airedale

I have a CZ 527 and a TC Encore chambered in 223, I purchased a bunch of Lake City once fired 5.56 military brass and reconditioned it, the quality is good and the price was great but it was a lot of work. Anyhow I picked up 500 of these Hornady bullets to load up in that brass and will end up with some good ammo at a pretty reasonable price. For the folks that own AR rifles that like to throw some lead both the Varmint and the full metal jacket 55s make for a good buy on some high grade bullets. Al

Almost all shootings in the inner cities are gang and drug related and there are thousands of them happening every year. Al

I don't hunt Deer a whole lot these days but when I do it is because I am wanting some venison to eat or to try a virgin rifle and caliber out to see how it performs, and I am not picky on what gets shot. Al

Looking good Grampy!

Whatever weapon one prefers to use to make the kill is the end game, "hunting" is searching out and finding game then putting yourself in position for a shot to make a kill clean as sure as possible. Terrain and habitat can make hunting kill scenarios vary widely, use whatever weapon it takes to get that kill accomplished for each particular situation. Ideally that would be a weapon the hunter is proficient with and has confidence in, and be suited for whatever the distances that may be faced with in the area they will be hunting in. Al

Went to the Syracuse Gun Show today and it was packed wall to wall with folks, made it tough to look things over, with finally a nice day weather wise I knew people would be out in droves and they were. On the way back home stopped at the new Gander Outdoors in Cicero, overall I liked what I saw, nice merchandise, decent long gun selection, huge handgun selection and the prices were not bad from what I saw. A thumbs up, I will be going back. Al

I am a member of several forums mostly hunting dog related, I do not frequent them a whole lot but they come in handy when I have a question or am researching some information I am wanting to know about. The one I frequent the most is the one I run and own "Traditional Working Airedales" RimfireCentral.com is one I do visit frequently as I am a big fan and shooter of rimfire firearms. Below are some that I will take a look at every now and then. VersatileDogs.com Upland Journal Squirrel Dog Central Big Game Houndsman Bird Dogs and Doubles

The fellow I referred to in the above post was named Litchfield, he had to have had some serious money. The place he built was near Tupper Lake and it is still in the family. Below is some info I found and a link that has photos of his castle. Al I may be able to give you some information on Litchfield Castle. Construction began on the castle in 1910, on the shore of Jenkins Pone, renamed Lake Madeline after Mr. Litchfield's wife. 600 Italian stone masons were contracted to construct the castle. The stone they used was native granite, quarried on the property, some 8,654 acres. It is built of stone, steel, and concrete, the floors are tile and marble. The walls vary from 3-6 feet in thickness. It is French medieval type arcitecture with two towers, each 3 stories in height. The exterior took about one year to build, while the 100 room interior required two more years. When Mr. Litchfield first bought the property, he had been in the area on a summer trip. At the time he was a teenager. He purchased the land to develop "a game preserve equal to the finest Europe can provide". He fenced the park with a woven wire fence 8 feet high, and began importing exotic animals. Elk, moose, wild boar, fallow deer, jackrabbits, etc. All of which subsequently perished. http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/litchfie.htm

I can not remember where I read it but in the late 1800s early 1900s some millionaire that owned one of those so called "great camps" attempted to establish several exotic big game species including Russian-European wild boars. It turned out to be a big failure because of the weather and terrain-habitat. It was not the temperatures it was the deep snows that did the boars in as their short legs made it too hard for them to navigate and they all died of starvation basically. About the same time another rich guy turned loose a bunch on the Cumberland plateau in Tennessee and they established a breeding population that are still carrying on today in them parts.

One of the great things about loading custom ammo for your own use is the large number of component choices available. All aspects of shooting and hunting can be covered from ammo created and is put together by the handloader to obtain fine accuracy for target-varmint shooting, for plinking loads on the cheap, and for full power performance loads that provide the best terminal effects. There are powders along with bullets manufactured for all applications. It is fun and rewarding to concoct a handloading recipe that accomplishes your ammo goals. So there can be a large number of powders that can be actually used to produce ammo that works for just about every individual cartridge. That being said there is usually one or two that will stand out and give the most efficient -optimum results as to velocity and accuracy. Those are the powders that will be producing ammo that performs exactly to what the shooter is looking for out of their particular firearm. Factory ammo these days is better than ever, bullet selection and performance is much improved from what it once was and it is very accurate for the most part. That being said it is still a one size fits all proposition and that is where handloading has advantages. The tweaking of ammo for each individual firearm getting the most out of it. One inch groups may be shrunk to 3/4" or even less, velocities may also be upped somewhat along with some pretty good savings for the shooters that like a lot of trigger time. Al

You got that right!

