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1. Welcome to Our E-zine! Here at Adventures with Ol’ Grizz, we are pleased to introduce our first e-zine. Every month we plan to have a few articles on topics of interest to outdoors men and women. If you enjoy the e-zine, please forward it to your friends, family and acquaintances.

We came to the Texas hill country in search of the wild "Indian" of exotics, Axis deer. Axis deer are natives of India, but wild herds of axis deer have roamed the Texas hill country since the 1940's, when the first few escaped from local game ranches. Because axis deer are native to India and not the U.S., very little seems to be known of how they behave in the U.S. wild. Fortunately for us, our outfitter and guide Wyatt Birkner, of South Texas Bow Hunters, has studied axis deer more than most people. He had us cover all people and cameras in leafy camo. (I thought we looked like Swamp Things!)

Once we reached our hunting spot, Wyatt had Grizz hide in a tree and I was sitting in a ground-blind. Soon white-tails meandered all around us. As they munched, a few came to within ten feet of me. I was taping away (never mind I was supposed to be waiting for Axis deer!), suddenly the battery message flashed in the viewfinder. Since I wasn't supposed to be filming white-tails, I carefully changed the battery. It never bothered those deer a bit! Apparently they liked the "Swamp Thing" look.

We'd been hearing barking noises all day, but we hadn't seen any axis deer. We speculated between ourselves about what the barking noises might be. I had heard peacocks a few times and I thought this noise might be similar to their mewling call. Grizz said the noises could be the calls of some exotic since this part of Texas has many nonnative animals running wild. We really didn't think DEER when we were discussing the possibilities.

Eventually Grizz decided to take a look over the rise to see what the noises were. As usual, he told me, “You stay here. I’ll be right back. I’m just going to take a look over that rise.” He got about half way to the rise when I decided that whatever action might happen on that day was going to be over that rise! I snuck up behind Grizz before he could crawl over the rise without me. We crawled over the rise and there they were, a big herd of Axis deer. By watching them, we learned the various barking noises we had been hearing, was their way of communicating. Our stalk was going good until one straggling doe got a glimpse of "swamp thing" Grizz, we got to hear an alarm bark then.

Later, driving around a five-mile area we saw lots of Axis deer. They were in the road, laying under the trees and up in a ranch house’s yard. Everywhere, but where we were hunting! Wyatt said the particular ranch, where we saw all the Axis, belonged to the widow of the man who first brought the Axis from India to the U.S. She considered her ranch as a sanctuary for the herds and allowed no hunting on her property.

We learned from talking to Wyatt and his son, Alan, that Axis bucks shed their antlers every year around their birthdays, so at any given time you can see bucks in different stages of antler development. After two days of stalking the two most highly developed bucks, we came away without a trophy, but much more informed of Axis behavior. These wild "Indians" won't be safe from Grizz and me the next time we hunt for Axis deer in the Texas hill country.

This story was done as an episode of Adventures with Ol’ Grizz and is available on DVD or VHS at http://www.tradergrizz.com/videos

A century after the closing of the frontier, the clothing, firearms and history of the Old West are popular again. Movies like Lonesome Dove, Tombstone, and the Unforgiven have boosted interest in authentic period clothing as Cowboy Action Shooting has exploded in popularity.

Harper "Judge Roy Bean" Creigh, Bill "Moss Horn" Hahn, Gordon "Diamond Jim Chisholm" Davis, and Boyd "US Grant" Davis founded Cowboy action shooting in 1981, but the sport really took off in the late 1990's. They are members of the organization that most Cowboy Shooters belong to called the Single Action Shooters Society (SASS). Membership in SASS entitles a member to register their "shootin' handle" (the name they want to be called.) This is so Judge Roy Bean or Annie Oakley won't meet ten others with their alias at a tournament.

There is a membership fee to join SASS and entrance fees to competitors, but you don't have to be a member to compete and spectating is FREE. There is a dress code for competitors and EVERYONE must wear eye protection and ear protection is suggested. Safety is strongly emphasized. Most events have FREE primitive camping on site or the event coordinators can point you toward more luxurious accommodations.

Judge Roy Bean says Cowboy Action tournaments are like a family reunion. "There's one constant at these tournaments: All the people I have met are the same friendly people. It's more like going to a family reunion than a shooting match," Creigh told Gun Games Magazine. "There is a need for "sandlot baseball" a type of sport you can enjoy in your own backyard." The tournaments remind this reporter of a Rendevous or Pow Wow. The Rendevous participants reenact the period in history from about 1820 to 1860, where the Cowboy Action participants reenact the period in history from about 1860 to about 1900.

