airedale

From the local boys in Utica, Saranac Black & Tan and Saranac IPA Legacy, and good old Utica Club Pilsner are fine with me. Al

I like the 17 Mach 2 a lot Dan for the same reasons, I believe it is the ultimate Squirrel hunting cartridge. I need another rifle like I need a hole in the head but if I found one that struck my fancy in the 17 Mach 2 chambering I would be sorely tempted. Al

Airedale and one of my Airedales

I just for the first time have got into some 223 military brass by Lake City at a huge savings over commercial sporting brass. It was cleaned and polished like a new penny but it needed the works. It had to be deprimed and the crimps reamed out along with being trimmed to length and deburred. Not going to form anything, it will be loaded straight up to feed a CZ 527. I will give a report on it after I give it a run through. Al

This will get you straightened out, I found just what you are looking for from Huntington's but they are pretty pricey. You can buy quite a bit of new 222 brass for the cost of those dies. I am in a fix myself trying to locate 222 mag and 284 win brass and unless I get lucky I will be forming my own. Al http://www.huntingtons.com/store/product.php?productid=17747&cat=579&page=2

HSUS is against any kind of sport hunting "PERIOD" and they sure as Hell don't give a crap about what kind of weapon or bullets a hunter uses. Yes they will use "ANY" kind of tactic they can to get their goal accomplished including the false fear mongering narratives about lead based ammo." Al

A long time ago I was big into Coon hunting and competition nite hunts with Coon Hounds, I worked hard on keeping my dogs straight on Coon. I would break them from running any off game like Deer, Rabbits and Fox. Anyhow I purchased a silver phase Red Fox kit from an animal dealer to use for breaking my dogs. Silvers are basically black with some of the guard hair having white tips. Below is my little fox kit whom I named Roxy and one of my best English Coon Hounds Eli. Roxy grew up to be a beautiful fox especially in the winter when her coat was at it's best. So yes there are black Foxes. Al

Dan I have walked up on Owls sitting in trees quite a few times, they just don't seem to have any fear of people for the most part. This guy was sitting in a tree in my back yard just this winter, he paid little if any attention to me.

Good article and nice photos. Al

The question really is at what point is the line drawn against technically advanced hunting implements being used in "special seasons" that were originated and supposed to be for primitive weapons? Al

BWAHAHAHA!!

Some years ago I pulled my drive in one snowy winter evening from a store run and could see something on my parked truck's mirror. I walked over and found that it was a little Saw Whet Owl just perched there with his eyes closed. He did not look in too good of shape so I picked him up and brought him inside to look him over. I could immediately see that several of his toes had frozen off and he was boney and just about dead. I just happened to have a large bird cage so I set him inside on a perch and expected to find him dead in the morning. When morning came he was still sitting there on the perch still looking rough so I decided to see if I could feed him something. Happened to have some raw chicken breast in the fridge so I sliced up some small bite sized pieces and offered it to him. Man he gobbled that chicken up like there was no tomorrow. Well as a few days went by he came along very well and started to look like he was getting back to normal. His problem was he had no toes-talons so he would have a hard time catching anything to eat, turning him loose in the middle of the winter would have just been a death sentence. I kind of liked the little guy and it was not a big deal to take care of him so I did. He ended up living about another year and a half. Chicken was his favorite food but he also like lean red meat. His cage door was left open and he would come out and fly around for exercise for a bit and eventually go back in his cage when he wanted to eat or drink and sleep. I called him Hootie

Doc said, "More and more people are beginning already to ask that question, and perhaps rightly so. Special seasons? ... special rules? is that getting to be an obsolete idea? At one time bow season was a rather benign low impact form of hunting that drew little attention. The idea of some special seasons and rules actually had some necessity and justification. That necessity is being erased a piece at a time ..... one precedent at a time." ============================================= Back in the day special seasons were granted and put into place for bow and muzzleloader hunters because it was supposed to be hard. The thing is people always find ways of getting an edge and getting it approved and legalized for their genre. With the Archery recurves went to compounds with less and less effort needed to draw them back, finger tabs to mechanical release, wood arrows to fiberglass to aluminum to carbon fiber. Arrow speeds have basically doubled. Muzzleloaders were sidelock primitives firing a patched round ball. Went from there to firing conical type, to inline rifles to sabots to modern jacketed bullets to black powder substitutes to smokeless powder. Muzzleloaders today can virtually duplicate the ballistics and range of a cartridge gun. The way it looks to me is it is all about money, some greed and not about being hard anymore, there is some kind of a special season going from September till January and for each one it will cost you. Al

When there are times the exact range needs to be known be it for golf, handgun, bow or rifle a good rangefinder can prove to be invaluable and a difference maker. I have a Bushnell Legend and it has worked well for me with no problems as of yet. Al

I replaced my old worn buzzy tumbler last fall with a Frankford Arsenal and cleaned a bunch of brass over the winter with great results, I am very happy with it so far. Al

Natchez has a pretty good sale going on, I price compared on reloading components and scopes and they have some good savings. https://www.natchezss.com/

Well I decided to go with Midway's Frankford Arsenal brush and mica setup and give it a try and see how I like it. Al

You are probably right about being single as having an advantage sometimes when it comes to buying into this kind of stuff, some women just do not understand why us hunters and shooters need this equipment. That being said my cluttered gun room disaster finally even got to the "Storm And Strife" and she was all for getting that the room into order. Al

Since day one I have always used the same case lube that I do the outside of my brass cases as I do for the inside of the case mouth-neck. I just swish the inside case neck brush across the lube pad and then run the brush into the case mouth. I have yet to have a stuck case or a misfire from lube contamination using this original method I was taught from the very start. Still I have always liked the idea of lubing the inside of the neck with dry lube. I have seen several dry lube deals such as the Redding bead system and the Forster dry lube brush setup. Just wondering if anyone has tried any the dry lube setups and what their opinion of them is especially when it comes to stuck expander buttons. Al

This is my almost 50 year old Bair 150 press made by the old Bair Machine Tool company who also made Pacific reloading equipment. It is a very well made heavy duty compound leverage press that can size large cases with ease. I completely dismantled and cleaned the old boy up along with giving it a new paint job from blue to black. Because the new benches have drawers I used an inline fabrication press mounting stand to raise the press out of the way so the drawers can be opened, I like it at this height. I also changed out the Bair press original handle for a new inline fabrication handle with the side grip. The old press is now as good as new and ready for another 50 years of handloading. Al

And those Syracuse girls are not to shabby either! Al

I like the Ruger 77s a lot Jaeger, A little trigger work and shimming the bolt are two easy upgrades that makes them pretty good shooters. Al

Happy Easter all, I am looking forward to my Reese's Peanut Butter Egg!

Thanks for keeping an eye out for it Dan, the Syracuse gun show is coming up I have made some good scores there on hard to get stuff. I am also on the lookout for some 284 Winchester. Al

Here is a blast from the past the revolutionary Remington Nylon 66, in this case the magazine fed version the Nylon 77. Nothing fancy here, these were one of the first factory firearms to use synthetic materials (NYLON) in large percentage for it's construction. This 77 is my Coon hunting rifle that I carried many nights and I can say this is one tough rifle that has seen some hard going but always came through when the time came. It actually still looks pretty good considering the beating it has taken. I liked the magazine fed model because it was quick to load when needed as I do not like carrying it loaded being dragged by my dogs and stumbling around through the woods at night. Very lightweight, good reliability, hunting accuracy and an abuse taker for sure the ultimate Coon hunter's gun. Al