airedale

The Heath Hen and the Carolina Parakeet are a couple of more birds that are extinct. Al

For many years I wore Timex throwaways, the type of outdoor lifestyle I have my watches end up with a lot of rough treatment and never lasted very long. Those old Timex watches would keep decent time and were cheap, when they got beat up or crapped out I would toss them and buy another replacement for $40 or $50 and be good for a year or two. About 20 years ago I decided to buy for what my pay scale was a higher end job, a Japanese "Seiko Monster" automatic. It is nothing fancy, just keeps time, day and date also it has always gained a couple of minutes over the course of a week or two so it does not keep time as well as a quartz. Other than the lack of precise accuracy it has been a great watch and looks pretty much the same as when I bought it. As the old Timex watch saying went "it takes a licking and keeps on ticking" something my old Timex watches never actually did. I like the Monster so much about ten years ago I purchased another one for a spare to replace the original when it craps out, but I am still wearing the old one and it is still taking lickings and keeping on ticking. Al

Wonder what the tune would be if it was your daughter who was raped by Kobe? Lucky it did not take place today, the "Me Too" mob would have had a field day.

Got one a couple of years ago as a Christmas gift from the kids and it sat in it's box in a cupboard for over a year until they asked how we liked it. Got it out and gave it a trial run and fell in love with it, began using it just about every day myself. My only complaint it was only a 3.5 qt capacity and for a glutton like myself it was not big enough and was always doing two batches. Got on Amazon and checked for a larger capacity model with a decent rating and went with the model below, twice the size of the first model this one you can pour a whole large bag of fries or chicken tenders-wings, or a whole chicken for example and get things cooked in one shot. Al

White bird with webbed feet, a Seagull or someone's white Pekin Duck, Snow Goose? Al

Everything done in the field is quick and minimal to remove some weight prior to the drag out, I just want the guts and blood out, the liver and heart bagged along with some cooling. When I get them home and pulled up on the hoist is when I finish up and do the fine detailing prior to the actual butchering. I love the way a Wyoming knife unzips them and also for skinning but not so much for the innards and butt, so I carry and use my old two blade Western most of the time. Al

Snowshoe Hares have a definite preference habitat requirement to live in and sustain a good population. They mainly need relatively young thick conifer forests for protection, the closer the bottom branches are to the ground the better. A forest meeting those requirements will provide food, shelter and most importantly protection from predators and raptors. Back in the 1930s when the CCC operations was in full swing thousands of acres were reforested by the government with various conifers throughout the state. By the 50s, 60s and 70s these forests had matured to the point that they were ideal for Hare habitat and the Hare populations were bulging. I can remember my Dad hunting them during those peak years coming home after a Hare hunt with his cronies, the trunk of his car would be full of Hare. One old timer told me everyone thought they had a top notch hunting dog, he said the Hare were so thick you just turned a dog loose in the woods and waited on the edges and they would come pouring out, the pickings were pretty easy. I got to hunt the tail end of those good old days but as time went on the trees grew taller and taller and the cover became less and less. Today those forests are completely open, the lowest branches are many feet up and one can look down the rows of those planted trees and see well over a hundred yards. No place for a Hare to hide hence no Hare. While the old CCC forests are about shot for holding Hare one can still find a good large patch of low to the ground newer thick conifer forest in Hare country with some scouting, if you are lucky enough find one there will be Hare living in it and more than a few. Al

Coyotes are basically a wild dog with a sense of smell that is very similar and no different to that of the average domestic dog. Having spent my entire life raising, training and hunting with various dog breeds I have seen first hand some pretty amazing feats of their scenting abilities which really can not be overstated. I have always been interested in the scientific side of a dog's scenting ability, I have studied their works extensively and have to go along with their findings 100%. Scientists with experience in testing the scenting ability of dogs say that they can detect some, if not most, odors at concentrations of parts per trillion. WOW! This is so amazing it is almost beyond comprehension. A quick example of what that huge sniffer sensitivity looks like. Let’s say you have a gram of a component of human sweat known as butyric acid. Surprisingly, humans are quite good at smelling this. If you let it evaporate in the space of a 10-story building, many of us would still be able to detect a faint scent upon entering the building. Not bad, for a human nose. But consider this: If you put the 135-square-mile city of Philadelphia under a 300-foot-high enclosure, evaporated the gram of butyric acid and let a dog in, the average dog would still be able to detect the odor. As master wolfer Gary Strader says you can trick the Coyote's sight with concealment and camo, their hearing and ears can be tricked with expert calling, but you will never be able to trick their nose. A side note, it is said that the Whitetail Deer has scenting ability that ranks right along side that of a Dog. Al

An article I recently read has the NY Grouse population on the low side right now, factors like weather during nesting, habitat loss, predators and raptors all take a toll. Hopefully things will make a turn for the better. Some of the best places to find Grouse are in abandoned old overgrown apple orchards especially if they are laced with underbrush and briar patches. Along small creeks meandering through thick cover is another good place to check out. Most times when I am hunting this type of cover I am after Cottontail Rabbits, the Grouse seem to prefer this cover also and are a nice side benefit to the Rabbit hunt. Al

Ebay has a Chinese self powered tow behind flail mower for a couple of grand shipped free. I purchased a 6ft wide Titan 3 point flail mower to use behind my tractor a few years ago to do my pastures and trails. I went with a flail over a brush hog type because of the smoother cut and the flail will not send rocks a couple of hundred yards to parts unknown like the brush hog type. Also a flail is up close to the rear of the tractor and not out way behind like a brush hog making for better maneuverability. If mowing brushy cover go with the hammer blades over the Y blades, they will pulverize brush and branches and still do a nice job mowing grass. Al

