airedale

Last couple of days have had along with the Eagles a bunch of Ravens eating off the road kill carcass. They are almost twice as big as a Crow and have a pointed tail feather fan instead of rounded one of a Crow. Don't see them around here often. There are plenty of Eagles around as I have seen at least four different birds. Al Physical Differences: Ravens are larger, bulkier, and have heavier bills with throat hackles compared to crows, which are smaller with straighter, smaller bills. Ravens also exhibit a wedge-shaped tail, while crows have fan-shaped tails. In flight, ravens can be more acrobatic and often soar, unlike crows. Vocalizations and Behavior: Crows have a high-pitched 'caw' sound, are more sociable, adaptable, and less fearful of humans, while ravens produce a deeper, hoarse, croaking sound and are generally less sociable and more cautious. Both species are highly intelligent, with crows being more common in urban settings and ravens preferring wilderness areas. Habitat and Diet: Both crows and ravens are omnivorous scavengers, but ravens are more often found in wilderness areas, and crows are more likely to be seen in urban environments. They both have similar diets, which include insects, small animals, grains, fruits, and human food scraps.

I can remember reading about the Roosevelt Luckey Buck in one of the outdoor rags when I was a young boy and had a big thrill seeing the historic storied mount on display in the Conservation Bldg at the state fair. I read somewhere that the state has since had the Luckey Buck's horns duplicated-cast and mounted on another head, and that is the one that now makes the rounds for shows. The real one is stashed in a secure place to keep it protected. Al

One of the most famous Whitetail Bucks, I had a chance to see him a couple of times and he was impressive to be sure. Al In the 1930s, Roosevelt Luckey owned a Ford dealership and garage in western New York’s Allegany County. Every year, he’d drive a Ford across the state to the Adirondacks in the northeast corner to hunt deer at a cabin owned by him and a few friends. He killed his first deer there in 1926. He would make the long drive because there were relatively few places open to hunting in New York until the late 1930s. That’s when state game managers opened a short season in Allegany County. In the fall of 1939, Roosevelt, his brother, and a few other hunting buddies gathered for a classic deer drive close to home. Late in the day, Roosevelt saw coming toward him a buck bounding in 20-foot leaps. Roosevelt set up at an opening. When the buck crossed it, he pulled the trigger on his Remington Model 11 shotgun. The buck stumbled at the slug, but it kept going. After trailing the buck, the men found it piled up. They saw its rack up close for the first time—all 14 points of it. In those days—and still today in some parts of the country—a deer’s weight is just as important, if not more important, than the size of the rack. Roosevelt’s field-dressed buck weighed 195 pounds, which makes a lot of meatloaf. But meat doesn’t stick around as long as antlers. Records suggest the Luckey buck hung in Roosevelt’s Ford dealership for years. When the garage closed, the rack made its way to Albany and became the property of the New York State Conservation Department. In May 1955, Grancel Fitz wrote to the department on behalf of the Boone and Crockett Club. Grancel wanted to measure the buck with the Club’s new scoring system, which he helped devise. After putting a tape to the antlers, the Luckey buck was declared the New York state record typical whitetail—and still is to this day, according to Big Game Records LIVE. At the time, it was also declared the biggest typical buck in the records, crowning it the World’s Record

After a three year decline in game due to the severe Gypsy moth caterpillar infestation that defoliated all the mast trees things picked up in my neck of the woods. Saw a good increase in game especially Squirrels. Turkeys have bounced back and have a few Cottontail rabbits showing up. I hunt big woods and there is not a lot of Deer but enough to get some meat and fill the freezer. The Fall weather was great for the most part and I was in the timber frequently seeing enough game to keep things interesting. Now that Deer season is over I will me messing around training my young Airedale pup and plan on doing some Varmint calling so long as the snow does not get too deep. So all and all I am pretty happy on how fall hunting has gone so far.

Now that the big game season is over in this neck of the woods I am back at it doing my favorite thing, hunting small game and especially Squirrels, and I finally connected on an off colored Gray Squirrel. In all the years I have hunted Squirrels I have only seen a handful of blacks, they are just few and far between in these parts and never seen a chocolate-mahogany colored one like I recently took with the Benjamin P-Rod Marauder pcp pellet rifle. These days there seems to be more than a few blacks in the area and I think this chocolate colored one is probably a cross between a black and a regular gray. Anyway, I think I will get this one mounted as he is pretty unique in my eyes. Al

Came out great and different for sure. Al

Way to go Wolc. Al

Congratulations, looks like he has a big body. Al

The blubber percentage scale.

Some serious money can be saved by scrounging military brass for reloading, especially once fired range brass bought in bulk. Military 223, 45acp, 9mm, 308 brass can be reconditioned and reloaded into some nice shooting and hunting ammo. The worst part of the reconditioning is removing the crimp in the primmer pocket so new factory primers can be seated easily. Some time back I bought a bulk bunch of Lake City 223 brass and while I saved a ton of money that job sucked. I used several methods and all were tedious. Lee has come up with a tool that from what I having been reading takes the frustration out of that part of case prep. For a 50 dollar bill it will remove both large and small rifle -pistol cartridge crips easily. Something to consider if one does a lot of shooting and wants to save some cash. Al

Down the road from where I live I found what was left of a small buck in the ditch probably hit by a vehicle, looked like the local varmints worked over the carcass pretty good. Figured it might make some good varmint hunting bait so I threw what was left of the body in the back of my truck and brought it home and placed it in one of my fields to see if it would draw any action. Did not take long for these two to spot it. Al

I see one of the big Bucks from last year they call "Vincent" made it through the hunting season, his rack looks even wider this year. Al

Their youtube channel has well over 100000 subscribers and it is heavily watched, so I would say they are getting pretty good money just from that but they also receive donations from viewers. Al

Today was the first day they started feeding and it did not take long to get customers.

That is the reason I do not do much snow tracking these days, I have most times ended up a long way from where I started and it can be a nightmare drag if you catch up and kill one. Too old. Al