Jim Taylor
once upon a time
Sunday, February 02, 2020, 11:13

I shot a burro once.
Actually I shot it 3 times. What I meant was "once upon a time" I shot a burro.

Which reminds me. Do you know the difference between a cowboy story and a fairly tale?
The fairy tale begins with "Once upon a time" while the cowboy story begins "No shit boys. This is the way it really happened."
So this is the way it really happened.

I was back in the hills 4 or 5 miles from my house, riding along just seeing what I would see. As we rode around some large boulders my mare swung her head to the right and there was a fairly large burro standing there staring at us. I pulled my .45 Colt and let fly at the burro and it jerked sideways. I had fired at its head. At the shot my mare whirled around to the left and I pulled her on around til I could see the burro which was standing there shaking its head. I shot again as my horse continued to swing to the left. My last shot was over the right flank of my mare .. me twisted around in the saddle so I could get a clear shot. At that shot the burro collapsed.

The mare settled down and I clambered off her and tied her to a nearby tree. Inspecting the burro I found a bullet hole through one ear, a bullet hole in the jaw and a bullet hole in the head above the eye. I figured that was not extremely poor shooting for the platform I was firing from.

I got my knife out of the saddle bag and partially skinned the burro. I cut out the backstraps and packed them in the saddle bags and rode home. Once I got the backstraps into the freezer I got a bone saw and rode back out. I took the back legs and packed them to the house. Later on my wife made tamales with the backstraps and I ended up giving the rest of the meat to some friends who made lots of meat with them.

For the next few days I got up early and rode back out to where the carcass lay. I shot a coyote that was feeding on the carcass almost every day I rode out. But after a few days the coyotes would run when they heard my horse coming. They are smart that way. So I waited 3 days. Then one morning I took my wife's rifle .. Remington 600 in .243 .. and walked out to the carcass as quietly as I could.

When I came up a small draw to where I could look up the hill about 150 yards to where the carcass was there were coyotes all over the place! It was like a restaurant for them. That morning I shot more coyotes from one place that I have ever shot since! It was great.

Months later I was riding past the area and stopped to inspect the burro skull. Sure enough, one bullet went through the lower jaw. The final shot went into the left side of the skull above the eye and exited lower on the right side.