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Had a good day at the East Koy today, caught ten browns. Kept three for dinner Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

hit the postenkill creek yesterday, smallest was 12" biggest was 15". stockies are still fun to catch!

Run and gun breakfast burritos, scrambled eggs, venison breakfast sausage, fried potatoes with peppers and onions, cheese, and of course Franks! I'll throw these in the freezer and 3 minutes in the microwave and boom! Breakfast! Great for early morning Turkey hunting.

My girlfriend Sally. Best dog I’ve ever been fortunate enough to partner with. Good birder but it’s been 8 yrs since any real hunt. Bad hips. 13 now and loves to lay out on the deck and bark at the howling coyotes but the deer walking by at ten yards get a pass.

Pronghorn stroganoff. Sorry no photos. I'm much better with a fork than a camera.

Lunch. Double stacked venison cubesteak sammich with pepperjack cheese. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My two favorite fly fishing pics. Me silhouetted after a day fishing in Missoula. And a gorgeous Brookie who smashed an Ausable Wulff on a small upper tribe of the Willowemoc in Roscoe. So fired up for the weather to start to warm up!!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just spent the day helping build a coop and run for my nephew like the one I built for myself, just bigger. He's picking up ten 17 week old pullets on Monday. $6.00 each. There a cross between RIR rooster and white leghorns.

Venison chili and homemade Corn bread...and a handle of Jim B Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've got no youth to mentor this season. Good luck to the youngsters and their mentor's. And a huge thanks to the mentors for your time, and sharing your knowledge and hunting areas with the kids. Looking forward to the pics.

We’re just packing up for Steuben county see if we can roost one for the morning. Oldest grandson turned 13 today he’s be waiting for a month hopefully I don’t screw if up for him lol

My favorite actor.

was it you that also started the breakfast muffin craze of 2018? those sound great - good idea

Lots of good information here. One thing I would add that I feel is important is to take your seat ( preferably in your blind) and practice shooting a little. Figuring out how you can acquire your target, or more likely hold the barrel up comfortably for extended periods of time . This best figured out before you have a turkey coming in. I just did this exercise with my 12 year old this week. He has been shooting well but was very humbled when he had to quietly and efficiently shoot from his chair. It's not that difficult but I firmly believe in the 5P principal. i don't normally use a blind as I like to be able to move, but with a young hunter I think it will be a more successful strategy. I have a bog pod that we used Caribou hunting that I had my son practice with, and he can safely hold the shotgun on it indefinitely if he has to. This week we're hunting the wood lot behind the house - really no agriculture around . I'll use a hen and jake for decoys- it's what has worked for me in the past. If you use a decoy as stated earlier put them in a bag to carry them. Be safe and enjoy

I had bought a bunch of eggs from some one to try and hatch and only 2 hatched most didnt hatch . The ones I didnt put in the incubator the neighbor wanted eggs. He was like why did you color the eggs . I had to explain to him that chickens lay many different colored eggs it just depends on the breed .

We have bantam cochin eggs arriving today that we will be putting into the incubator. We're moving toward bantams just because they are easier to take care of yet their egg sizes seem to be just fine for us. We have two large fowl chickens left. A chochin and a gold wyandotte, both of whom are pretty laid back. The chochin none of the others messed with; the wyandotte seemed to be at or near the lower end of the pecking order. We do have 4 silkie bantams, two fluer d'uccles, and one old english bantam, separated from the large fowl. We want to try to merge them....a bit nervous dynamics might change but we will see. Almost put in an order for blue red laced wyandotte but don't really want to have too many large fowl. Probably a next year thing depending on how these bantam cochins go. We cleared out about 7-8 large fowl chickens last week - they went pretty quick suprisingly. Two people cam and got the bunch. I was bummed to get rid of the lavendar orpington but she was at the bottom of the pecking order too and the one person who wanted her, wanted a more laid back bird, of which she was.

I bought a Scientific Anglers Absolute Euro Nymph leader.. 13.5 feet, tapered to 2x at the tippet ring..The sighter is a tri-colored length of mono just above the tippet ring... This is my first attempt at tight line nymphing...Can't really say that the sighter has been a big advantage, since I have felt nearly every strike...Still getting used to the system.....Not real adept at it yet...I need a tall, handsome, long legged fish monger to take me fishing and show me how to do it properly...

Must be the right kind of day to make corn bread... I over cooked my a little by accident but it was still finger lickin with that chicken!

