| 2009 |
| Pre-Season August 2010 fun with a Doug Wigfield call...at campground near CNWR |
| See Doug Wigfield's exciting new SIKA website at: http://www.dougwigfield.com/ |
2008
| What's this? Probably the only Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge Sika antler pen ever made (as far as I know...). The dark areas? Most probably fighting damage while chasing Sika females... |
| OK, here's me again with my friend George M. We hunted with two others folks for the first time that year; Jason and Paul. Jason is a para, and Paul is 100% blind (hunting accident at age 14). Paul had all these cool guns modified for Jason to sight through. Paul pulled the trigger. Talk about trust... Anyway, the red dot sight on Paul's modified rifle covered those little Sika, and Paul was distraught. Note Jason's fix; a pop bottle duck taped to the stock of Jason's 243. This gave a normal crosshairs view on the Sika and POW...it worked. Elsie assisted Paul with his first offhand shot ever since his accident, and boy did they work for it! Paul is the neatest field dresser and one of the safest hunters I have ever experienced.. Click the pics below to see a more varied experience at the wonderful CNWR! |
| I started hunting Sika at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on November 26, 1990, Above, you see my good friend George M and I with a 6 and 5 pointer respectively. It took me until 01/10/2003 to get the 6-pointer seen above...12 years! Sheesh! And to top it off, I got another 6-pointer the NEXT year... Anyway, watch for more... |
| ParaPower finally became a REAL website in 2005...whew! Watch this space for new additions and updates. There will be errors and omissions until I can get this thing settled down, so bear with me. Note that I have added an Internet website/e-mail rumor checker to validate submissions first (Thanks, BJ!), You might as well know that the "Huntin' Fishin'" & "Sika" pages (accessible from the ABOUT ME page) contain shots of animals harvested during various hunting seasons. As such, if you are squeamish, DON'T GO THERE! Bear with me, settle back, and enjoy the browsing. Make sure to leave a note in our guestbook too, and thanks. Tom Reese Jr. |
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| THE GLORIOUS LITTLE SIKA... |
| This page has en extra dedication due to Aubrey Hall and the folks at CNWR, Debbi Quinn and the folks at Hampton Inn, Tom Quinn of Chincoteague, and Gary and the people of Mason Oil Company as well as my past and current assistant (and best wife one could ask for...) Elsie (1992-present). It was they who have made and are making this hunt physically possible for me! Thanks so much! |
| This hunt was a little different. This time we left from Stanardsville VA at about 11PM or so and drove to Chincoteague through the night. We arrived at the Hampton Inn Chincoteague at 628AM after driving though fog and rain from the Rt 50/495 intersection. It was some slooowww driving. After the 10AM orientation, we scouted the zone. I saw NO deer on the scout. I was reminded of 2011... My goal? 1 deer, and anything extra the Lord threw at me was icing on the cake as far as I was concerned. He sure made a beautiful place to hunt. These pictures are a collage of everything that happened. Some were done with cheap camera phones; some with better optics. Most if not all can be expanded by clicking on them. Matilda's left drive tire was flat when we awoke on 12/3 and I had to switch to the '90 mode...manual chair with ElsiePush. We shot 2 Sika that way that morning. Elsie was able to catch me actually shooting at a Sika (number 2 who, unfortunately, got lost in the thickets. Couldn't find his little self after 2 days of searching beyond the blood trail). This is the walkway to the overlook in the lower parking area. The red circles indicate the 870 barrel and the spike Sika himself. He would turn to the right and give me a still broadside, but as I was on the manual in an emergency I had an unsteady rest and he and Sika 1 gave me "deathmarks" on my forehead. After Mason Oil repaired Matilda's left drive tire, no more marks, but no more lost deer either with another 4 added to the total by the next day. I got 2 WhiteTail that afternoon, and the next morning followed up with another Sika. That evening at 455PM (and yeah, it was quite dark there...) came Whitetail number 3. The 700 never fired a shot, and the 870 did it all. One recovered 438gr slug yielded a remaining 431.2gr. Good enough. The hunt was over, and it was a grand one! |
| SIKAteer... |
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| Of course, this gate to the upper parking lot is the last thing I see when I am leaving the hunt. There's the SikaVan waiting on the right...Elsie is ready to grab some dinner as am I. Of course, it's a LOT darker when I leave than this! |
| Speaking of chair issues, that flat tire wasn't the only one. Guess who was stupid enough NOT to remember to plug in his power chair for overnight charging for the morning of 12/4? Yeah...you guessed it. We went with what we had and got a Sika in the AM as already described, and recharged somewhat at noon for the evening hunt. I had JUST enough power to do it, with the last deer taken at 455PM. |