No appeal at all for me, growing up watching Disney's Davey Crockett, TVs Daniel Boone and movies like Jeremiah Johnson I got the bug to hunt with traditional muzzleloaders because I like the challenge of those old sidelock type rifles, seems like everything has to be easier these days or it ain't worth the time messing with. I do allow for the luxury of percussion caps for more positive ignition over a flintlock. Al

Any well bred hunting dog is going to born with drive to hunt game, under supervision they can be trained pretty well in obedience and can be controlled but left on their own they will follow their nose and take off for the hunt. Beagles are one of the oldest hunting breeds and one of the most driven, unless they are under supervision they need to be kept in a fenced in yard or run because they are hunters. That being said they are one of the best for pet temperament and love people, with some training in obedience they can serve both as a wonderful companion and a hunting dog that are great not only on Rabbits and Hare but work well for Pheasants. While most Beagles will run both Hare and Cottontails many are bred specifically for one or the other. Beagles for Hare usually 15 inch and larger are up on legs because of the snow, they generally have a colder nose and are speedy. They can gear down to hunt Cottontails but many still push them so hard the Cottontails will go in their holes before you can get a shot at them. Don't have that problem with Hare as they just keep on running and circling. Bred for Cottontails many are of the smaller size, they work a track more deliberately and slowly and you can get nice steady runs and importantly not drive the Rabbit to ground. My Beagles were Hare bred hounds, Josie the black and tan color was the best Beagle I ever had, the two Blueticks are Branko bred and were very good in their day also. Al

The lighter weight compact case is about all I can see this cartridge has going for it and while there may be some kind of an advantage for this cartridge's use in a short barreled belt fed machine gun I do not see anything special for it down the road in the general public shooting-sporting world. The 270 Winchester can easily hit the same 3000fps with a 140 gr bullet and the 270 Win short mag and the 270 Weatherby mag can up that by a couple of hundred fps. Al

And the Gals.

Uncle Nicky said it pretty well in his post above, all dogs need some training and how much work you invest into your dog will go a long way in how it behaves and handles. With any hunting breed you need to pay attention to how they are bred and make sure they are being hunted and tested by the breeder. As for Airedales they are probably not for everyone, they are high energy and require a firm hand, but when trained properly they are a wonderful dog. I have a blog that covers much about Airedales and hunting and will answer a lot of questions about the breed, if you are interested, the link is posted below. http://huntingwithairedales.blogspot.com/2010/07/hunting-with-airedales.html Al

My favorite method of hunting is teaming up with a good Dog, Hounds and Setters when specializing but for all around hunting small game I will take my Airedales, have taken tons of game and had a lot of fun over the last 50 plus years. Al

If "Andre The Giant" had me by the neck and forced me to make a choice of one style bullet to hunt big game with it would be no question the "Nosler Partition"! From the lowest velocity to the highest they work perfectly every time and a track record of many years to prove it. Andre being dead saves me from that fate so I will continue to use good quality bullets from all the makers that shoot well in my firearms and bet I still will not have any problems killing and recovering a Deer. Al

For the dyed in the wool Coyote hunter below is a book that I can recommend, written by a fellow that was originally from NY named Gary Strader, I met him when came to my place many years ago to talk about my Airedales after multiple conversations with him on the phone. This guy was a Coyote hunting fanatic and ended up being one of the best Coyote hunters in existence. Shortly after I met him he pursued his passion and moved out west and became a government animal control person. Gary's book is available from the site below he also has his own site. AllPredatorCalls.com http://www.wildlifetech.com/pages/gary.htm

I am not a big time varmint hunter so this is not an expert's advice but over the years I have dabbled with the Varmints and have had some moderate success. I keep my calling relatively simple, I do no calling at night, all my calling is done during daylight hours mostly with mouth blown calls, where in addition to Varmints I have had Hawks, Owls Crows and even have had Deer come in to the calls out of curiosity I would guess. I would say 15 minutes is about the average time I call at a set. I basically use three calling sounds 99% of the time, for long range various dying Rabbit sounds, the more agonizing sounding the better, a Squeaker or Squirrel whistle for short range and a dying Woodpecker which is mostly for Coons but it has brought in Foxes on occasion and even a Skunk once. Also I do things a bit different by many times using one of my Airedales on hunts, they are trained to sit close to me when I am calling and will many times alert me to something coming to the call far in advance to my actually seeing it due to their superior senses. They will stand steady until the shot is taken a lot like a Retriever in a bird hunting blind. Many times they will be spotted by the Fox or Coyote but it is actually to my advantage as much like one of those electronic decoys that flutter around, a dog does not spook them off immediately especially so with a Coyote, it will hold the focus of the varmint while I carefully take the shot. Below is a sequence of a Coon I had come in on the run and could not get a good shot off, me and my Airedale TJ were busted and he took off in high gear but no problem as I released TJ to chase and he promptly ran the coon up a tree after a short run. Al

I believe as long as it stays frozen the meat is "safe" to eat, taste is another matter and it is said it tends to lessen with age. I remember reading somewhere about some animal discovered in Siberia that was frozen from the Ice Age days, some of the meat from that animal was cooked and eaten with no ill effects and some of that gang raved on how good it was.

The better gun shows are just a great place to see and look at stuff you will see no where else especially on the really high end. The big three, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany shows are my favorites but these days Syracuse is the only one I attend regularly. The shows are a good place to find those hard to locate items especially the discontinued ammo, brass, knives and classic firearms and those items are what I am usually interested in most. Last spring I finally found a Savage 99A in 250 Savage in mint condition after looking for and seeking one out for many years. Very hard to find 284 Winchester brass or ammo, found some custom loaded ammo for another score. Scored on a new Camillus bird hook pocket knife also. Most common firearms or equipment I just buy at the local shops or online. Al