Tonight this was my dropper I had a rainbow warrior on the point, it actually unraveled! I'm afraid the stress was more than it could bear...

Do not try to shoot through the shoot through mesh unless you plan on turning your blind inside out along with exploding your ears. Make sure the barrel is outside the confines of the blind Call Me The Teflon Don

Don’t sleep on euronymphing fellas, it’s my new jam. Caught ten browns tonight and only lost one fly and the East Koy is a logjam Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Remember when Obama suggested injecting people with disinfectant to cure swine flu?

No cooking Thursday. Curbside El Ranchito and margaritas Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tripping Animals Brewing Co. Los Tres Compadres They are delivering absolute bangers!!!

Nice to see some of the crew , share a few laughs and make some noise. 34 degrees , snow and winds didn’t stop us. Lawdwaz - The Real TC - Sodfather and myself practicing social distancing I’m good to go. 30 yards Sodfathers gtg Lawdwaz gtg My daughter is gtg Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Flooded “Air” fryer fries .... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Yeah that might be homemade cheese wiz on top of venison chili!

Maybe a better pic of the butt wrap Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's his fault, he got "mend it" stuck in my mind for two days with that nymphing video.

I will text @The_Real_TCIII about mid day right around the time the temperature hits 60 degrees. I fully expect both of us to get yelled at and I'm OK with it.

it was good but loses only because John Wayne trumps all. And the best part was left out in the new movie - where he was whirling his winchester. It was blasphemy. But it is very 50's

My biggest issue I have even with my custom plugs aside from their $1200 pricetag was the microphones kept making me feel like a bird was 20 yards behind me when in reality when I'd take a plug out he was much further away. They can trick you really easily Call Me The Teflon Don

I had those, I charged 2.50 for a doz eggs then $3. When I had the Easter eggers I charged 3.50 doz.

I want to go somewhere, especially in the afternoon when its 60

Just got 6 female chicks. Been wanting chickens for years. Love me some eggs!

Saving Private Brown

This might be a bit off topic but the picture below was taken on the last day of 1966, December 31, 1966 and I too was 16 years old. My hunting buddy Dave Keamerer is on the right, I'm on the left. The shotgun in the center is one of the original H&R M48 "Topper" shotguns, probably from the late '40s/early '50s.. It had a design flaw in that the notched pin that the fore-end snapped onto was just a round pin brazed into a shallow recess in the bottom of the barrel, no support was provided as the later designs had. The pin had become bent and partially dislodged. That is why the stranded nylon tape is wrapped around the fore-end. There was no structural support of the action except when it was opened and allowed to drop down as the ejector was activated. It was in all other ways superior as it had a coil mainspring, American Black Walnut stock and all machined parts. Later models were "cheapened up" and no longer had the same features. We took that gun and shared it because where we were hunting was in the South suburbs of Chicago. There were large swaths of prairie left undeveloped between blocks of subdivision. We were not sure if we were violating any local ordinances or not, so we did not want to risk having our better shotguns confiscated. Plus, we could run faster if we needed to make a hasty exit. We had hunted the area before trying to jump shoot the Cottontails with little success. The Cottontails would sneak out if the thick Pussywillow thicket ahead of us. We seldom even caught a glimpse. That day we employed a post and drive technique and we really slayed the bunnies. They made easy targets as they sneaked out at a slow run ahead of the person acting as the dog. It only took a bit over an hour for us to kill our combined limit of 10 rabbits. Most of them were head shot. The 16ga H&R had a very right choke as was usual in guns of the era that it was built. EDIT: I just did a bit of research and the "I" prefix of the serial number indicates that the gun was manufactured in 1948

Clint and John Wayne pretty even for me. I can watch their movies over and over.

I always have Jiffy on hand, $.99 lol but it's good

Didnt take a picture but the wife is drinking Hudson Valley Eveningland blackberry sour. I've got a good run going since Covid has me working from home and flexible for beer runs. Did still miss alchemist and treehouse opportunities though. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

I believe the RIR gene is dominant. They will be redish and have light brown eggs. But seeing there 17 weeks old, it will only be 3 to 5 weeks before they start paying rent, we'll find out then.

