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Inspired. Very comfy. Tacks promised McDonald’s Thursday.

I love hunting the west, my buddy and I went this October on a DIY in Colorado and both got bulls and a coyote chased a mulie fawn by me too close. This is my fifth DIY out west and second bull , also took a nice mule a couple years ago. Can’t wait to go back.

I was unable to find a trapping course for the umpteenth year in a row but my buddy has his so we set three traps close to home here. We got a big old raccoon and @dinorocks taught me how to skin and flesh it. You wont find a more knowledgeable guy than Dino and more importantly a guy with his willingness to teach and share. We also fleshed a deer hide and even found the bullet inside. Hes going to start an egg tan on it

Flashlight and gps, I don’t have my gps but it was in my pack. I’m on my woodlot, half mile from my house. So far the hardest part has been not running home and grabbing some beers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Got fire and a “shelter.” Got snow melting in the bag to drink. Didn’t kill anything so will be hungry by morning. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I made it. On a shitty scale I would call it a 5. Fell asleep for a couple hours around 11, woke up to fire out. Restarted and got warmed layed back down around 330 and woke up at 5 to fire almost out. Got it going again to warm up and went for a walk. It wasn’t much fun. If i was actually lost I would probably not make much of a shelter and just sit by a fire waiting for daylight. As far as gear, a hatchet would have been awesome but not worth the weight. A more substantial saw would have been nice for cutting firewood but again not worth the weight. A couple more garbage bags would have been really nice and will go in the pack. They don’t weigh anything or take up any room. Lacrosse burlys are awesome for walking but pretty much suck for trying to sleep when it’s 12degrees. Other than that it wasn’t too bad, it will probably be a few years before I try it again. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah...Just like the BLM and Antifah terrorists that burned down half the country..I don't remember many of them being mowed down although many of them justly deserved it...... Extremists , either right or left wing are dangerous, and lawless behavior should not be tolerated, whether it comes from these right wing idiots or the leftist BLM and Antifah criminals who were allowed to run rampant in several large cities over the last few months.. I'm glad I am getting old and won't have to tolerate this insanity much longer.....

Years ago I took a friend of mine and his son on their first Coon hunt. We were hunting corn fields that bordered big woods, things were going along good as we made a couple of trees and had taken two Coon on the edge of the woods. About 11 pm my two English Coonhounds then struck another track inside the woods and headed in deep. They got back in so far we could not hear them anymore on the trail so I had to get out my radio telemetry antenna and receiver to locate the hounds who were wearing transmitter collars. I got a signal and checking my compass they were headed directly north so north we headed. Things started looking not so good when we hit the edge of a big swamp about a mile back, still could not hear the dogs so I took another reading with my receiver and could still get a signal directly north. Now we had to work our way around bogs, streams and potholes of water which slowed things down dramatically and on top of that the temp had dropped into the teens so it was getting cold. Finally after slogging through and around that miserable swamp we could hear the dogs treeing. It takes another half hour to get to them and it is 1 AM and they are smack in the middle of a small pond on an island with an old bare snag of a tree with a big old coon sitting up in the top. Things kept going downhill from there, I let my friend do the shooting while I spotted the coon with my light. At the shot the coon flew out of the tree into the water with my old female hound going in after it. In the water coons can be dangerous to dogs as they will get on their heads causing them to drown and from what I could see that was exactly what was going on in this pitched battle. Without hesitation I kicked off my boots and coat and in I went to my dog with my friend's son following. The water got to be about chest deep and man talk about cold! So I get to my dog and pull her and the coon back on to the island where her and her daughter took care of business, I put the finishing touches on with good heavy club. Turns out the coon was hit in the front leg so that is why it had a lot of fight left in it. So now we wade back through the pond to dry land and things continue to go downhill, the kid's light goes dead from water intrusion, he is so cold hit teeth are chattering and I now notice my light was getting dim which was brand new and being used for the first time. I told my buddy there is no way I am going back through that swamp on this black night with only one light working at 2 in the morning especially with me and the kid sopping wet and freezing our asses off. Made the decision to stay put, build a fire and make our way through the swamp out at first light when we could see. Got out the old Zippo windproof lighter and picked up some dry fire starter starter and had a good roaring bonfire going in short order. Through the years I have made a small fire many times in the middle of the woods coon hunting listening to my dogs and all the other creepy sounds so that was the easy part. Took off all my clothes and hung them over the fire to dry and put back on my Carhart coon hunter's coat and got close to the fire to keep warm. We made the kid a bed of dry balsam branches and he fell asleep next to the fire while me and his dad told sat there and told tall tales until daylight. As soon as we could see to walk got dressed into my smoky smelling dry clothes, took a reading with my compass and headed out, in a couple of hours we came out of the woods right where the truck was parked. Later found out my brand new Cajun Coon hunting light had a shorted wire on it's charger and never charged up the battery to full. Below is my old girl "Specky" that was hunted in the above, one of the top two or three hunting dogs I have ever seen and had the pleasure to hunt behind. The simple point of this tale is to make sure you have the skill to make a fire when hitting the timber. Al

