airedale

I would have loved to have a rig like that back years ago in my Rat hunting days at local town dumps that were crawling with them. I used my car lights and a 22 rifle shooting shorts, after the shot the Rats would duck and cover, turn the lights off and within a couple of minutes they were back out grubbing through the garbage. It was a blast. Al

You are pretty much on the money as far as pressing the muzzle to the head, I have had quite a bit of experience shooting Rat shot out of revolvers, both 357 and 44mag, the shot is small and the patterns are good for only a few feet. There are revolvers that can fire 410 shells and Thompson Center made a 410 barrel for it's Contenders, I suppose with TSS - Heavy shot it would be possible at short range to kill a Turkey but a lousy choice in my opinion, maybe in a survival situation but for sport hunting a solid no for me. Like you I did not know a handgun was legal for Turkeys????? Al

Last fall while Deer hunting I found a group of mast trees that were untouched by the Gypsy Moth blight that hit this area, these trees, Beech and Oak had a decent production of mast and getting hit hard by both Deer and Turkeys. I checked it out a couple of days ago and when walking in I spotted a parade of eight or nine Turkeys moving up the side of a hill away from me, they had been in that mast grove and had the ground tore up scratching out mast. With my binoculars could make out at least two Jakes and a boss Tom so I am encouraged. There is an ideal spot where I can setup behind a big old tree trunk smack in the middle of that feeding area. So if I decide to get my ass out and hunt I am thinking if I have an opportunity I would kill a Jake over the one boss Tom I saw and leave him for breeding purposes. If I happen see more than one mature Tom in that flock I would take one if a shot presented itself. Al

A disaster was averted, my power was out for 10 hours and had I not had a generator for electrical power I would have lost all the eggs. I am a huge believer in the Boy Scout saying of being prepared, I have a second generator to backup my main generator in case that happens to fail. Seems like every time I am incubating eggs I have a power outage. I will be candling the eggs later this week to see what is going on as far as development, a bright light shined through the shell will reveal what is going on inside and the eggs that are doing nothing will be removed from the incubators, I have my fingers crossed.

I was hoping to check out and buy the new ATI Turkey model over and under shotgun, I did not find any vendors that had one. I did see some interesting stuff but abstained. Found some reasonably priced large rifle primers, a mint Thompson Center Aristocrat single shot caught my eye but was in the wrong chambering. Also got to check out the new Henry Homesteader 9mm autoloader made legal by welding the barrel thread protector cap so it can not be removed. I might have bit on that one but it was priced a bit high in my opinion. Al

I am going to try and abstain Al

Man, sucks is putting it mildly, glad nobody was hurt. Al

A friend of mine out in BC Canada used his Airedale for a recovery of a wounded archery hunt Bear that ended with the Bear holing up in a cave. Al

The auctions are the best place to find hard to get fowl, if one is just looking to get some hatching eggs from fairly common birds I would say Craigslist can be a good source. There are some good deals to be found there and if the seller is local that is an advantage as you can pick them up yourself foregoing the rough postal service handling, your hatch percentage will rise significantly. Al

Can say I do not have any first hand experience with that particular club but it sure sounds like it is a pretty good setup, a local range is well worth joining in my opinion. Al

The price range for hatching eggs is determined for the most part by rarity, common Chicken's eggs can be purchased very reasonable, start getting into birds that are rare I have seen asking prices of $100 for one egg. Shipping will add to the cost as the eggs have to be protected very well from the rough handling they get from the postal service, the sellers go through some very elaborate ways of packing and protecting the eggs. Most sellers add an egg or two to cover possible breakage. Out of the 80 plus eggs I received I had three that were broken but was covered by extras sent. Purchasing hatching eggs is sometimes the only way to obtain certain breeds of fowl. You can get an idea on prices by going over on ebay and searching hatching egg auctions by breed or types. Al

