobcat, Cougar and Boar. This style of hunting has a lot of potential as well. Although hound hunting is right along side trapping as far as being under fire by "anti" groups. But I'm skeptical that a man could track down a Sasquatch by himself. The only way the gig is going to end up in your favor is if your eating more ground than the quarry is. Which is a unrealistic expectation for an animal that takes one step to your three. But a good couple of dogs, changes that equation entirely. I often times hear people state that it takes a lot to "imprint" a hound to a given species. I have never found this to be true within reason. If you have a good **** hound, he is going to be able to track cougar or bear as well. A couple of drags is in order to get him in the right "mindset". My hounds run cougar, bear AND ****, they are treeing walkers and redbones. Now a good **** hound could get ruined upon his first run when he encounters something other than a ****, and is too aggressive for his own good. If he gets popped he may not want to go again, a houndsman has to be able to read the disposition of the dog. The nose is only one part of the equation. Spot lighting or other Spot lighting generally is not as illegal as people think it is. Generally **** hunters with hounds and coyote hunters all employ spotlights in their hunts. The key is that generally speaking either the seasons do not overlap with big game seasons OR it's unlawful to use a light during those seasons. As we all know that spot lighting for big game is generally illegal. To put it bluntly, most reports identify Sasquatch as a nocturnal creature. This perplexes me because all of the other apes, including us have trichromatic vision and there for do not venture out at night. But if the reports are to be taken seriously one had better be ready to invest in at least a good tactical shooting light and some sort of attachment point on a rifle. Of course there are now much more serious "toys" to be had, such as night vision scopes and FLIR scopes. Both of these types of scopes allow a shooter to attach them to a rifle and zero them. I won't get into the technology here, but either of these high end scope technologies would make hunting at night a fairly mundane affair. I've used both and they are the real deal. The Hunter I've been 50 miles from the pickup truck while packing ALONE, I wouldn't advise it to anyone. It's kind of like SCUBA diving by yourself, if something goes wrong, the only person that can get you out of the jam is YOU. Make your wife a happy woman and pair up with somebody. The military has a saying "two is one and one is none". Rambo is a sham guys, team work is the key to our species success. The Team I've had some military style training in my life, and I really think that this style of mindset would be the largest asset to any BF hunter groups out there. It just needs to be tweaked in order to make it successful in this style of operation. To place strength in the team it could be setup like any "A" team in the US Army special forces groups. In which each member has a specialty, although many of their specialties would not be useful in a BF hunter team, you get the jist. a)Team leader b)Medic/Corpsman c)Tracker w or w/o dog d)Communications expert and Assistant Team Leader e)Weapons expert f)Reconnaissance expert This is not a rigid list but a well rounded list that could be added to or subtracted from. Each patrol would have at least two members and would be in radio contact with a patrol base at all times. Weapons Any weapon used would need to be sufficient in taking a 800 lbs omnivore cleanly. Think Grizzly bear here. I'm not a big proponent of taking long shots because of lack of authenticity in what we are hunting. Therefore we should resolve ourselves on taking close shots. The downside to this approach is that it places the shooter danger close to the animal. No shot should ever be made without your "battle buddy" backing you up. He can spot the shot for you as well as back you up in the case of malfunction. Weapon lethality vs. ammo capacity. Would a person rather carry a double barrel .500 nitro express? Or would a M1A scout in .308 and 20 round detachable box magazine be a better choice? Rifles are just like tools on a work bench, and generally there is more than one tool that can get the job done. There are also new rifles that are beginning to fill the void, such as the .50 Beowulf, the .458 Socom and the .450 Bushmaster. AR platforms shooting large caliber rifle rounds. I think this is all up to the individual, since we are probably talking about something individually purchased. But if I was a team leader I would put a bare minimum requirement caliber wise on the team. We have all heard uncle Buck's story about killing a bear with a .22, remember the mission and remember your commitment to your fellow team members. The caliber should be capable of stopping any charge and take the animal quickly and humanely. Camouflage All apes possess trichomacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichromacy We have to assume that if we have eyes on a Sasquatch, he is looking back at us with the same capability we are observing him with......our gift of trichromatic vision. Hunting camo is all the rage, but in my mind at least it is very specialized camo. If your going to set up a deer stand in a oak tree, there are several choices out there to match you with that oak tree. But what if there are no oak trees around? Generally speaking hunting camo takes "prints" of vegatation and overlays it onto fabric. Military camo on the other hand is more generalized and works well in a wider range of situations. I personally think multi cam is a great choice, but there are others. Again this could be an individual choice but probably up to a team leader's discreation. Also.....paint up, our faces are very discernable in the bush, the goal is to make a negative of your face. And make sure you reapply as it wears off. Mission Unlike BF researchers that are not pro kill, and with time and resources being precious, it must be understood by everyone that a three month old track is just that.......a three month old track. Document it quickly and move on. The goal should be harvesting a type specimen and "old sign" doesn't help you accomplish that mission in the short term. Obviously as a data base emerges, a team could begin crunching the numbers, observing patterns and make educated attempts to get ahead of the game. But the direct mission objective (a type specimen) should always be the first and foremost objective with only using trace evidence as a means to that end. Reporting: The military uses the SALUTE report: S-Size A-Activity L-Location U-Unit T-Time E-Equipment This could easily be changed to accomodate our needs. It's purpose is to make a clear, concise report quickly on a radio, allowing for as much information to be passed without compromising the patrol. And it stops such conversations as this on the radio: Me "Hey Bob!" Bob "Yaah?" Me "I see something in the bushes" Bob "Where?" Me "About 50 feet in front of me" Bob "Where are you at?" Me "Ummmm over by the big snag" Bob "Which snag?" Me "The BIG one!" Bob "I have no idea...." Maps The military usually will "grid" their maps. This is a grid overlay that allows for quick reference. Longitude lines could be given a number value while latitude lines could be given a alphabet value. So now you are in grid reference square A6 or Alpha Six by using the military phonetic alphabet. As opposed to simply using long/lat or section, township and range in civilian maps. I could go on for hours, but I'll post this and let everyone respond.......