sodakadventure.com Blog

Aaron Terveen was injured in a car accident last month and his Wife Mandi (Farlee) Terveen, and two sons need our help. For more info on the accident (Click Here).

Aaron is an avid coyote hunter and since he has local ties we thought what better way to help his family than with a coyote hunt. We are going to have our 2nd Video hunt of the year on December 31st. If possible we would like to collect all the videos on a computer so I can make a hunt video for him to watch while he goes through his rehab. Many of the details are still being ironed out as this is short notice.

If you can help in anyway please let us know on the event page we set up on facebook.

If you are not a hunter and would like to help out we will take silent auction items as well as prizes for the hunters.
The events will kick off on Friday December 30th @ 5:30 with a $5 meal provided by the Farlee Family, followed by a rules meeting at 7:00. The Hunters will hunt all day on Saturday and videos will be aired and another free will meal will be served starting @ 5:30 on Saturday Night.

Entry fees for the contest will be $130 per team, teams may have up to 3 people.
For complete rules (Click Here)

Thanks for taking the time to read this and keep praying for Aaron, Mandi and the boys.

Aaron doing what he loves best

However I will do the best job I can. Let me start back a couple of years. Those of you who know me personally know that I love basketball and my oldest son (who is now 13) is somewhat of a basketball junkie and a darn good player if I say so myself. He didn’t get it from me, I was a terrible athlete. Ok back to the story. When my son got to 3rd grade I started coaching him on some teams and stayed at it for 3 years. When he got into 6th grade we moved him to another school that had a good program with a coach, at that point I retired. This year I have a 4th grader and the town was looking for a grade school basketball coach, my wife signed us up. I was a little excited to get back into it, she told me I could coach the older kids and she would take the younger ones. I started pulling out my old stuff whistles, dry erase boards and gym shoes. I was ready, until I got the schedule!!! In my part of South Dakota the deer season starts the first Saturday of November and ends the last Sunday of November. I’m a rancher so I don’t have to hunt on weekends, but my friends have regular jobs and the weekend is their time to get out. I don’t know about you but I enjoy hunting with my friends and so it has to be on a weekend. The schedule comes out and I have Tournaments the first 2 Saturdays of deer season. I called my buddies and told them my predicament. I really wanted to go hunting but I was obligated. To be prepared for the adventure I went out about twice a week and scouted I needed to find out where the big ones were for my friends and of course for myself. There just were not that many deer around. Usually by November I’m shooting does like they are prairie dogs, because they are everywhere. Not this year, the deer were hard to find. I guess that’s why they call it Hunting and not shooting. Finally the first free weekend rolled around and Dave pulled into the ranch on Thursday night. Chief just started a new job so he was not going to make it out until Friday evening. We went at it pretty hard on Friday Morning, just looking, watching, and glassing. Hoping someone would push a buck on our land, because there was nothing grand to be found. Did see a quite a few coyotes so we had to kill one on Friday, then Chief came and we went ahead and did some walking on Saturday early with no luck, but 2 more coyotes got whacked. Later that morning, we spotted a couple of Bucks in the pickup and decided to make a play. They got down in a creek bottom that was wide open and they kept a close eye on the truck, they didn’t mind if we kept a good distance but if it moved they would relocate. We parked on a hill about 800yds away and glassed, the 2 bucks ran into another group of deer that also held 2 bucks and a few does. They were keeping a close eye on the pickup and our movements. Dave really wanted a deer so he fell out of the pickup and crawled around to a wash. He put on a stalk while we played decoy. While those bucks rutted around and kept an eye on us, Dave was walking and crawling closer by the minute. We tried to video but it was too far and to windy so you will just have to take our word for it. Chief and I are watching a couple of bucks way to the right of Dave, he was getting closer and closer, but he was headed left. There was no way for us to signal him but we were sure he was going the wrong way. After what seemed like forever he finally got out of his belly crawl and set up his shooting sticks. We could not see what he was aiming at as the other 2 bucks were off to his right still and he was aiming left. I was keeping a close eye with my binos and finally smoke came out of the barrel. He jacked in another shell and didn’t budge. My first thought was he missed. The 2 bucks to the right jumped out of the bottom but didn’t really know what happened, we were sure he wasn’t shooting at them. Then suddenly Dave leaped up, threw his hands in the air and we knew he knocked one down. The next morning we called coyotes and Dave headed back to Milbank about noon, with his West River Muley. One more coyote died that weekend on the third set of a stand Chief got to knock her out with his new Howa, We gave up on deer hunting, hadn’t seen anything worth working for, and we would rather shoot coyotes anyway. It was a fun weekend, Dave doesn’t get over often enough and I love getting 4 coyotes in a weekend. It’s true, a guy can hunt his whole life for the Trophy of a Lifetime, but the best memories come from hunting trips that don’t go as planned.

Last Yote of the Weekend

View from coyote stand

Not bad

Dave's Muley

2nd Coyote of the weekend, the Deer Rifle wasn't good to him

First Coyote of the Weekend a Big One!!!

