. Luckily having an Officer with a sense of humor and a buddy that has to announce on sight to the Officer that he is an Officer of the court (Deputy DA) and has a CCW and loaded sidearms turned it into a funny moment and not an expensive one 
As we get out there, we already pretty much decided to let his girlfriend's kid (the new hunter as of last year) do most of the shooting. I played chauffeur, guide, and bartender for the most part. I took one jack with a pistol and one with a rifle. My buddy bloodied both his CCW pistols also. As for the kid, well, let's just say he learned a few things. One was not to stay up all night playing video games before you go walking through the hot desert all day
![:doh[1]:](http://www.californiapredatorsclub.com/public/style_emoticons/default/doh[1].gif)
. We ran him ragged, on purpose! He also thought he was good enough (with his many hours of experience 
) to use a rifle or pistol for rabbits. We told him to try a shotgun first. He still couldn't connect. He let a lot of cottontail slip away. While it would have been nice to have more meat, it was well worth the price to let the kid have a ton of fun. Besides, it's a long season and I have taken more than enough cottontails over the years.The best part of the whole trip was riding around, getting a chance to finally see my best friend/hunting partner again, and having a few cold ones while we watched one of the new batch out there running around with all the energy we used to have. No meat or game in the world can take the place of that
. The only cottontail we finally got was when I told my buddy to go get the one we scared up on the way out with his 3" barreled Glock 27 he carries on his CCW. And he did. That's my boy!
The only problem the whole day was the fact that the handle assembly on my tailgate came loose and we could not open it out there
. That meant the only clean, flat places to clean rabbits was either the sandy, dirty ground, the roof of the truck, or the hood of the truck. The bed had way too much gear in it, and the cab was already full. The hood it was. I have to apologize to every hunter out there, and anyone offended on my way to the closest car wash. I did not help much to promote our sport by driving around with a hood like this 
. I did go to the closest car wash I could find, 45 miles away though 
. It was not done on purpose, I promise you. Again, sorry.
I did not get home until after 930 last night, only to be up again at 4:30 today for work. Ouch! But I would do it again in a half a heartbeat
. Tired would be an understatement! Hope everyone else had a great opener as well. It was worth the whole trip just to be around them again though. Gotta love it.Almost forgot, I saw something I have never seen before yesterday. As we were driving the dirt road out I stopped to look at something very, very odd. I showed the other two what looked like a pair of ears growing out of the ground. When I grabbed the binos to see what it was, I was extremely shocked to see a jackrabbit with his head flat on the ground while his body was laying on it's side. It looked almost like they do after you shoot them except his head and ears were upright! In all my years I have never seen a rabbit laying down under a bush, always squatting or standing. I wish I had taken a picture, but it was quite a ways out. I assumed it was dead until my buddy walked over to it and it jumped up and ran. Guess you're never too old to see something new, no matter how long you have been doing it.
Good luck again to all this season, this is just the beginning of many good times to come
