airedale

From what I am seeing knives that fall under some kind of a design criteria get the no ship seal of approval, it is not any one single manufacturer or vendor. Like I said above I put in my cart similar type knives from Kershaw, Case and others from different sellers that would be flagged for no ship to my address. An example of another no ship knife below. The kicker is the extra blade kits being sold separately for these knives can be bought and will get shipped???? Are background checks and added fees next? I did go to ebay and found the same knives at a slightly higher price and got them ordered with no apparent problem. Al

So I was doing a little early Christmas shopping for some stocking stuffers on Amazon. I decided to get a couple of the Outdoor Edge replaceable blade knives. When I put them in my cart I got a message telling me they will not ship those knives to my address. Seems certain knives fall under some sort of restriction, for the heck of it I put several types of knives in my cart, some were OK and would be shipped while others get the no shipping to my address message. Can't seem to get anyone from Amazon to explain what the heck is going on. Is there some kind of new knife law on the book? I don't know but it stinks. Al

NICE!!!

Good luck to all the Southern Zone hunters, personally I have not hunted south in over thirty years, I keep my hunting North in mostly big woods. Went out for short morning hunt in the Oaks and Beech groves, the local wildlife was quite active. saw a Squirrel almost get taken by a Hawk. Had the same two Does I have been seeing feeding at daylight, I have a DPM and was tempted to plunk the big girl with my new 6.5 Creedmoor, at 75 yards I had the crosshairs resting behind her front shoulder, she was dead meat but I abstained. Still looking for a Buck but have seen zero Buck sign so that Doe had better watch it. While watching the Deer feed I saw them come to attention and lift their tails and take off. Something was coming, it was the local retarded Turkey flock. They piled into the grove of mast trees jumping up and down flapping their wings chattering away having a grand old time scratching through the leaves for food. That was it for me, have to do chores and pick up a load of hay, may have time to go out this afternoon for a short hunt. Al

I have plans to work on one of my Chicken coops today because of the warm temps, but I still decided on hitting the timber for a couple of hours early. Saw the same smallish Doe I saw yesterday and had a nice big one appear, both got a pass, would have screwed up my whole day. Still looking for a buck. Al

Way to go Eddie, congratulations. Al

Here is one of several videos showing how the device is used, it can also be used for some other small game animals . I like it because it will do the job neater and cleaner. Al

I have two DMPs and this morning I had a chance to put one down , talked myself out of it because I knew it was going to be warm for a couple of days. Plenty of time left. Nice day to hit the highway! Al

I would say the rut is getting into full swing right about now. Al

One of my favorite books "Hunting Big Game With Dogs In Africa" by EM Shelly accounts Paul Rainey's expedition to Africa with his pack of highly trained Hounds and Fighting dogs to hunt Lions and Leopards among other game. The book is rare and costs a fortune these days, thankfully Google has digitized it and it can be read for free. I paid the shot for the book about 20 years ago. It is a good read from where I sit. Al https://books.google.com/books/about/Hunting_Big_Game_with_Dogs_in_Africa.html?id=CcBYGQAACAAJ

Winchester has a couple of relatively new 6.5 ball powders named StaBall and StaBall HD. Winchester claims these powders deliver higher velocity, temperature insensitivity, reduced copper fouling in your barrels along with precise metering out of your powder measure. The regular StaBall works great in medium cases like 250 Savage, 243, 7mm08, 270, and 6.5 Creedmoor along with many others. The StaBALL HD excels in larger cases such as 6.5 PRC, 7mm Mag along with many others. There is not a whole lot of load data available as of yet because the powder is so new but from what I am reading folks are getting the performance Winchester is claiming. I picked up Hodgdon's 2023 annual manual that has a good bunch of loads for this powder to get me started. I liked what I was hearing and reading and the powder is available so I picked up a pound of each to give it a try, the chronograph does not lie. I will be using it in the 6.5 Creedmoor and PRC and believe it will work really well for my 250 Savage. Will give me something to do over the winter. Al

You got that right, nothing more enjoyable from my perspective making for wonderful hunts and memories, my Dogs have saved the day many times down through the years. Great photos, I enjoyed seeing them. One of the videos I watched had a big Cape Buffalo Bull wounded and holed up in a big clump of very thick thorn bushes, all you could see were the bushes moving with no shot available. The PH turned loose his Fox Terrier who went in there like an angry Hornet taking the Bull's attention away from the hunters and driving the Bull into exposing himself for a killing shot. Al

Corn is one of the best things to attract and draw deer, having it standing would be a positive in my opinion. Al