I picked up a collectors piece and a wingbone that is numbered. I can not tell for sure but I believe the signature on the box call is Dave Constantine and after going to his site and looking how he does things I am pretty sure it is. This is Mr. Constantines website and after looking at several of his calls I do think it is one of his. http://www.dconstantine.com/tc-box.cfm The wingbone seems to read Mike Hanna but I am not sure of that and is numbered #32 has anyone heard of him? By the way I am sorry for the quality of the pictures, I just could not seem to get anything to come out the way I wanted them to.

I know you can't win if you are not in, and certainly I do not want to discourage people from applying for PA elk tags, because ya never know....However your odds are about a jillion to one of ever drawing one, so if you are really seriously interested in an elk hunt, set your sights out west... Many people have applied for 20 or 30 years for Maine moose permits and never drawn ( like me) and the odds of drawing a Maine moose permit are MUCH higher than the odds of ever drawing a PA elk tag... As an old fart who is no longer physically nor financially able to do most out of state hunts, if you want to do it, do it NOW while you still can... I never could afford one until I was nearly 40, and by the time I got to be 60, I was running out of resources, both physically and financially..... Over about a 20 year period, I had lots of wonderful adventures in some of the most beautiful places in North America, and I am damned glad that I did it while I could...

Like ANTIFA?

There’s been a preplanned , mass vaccination plan in place for years for such outbreaks . They train on it it’s been set to go for years , yet coumo won’t use it and wants to use the “ states “ plan as soon as he can come up, with one ... sad . Just an egoistical asshole .

My buddy got a cow tag in PA this year. He shot this one two days ago. I was suppose to go as help but life got in the way. This was state land no outfitter.

Went out for my last long island shotgun hunt took a [very]small doe.It was nice to check out the area for one last time before I leave this island for good. All the places I've hunted in 30+ years none compare to the east end of long island even if the hunting isn't the same the woods will always be beautiful.This time next year I'll be starting a new chapter in my life in the ADK's looking forward to learning how to hunt the big woods.

Was just saying the same to a buddy. After that statement by Trump, would like to see an emergency session of Congress tomorrow in another location and Pence be directed to fill out rest of Trump's term.

Welcome to an official Bananna republic.

Found another cool relic going thru my grandparents collection of things. I’ll have to read thru it. This is probably the only one in existence!!

Looks like that’ll make a fine hat

In high school @dinorocks and I were checking our muskrat trap line. It was single digits out with a couple feet of snow on the ground. Upon walking across a good sized ditch and part of a swamp I fell through the ice waist deep. Beavers had worn the ice thin through the center with all their activity unbeknownst to us. I pushed myself back up through the hole and utilized my trapping stick to get out. My gloves soaked. So we improvised and skinned 2 muskrats out and I wore the cased pelts fur side in as gloves which worked excellent. That Christmas I also received my first pair of Smartwool socks. Even though my feet were soaked they also were warm. Been a smartwool socks and longunderwear guy ever since. But Dino has done a lot of extreme camping so hopefully he'll chime in with some pics and stories.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/judge-says-pharaohs-gentlemens-club-allowed-to-reopen-with-dancers WNY going wild. First the Bills game with cuomo flying in. Now strip clubs! Why open the stadium and titty bars in the fall when cases are low. Let’s wait for max rates! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

/\ Good advice there. /\ Don't put things off for down the road if you can figure out a way to do it now. Sometimes you just need to be creative. Kinda like Phades' economy tent set up in another thread. If I have learned one thing, and being diagnosed with cancer in my 30's and surviving, is you never know how long you are able. I am surely saving for retirement but I am making sure I give myself some rewards along the way.

As much as I would like to see that, (especially after Trump's self-serving "go home" speech) I think it would just throw the country into total chaos. If these rioters were black, how many would be dead? Arrested? Isn't breaking into the capitol and sitting on the speaker's chair treason? The cops just seemed to shoo them out the door.

Pence has a chance to really step up here. I'd go so far as denouncing the sitting President. What's he gonna do? He's out and has no allies left behind Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Didn’t Kamala Harris said the protest won’t stop and shouldn’t stop.

