airedale

Tested out the arrow puller mentioned above, I have to say every now and then I get hold of a gadget that exceeds my expectations. This arrow puller is one of them and makes removing arrows and bolts out of the foam blocks quick and easy with no stress on the arrow, this makes practice a lot more fun. Al

I am not as well prepared as our friend wolc for taking care of meat in this hot weather, supposed to be like this all week. I think I will just keep getting after the Squirrels for now. Hopefully by time muzzleloader season comes around it will be a bit cooler. Al

I fished a lot when I was a young fellow, I had some great fishing spots back then as I lived a few hundred feet from a large river and the many oxbows that branched off of it. I believe I caught just about every species of gamefish out of those waters. Bank fishing in the oxbows on the bottom with sinkers or bobber fishing produced good catches of Panfish, Bullheads and Carp. In the spring there was a good run of Walleyes and a few weeks later a good run of White Bass. I had a small rubber boat that I would put in upstream two or three miles from where I lived and would drift fish all the way back down to my home. Ultra light gear and Mepps minnow Comet spinners, Mepps advertises that the Comet will catch any fish that swims and it is pretty much true. On those drifts variety was the theme, I would catch the occasional Trout, Walleyes, big Whitefish, both Small and Largemouth Bass, throw in a Northern Pike and Pickerel once in a while. One Sunday morning I made the drift and got down to my home just in time to get into my house and watch a heavyweight championship fight on Wide World Of Sports. I tied the rubber boat to some brush on shore and left a nice stringer full of fish tied to the oarlock in the water. A couple of hours later I went down to get the boat and fish and found three huge Snapping Turtles tearing up and eating the fish on the stringer, ruined most of them. Al

Looking good, won't be long before you can give her the real test. Al

I have a big time problem being around a bunch of adults acting and bickering like two year olds and old gossiping biddies, I will never go on the other site, I like it just fine right here. Al

Amazon has several models of this make, I have the one pictured. Speaking of fuel I have to fill up the old DR Brush mower and knock down some growth this morning. Al Deway Automatic Fuel Transfer Pump with Auto-Stop, AA Battery Powered, Advanced Adapter Fits All Size Cans, Extra Long Hose, Portable Liquid Pump for Gasoline, Diesel Fuel & MoreDeway Automatic Fuel Transfer Pump with Auto-Stop, AA Battery Powered, Advanced Adapter Fits All Size Cans, Extra Long Hose, Portable Liquid Pump

Fueling up my equipment has been a pain in the ass with the new so-called safety spouts on fuel cans these days. My tractor's tanks are up high and holding and emptying the containers out with those lousy spouts sucks. A friend of mine showed me a little battery powered pump he uses to transfer fuel and I fell in love. These things work great and save a lot of aggravation if you have a lot of equipment to refuel. Just stick the hose into your container, screw on the cap and press a button. No mess, no fuss, no aching back. Al

There are few things more relaxing and fun than fishing, I get out when I can and wish I had more time to fish. Been thinking about getting another boat but I have been so busy I don't know if it would get enough use for the investment. Al

So another pain in the ass thing I have discovered is removing those crossbow bolts from the foam target blocks. I have one of those rubber grip thingys that work good for arrows fired out of my bows but it takes a lot more effort and time getting those buried bolts out. I got online and found this gripping tool that is highly rated with a thumbs up from serious shooters. Not cheap but will be well worth the price if it does what everyone says. I would rather spend more time shooting than pulling. Al

I don't know how I never knew about these African Safari films, they air on youtube and I just happened to stumble upon them. They remind me of the old American Sportsman TV series only much better. The quality is outstanding, they show the Safari business and guided hunts from start to finish. A far cry from the so called "Hunting" videos shown these days which I can not watch. Actual hunting with mostly still hunting or spot and stalk techniques, good marksmanship with a wide variety of game taken. The high definition slow motion cameras can actually pick up the flight of the bullet from the rifle to the animal. The game is wild and wary, nothing like the animals seen on Animal Planet or Nat Geo, they see a human and they are gone. The Cape Buffalo for me especially has earned a whole bunch of respect, the amount of lead they can absorb from heavy hitting rifles is unbelievable. I stream the shows on my TV and sit back and enjoy. Go to the youtube and check out African Sun Productions there is a whole bunch of different hunts in different countries and they are addictive. Al

Nice catch, some good eating right there. Al

I guess it is a silent one as it makes very little noise, it is easier especially when you sit down at the bench and fire a bunch of shots. For hunting I could get by without it using the rope cocker, pulling it up a few times is no problem. Cocking it by hand for many shots is a different story, it will wear you out. Al

I have the Honda 2200 and an Ecoflow solar 1600 watt. They both have their strong points but if I had to choose one it would be the Honda. The smaller solar-battery generators are for light duty, unless you have a big large capacity model do not expect a lot. I use mine mostly to power my Starlink Satellelite dish when I have a power outage, it would be OK to power some small appliances or LED lights for short periods. The best feature is they can be hooked up and run inside the house. It would also be well suited for light camping duties The Honda has plenty of power, quiet, starts easy and also works well for lighter duty for longer periods. Long term outages for keeping everything up and running I have a big 5500 watt whole house generator that hooks up directly into my power service box, it can run all the essentials as long as it has fuel. Al