That sir is an essential item..mask up and go shopping! Corn bread is also essential but is must be from the box(that’s as homemade as we get when it comes to cornbread) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Beer with dinner Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Thankfully a guy from NY labor(a regular worker there) called me this morning...after talking for about a minute, he said my problem was that my app was never finished because the first person that took info over the phone had my name spelled incorrectly. He said he would straighten the whole mess out and have me fixed up in 3 minutes, and I think he got me in. He told me not to put in for the PAU. So, at least I'm finally done monkeying around.

Salmon Jeans in a distressed look Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wife went in today for her antibodies test. We're certain she had it back in January. Will find out in a week or so.

Wait for the gobbler to gobble on the roost.....In a blind/field setup I never call until either I heard a gobbler, or until it gets late enough so I figure that the birds have flown down... If a bird gobbles, give him a few soft yelps to let him know you are there..If he answers, you are golden...Don't call anymore until you are sure he is on the ground...Calling to a bird on the roost encourages him to stay there, watching for the hen ( you) and gobble more, possibly attracting other hunters, or calling in hens.. If it gets late enough so the birds should be on the ground, give a few yelps every so often...I usually do a couple or three strings of soft yelps every ten minutes or so if I am hearing nothing.... Once again, be patient...Since you have no other place to hunt, you may as well sit in the blind until noon...You may sit there until 11:00 am and hear nothing, and then BINGO !! Game on.....

There is no better way to test the build quality and recoil resistance of an optical sight than a shotgun firing slugs or heavy shot loads. Back when I worked in a gun shop mounting scopes on slug guns I had to send plenty of various optics back to the manufacturers for repair from failure to hold up. That was quite a few years ago and I expect optics are of much better quality today, personally if I were to go with anything it would be a high quality low power scope, IE Leupold. I am not a serious Turkey hunter so I went simple and reliable with a True Glow rib mounted adjustable open sight, not a lot of money, easy to mount and it works.

A very well thought out and thorough post, Apex...I won't repeat some of the excellent advice already given, but will discuss field/blind/decoy hunting...For 30 years I pursued a run and gun hunt, nearly always in the woods, but due to factors involving mostly my age, I have spent most of the last ten years or so hunting from a blind... I have used jake and adult gobbler decoys and still do if I know or suspect that there is an aggressive dominant gobbler around, but day in and day out two quality hen decoys will do the job...My favorite setup is a bobblehead hen feeder ( I think the motion of the head adds realism) and an Avian X breeder..I don't use decoys with erect heads, because I want my decoys to appear as calm and unalarmed as possible.. I generally place them about 20 -25 yards from the blind, perhaps ten feet apart and facing each other..A tom will sometimes stop outside the decoy spread and strut, and having the decoys close increases the odds that he will be within my 40-45 yard maximum range... I am a minimalist regarding calling....I only call loud enough and often enough to let the gobbler know I am there.....Once the gobbler enters the field and spots the decoys, I generally stop calling altogether and let the decoys do their work...Calling at this points only complicates things, and often can cause a tom to hang up and insist that the horny hen comes to HIM.. A bird will often stand and strut at a distance of 75 or 100 yards for what will seem like an eternity, but if you are patient and don't try to force the issue by calling too much or too loud, 9 times out of ten, he'll eventually approach the decoys and give you your shot..If he starts to walk away, you can always resume calling again..You have nothing to lose at that point and you might convince him to come back.. One scenario that happens often in field hunting is that a gobbler will come into the field in the company of hens...No amount of calling is going to convince him to leave those hens and come to you, but often the hens will see your decoys and come over to investigate...In that case I usually do a little soft yelping, clucking and purring to try to interest the hens...Sometimes, a dominant hen will light up with some hard cutting and yelping...THAT is one time that loud calling can be appropriate...If you mimic her and give it right back to her, she'll often get pissed and come over to kick butt, bringing the rest of the group with her.. If this happens, keep in mind that the gobbler will nearly always bring up the rear, and you'll have to be careful of busting one of the hens waiting for him to come into range.. It can be problematic trying to get your gun on a gobbler when there are 3 or 4 hens practically looking in your blind windows, but most of the time, if you are patient, you will get your shot..

Oh guys I am jealous. I love your coops and runs . I built my coop on a base and I get up at 5am every morning and let the chickens out . Sit outside with them for 1 to 2 hours then I go to work . Then at 330 I let them out again and they are out there till 630 or 7 . The put themselves to bed I go out and close everything up . On that note I just put geese eggs in the incubator lolol. Not sure if they will hatch but giving it a shot . They are harder to hatch out in an incubator.