Guys, You think you got "timbales"?

Folks,

Y'all need to check this one out: "Jill's Subarctic Journal".

The next time you're feeling tough and macho, read about this ladies bicycle adventure. I felt the cold and had my heart drop in my chest a couple of times.

The writing is excellent and done on the fly, if you can imagine that! All in all an excellent read.

Regards,
Albert A Rasch
The Hunt Continues...

Blogs of Note

© By Albert A Rasch

Well my friends, it is time for the monthly "Blogs of Note" posting!

While surfing the Blogsphere I bumped into "Wold Boar Hunting in California and Worldwide" the author PJJ, also has a book out that might be of interest to fellow hog hunters in California.

If you want to see a very popular, well designed, and well written blog go to "Confessions of a Pioneer Woman." There's a bit of mushy love stuff in it, but it really is well written and entertaining. Miss Ree's pictures are awesome too.

The "Great White Hunter" also has some fantastic photography. Located out west near the Sierra Nevada, he has taken incredible pictures of his neck of the mountains and the wildlife there.

As soon as I get the pictures for my stuff done, I'll be posting more on wild hog hunting. My baiting hasn't produced any results yet, so I'll have to make some adjustments to my set and try again.

Regards,
Albert A Rasch
The Hunt Continues...

Amazon Caiman Spear

© 2009, 2010 Albert A Rasch and

The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles

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My friend and fellow Blogger Todd Hill over at Primitive Point, lived and grew up in the Amazon. He and his father visit on a regular basis, and Todd recently forged a set of spear points for his friends in Brazil. Todd also is a founding member of The Backyard Smithy a sort of OBS of Neo-Tribal Bladesmithing. So for those of you interested in forging and bladesmithing his sites are good places to start.

Coincidently, I received this several years ago as a gift from a gentleman who runs a local gunshop. He traveled frequently to the Amazon basin and had adopted a small village. Perhaps they had adopted him, I not too sure of the initial start of his relationship with them, though I seem to remember that his father first brought him there a couple of decades ago. We spent several hours in conversation that day, and he graciously offered me this caiman spear as a parting gift.

The design is such that the wrapped cord holds the barb and the head in place against the foreshaft. When a fish or caiman was speared, the cord unfurled and the shaft floats to the surface allowing the hunters a better chance at retrieval.

The wood of the foreshaft and head is a dark, heavy, hard, and oily wood. The foreshaft is cylindrical with both ends tapered; sort of a long narrow barrel. The shaft, I was told, is from a flowering stalk.

The barb or spear point is made from 3/16" bar or nails hammered out by hand on a simple charcoal forge.

Here are the dimensions:

OAL 7’ 7”

Barb 6”

Head 4.75”

Foreshaft 11.5”

Shaft 6’ 3”

Cord 6’

Depth of hole in head ¾”

Regards,

Albert A Rasch
The Hunt Continues...