airedale

Rattler as the old saying goes "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink!" trying to explain anything to these guys is a waste of time!! Al

No he is not making it up, that is what pretty much happens., same deal with wolves. Al

I wasn't sure as I see coyotes so infrequently. They are typical western Coyotes.

That RCBS 5-5 is a good quality solid scale. I did the opposite a few years ago Grampy, I purchased a digital scale to try out thinking it was an upgrade. It seems accurate enough but when it comes down to actually loading my shells I get out my old Lyman beam scale, I am just more comfortable using, it has many years of a proven track record with total reliability. Al

In my lifetime I have never seen the Fisher population very high in areas I have been afield, their relatively low numbers make their actual impact on prey species minimal. From what I know about them they will eat just about anything they can find or catch which in turn makes them fairly easy to trap by a good trapper. There have been times I have seen their pelts bring in really big money, these days their value is low so their populations will be on the higher end with less trapping. If someone feels they have too many in their hunting grounds the problem is easily solved with some trapping. The area I live in is ideal Porcupine habitat and there are many of them in the woods, anyone that hunts with dogs in porcupine country knows what that means, any Fishers on my place get a pass from me. Al

I am a big believer in the Boy Scout Motto of being prepared, for anything. Al

On One of my favorite things to do was hunting Rats with Terriers. Al

I have been around long enough to have seen this whole Coyote story evolve, from what was a Chupacabra like myth to what we have today. When I was a kid they were called Coydogs and they were as rare as Hen's teeth, many believed they did not exist and even the DEC did not acknowledge them. As their population grew they started getting shot by hunters and caught in traps proving their existence. Back in the late seventies I worked for a good friend of mine in his sporting goods store "Johns' Sporting Goods" in Rome NY. John was also one of the biggest raw fur buyers in NY and we had trappers and hunters from all over NY and neighboring states come in to sell their catches. The fur trade was a great barometer to gauge the Coyote's population growth from just a few pelts coming in to the hundreds in later years as populations exploded. Anyone who does not believe their impact has not been significant has their heads up their ass. As someone who has always been an enthusiastic small game hunter I have seen a big drop in several species populations. Cottontail Rabbits have just about vanished from my neck of the woods, it is a rare event to see one these days. When I was a kid they were all over the place, you could not drive down a country road a mile without seeing one dead from being run over by a vehicle. Same with Woodchucks, when I was a young fellow there with so many, one could not look over a large hayfield and not see plenty of Woodchucks standing on the hind legs looking for danger. The same fields today you will not see even one. Some will say farming practices are the cause of these declines and while I agree that is part of the blame it is not all of it. I attended a NY state Houndsman banquet and we had a state biologist expert in the Eastern Coyote as a guest speaker. He and his team examined the contents of Coyote's stomachs and during the warm months almost every single one contained woodchucks and his exact words were "if anyone has wondered where all the woodchucks have disappeared to there you have it". Master Wolfer Gary Strader feels that Rabbits are also one of their favorite foods. He says if you want to hunt or trap Coyotes find a good Rabbit population and you will find Coyotes. Being opportunists Coyotes will eat just about anything they can catch or find, Turkeys, Grouse, Pheasant and their eggs are on the menu all of these gamebirds populations are declining recently. They will kill Foxes, Possums and Coons which may be taken on occasion but I have a hard time believing they kill Fox or Coon with any regularity. Having hunted both Fox and Coon for over fifty years with some pretty fair dogs it is a rare thing to catch a Coon on the ground and if you do catch a big one they can hold their own in a fight. Catching Fox outside their den pretty hard to do in my opinion, I think they just move out of the territory when they are Coyotes around. And of course it is no secret that new born fawns and deer taken during the winter are very common. They will also eat cats and small dogs if they can get the opportunity to grab one. I know of several Hare hunter whose Beagles just vanished while running a Hare and like Gary Strader points out where the are Rabbits you will find Coyotes and it is probable those Beagle got picked off. I don't think anything should be completely exterminated but animals like Wolves and Coyotes belong in wild places and let them thrive there, once they get to have large populations around people the problems start showing up and that is when the gloves come off. Al

Do not discount that being someone's dog. Al

She is a beauty Grampy, hope she lays them in there for you, good luck. Al

A 20 FPS deviation is very good uniform velocity and better than average. Al

A few up in the Adirondacks where the Moose are but for the most part I would not miss them if they were gone. Al

Try a clipper that catches the nails, I picked up one of these a few years ago, they cut very good and catch just about every clipping.

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