airedale

According to my most current reference guide the "2014 Standard catalog of firearms" The JP Sauer "Royal" model was produced in 20 and 12 ga only, 26, 28 and 30 inch barrels, single selective triggers with automatic ejectors. Production was from 1955 through 1977. Sauer made a model "60" boxlock double in 12, 16 and 20 ga, no dates given, just states produced prior to WW2, it had double triggers and manual extractors. Another source called the Blue Book of Gun values does list a 16 ga Royal with the same manufacture date listed above. Al

2003 Dodge Ram 2500 "ABSOLUTELY" the worst vehicle "PERIOD" I ever owned. My 2017 Honda Ridgeline may end up being the best vehicle I ever owned, I love it! Al

For me Big or Small game the principles are the same, confidence and knowing your limitations. This will come down to the weapon being used and my proficiency with it. When hunting chucks and I am sitting in the middle of a hayfield with dimensions in the hundreds of yards with a 220 Swift and have a good rest I will take shots of several hundred yards. The next day I may hunt the same fields with a handgun or a Rimfire rifle where my weapon's effective range is drastically limited in relation to a Swift. All about the stalk then and I have crawled on my belly many times to get within range to a distance I am comfortable with to take the shot. My personal satisfaction is the same with both methods of hunting. This all applies to Big game as well. Want to add that affordable and very accurate laser rangefinders are one of the most useful and helpful tools when it comes to very long range shooting. Misjudging the range is eliminated for the most part so knowing the exact distance is a major problem that is solved. Al

When it comes to shooting at any range there is no substitute for practice and plenty of it. For long range shooting at game in the in the field there is no better teacher than varmint hunting namely Crows and Woodchucks. Practice making clean killing shots on small targets shooting off make shift rests, off hand or typical competitive target shooting methods like laying on your stomach or resting off your knees in a good sitting position. I have read many times in Jack O Connor's writings that his hunting guides-outfitters said the best shots on game were clients from back east that were chuck hunters. Al

A couple of Browning rifles and one side by side double shotgun have passed through my hands over the years, the rifles were a BL22 lever action and a BAR 270 autoloader. All were of very high quality with build and fit and finish about as good as it gets for an off the shelf factory arm. The 270 was made in Belgium and assembled in Portugal, that fact was actually printed on the barrel I believe. The accuracy and reliability was outstanding, in fact I was surprised that it was so accurate being an autoloader but I found out from other owners that the good accuracy is pretty much the norm with those Belgium BARs. The one thing I did not care for was it's weight which was close to 8lbs with no scope and that is the main reason it and me parted company. All the Browning arms I owned were of late 1970s vintage, I am not personally familiar with today's current manufacturing but I would expect being a Browning that the quality is there. Al

All of my extreme shots whether very long or very short were made on varmints namely Crows and Woodchucks. Most of my best long shots were made with a Ruger 77 200 Swift, quite a few in the 400 to the 500 yard range. These were educated guesses going by the cartridge's ballistics and where my aiming point was when the shot was taken. Always had a cheat sheet taped to my stock similar to the one shown and when put into practice at a range they are pretty much on the money so I could get a good idea on how far a successful shot was. Most of the shorter shots from a few feet to a few yards were made by various handguns that I hunted with quite a lot a one time. The longest shot I ever made with a bow was again on a Woodchuck at slightly over 60 yards, it was memorable as the arc of the arrows flight and time it took to get to the Chuck from release to hit was visually quite a thrill. Al

The heart lung shot is the best if one is looking to limit edible meat damage, the above quote applies to all high powered rifle cartridges with a similarly constructed bullet as the 243's. Your neighbor's buck would have sustained some pretty bad damage no matter what conventional Deer rifle cartridge he used shooting it through the shoulders and the rear quarters and especially so if using a frangible constructed bullet. Al

I assume he is referring to bullet recovery, I have had the same results when using Partitions in various calibers, I have never recovered one. Al

