airedale

Rome

I am a big time rimfire shooter and do a lot of shooting and as anyone who has tried to purchase 22 ammo knows that even if it could be found the prices have been ridiculous the past eight years. I always bought it when it was available and cut down on my shooting so I had enough to last through these dark days. Well hopefully it is time for the good times to roll again. I picked up 300 rounds of CCI mini mags at the Runnings store for $6.99 a hundred (I paid $9.99 a week ago), a price I have not seen in a good long time and there was plenty in the case to be had. Happy days appear to be here again, I wonder why? LOL Al

My biggest pat on the back for for getting out the board's Republican vote goes to our own member "UPTOWNREDNECK", he should have been on Trump's payroll. Nobody on this board did a better job of firing up the Republicans here and sending them to the polls, from me to you a well deserved congratulations and thank you uptown. Al

Looking at the photo of your rifle it appears to be a very nice fast handling sporter that will make a great Deer killer. I have several high magnification scopes and some have a large objective lens but they are all on varmint rifles or target guns for which I use for very long range shooting at small targets like Chucks, Crows and Squirrels along with some precision target shooting. For me I would want to keep with the theme of the rifle and mate it a quality fast handling scope with some magnification but not too much and a big field of view with good eye relief. As I have written here several times I am a huge Leupold fan and especially the 2X7 for most big game hunting. The Leupold scopes are bullet proof quality, fog proof, recoil proof and accurate adjustments along with a lifetime guarantee that is actually backed up, your Leupold will never let you down when it is needed most. I know there are plenty of scopes to choose from some cheaper and some a lot more expensive but I can tell you with certainty when the dust settles that little 2X7 Leupold will handle 99.9% of any Deer hunting situation you will ever throw at it here in NY. Al

She is intent alright, we had a tug of war just before the wife snapped the photo, if you take a close look she has a mouthful of wing feathers. Al

Took my young female Airedale Harleigh out after Pheasants this morning and had no luck with them but Harleigh did make a nice locate and flush of a Grouse, her first, and also made a decent recovery and retrieve. Al

Had the exact same thing happen to me with a Caribou standing out in the open at about 50 yards eating, I let him have one with a 338 Winchester Mag and he just stood there and continued eating, I thought I had to have missed. I was about to give him another one and I could see him in the scope start to get shaky in the legs and all of a sudden he dropped. Al

The one certainty when a Deer is hit with a well placed shot with a decently constructed bullet or arrow head is that it is going to die. The big uncertainty is their reaction after the shot, using Forrest Gump's analogy "Shooting a Deer is like a box of chocolates, you never know how they are going to react" would not be a stretch. Almost every Deer I have ever taken has been targeted and hit in the heart-lung area just behind the front shoulder with a wide variety of hunting weapons and some of the reactions to those shots can and have varied widely. Many dropped in their tracks, some humped up a stumbled a few steps and keeled over while others would make a dramatic death sprint anywhere from a few to several hundred yards even though they were shot in the identical place with the same gun and same bullet at the same range, crazy ain't it? The most amazing feat of tenacity was a small four point buck I shot at a distance of less than 20 yards with a Marlin 95 45-70, a cartridge that played a large part in decimating the American Bison which will easily weigh over 1000 lbs, yet this 125 lb Deer hit perfectly behind the front shoulder sprints several hundred yards through the woods before dying. What makes that even more puzzling is the year before with the same rifle and almost the same distance I nailed a similar 6 point buck hitting him in the exact same spot behind the front shoulder, yet he drops where he stood. The point of all this is for a young hunter that may give up too early, if the crosshairs-sights were on the right spot when your gun went off remember they all do not drop in their tracks and that even though they make make one of those ungodly long sprints that seems impossible to do that Deer is going to be dead somewhere. It maybe tough to find sometimes but it can be found with persistence. Al

For me there is nothing like a good snow cover that has been on the ground for several days, it can really provide some valuable info to read about how when and where they have been traveling within an area. Don't look like that is going to happen any time soon. Al

You made the right decision and will not regret it, sounds like a nice scope, good luck. Al

Good choice, good caliber and a fine looking rifle to boot. Now mount a nice Leupold 2X7 on her and you will be all set. Al

I am glad to hear your uncle did so well with his Weaver Qwick Point, there had to have been a few that stayed together because they kept producing them for a few years before discontinuing them. Our store did not wait that long, they were so bad we discontinued selling them on our own as they were not worth the hassle and the disgruntled customers. Al

Here is a real dilly from the past, the old Weaver Qwik Point Sight, was not a pretty sight (pun Intended) when mounted on slug gun and fired a few times. Back in my scope mounting days job if I had a dollar for every one I had to box and send back to Weaver for repair I think I could have purchased a pretty nice rifle.