I would guess the folks that came up with that chart put in a lot of data to get those numbers, more than likely giving a good ballpark estimate. The edible meat in relation to live weight calculations are pretty much on the mark. Al

Here is my blind, wadded up it fits in my game bag making it highly portable allowing me to run and gun. I was sitting on a log a couple of days ago and had a squirrel get on my foot with a pine cone in it's mouth and proceed to remove the pine nuts and eat them. As long as I am not winded it works well for Varmints and Deer and Turkey. I use it mostly early in the seasons when the leaves are still on. Al

Find something made of wool to your liking that will be comfortable under the bibs and ditch the jeans, they are made of cotton. Al

An innovative and nifty idea for those that use blinds, I would like to actually see one in the flesh. Al

It is hard to stay warm when sitting in cold weather for long periods of time no matter what you wear. Rule number one is to stay away from cotton garments. I do not have any experience with the electric warmed clothing but from what I hear it is probably your best bet. The chemical hand-toe warmers work great also for sitting. Top quality down filled clothing is the warmest I think but it's bulky loft makes it cumbersome for the movement I want when hunting. Good quality wool hunting clothing-socks-underwear in different weights has served me well, also like a layer of thin poly against my skin to wick sweat. I am not much for sitting long periods of time so I stay warm. Al

Been seeing quite a few black colored gray Squirrels this fall, I would see one every now and then in the past as they are pretty rare around here but this year I have seen at least three different ones. I have never killed one because they are so rare but if they keep coming up in numbers I may just knock one off and get it mounted. Speaking of Squirrels I have just purchased one of those Squirrel skinning helpers, the guys I know that have one say they work great. I have always used the stand on the tail and pull up method that works ok but many times will ruin the tail. Anyhow after Deer season I will give this gizmo a workout, it looks to be very well made out of aluminum. Al

Man that runs chills up my spine, the poor SOB. Al

This dog appears to be a Pointer type but does a good job blood tracking regardless. I think many hunting breeds with drive and that handle well can make good blood trackers.

That guy is a heavyweight. Al

I have long ago stopped watching any American Deer hunting shows, these African Safari shows are something for the most part completely different from US hunting. I am always looking to learn new things and to be honest I picked up on quite a bit of interesting techniques from those Safari shows. As far as brush busting rifles I have subscribed to past Outdoor Life magazine's gun editor "Jim Carmichael's" take on the matter. Instead of trying to plow through the brush with a big heavy bullet out of something like a 45-70 he preferred a flat shooting highly accurate rifle that he could thread the needle through an opening big enough to hit the vitals of whatever games he was after. If that shot is not there, do not pull the trigger. To me it makes the most sense. Al

There has been volumes written about so called brush guns and their ability to plow a bullet through thick cover, hit and kill their target. Years ago there was plenty of factory ammo produced mainly with some type of round nose bullet for the purpose of hunting in heavy cover. Then the gun writers came up with experiment after experiment testing ammo to see how it performed shooting through man made brush duplicating shields at targets. Time and time again it was pretty much proven that no matter what kind of caliber or bullet type shot through brush chances were it would be deflected off target almost 100% or the bullet would be knocked off it's flight axis and tumble. I actually had exactly that experience moose hunting in Newfoundland. I had a nice Bull coming down a hill quartering at about 100 yards, he was plowing through some high brush and I took a at shot at just behind the shoulder. At the shot he immediately turned back and started running back up the hill, this time I put the crosshairs on his lower neck and he went down like a ton of bricks. The rifle was a 7MM Remington mag firing 175 gr Nosler Partitions. When the hide was removed we found the first shot's bullet must have hit some of that brush and started tumbling and hit just behind the front shoulder going sideways, it was only under the hide an inch or so. So after all the experiments and actual performance in the field it was pretty much settled in the gun rags, do not take a shot through thick brush and I personally went along with that assumption. So as I have mentioned a few days ago I have been watching youtube African Safari hunts and have seen literally hundreds of different game animals large and small taken with various rifles and the one thing that surprised me is many times the hunter would not hesitate shooting through thick cover at an animal and that most of the time a kill was made. Kind of turned the brush shooting theories upside down. I am still a big proponent of taking a good clear shot but I have to admit I am scratching my head after watching those African hunts. Al

Make sure to saturate and I mean a good permethrin soaking the cuffs of your pants, the waist-belt area of your pants, the ends of your shirt sleeves and the collar along with your hat, those are the entry points. That is my first line of defense, I still readily use good old bug repellent with a high percentage of Deet on my hands-wrist, ankles, and neck for the final touch. I don't care how much it smells, after going through a bad bout of Lyme disease there is no Deer worth not taking extra precaution from my perspective. Al