Arizona Law:
Being the Husband and Father of Mexican Americans I decided to read the law in its entirety.

It states that a law officer must have probable cause to stop someone, (this is the same as the South Dakota Seatbelt law: A law officer must have probable cause to pull someone over, just because they are not wearing a seat belt is not a probable cause if pulled over for speeding, you may also receive a ticket for no seatbelt). In AZ just because you are Hispanic does not mean you will be pulled over, if you have a broken tail light you will be pulled over and asked for your Driver’s License, just like a person of any other nationality.

The law also states that anyone stopped must show proper Identification, a Drivers License, Military ID, MVD identification card, or a Native American Card. Federal law is very clear if you are here on a visa you must have your papers on you at all times. That is the law. If you cannot provide the proper papers you will be detained, and given a chance to provide them. If you do not provide them you will be deported, if you do provide them you may be fined for not having them with you. I know people here from Mexico on Visas, they spend a great deal of time in Border towns in Texas and New Mexico, they would never leave home without their Visas or Green Cards, even though they have U.S. Drivers licenses.

I guess people should educate themselves before they start attacking a State for being reactive to a National problem. This is just a clarification and a crack down on how the Federal Law is enforced. Truth is, it’s no different than someone driving on a suspended license, if you don’t break the traffic laws you will more than likely will not get caught.

The opinions out there are that if you are Hispanic, look Hispanic or speak Spanish you will get pulled over, harassed and detained by the cops. If this is true the cops are acting illegally not you, there are bigots everywhere and I’m sad to say there are many in the police services, however the new Bill does not give the Police that right, it just tells them to do their jobs and make sure that the people pulled over for breaking traffic laws are here legally. It also has nothing to do with being Hispanic; anyone pulled over must provide the proper ID. This law might actually stop the next guy that tries to put a Bomb in Time Square.

Don’t take my word for it, read the law Arizona Law SB 1070 it’s all over the Internet read the actual law not the opinions of a bunch of Liberal bloggers. I agree some of the wording is confusing, but I’m not scared to take my Family to AZ because of it, and neither should anyone else.

I got this coyote while calling from a 4 wheeler

It was 12 degrees today, I spent most of the day outside, feeding cows and checking water tanks. I took off on the 4 wheeler about 2:00. I took my rifle as well. I had a couple of things to do but thought I might call a coyote or 2 on the way home. I’ve tried calling coyotes from 4 wheelers before but have alway gotten pretty cold doing it. One thing about coyote hunting in your pickup you can warm up between stands. Many calling contests do not allow 4 wheelers because many people use them to run coyotes down, they also don’t allow shotguns for this same reason. I agree with those rules, but I’m going to give my leasure calling from an ATV more of a chance. This fall I bought my first ATV since moving back to the ranch, with it and the new .243 from the last post we got a coyote. Here are a few of the Pros and Cons for using an ATV while out calling coyotes.

Pros:
Less overall noise: I understand ATVs are louder than most gasoline pickups, but you don’t have to go to every stand driving 30mph, you don’t do that in your pickup. Throttle down a little as you travel between stands, there are no slamming of doors, dinging of alarms, or radios to give away your intentions. Also by traveling slower less chance of breaking your neck.

More stand opportunities: Depending on the weather and my mood, my stand opportunities in a pickup are limited, how many times have you pulled up to an area as far as you could go and said to yourself “I bet there is a coyote down there” but after awhile you decide it’s too far to walk. This usually happens to me at the end of a day of calling. I’m wore out and I just can’t bring myself to walk 1/4 of a mile to get a coyote. On an ATV I can get in farther, undetected. Less walking means more stands, more stands should equal more coyotes.

I’m sure I will find more pros as I experiment more with this idea.

Cons

Cold: ATVs have no heater or cab to keep you warm, unless you splurge and buy a cab kit for a new Rhino, Ranger or any other Side by side ATV. Even with a cab the heaters in these don’t work the best and the set up puts you out as much as a late model used pickup. I am somewhat of a wimp when it comes to being cold, I can’t wait to get my fingers shoved down the defrost when the pickup warms up. However with better cold weather hunting gear, it’s getting easier to brave the elements all the time. ATVs have you exposed to the elements, if it’s 5 degrees with a 15mph wind your windchill can be anywhere around 10-20 degrees below 0 and you and driving an ATV another 15mph you are making it that much colder going from stand to stand.

Hunting with friends: For me hunting is all about spending time with friends, I hunt plenty by myself, but I really enjoy hunting with my buddies, on and ATV you are perhaps a little to close for comfort if you know what I mean. A side by side would be better for this, but even then its hard to get 3 or 4 guys together without multiple ATVs, and the more you have the more potential noise you might make.

I guess it’s really up to the hunter, but being someone who has been against it in the past, you will see me packing an ATV around more often this winter. Stay tuned to see how I fair.

trickbarrelracer1I’m sitting here, I have all of my old website stuff on my computer but the blog went haywire, I have chose a new designer but it’s not working. It doesn’t help that I’m watching Krece while I’m trying to figure it out, have patients with me while I work through this tough time. I’m starting to hate technology.