No worries its a mostly peaceful protest. Just like seattle.

People don’t die from things like getting lost or sudden snow storms , they die from being unprepared for getting lost and sudden snow storms .

played candy crush all night and phone battery died......will update later

Mrs. Plav made Chicken Florentine tonight. Came out great. If any of you need a gift idea for your wife... these cookbooks have some pretty good recipes. And as a bonus, we used parsley from the garden!

Finished product, was delicious.

Maybe it's covid ?

Camp site Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

New grinder and some spices to try for next season. Looking forward to trying the moonshine breakfast sausage.

Sounds crazy but you can go cheap and with a little work, get started. Garage in a box. We used it as a base camp for our out of state trip and it was perfect. Open floor, similar to alot of wall texts and cheaper. It withstood not one but two massive windstorms. We added ground anchors and ratchets, but in large it worked well. Way better than any tent set-up (short of an actual wall tent). You can set up a floor off the ground with pallets and rubber mats, etc. We had an electric hook up and ran one of those little fireplace heaters and also had a propane space heater to warm things up in the AM or evening and then the electric heater did fine. I wouldn't have a concern with rigging up a stove, with some ingenuity. Will it be your long-term solution? Probably not, but heck, you could cost justify buying a new one every year and be money ahead. I think we spent $250 all in on LED lights, the garage, the tie downs and ratchets, etc. That is cheap...

Why didn't that happen? They literally broke the door down. Looters and those that storm the capitol should be shot on sight.

Exactly like ANTIFA.

Do they each get 10 years? Freaking insanity. I've said from the beginning, Donald Trump often brought out the worst in good people, and invited a lot of the plain worst people along for the ride. We see that today.

I have a cousin who with some buddies have gone out west on DIY elk/muley hunts a couple years. It can be a tough trip. It all comes down to your expectations and how you want to do it and what you want to spend. If you want to do public land DIY you can be successful but it takes some doing. It takes time to learn the land, it takes time to learn elk. Scouting improves your odds so does being in good shape, having local knowledge of herd behavior and realistic expectations. They did a lot of hiking. The first year from them was a complete learning experience and nothing taken, the second year they saw more, hunted better and got a couple smaller mulies and a cow elk. They base camped at a hotel and drove and hiked in/out every day. They did say the best decision they made was having a preplanned local with pack team to call when they downed the cow. Helped cut up and packed it right to the butcher. The other route is guided either partially or fully. Which is your basically paying more for that scouting, gear, knowledge that otherwise takes you years to learn. As well as Room and board if you go that route. Lots of options, I've tossed around going out but I feel I may like the Rockies so much I don't return lol!

Coons are a pain . Now late ‘70s / 80s or so you got good money for them , I’d pick up road kill , as my friends trapped and would help me and sell them to the buyer who’d come to their house . My one buddy made enough off rats and some mink , over Christmas break to pay for the next semester at college . 1970s.""Prices were insanely good back then," he said. "Raccoon hides were going for $40 apiece. You couldn't find a dead coon on the road, because people were collecting them and skinning the pelts. That's money, and people aren't going to let that lay."In March, raccoon pelts went for $15 - not nearly as much as in the 1970s, but more than in recent months.

Kilt the bear that kilt him?

" Found him froze to a tree"......

My buddy got stuck on a little island in northern Ontario in an ice storm. He couldnt get his boat started to return to bear camp. He gathered wood and dumped some fuel on it but couldnt get his lighter to work so he just flipped the boat over and stayed under it freezing until morning. He even wrote notes to his daughters, he though he was done for. After that I put a little survival pack together for bear hunts

Get the espresso chocolate covered ones, they kill 2 birds at one time. Little sugar for immediate, and a little more caffeine for later if needed. Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

If you’re looking for a guided, private land (no points or drawing) elk hunt, I’ve hunted at Fishtail Ranch in Chama NM. It is right on the northern border of NM near the San Juan mountains in CO. Lee Weiss is the owner and guide and he is a real pro. Much of the hunting is at 8,000 to 11,000 feet elevation so you need to be in decent shape but they drive trucks or four wheelers to different hunting areas. That said, private land hunting is great. No competition from other hunters and no packing out after a kill. The lodge is absolutely great in terms of comfort and food. You can contact me if you have any questions but if this is the hunt you’re interested in, give them a call and talk to Lee. Good luck on picking your hunt. Nothing more exciting in my mind than hunting elk in the Rockies.

Human body can go 3-5 days without water and up to 2 weeks without food but 12 hours without coffee? You better pray for the bears and coyotes I don't turn feral on them.