For anyone who is a big time shooter of the 22 cal centerfires Natchez has a real good price on Hornady 55 grain SP traditional Varmint bullets at $7.99 per hundred they also are selling the full metal jacket version for the same price. They have even better prices if bought in larger quanities as they buy from Hornady in bulk and package them and pass on the savings. I have used the Traditional Varmint bullets in many of my 22 centerfire cartridges for many years and they are both accurate and explosive on varmints. https://www.natchezss.com/hornady-traditional-varmint-bullets-22-cal-224-55-gr-sp-cann-100-ct-bagged.html

If they actually pull a stunt like that it is a PR move all the way. I would think donating what ARs they want to get rid of to various Law Enforcement agencies around the country that could use them would be a better option. Al

I think Weather and Varmints are two big factors regarding broods hatching and surviving. In places where varmint populations are high they will have a negative effect on nesting. Coyotes, Foxes, Coon, Possums and Skunks will all search out and eat the eggs. Low fur prices have reduced trapping big time, more and more posted land and Hunters quitting and getting out of Coon and Fox hunting in large numbers resulting in a huge dip in participation that there was 25 years ago. Wet springs which seem to have been common in recent years make for low survival rates for young turkey poults. Add in some habitat loss and there are some big problems for Turkeys.

The case size of the 7mm08 would be better suited to a faster burning powder than H4831 or IMR 4831 which are both popular with 270 handloaders and other cases of similar size like the 280. I have never loaded the 7mm08 but I may as my wife's rifle is chambered in 7mm08. I did a little research going through my most up to date manuals and the consensus in both the Lyman and Ken Water's "Pet Loads" is if one is wanting to duplicate factory 140 gr performance Winchester 760 is a favorite, the best accuracy across the board with most bullets seems to favor Hodgdon's H380. So those two powders would be a good starting point. There is a huge choice to be had in powders these days and there are many with burn rates similar to H380 And WW760 that would not be bad choices either, stick with your manuals recommendations for starting loads. I posted a comprehensive powder burn rate chart here in the loading section of this board. A little experimenting should have you producing top notch ammo Grampy, it is fun and part of the process. Al

I guess it comes down to what one's definition of hunting is. To be among the "BEST" at any of the types of hunting you mention and those you did not mention I believe all take a lot of drive, skill and knowledge. Have seen a big change in the way folks hunt today from the way hunting was done when I was starting out as a kid. So criteria for being the best hunter today for many is probably different in many minds from what it was when I first hit the timber. Some time back I watched one of so called TV hunting shows. The setup had pretty young woman sitting in a deluxe heated treehouse with makeup and fingernail polish on along with her pink trim camo outfit. She was sure nice to look at and that in itself made the show watchable. The treehouse overlooked a big planted field with a large a herd of Deer enjoying a smorgasborg of deer attracting tasty delights in broad daylight. The woman drew down on a nice trophy Buck with her modern bolt action muzzleloader firing spitzer bullets held in a sabot, also had a scope mounted on it for sighting. The gun was rested solidly in one of those commercial gun rests mounted on a window sill of the tree house. At the shot the Buck drops like he was poll axed and the smiles, cheering, the back slapping and high fives were dealt out for all involved with the hunt. In today's world I am sure to some of the TV audience watching that show would say that pretty young gal is a good hunter. For me I really can not single out just one because there were quite a few. The best hunters I have the most respect for and had the pleasure of knowing were the hardcore oldtimers I crossed paths with over time, all dead and gone now for the most part. The picture that comes to my mind when I think of those guys and the way they went about hunting is the way I think of native American Indians hunting, out in game country moving, searching with stealth, a vast knowledge of the game they pursued, knowing how to read sign-track and how to use the wind and trickery. And they would not let weather stop them from hitting the timber. Another common denominator I noticed was many of these hunters were real good trappers, as one old geezer said to me, "the thing about trapping "there is nothing that teaches animal habits and travels to an alert observer better." By law in the southern zone they hunted shotguns firing foster slugs that were lucky to be able to hit a pie plate at 60 yards. In the Northern zone most used a lever action rifle with open sights, many hunters back then considered scopes to be not very reliable. As for those participating in the so called primitive seasons by law they had to hunt with actual primitive weapons but they were still very successful doing so. Back then muzzleloaders had to use patched round balls with black powder, archery guys used recurve and long bows with cedar arrows. Hunting out of tree stands was almost unheard of. Having to use the tactics mentioned above and with what many today consider to be obsolete archaic equipment along with having shorter seasons there were and are still are today hunters that year in and year out consistently take game using them and those folks are the ones that get my vote as to being the best "hunters" because they did and do it the hard way and were successful doing so. As for the pretty young TV hunter I ain't got anything against her for the way she took her Buck which was far better than any I have ever taken, it was perfectly legal and seems a commonplace way to hunt in today's world. But I would like to see her make a show where she heads into big woods deer hunting by herself with an open sighted sidelock muzzle loading rifle firing patched round ball. Still hunt to find and take a buck that duplicates the one she shot out of the tree house. Most of all I would have loved to see the reaction of some of those old guys from years ago if they had the chance to watch the TV show mentioned above. Al

Silence Is An Argument Carried On By Other Means

Half way through April and I do not believe I have had any more than three or four days of what I would consider to be nice weather in this new year!

"You can have too many girlfriends, and you can have too many wives, but you can never have too many guns."

Exactly what traditional bow hunters have been arguing all along!

Below

"The best time to hunt and fish was just before you got here and right after you left." "Never test the depth of water with both feet". "You only get so many sunrises." And for Pygmy "Hunting is like sex, when it is good it is awesome and when it is not it is still awesome!"

Ebay has to shoulder some of the blame for this crap for allowing this to go on! They have plenty of complaints from their own customers feedback and I am sure they have heard from manufacturers yet they let these Chinese rip off artists to continue to sell their phoney repro junk with no penalty! Al