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Hello everyone. As you know, the photos from this thread have gone viral. They shouldn't have, but as someone mentioned earlier in the discussion, anything on the internet once out there stays out there, and for a while. My first reaction is to be sanctimonious about how beautiful wild animals were just slaughtered by metallic slugs during a wedding trip. But I'm friends and colleagues with several hunters, and as an astute commenter actually wrote on Facebook, they're amazingly not the demons ignorant posters are currently condemning them to be sight unseen. In fact, they're less different from the sanctimonious condemners than the latter are probably willing to admit (something I don't have to tell the members here). Would I go shooting wild game? No, I anthropomorphize inanimate objects, for goodness' sake, so you know how I stand re animals. But what this couple replies is also true: being ambushed by a pride of lions & having your jugular pierced by a couple incisors and slowly have your life ebbed away whilst others break apart your limbs as you're still conscious is infinitely more inhumane than being dropped immediately by a good shot. I also eat steak, so I can't risk being too much of a hypocrite. Temple Grandin, the humane slaughterhouse designer who claims her autism allows her unique insight into how animals feel anxiety, said something to the effect that controlled slaughter of cattle, albeit inhumane to the naked eye, is far less torture to the animal than being stalked, brought down, and having its entrails slowly eaten, sometimes while still alive, in the wild. I tend to agree. Not that you need my blessing by any means, so don't take this as some act of charity. Just letting you know that not all non-hunters are crazed tree huggers.

Found this guy nestled in the grass while brush hogging next to the house. Don't think he moved an inch.

I just got into this bottle hunting stuff not too long ago so my collection is still lacking some desirables! Most of my finds are random as the dumps I find them in and usually coincidental finds while primarily looking for antlers. Like Pygmy stated, I also pass some of mine along to my 74yo mother. She loves the old colors and embossing for flower vases, and I think they take her back to the olden days,lol Here's a typical surface dump I'll dive into around here. Usually don't find anything better than a few old Ball jars if I'm lucky, but the thrill of the hunt is always worth it! I got quite a few of the old canning jars, but nothing of any color yet. The local beer bottles are what I'm always looking for as those are my favorites! This is the local closed down town dump that I'm sure still holds some old beauties. The glass is literally melting out of the earth here! My oldest bottle to date goes back to 1890's-1900 and was dug up from there. Few old metal trucks and jars I found on the edge of some farm field where all this junk got plowed over the edge. An improved Mason lid which was also a good find for me. These are just a couple of my other favorite bottles mostly because I never heard of them. Bear Springs water bottle in light blue glass. "Scuffy's" shoe polish. Every now and then I'll grab hold of some rusty metal and yank it from the earth! I only saw about a 3"x5" section of this lunker while out hunting one day before deciding I needed to see the rest of it. 2 man 5ft crosscut saw, but no handles. I passed this one along to my sister who's going to have it painted for display. ...and here's a group shot of my bottle finds thus far. I've still got some bigger items out there waiting for me to get the motivation to rescue them. A Western Flyer 2-man bicycle, and an old 10 gal crock that wedged between two trees.

I like to raid any old surface dumps I can find while out hiking. I get just as excited to see a big pile of glass or rusty metal as I do an antler,lol I've got an old abandoned town dump just up the road from me where I pulled a nice late 1800's bottle from last fall. I gotta bring a shovel with me there and actually do some digging, but just like antler hunting, the competition is fierce here and it is getting picked over pretty good by the locals. I've accumulated quite the pile of "junk" already. Most of my finds are worth little to nothing value wise, but I still enjoy the history attached to these old relics. I'll get some pics together myself and post them up when I get a chance later.

6-9-14 Oooooooops..., I almost missed one! ...and I found another old bottle I gotta look up yet. "Lang's" Buffao,NY It's got a hole in it, but I kept it for my other collection anyways. Antlers- 15 Sets- 3

Woolys bottle posting started me thinking of all the neat stuff I have seen while into the shed hunting mode. Not into it much, but did find some cool items ( I guess). I have to take some pics of some of it. Back in March, I nearly stepped onto a saucer, that I researched dating back into the 1890'S made by Royal Ironstone China company of England. Still in pretty good shape. One other was a Bally Improved green glass canning jar with a star cover. Many other medicine bottles, some partially cracked or broken. Any other people like collecting these items?

