airedale

I have to disagree, I have shot a few arrows in my day and while that wound as pictured makes one wonder how it possibly could have be caused by an arrow I would not be so quick to say it was absolutely not caused by an arrow. There is way to many unknowns in this story for me personally to draw that conclusion. We should let the investigation play out and hopefully see what the truth is. Al

Well I have three more for the collection that came in this week. The first is a Chinese made Tomahawk, it is made in the typical bird hunter's folding pocket style with with walnut handle material, it is of decent quality, not expensive and it is the only one I have ever seen so I picked it up on ebay. One of my hunting partners whom I do some gun work for surprised me with a little Remington fixed blade bird & trout knife made by Bear & Son using 870 scrap walnut stocks for the handle material, a nice little knife and my first fixed blade bird knife, USA made to boot. The last one I received is from HuntingNY.com stalwart "Pygmy" whom I consider to be one of the good guys here on this board and a friend. Anyhow he read this thread and shot me a message that he had a bird hunter's knife stashed away doing nothing and offered it up for my collection and I accepted. It is a high quality knife made in Japan with a Buck 110 design handle, a drop point blade along with the gut hook and designated as a turkey hunter's model. I have never seen one and am very happy to have it in the collection, a big thank you to Dan it is a good one. Al

My question is why she would make the statement the dog was shot right in front of her? One of two things, she is either an outright liar or it happened like she said. One thing for sure something sharp sliced that dog's hide and I do not think it was barbed wire.

I would be in the "Pygmy" camp for this one.

My gun room-man cave-office-computer room is pretty cramped for space so efficient use of the space it has is paramount. One of the best space savers I have come across is the Frankford Arsenal loading stand, it has a small foot print and can be easily moved around the room for use or to get it out of the way. I have two loading presses mounted on it, whatever press I use can be made available by just spinning the stand around. Fold down leafs can be raised up so components are readily available. One of the presses is a Lee Turret and it is mounted using the quick change Lee bench plate system held by four screws. It is nice because you can switch out and use any type of Lee loading tool along with anything else that has to be mounted firmly using Lee's triangular wooden mounting plates. Today I was setting up some Easton aluminum arrows, some had to be cut to length and I used a little Milwaukee tubing cutter that worked really well and then cleaned up the inside of the cut with a Lyman metallic case mouth chamfer tool so to glue the inserts. I did some new fletching on some of the Eastons going from the old long plastics to the 2 inch Blazers with a Bohning fletching tool mounted on the Frankford Arsenal stand, I kind of have my doubts that they will stabilize the aluminums but I have been told by those that have tried them they will work so we shall see. Al

NO X 5

"Runnings" has 50 lb bags of corn on sale this weekend, $6.25 for whole $6.75 cracked, that is a good deal, picked up a load of cracked last night and will get another load today-should give me enough to feed my chickens and gamebirds till spring. The point being everybody that is buying feed is not baiting deer! Al

I have a couple of recurve Bows one pulling 35lbs the other 50lbs my compounds I like having them setup in the 60lbs area. An exercise item that really helps out for archery is the old 'Bullworker" the older guys here probably remember them well as they were promoted quite a bit back in their day. Don't see much advertising for them these days but they are still available and they work well for exercising the upper body and especially the muscles used in archery. There are two models, the big regular original model and the small steel bow model. I have mine sitting right here in my gun-computer room and use them for a few minutes just about every day and as an old geezer I can tell I have zero problems pulling back any of my bows. The main thing with these and especially with the big version is to start out real easy at first as you can pull some tendons if you are too rambunctious and go at it hard. Al

My archery equipment past and present is all vintage stuff and much simpler in design than the bows I see hanging in the stores today so any tuning and adjustments I have had to do has been easily accomplished. I have a press to change strings and replace any worn parts. For firearms except for machining work I can do most repairs and part upgrades, I believe every firearm I own I have got into in some way or another trying to make them perform better. There are books and online searches and forums with good instructions along with you tube videos that will help you tackle and accomplish just about anything yourself. Al

I have a beautiful girl and she is a hell of a hunter too! LOL Al

White phases in animals happens, like the white squirrel thread on the board now, the white phase animal will just pop up every now and again. It is all about genetics a subject my feeble brain has a hard time understanding. Having a small farm raising all kinds of various livestock and poultry in addition to breeding hunting dogs for many years I have seen some pretty weird stuff happen. In game birds it does happen quite frequently especially when raised domestically, white quail, chukar partridge and pheasants are common. In the wild they are the more than likely first to be picked off by varmints because of lack of natural camouflage and being easily seen Once upon a time I had a flock of Merriam's wild turkeys here on the farm I started from a pure Merriam's pair of adults I purchased. Merriam's look pretty much the same as our native Eastern wild turkeys except their feather tips on their tails and backs are white. Anyhow as the years went by I got a couple birds that hatched out with a bit of white on them, I mated the birds that had white back to each other and started getting birds with a lot of white to the point after several generations they were almost 3/4s white similar to the one in the OP's photo even though they were pure Merriam's. I was told by someone that knows genetics a lot better than me that is how we basically got white chickens cows, horses and turkeys etc. generation after generation of breeding like to like will set the color but the oddball throwback will still turn up from time to time. Al

They are what most call a gut hook and that is what they are literally. They are used to remove entrails of birds and can also be used on Squirrels especially useful if one is out hunting all day on a warm day, helps cooling them down until you get them home and dress them out properly without having a bloody mess in your game bag. Just cut around the butt and ram the hook up and in, give it a twist and pull the mess out. There are many bird hunters that like to hang their birds with feathers on and age them the same way beef and deer are aged. before hanging them they will use the gut hook to remove the entrails. Al

