Wednesday 11 November 2009

..squirrels and baz..

..I do not normally shoot squirrels..not even for target practice..I prefer to let them be..oh, they are pests alright, feasting and boring holes on young coconuts..much to the dismay of the villagers...but there are coconut-trees everywhere..growing lush and green with each tree bearing 20 to 40 coconuts..what difference does it make if the squirrels feasted on one or two..?..or 10?...


..common snipes..my preferred shoot..
The difficulties involved in hunting snipe
gave the term "
sniper
", a skilled anti-personnel
military sharpshooter..pakmat wikied this..


..and so, most times, I do not take part in any squirrel shoot in my village..I was of the mind that the damage to the fruit was minimal..and the squirrels deserved their share of the coconuts..but demand for young coconuts are on the rise..at 40 cent per nut, to those whose income is from selling them, a few taken by the squirrels is not an option..

..to the aborigines deep in the forest of Southern Kelantan, Pos Gob or Balar, squirrels are considered a delicacy..along with wild boar..wild boars are trapped.. but squirrels are brought down with a puff from the blow-pipe... as also monkeys that strayed into their line of sight.. darts with tips poisoned with gum of the ipoh tree...chak rayak, big feast followed after the catch..

..you do not get to see any harmed coconuts around their bamboo houses..

..and someone said squirrels is good for aging men like pakmat....the meat is heaty.. being not too sure about its 'halal'ness, pakmat settled with his daily intake of Pharmaton Ginseng...

..but sometimes the squirrels get out of line..they came in packs.. last year they destroyed almost all of my neighbour's durians fruiting on one particular tree..causing them to drop prematurely..bringing consternation to the owner..and this year that tree is fruiting again..and this year they sought my help, with a tentative 'Could pakmat possibly....?'

..I thought about it...it has been ages since I brought the gun out..or purchased shells..but I still have two boxes of number 8's..

..since aging is natural and shooting is optional, I said yes..I will shoot the squirrels...and take care of that particular durian tree..and maybe get some of the adrenalin rushing again..

..nothing in the league of snipe shooting, of course...where the whole senses are tuned razor-sharp as you walked steadily the fields..breathing controlled, and gun at ready...waiting for that first flutter of wings, and the 'squeek' as the bird took off..and in that instance, the gun became an extension of the arm, a smooth swing of the barrel as it followed the flight, overlapped.... and the squeeze of the trigger, with the snipe in full flight..the wings folded on impact.. as the bird took a curving trajectory downwards, the gun is reloaded almost instinctively, eyes not leaving the spot where it fell....but the walk is still steady and unhurried..and the senses still keen, for other snipes, known to crouch at the first shot and will only took flight as you near it...

..as I took out my gun and felt the years slipped by, I suddenly recalled the lines of Baz Luhrmann..

But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself
and recall in a way you can’t grasp now, how much possibility lay before you
and how fabulous you really looked...


..pakmat, 20 over years ago...

13 comments:

Granny Hani said...

heheheeee...
cepatnya masa berlalu..
handsome jugak yer..
Lo ni pun handsome lagi.

Anonymous said...

fullamakkk pakmat ... mcm hero lahhh nampak ... ruggeddd bebehhh ...

hazeleyed lady said...

Steady laa Pak Mat...can't see much difference...except for the discoloration
...hahaha

Justiffa said...

Same here la pakmat.. i tend to believe theres room for all of us here on Gods earth. tapi i'm not having my livelihood threatened by the critters so cant say much. and being a soldier's daughter i can appreciate ur rather passionate description of shooting the birds ;) u must've really enjoyed that.

And btw, pakmat nampak ganas la masa muda2 dulu, mcm undercover agent je (too much csi la ni lol) ;D

Unknown said...

ikss... nampak tak de beza mana pic skrg dgn yg dulu... huhuhu

errrr... dah lama tak dengar lagu 'anak tupai'

penah dengar.... khabarnya ada tok guru kata... "tupai boleh makan".... (jgn lupa, ayat tergantung tu, boleh mendatangkan pelbagai tafsiran... hehehe)

Lee said...

Hi PakMat, wow! That you in the pic...Holy Smoke! Glad you were in Kelantan and not the West Coast or else I sure face stiff competition chasing after sarongs, ha ha.

Read of your mention squirrels, here if you fool around with drugs, I don't mean Viagra or Aspirin...or smuggle or push them, you get a slap on the wrist by our chicken hearted judges!

Tembak, hurt or kill a squirrel....he or she will throw the whole book at you.
Orang putehs lagi kesian, sayang animals than their own kind.

I had an M-16 semi auto as well a .357 SW Mag, but only for target practice or tembak tins.
Long ago in KL, I went hunting for flying fox at night, and by accident shot a monkey....it fell down dying clutching its baby.
And that was the day I swore I will never shoot an animal.

Looks like you having fun there.
By the way glad to read ada lagi those natives in the deep hutan. Lee.

Unknown said...

cikgu hani..
..tadok gigi doh lo ni..kalu rima, bolih meraung ajer..kekah tak bekah..

relaxjom..
..hero tamil..:)

hazel..
..the discoloration is complete..only silver among the gold..no more black..

justi..
..hunting for snipes has always been an unmitigated passion with pakmat..cant do much now..eyesight failure..:)

sifu..
..ah..you flatter an ole man..take care in the camerons..

uncle lee..
..the snipes still come..in December, with the rain..anytime you're here will willingly take you for a snipe shoot..4 out of 10 shots whould not be so bad, huh?..for 60yr olds..envy that .357 smithy mag..in the class of clint..
take care, lee..there are still a few shots left yet..

wakparpu said...

make lah benda2 yang sahih halalnya..ke guano...? dan 'kemancowan' demo meme teserlah...

Unknown said...

wakp..
..kemancowan telah diperhanyutkan sg. tenggiri 20 tahun dahulu..

Fadhil said...

Pak Mat,

The words of Baz are so profound... there is this pic of me at 20, when I was a student. I had long hair and looked like a Mat Rocker. My sons look at the photo and they laugh... they have a cool old man :-)

Simpan gambo-gambo lama tu elok-elok, Pak Mat. They're precious.

p/s - according to a nephew of mine who had Orang Asli classmates at his school in Kuala Kubu Baru, the wild boar is called `deguh'. A different tribe would probably call it something else.

Unknown said...

.salam Oldstock..
..yes, I can imagine you at 20..longhaired and lean..Baz has a way with words..that touches this old man..it is a temporal world, after all..and our time is so short..Balar and Gob are reflections of my time with the Jabatan Orang Asli..

Alia Zahra said...

pergh pakmat .. meh2 clint eastwood nes posing ...

dok pom john wayne .. fulamakkk!! respek2..

Unknown said...

..zX..tu belum lagi dengan jampi serampah agar sekali pandang, 10 kali teringat..:)