The 243 Winchester was the very first cartridge I handloaded for, I had a Remington 660 carbine with a 20 inch barrel and later I purchased a Ruger Number 1 light sporter with a 22 inch barrel. My brother had a Browning BLR in 243 that I handloaded for also. I am talking 50 years ago and a lot of water has passed under the bridge for loading data and components since then. Load data today is much more conservative than what was published in the early loading manuals back in those days. Still I never had a problem with that early loading data as I always followed the rule of starting a few grains under and working my way up watching for any signs of excessive pressure. My Woodchuck load was the 75 gr Sierra HP over 43 grs of IMR 4895 from an old Lyman manual that was supposed to be going along at 3500 FPS. The current Lyman manual lists 39 grs as their top load with IMR 4895 at around 3400 fps. Bottom line the old original load was very accurate in my rifle and showed no signs of being too hot and I killed a lot of Chucks and Crows. In Ken Water's "Pet Loads" bible he liked 47 grs of IMR 4831, it is extremely accurate with the 75 gr HP. As for Deer I shot a few with the 243, a couple with the Speer 105 gr semi spitzer and a couple with the 95 gr Nosler Partition, my Brother has killed at least 20 Deer with the Nosler 95 gr Partition and loves that load. 45 grs of IMR 4831 was the powder I used for the Nosler 95 gr. An online search will probably produce many good loads with the newer powders that are available today. Al

Those look to be some well crafted arrows, very nice! Port Orford cedar arrows are what I broke in with when I started out with archery many years ago. Went on to Fiberglass then to Aluminum and finally the Carbons, settled on Aluminum in the end. Al

The tailgate opens both ways, stepping up into the bed or when using the trunk the swing out option works best for easy access, for regular truck bed duties like lumber, feed and hay bales I just use the pull down option.

One of the best features of my Honda Ridgeline is the huge weather proof lockable trunk in the bed. An average size person can fit in it.

The 22 Winchester Mag and I go back a whole lot of years and I have a special fondness for that cartridge, my Dad purchased a new Winchester model 61 pump when the cartridge was introduced and I put a big dent in the local chuck population with that rifle. I later purchased a new Mossberg bolt action "Chuckster" rifle for my own and continued a Chuck hunting rampage with it. The premium ammo produced today has made the Maggie very versatile with a wide variety of bullet weights of super quality and capable of gilt edged accuracy, it will perform well on varmints from Coyote on down within it's range. These days I have a super accurate Remington 597 autoloader and a Ruger 77/22 Mag varmint bolt action which is a pretty good shooter also. The Remington is used for varmint calling in the woods for short to moderate ranges, it wears a 2X7 Nikon shotgun scope. The Ruger is used mostly for Chucks walking open fields and it wears a straight 8X Leupold with some potentially long shots, so what I am trying to get across is I scoped each rifle to the way it is used. Don't have any experience with the Ruger American myself but from all the reports I have read about them they are real shooters, there are many good quality scopes to be had so purchase the best scope you can afford to take advantage of the Ruger American's potential. Congrats and have fun with your new 22 mag. Al

Some of the comments and arguing in these crossbow debates reminds me of Dr Evil and his son Scotty arguing, just substitute the term chocolate with crossbow and there you have it.

About handloading, once you have your brass there will be a decent savings, depending on how one shops for components the savings can be quite substantial as there are very good deals to be had even on high end stuff. As far as reloading equipment it is all made to be able to work and integrate regardless of what manufacturer's items that catches your favor. I have presses, powder measures, dies, and scales among other stuff collected through the years from all the major equipment players out of the past and present and it all works well together to produce top notch ammo. Equipment price is not always an indicator of it's ability to produce quality ammo. Some look down their nose at Lee equipment because of it's price and construction but I can not find any fault the ammo quality it produces or in it's durability, it is a best buy and it works great. The best part about handloading is the personal "satisfaction"!, that one hole group target, or knocking off a crow at near 500 yards or droping a bull moose with ammo you yourself worked up and created, it is "the icing on the cake" of a hunt! Al

Sadly the video is right on the money, derelict buildings-infrastructure everywhere. When I was a kid Utica had a population of well over 100,000, 3 large General Electric factories along with Kelsey Hayes, Bossert, Sperry Rand, Chicago Pneumatic, Utica Duxback to name a few. All good paying manufacturing jobs that are all gone now. Ethan Allen furniture to the north in Boonville gone, Harden Furniture in McConnellsville gone, Remington in Ilion almost gone, can't even sell what they make here and Rome down the road a few miles basically suffered the same fate losing Pettibone, General Cable, Rome Manufacturing and Rome Cable. The weather does stink, I think I can count on my fingers the number of days it has not snowed or rained at least some since the first of the year. And lets not forget the Taxes and fees that are on "EVERYTHING", reputed to be the highest in the land. Al

A single shot Savage 22 similar to the one pictured below, the bolt was used to push the cartridge into the chamber and to extract. To cock the gun the little knob on the back of the bolt had to be pulled out. It was pretty accurate with the open sights and I killed my first Woodchuck with it, an event I still remember vividly to this day. One thing I took away from that rifle was I am not handicapped or under gunned with a single shot firearm, it is all about making your first shot count, I have acquired and still love to hunt with and use various single shot firearms today. Al