Guys, like Dakota Doc (Ed Smith) and gals, like Cactus Kay (Paula Smith), say they are involved in Cowboy Action Shooting because of the fun of recreating a bit of the Old West. Choosing your shooting alias and dressing the part seems to be at least half the fun, since accuracy is not stressed.

In Cowboy matches shooters are squadded into groups called posses. The events are called stages. Most stages require the shooter to do something inconvenient or silly before engaging a stage.

At a recent match held at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico, requirements for one stage where a shotgun had to be loaded from a swinging "bait bucket" while the rifle had to be fired through a cardboard stringer of fish. Another made a shooter load a shotgun from a dummy "corpse" lying in a casket, then hurl a stuffed cat and an epithet at the steel "bad guys" before firing.

Dress is important to the fun of Cowboy Action Shooting. Shooters usually try to be as authentic as possible with clothing, arms and holsters, although you can get involved with as little as a gun, jeans, T-shirt, and hat. Some try to recreate a certain character from the Old West like Wild Bill Hickock or Wyatt Earp, often it's a type of character as in the Gambler or Cowpoke. Since 25% of Cowboy Action Shooters are women, there are a number of Annies and Calamities as well.

Allen Wah, designer of authentic Old West clothing, says it best, "The World's love of the Old West is not just a passing fad. Cowboy Action Shooting is a part of Living History.”

* * * 4. Tech Talk With Grizz and Mike. Grizz and Mike Bliss talk optics. Jim “Ol’ Grizz” Robinson and long time friend and hunting guide, Mike Bliss, sat down recently at the studios for Adventures with Ol’ Grizz, to discuss Bushnell optics. Bushnell optics are the only optics used on the show, for good reason, Grizz thinks they’re the best optics around. Grizz has been using Bushnell optics for many years even prior to the creation of Adventures with Ol’ Grizz in 1990. Let’s listen in on the conversation between the long time friends and hunting & fishing buddies: Grizz: Mike, I’ve got something here . . . you haven’t seen this one yet. Mike: I don’t think I have seen that before. Grizz: You’re gonna go crazy over these. This pair of binoculars, this is Bushnell’s Yardage Pro Quest. These are eight power binoculars with a built-in range-finder. Grizz hands the yardage pros over to Mike and he looks them over and looks through them. Grizz: They’re good for up to 800 yards and of course, you’ve got the eight power binoculars . . . Can you imagine what you could do with a pair of those with your elk guiding? Mike: When we’re talking about Elk hunting, we’re talking here in Michigan, where we don’t have a lot of hills or rocky areas. We’ve got a lot of open areas. This would be great there. They’re not that heavy, either! Grizz: No, and when you’re looking through binoculars and the guy next to you, your client, says, “Should I take the shot or not?” Normally you’d have to guess or get out a separate pair of range-finders. Mike: Right. With these I can tell ‘em how far it is, just that quick. Grizz: I was watching a deer down in the valley during the rifle season with these. I just pushed a button and there it was. It said “Fifty-seven yards.” Mike: You can’t miss ‘em at fifty-seven yards! Grizz: No, well you’re not supposed to. The segment ends with the two friends chuckling a bit. You get the impression they’re thinking about shared memories where one or both may have missed that shot. This segment is part of a larger show called “Optics” which is available on DVD and VHS. * * * 6. Outdoor Photography/ Videography Tip One of the most disappointing things about home videos is where the shooter pans across a scene so fast it makes the viewer queasy. This problem arises because the camcorder’s circuitry does not respond as fast as your eyes and brain do to changing scenery. You can avoid this scenario by using a little trick that professional videographers use called the “ten-second rule.” Just slowly count to ten as you pan across your scene. “One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand . . . ” Slowly panning gives your camcorder a chance to adjust to the new scene. Your viewers will enjoy the finished product a lot more if you follow this simple little rule! * * * 7. Outdoor Funnies Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all?" -- George Carlin What's the difference between a hunter and a fisherman? A hunter lies in wait. A fisherman waits and lies. A hunter was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful Princess, I will stay with you for one week." The hunter took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket. The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a Princess, I'll stay with you and do anything you want." Again the hunter took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket. Finally the frog asked, "What is it? I've told you I'm a beautiful Princess, that I'll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The hunter said, "Look, I'm an avid hunter and when I'm not hunting, I'm fishing, so I don't have time for girlfriends, but a talking frog is really cool!" * * * Trader Grizz ADVERTISING CONTACTS. Ad Sales Operations Mgr. Cindy Robinson tradergrizz@lycos.com * * * REPRINTS: Permission to reprint articles from Trader Grizz is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, provided: (1) the reprint is used for noncommercial, educational purposes; and (2) the following notice appears at the end of the article: Previously published in Trader Grizz : July 6, 2005, Vol. 1, No. 1. * * * *