That kind of hunting is right up my alley. Al

So a few years ago I picked up a few knapped arrowheads with the intention of mounting a couple on a cedar arrow basically just for a conversation piece and maybe a display. Yesterday I finally got around to do it, watched a video online and followed the man's detailed instructions with a bit of variation, I used Gorilla Glue to set the point and spyder wire fishing line to wrap, came out ok, it is a rock solid mount and I have no doubt that a Deer could be taken with a well placed shot. Not the real deal but I like it. Al

Ed McGivern

To my way of thinking a farm has to have a few hens scratching around in the barnyard and roosters crowing in the morning, I just like having them around and enjoy watching them. I do utilize their eggs and will butcher some on occasion. The chickens I have for the most part are gamefowl of some kind, they are the best by far for free ranging because of their toughness and ability to evade predators for the most part, their physical beauty can be stunning. Gamefowl are much like a pheasant for eating, because of their physical activity and their ability to fly they are hard. They are almost self sufficient, a little grain thrown out to them is all they need the rest of their food is basically obtained living off the land like a pheasant. They are not big time egg layers like a White Leghorn but if you have a flock of a dozen game hens there are plenty of eggs to eat. There are chicken breeds bred for every purpose, egg layers that will lay an egg almost every day, broilers that grow to butchering size in a few weeks and dual purpose breeds that cover both eggs and meat. I would be happy to help you out the best I can. Al

I have not heard that name myself Doc, when it comes to exhibition archery Byron Fergusen and Howard Hill come to mind for me. They have done similar shots to what you have described above.

All the eggs I have purchased arrived and have been put into the incubators and they are holding good even temperatures, so now it is just a waiting game to see what hatches. Chickens hatch in about 21 days, the Turkey eggs in about 28 days and the Goose eggs can take up to 38 days so if things go half way decent the first two weeks of May will be interesting. I am hoping for a 50% hatch rate which is par for the course with postal shipped eggs. Al

In 1959, Tom Frye, a field representative for Remington, set out to surpass Ad Topperwein's world record (set in 1907) of shooting 72,500 2 1/2-inch wooden blocks as they were tossed into the air while missing only nine. Frye used three Nylon 66 rifles and maintained an average pace of 1,000 shots per hour (one shot every four seconds) for 13 consecutive eight-hour days. When the smoke cleared, he had shot at 100,010 blocks and hit 100,004, missing only six! The rifles were cleaned only five times during the Marathon trial. The Nylon 66 was accepted enthusiastically. Nylon 66 Legacy The Nylon 66 was a huge gamble for Remington, as traditionally guns had wood stocks. But it was a huge success. The end result was that it became the most successful .22-cal. rifle Remington has ever made, with total production of more than 1,000,000 by 1991 when the Nylon 66 was discontinued. The Nylons have been a "love-'em or hate-'em" gun ever since they were introduced. The appearance and feel were certainly non-traditional. The "love-'ems" seem to be winning, judging by the collector interest and price escalation of the less-common variations.

I have never used a dog to track a wounded Deer but I have recovered Coyotes and Foxes several times with my dogs. So to be legal for Deer I decided awhile back to take the test for a leashed tracking dog license, took the test this morning and passed it. Also wanted to take the test just to see if I could pass it having trained hunting dogs my whole life. The license is good for 5 years and going to cost $75 and will be basically for personal use if I ever wound one and have to use a dog to recover it legally. Al

I can see having no adjustable sights on a snub nose concealer belly gun or the old Police revolvers sighted for their one load standard issue 158 gr lead round nose ammo. When a revolver is chambered for 38 spl - 357 Mag, the variety in bullet weights, styles, velocity and power is huge and to have them all hit to the point of aim is pretty hard to do without adjustable sights. One of the best pros of the 357 - 38 spl chambering is the ability to shoot all those different loads, no adjustable sights negates and waters down those advantages in my opinion. Al

Just wanted to put in a good word for the Gamo Swarm, I have a plain stock model I purchased a few years ago when they first came out. It is a good solid nitro piston air rifle that has good power and accuracy for a fair price. I purchased it to knock off a bunch of chipmunks I had getting into things around the house and that it did very well. These Swarms also have a magazine that can be loaded with multiple pellets, no fumbling around loading one in the barrel by hand for follow up shots, just cock it and she is ready to go. Al