That one is an LLBean bird hunters knife that they imported and no longer sell, it is a good quality knife but not a pocket knife as it is a little on the large side. It has the choke tube wrench and a bird hook along with a big game type gutting hook. A leather belt holster came with it for ease of carry. Al

50 BMG vs 22 Short LOL!

I use to think my old 458 was big which it actually is but a pip squeak compared to this 50 BMG shell I picked up at the Syracuse gun show for my bullet board last week. Al

Congratulations Robhuntandfish your BLR is a fine looking rifle, hopefully everyone sometime in their life finds the way to be able to treat themselves to their dream rifle. Al

I have been using a "Pact" for close to twenty years and it has served me well with no problems so I give it a thumbs up for reliability. The advances in electronics over time have probably made the one I own archaic compared to the new stuff available today. Pact is American made, is still in business and now makes three different models with corresponding prices points as to their features. The Pact is the only one I have experience with so I can not comment on other brands. Al http://pact.com/products/chronographs/?v=47e5dceea252

Hello Kuvats welcome to the board. yes I know there are quite a few more examples of bird knives including a lot of nice fixed blades which I have tried to abstain from. Many are basically duplicates from the same company with different scales designs and colors. I have tried to get a least one good example from all the makers and some I have doubles or even triples on because their handle material and look that just appealed to me. Sorry to hear your collection got ripped off, had a couple of dirtbags break into my barn a few years ago and steal my motorcycle along with a bunch of tools so I know how you feel. Al

Here you go, I hate to say it but this is one of the reasons American knife companies have gone under, for 11.00 it is a nice knife. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NAHC-Hunters-Classic-Bird-Hook-Folder-Knife-Jigged-Bone-Handle-/302098577560?hash=item46567a7898:g:0ekAAOSwuOxZwrPW

You have a nice collection started yourself, those Camillus wildlife models are a favorite of mine. Camillus in fact manufactured many bird knives labeled and sold by others like Remington, Western and I believe even the Buck bird knife was actually made by Camillus. Case also has made bird knives labeled for others like Orvis. I stick mostly with the American made knives but I have a few decent quality foreign Bird knives, The Boker from Germany, a nice Marbles Damascus made in Japan and a Beretta made in Italy. The German Puma from Germany is one I have not got my hands on yet because they are so high priced and rare. I do have a Puma that is made up of German parts and assembled in China even though it is supposed to be and does look the same as the German model I would still like to get one of the real deals. Case is about the only game in town when it comes to American bird knives made today, Camillus, Schrade, Kershaw, Western have ceased American production, their names have been purchased to label and sell imported stuff. Besides Case Utica Cutlery still makes some American made pocket knives, I just purchased one for my collection just to have one, it is real nice quality and I would sure like to see them come out with a bird hunter's model. There is one small outfit in PA called "Great Eastern Cutlery" that makes a high quality bird knife called the Woodcock, I picked one of those up and I like it a lot and am impressed with it's build. Because of the collector value many of these knives are obtaining the knife I now actually use the most is a import made for the now defunct North American Hunting Club, it is made in China but it is of pretty good quality and are being sold on ebay for a song, I picked up four of them for $10 a pop with free shipping some time ago and I see they are still selling the remaining stock on ebay pretty cheap. Below is a photo of an American made Great Eastern Cutlery bird knife. Happy Collecting to you ATSKUV Al

I have a few more, some not shown here, it took me awhile but I think I have an example from about all the significant makers. Sadly many of the American manufacturers are no longer in business. Al

I am a fan of old B Horror movies, I believe I have seen most of them but here is one I have missed, crazy scenario and some name actors. Al

I have nine apple trees of different varieties, some have some pretty good crops of apples and some hardly any, but all of them looked a bit ratty leaf wise this summer compared to an average summer. I had a very hard frost here in the late spring when the leaves and buds were on and believe it did pretty some severe damage. Al

Back when I first got my permit I went handgun hunting nuts and for a period used only a handgun for everything I hunted except for birds.I bought and tried a bunch of handguns, settled for the most part using a 6 1/2 inch S&W model 29 44 mag and a 6 inch Colt Python for Deer hunting, for small game I used the Python some but mostly a Colt Woodsman 22 autoloader and a S&W model 17 22. I took several deer with the big revolvers and a ton of small game with the 22s mostly Rabbits Chucks and Coons. As I got older and my eyes started going down hill I went back to long guns for most hunting but still play around with a couple of handguns now and then. What I am using these days is a Desert Eagle in 44 mag with a hard chrome finish and I still have my old S&W 17 22 which is my favorite, I used it one year for bullseye target shooting, it has been the handgun I have used most and it has taken a lot of small game. Al

Woodchucks are probably the easiest meal for Coyotes to obtain, just lay in wait at an active den for one to come out. I know of dogs that have learned that skill and killed Woodchucks in large numbers. At a NY Houndsman banquet I attended some years ago we had a speaker who was a biologist that studied the Eastern Coyote. They looked at the stomach contents to see what was on their menu and during the warm months of the year almost all had some Woodchuck in them. His exact words were if you chuck hunters wonder why you are not seeing the woodchuck numbers that you once did in years past, this rise in Coyote numbers has a lot to do with it. As a young fellow I did a lot of chuck hunting and there was no problem finding them in large numbers living in farmer's hay fields in my neck of the woods. These days it is rare to see a Woodchuck standing up in the middle of a hay field, The only place I do see them which is still pretty infrequent is next to roads and building where they are fairly safe from predators. Al