Your scope be it on a crossbow or a firearm is priority number one, it is never too late to change out a piece of crap for quality. Al

Projectile selection for your flintlock will be determined by the rifling twist rate of your barrel. There is a general rule that applies fairly well, fast twist rates would be something like 1 in 25 and they are best when it comes firing a bullet in a sabot or a power belt. There are medium twist rate that are like in the 1 in 40 range that are supposed to fire both bullets and round balls with decent accuracy. A slow twist rate like a 1in 60 is best for patched round balls. The round ball weight is going to be determined by the caliber, for instance I have a couple of 45 calibers and the round balls will all be around 127 grs. When firing bullets there will be a wide variety and selection of weights available and the shapes can vary a lot. The manufacturer of your rifle should provide you with some kind of a starting point when it comes to what is preferable for your particular rifle when it comes to bullet type and some loading data. I would start with that and experiment and fine tune from there. As for powder the choices are again wide but most folks firing a traditional sidelock will be using plain black powder or pyrodex. 45 cal and below most use fff burn rate with 50 cal and above using ff. ThIs is just touching on the subject lightly, books are written on choices and combos which can be pretty big but it makes things fun, good luck to you and your flintlock project. Al

Hey guy I don't buy a bow stamp or archery hunt anymore and won' be anytime soon. The woods and Deer can be all yours and I could care less if you want to use a Bazooka. My opinion on this matter has not one thing to do about jealousy or sharing the woods, for me it is always about destroying the original concept of the special archery season's primitive special season. It was supposed to be hard! Nobody here can convince me that a modern crossbow with a scope, firearm style trigger, fires and has the accuracy of a short range rifle is hunting the special season in that primitive spirit that seems to have been conveniently forgotten. Al

I had one of those years some time ago, in my stand day after day with just the sighting once in awhile of a doe but zero bucks. The season actually came down to the last day, it was miserable cold and windy but I made myself hit the timber that one last day of season. As I was sitting there in the stand and the daylight waning it started to rain making this dismal season come to an end on a sour note. I looked at my watch and figured I had just about 15 minute left before I could get and head for home. Actually I was happy the countdown was on because me and the wife were going out to eat in a new restaurant that had fabulous food and I was starving and could hardly wait to get the heck out of the woods. About that time I look down and there is a six point buck standing under the stand looking at me, I distinctly remembering saying to my self "SON OF A BITCH!" LOL. Anyhow I took aim with my Dad's model 95 Marlin 45-70 and flattened that guy. One of those deals were I was happy but wasn't and the wife really wasn't. Well as they say all is well that ends well, got the Deer home and hung up in plenty of time to go out and eat and kept the wife and my stomach happy. As a old timer once said to me when on stand deer hunting "Have Patience and be Persistent my boy". Al

It has always been easy to see why Ohio has allowed crossbows, they basically want all weapons used for Deer hunting to be on the shorter range end of the scale. That being said a single shot Winchester High Wall, Remington Rolling Block or a 1874 Sharps firing one of those old Buffalo cartridges with modern components could shoot a pretty far piece for someone that knows what they are doing. Al Hunting Equipment By Species White-Tailed Deer Archery Season Longbow: Minimum draw weight 40 pounds. This includes compound bows and recurve bows. The arrow tip needs a minimum of two cutting edges, which may be exposed or unexposed and a minimum 3/4-inch width. Expandable and mechanical broadheads are legal. Crossbow: Minimum draw weight 75 pounds. The arrow tip needs a minimum of two cutting edges, which may be exposed or unexposed and a minimum 3/4-inch width. Expandable and mechanical broadheads are legal. Gun Season and Youth Gun Season Shotgun: 10 gauge or smaller shotgun using one ball or one rifled slug per barrel (rifled shotgun barrels are permitted when using shotgun slug ammunition). Muzzleloading rifle: .38 caliber or larger. Muzzleloading shotgun: 10 gauge or smaller using one ball per barrel. Handgun: With 5-inch minimum length barrel, using straight-walled cartridges .357 caliber or larger. Straight-walled cartridge rifles in the following calibers: .357 Magnum, .357 Maximum, .38 Special, .375 Super Magnum, .375 Winchester, .38-55, .41 Long Colt, .41 Magnum, .44 Special, .44 Magnum, .444 Marlin, .45 ACP, .45 Colt, .45 Long Colt, .45 Winchester Magnum, .45 Smith & Wesson, .450 Marlin, .454 Casull, .460 Smith & Wesson, .45-70, .45-90, .45-110, .475 Linebaugh, .50-70, .50-90, .50-100, .50-110, and .500 Smith & Wesson.Shotguns and straight-walled cartridge rifles can be loaded with no more than three shells in the chamber and magazine combined.

Might just as well go whole hog, I would be all in for early season full inclusion for handguns.

Your argument is lame trying to equate early hunting archery of 40-50 years ago, the rules and what it took to become proficient to take a deer with today's modern crossbow. Al

I know all about it I was there and I can tell you what we had was nothing close to a crossbow. Al

Well I think if there is full inclusion for crossbows that it is only fair that those hunters who demand to use such weapons have to follow the same route traditional bowhunters had to follow and earn your full inclusion stripes by having the several decades the incremental changes and improvements our bows went through instead of going to the head of the class right off the get go with one of these. We started out with long bows and recurves that had to have a minimum weight of pull, we shot cedar arrows, our bows had to be able to shoot an arrow a certain distance, also no mechanical release, finger tabs or glove only. Something along these lines should be good for starters the first few seasons, BWHAHAHAHHA! Al

Came out really nice, well figured classic stock with the beaded cheek piece and it sounds like she is a shooter to boot, it don't get any better for me. Are you going to have the stock checkered? Al

Here you go I recently put a different scope on my Remington 541S and sighted it it in using 4 different types of ammunition, the target spots are about the size of a quarter, 5 shot groups at 50 yards.

The green terminology was my own which I use for all non lead ammunition. The ammo tested is the very latest CCI copper 22 LR ammunition that your friend seems to be satisfied with. The test posted above was just done a couple of weeks ago. I will add the test above is just one of many that have taken place with this ammo by other rimfire shooters all of which have come to the same conclusion that it is garbage compared to lead and especially so if used for hunting. Al