If I keep hand lifting and cocking this Excalibur Crossbow, so I decided to put on one of those crank cocking gizmos and stay a 98 lbs weakling LOL! It does make for more enjoyable long shooting sessions. Al

Did the final sight in today with the 6.5 PRC, I use just a two shot cold barrel group for pencil barrel sporters like this Featherweight Model 70. These are the 123 Gr Hornady SST bullets with a Norma MRP powder charge at 100 yards traveling in the 3300 FPS range. I believe these will do the job on Deer and hopefully they will get to prove it in a few weeks. Al

I cut my teeth on reloading with the Lyman number 44 Reloading Handbook back in 1967. I picked the Lyman manual to start out with for several reasons. Lyman covered all phases of reloading, handguns, rifles, shotshells along with casting and loading your own bullets. The other brand specific manuals like Hornady or Speer would have data for only what bullets they themselves manufactured, same with powder manuals listing only loads for what powders they produced. Lyman had data for everyone's components. Lyman also gave very good explanations and instructions on how to actually reload along a specific accuracy load with each bullet which I found to be pretty much spot on. As I got into reloading more and more I obtained all the manufacturer's manuals and all have proven to be useful. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since Lyman number 44, many new cartridges and many new powders have come on to the scene, some really good ones with longevity and stellar performance and others that were pretty much flashes in the pan and faded into obscurity. With all the new cartridges that keep popping up new additions in manuals appear from time to time to keep abreast on the handloading front Just picked up both the new Hodgdon and Lyman number 51, Hodgdon lists 161 powders for reloading and goes into detail on the use and burn rates of each one, talk about selection! The new Lyman is as good as ever keeping up with all the new cartridges that have appeared on the market the past few years. What I did not care for is Lyman dropped some of the old cartridges and their loading data. Looking to update I would say the new Lyman is still a top choice for the handloader. If you are not handloading you should be, the ammo situation is steadily getting worse and as long as you have Democrats in power it will continue to do so. Al

It is called natural selection, LOL! Al

I checked out the outfitter's site and looked over the photos of some of the Sitka stags taken at his place. Some nice trophies they are for sure, they remind me of miniature Elk. Seems to have a good population of them in that area, which is a good thing I think, gives a hunter a crack at something unique. Al

They look great and are very unique. Al

Not at all, the Hornady SST bullet is an upgraded version of the time tested tried and true interlock bullet, having a more aerodynamic profile with a plastic tip and a boat tail. I have used the regular interlock bullets for years with zero complaints, I think they are one of the best hunting bullets made at any price and expect the SST interlocks to perform much the same way. High velocity, flat trajectory and gilt-edge accuracy far outweigh any possible meat damage from my perspective. A well placed shot will pole axe a Deer most times right where they stand and if they do run it is not very far. Almost every shot I take at big game is a heart lung shot behind the front shoulder, there is not a whole lot of meat wasted when taking and making that shot. Al

You had a heck of a season Charlie , congrats to both you and your canine partners.

So the handload I will be using for the most part out of this rifle will be the 123 gr Hornady SST interlock bullet made especially for whitetails. I ran the load through Hornady's ballistic calculator out to 450 yards and will be sighting the 3300 FPS load close to the info is on the chart below, a little over 2inches at 100 yds. Sure looks good on paper! I have access to a 300 yard range so I will be doing a check there to tell the truth. I have found Hornady's calculator to be pretty much spot on. Al

LOL, According to the fellow in the video you did. Unless one gets hold of a complete dog, I have found most firearms with a little tweaking with ammo, trigger and sometimes bedding shoot pretty well, especially for hunting. Al

This week I really put the TC Encore to the test with that 458 barrel. I am amazed at how inherently accurate these big calibers like 45-70 and 458 mag can be out of a good rifle firing quality ammunition. Getting this rifle dialed in without too much problem was due to the recoil reduction of the Caldwell Lead Sled. Firing a light weight 458 mag rifle from the bench with stiff loads is unpleasant and that is putting it mildly. The Lead Sled took care of all that unpleasantness making concentration of taking the shot easy. The muzzle brake on the barrel prevented me from using any of my bore sighters as the arbor would not reach the inside of the barrel, the muzzle brake is made from aluminum so my magnetic bore sighter would not work either. With a bolt action I would have just rested the rifle, removed the bolt and looked down the bore centering the bullseye and then dialing the scope in on the center of the target, with the Encore I could not use that technique unless I took the barrel off. After wasting a bunch of shots trying to get on the paper, I just held by hand the magnetic bore sighter on the front of the barrel and had my buddy dial the scope into the center of the sighter's grid and that got me on target. Once on target getting her precisely sighted in was easy and like I said the accuracy was amazing and all largely due to the Caldwell Lead Sled. Al