I finally got a scope mounted on this 250 Sav 99A, it was a bit challenging for several reasons. To stay with the 99A's light weight fast handling theme I wanted to use a compact light weight scope. The 250 Savage is a true dual purpose cartridge so I may take a shot at a varmint once in awhile but the reality is it will be used mostly for Deer hunting and with that in mind not a lot of scope power is needed for the terrain-habitat I hunt. I decided on a low power variable namely an old new stock Thompson Center 1X5 compact I found on ebay, these scopes were high quality Japanese made and imported by T/C. Back when I worked my Buddy's sport shop we stocked the T/Cs scopes. I mounted a bunch of them on slug guns back in the day and they made a good name for themselves with reliability and crisp optics. I have some personal experience with the old T/C scopes, been using and abusing a compact4X model with a lighted reticle for 40 years on my Coon hunting rifles with zero problems. I always thought highly of the 1X5 compact so it was an easy choice because it fit the bill I was seeking perfectly. While the T/C compact has good eye relief it's short dimensions made it hard to get it mounted back far enough to have a full field of view because of scope mount availability that is out there these days for a rifle that has not been made since the eighties. Tried the Leupold one piece bridge mount and the scope was way to far forward even with extension rings. Finally found a vendor that stocked the old Weaver two piece bases and found another vendor that had some B-Square extension rings of medium height that solved the eye relief problem and had the scope high enough for good eye alignment and ease and access of use for the tang safety that is directly under the scope. Whewww! She is all bore sighted and ready for some range time and we shall see how this classic lays them in there. Al

There are hunters that like challenging themselves by making their hunts tougher. Hunting black powder season with a patched ball fired from a primitive sidelock, archery season with a recurve bow, an open sighted handgun and handicapping using small gauge shotguns. Personally I have no problem with it as long as you know your limitations and are proficient with your chosen weapon inside of those parameters. Judging from the patterns shooting the heavy shot out of a properly choked 410 it would certainly be able to take a Turkey in the hands of a Turkey hunter that knows their stuff. As for me personally I am far from the greatest when it comes to hunting Turkeys and need all the help I can get so I will continue to hunt with my 870 12 gauge throwing large loads of shot. Al

I watched a fellow hunt a Bison a couple of weeks ago on one of those outdoor-hunting channels, I can not remember where his hunt was but the country was open and the Bison were wild and spooky. He had a hard time getting within a couple of hundred yards of the herd as there was too many eyes and they were always spotted and the herd moved off and kept it's distance. From what was shown on that hunt he would not have had a successful kill with a crossbow, he would not have been able to get in range. He finally got a shot at a trophy Bull at about 250 yards with a scoped rifle and made it good. If I had the luck of drawing a hunt for wild Bison it would give me the excuse to buy a Sharps single shot Buffalo rifle in 45-70 and that is what I would be using. Al

Had the whole poem scenario play out pretty much one time when sitting on a Deer hunt, the difference was the Porky was not in the tree I was under but a big Balsam a few yards away. Heard some scratching and looked up to see a big Porky shimming down this Balsam, when he gets to the ground he backs up to the tree and takes a big crap and then climbs back up the tree to his perch. Al

While the loaded ammo is easy to find I was kind of surprised that my go to sources for reloading supplies do not have the 250 Savage brass in stock, and could not find any at the gun show either. In fact I had a heck of a time finding anyone that stocks it. Had to work at it and finally found Cabelas had some of the Remington brass in stock with free shipping so I am set there and all set with dies as I found a good used set on ebay. Knew the day would come some day so I have been saving this old box of vintage Winchester Silvertips I picked up many years ago for a song at a yard sale and put away so I at least of something to make a bang with.

I am a big fan of the Savage 99 lever action rifles, I have an older Utica model in 30-30 that was my Dads and special to me because he worked there before going into the Navy during the War. Personally I have always wanted straight stocked 99A model in 250-3000 and I keep kicking myself for not buying one when they were being manufactured. Anyhow I hit the Syracuse gun both in the Spring and in the Fall always keeping an eye out for a 99A in good condition at a decent price and today I hit pay dirt. I found one in great condition barely used for a price I could live with so I took the plunge. Been a long time since I have been this pumped over a firearm, scanning the internet vendors for dies, brass, scope bases and bullets. Al

I love Spring, Summer and most of the Fall's days especially when it is warm, I can take the heat. Keep the snow and cold along with the shoveling and plowing, I will take the warm and hit the road. Both photos are taken in the same place, I will take the weather in the bottom one any day!