VERY cool, Wooly... And your picture presentation is excellent as always....Well done !

I have a tiny laptop with a built in sd drive...it easily fits in my pack if I decide I want to harvest pics. I can also view my plotwatcher pro videos in the field. It also has 120 gb of storage and a built in wireless-modem (I don't use that service). I bought it on eBay a couple years ago specifically for this purpose for about $100: When I grab a tablet I'll make sure it has a built in sd drive. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I saw a 700 acre parcel for sale with a 70 acre lake for sale in the Adirondacks for $750k. I was trying to convince my family to chip in for a compound. Never happened . lol Settled for a 40 acre swamp. Probably better hunting anyways.

Its no trouble at all.

Always room for one more! Shed hunting and more. Neat find! This shed hunting, one can stumble onto a lot of great stuff. I seen several bottles, and a neat plate on my travels. I'll start a new thread on this.

Paula, you sure get some interesting deer there. Maybe we can see the mature one, if you have an chance, or want to shoot it.

Get the IP address, might help in the future. Vegan lifestyle causes irrational behavior. lol Now that's funny!

Just nuked another nut job. Is it a full moon? Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

At least finding him brings the story to closure for you and you're not left wondering what happened to him next Fall - - or worse, spending time hunting his old haunts to no avail. Sometimes we hunters win and sometimes nature wins, that's what makes hunting thrilling. Thanks for sharing the story and all the photos and I hope one of his healthy offspring shows up on your cam soon and in your crosshairs next Fall!

Some nut job created an account and posted curses / threats and it was nuked.

Yes, both genetics and age are factored into beard length on a turkey. Turkey beards grow around 5-6 inches every year. Generally, jakes will have a beard that is 3-5" long, two year olds will be from 7 to 10. After that you will not notice significantly longer beards on birds that are older because the tips continue to wear off through out it's life...meaning that a tom that lives to be 4 years old has grown around 2 ft of beard in it's life!!! Multiple beards are controlled by genetics, but the trait will never become prominant enough in the population that it is common. My uncle was fortunate enough to killed back-to-back triple bearded toms on the same farm in 2012 and 2013... I killed this double bearded gobbler on a neighboring farm this past season. He was my first multiple bearded longbeard...

that's why I avoid putting any of my personal life out on a social media website........

Might end up looking like this guy !

Looks like the antler was broken and now it is growing funny. You can see the break in the 2nd picture.

I learned to stay put If I have a bird working and then he gets henned up. Several times this season, exactly that happened to me. The birds got henned up by 7 or 7:30 and they would move off for the morning. By staying put and being patient, I learned that often a tom will come back looking for you later in the morning after his girlfriends leave him. I think he remembers that there was another hen in the area (you). One time, the bird I was working got henned up and left the area, gobbling as he went. I moved about 80 yards towards where I last heard him, and set up to wait. At about 11, He started gobbling in the exact spot I had been calling from that morning. I didnt kill him, but he taught me a lot. I also learned that I think there are a lot more silent birds out there than I previously thought. The first bird I killed didnt gobble at all on the roost, even though there were several others going nuts. Only after fly down did he gobble, and even then, I think he only did it twice on his way in.

I got a chance to finish up my 2014 turkey fan and wing display today! As you all probably know by now, I like my stuff looking a little rough and rustic instead of that fine finished look, so I decided to tear apart an old twisted stump for my plaque wood. The entire process went surprisingly smooth except for one accidental spill while the Borax was still drying things out. Had to make an emergency run for more but the best I could come up with was Boric Acid powder...... close enough,lol! Anyhow, here's what I came up with. The pot call and striker had nothing to do with killing this gobbler. I wasn't real happy with that call so I'm glad I found a use for it so I have an excuse to get a new one next spring!

Looks like an average or below a average sized bobcat to me. Lynx have huge paws and appear taller and bigger than bobcats but are smaller than a bobcat weight wise majority of the time. A good bobcat can go 40+lbs, a good lynx mid 20's. Here's a lynx for reference that was 25lbs Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk