airedale

I agree with Charlie's assessment, Me, I would get a nice pump or autoloader. Al

Depending on what kind of shot you are your 12 ga double will be perfectly fine for Pheasants, I use one myself now and then. As far as ammo many preserves have a clay bird setup so hunters can get warmed up on their shooting before hitting the field so you might want to bring some ammo for that. I would say bring double the amount of shells to the number of birds you plan on taking to be on the safe side. Hunting on a preserve does not require a license. Good luck and have fun. Al

18 below on my thermometer. Al

Another blast from the past mounting system is the Weaver hinged pivot-swing over mount, common years ago because there were still some serious reliability problems with scopes of the day and hunters wanted the option to be able to use open sights in a pinch. Kind of clunky but they worked fairly well for hunting rifles. Al

A first for me, I have to say I have never heard of that rule, I do believe in buying a quality scope especially on my serious hunting firearms. Al

Look forward to hearing about your next outing. Al

Feb 23,24,25, NY State Fairgrounds Syracuse. 5 Bldgs. Al

A real good video from hunters up in Nova Scotia hunting Hare with Beagles, I don't know what time of their season these hunts took place but the Hare did not seem to have a real white changeover yet to their fur. Makes me want to go out and get me a good Beagle. Al

The various shows that go on during the course of the year for me are basically something to do especially in what can be a long boring winter. Next up on the calendar is the big farm show at the State Fairgrounds and on to the Syracuse gun show, for me it is cheap entertainment unless I get stupid and buy something LOL! Al

At one time Bausch and Lomb was a major player in firearms scopes, their Balvar, Balfor and Baltur models were quite different from what was currently on the market. My first real varmint rifle a Marlin 322 222 Remington had one of those B&L scopes mounted on it when I bought it used. The scopes had no internal adjustments, windage and elevation adjustments were accomplished by adjustments built into the scope mounts. The marketing behind this setup was reliability and the use of one scope that could be transferred to other rifles using the same mounts without having to resight in. The system actually worked great but was a flop as far as sales. Al

Gunner is methodical on the track, love watching Hounds work a track on snow, it tells a story. Al

Coming up this weekend in Oneida NY, It is a small show but a good one that I have attended several times. Al

Fox hunting with a Hound has fallen by the wayside in recent years, I suspect because of the overwhelming majority of hunters now use calls and can hunt at night with lights. I had a good friend that owned a well trained Harrier hound female that we hunted quite a bit on Fox. Same techniques for Hare hunting except the terrain was a bit more open. We liked hunting under the large powerlines after a fresh snow with spots that had big woods on both sides. Fox would make a bigger circle than a Hare and go out of hearing a lot. It was a panic. Once winter ended and Spring sprung it was time for my favorite, "Woodchucks" seemed like the fun never ended. Al

My favorite call is a Black Creek call that was locally made, they are no longer in production but there are a multitude of bellows type calls being made and sold, just do a search and you will get plenty of examples. I have somewhere in my memorabilia stash an old Herter's catalog, they were pretty entertaining and old man Herter was quite the salesman. Bought quite a bit of stuff from them back in the day. Never tried one of his Squirrel calls. With a bit of practice one can produce pretty realistic Squirrel calls by just sucking on the back of your hand. Al

I do have a bunch of Squirrel calls and use them on occasion with very mixed results. The ones I have had the best responses with are the rubber bulb type that mimics a gray squirrel's alarm call. Sometimes they respond by answering back and even moving toward me, other times they pay zero attention so go figure. Al

Now there are some photos that make my day. I feel sorry for those who think hunting season is over, they do not know what they are missing. Al

Took a walk this morning for small game but was mainly looking to see if I could find any Chaga mushroom growths. Totally struck out with the Chaga, not many white birch where I was hunting and the ground is high and dry. Got a couple of better places to check out down the road. Did see a couple of Deer, a big fat porcupine and one Squirrel, let them slide and saved them for later. Al

Still going strong for me, the Gray squirrels are low in numbers so they are getting substituted with Reds, takes about three Reds to equal one Gray. Put up several Patridges as the old timers call them, they were gone in a flash and I did not even pull the trigger. Been sneaking around in the alders and Balsams trying to pot a Hare but no luck as of yet. Now with this "Chaga" mushroom saga I wrote about about I will be taking a few walks looking for it and combining in some small game hunting so long as the snow stays fairly light. Had a nice Red Fox come in to a woodpecker call but he got a pass. Nothing like being in the woods hunting. Al

So I stumbled onto something new for me, a mushroom called "Chaga", it is supposed to have all kinds of medicinal properties and health benefits. The best part is it should be readily found in the woods and forests I frequent, I probably walk by it all the time. With a bit of investigation I have found plenty of online videos and instruction of how to find, harvest and prepare it. Below is a quick video that gives the basics. Just wondering if anyone here has messed around with any Chaga foraging and the making of tea and if so does it seem to have any real benefits? Al

A really nice autoloader in small gauges is the Tristar Viper especially the bronze model. A buddy of mine picked up a 410 a few years ago, he brought it over and we shot a bunch of clays birds, it functioned flawlessly, weighed under 6 lbs and the fit and finish was outstanding and the wood was beautiful also, looked as good as the stock photo below. Best part is they can be bought for seven or eight hundred bucks, plain jane models sell for a whole lot less.

good stuff Tim Al

All three have been shimmed, 17 HMR, 22 Hornet and the Maggie, and all three have had trigger jobs. Al

"Rimfire Central" has quite a bit of info the the two piece bolt Ruger 77 trigger-bolt shims and the theory behind them. and of course good old youtube has videos from the vendor showing the installation. I got a measurable accuracy improvement on all three of my rifles, nothing huge but the shims did help and like I said above I am always squeezing everything I can get out of my firearms and just like screwing around with my stuff. Al

Back in the late 70s and early 80s arms manufacturers started paying attention to their rimfire lines coming out with full sized higher end rifles. Remington had their 541S, Kimber came out with a whole slew of nicely made rimfires and Ruger jumped into the fray with their 77/ line. The Ruger's design lent itself to be chambered in not only rimfires but also centerfires like 22 Hornet, 357 mag and 44 mag. The look and lines of the new Ruger were similar to their centerfire 77s, classic walnut stock, hand checkered, blued steel for starters. I took the bait and acquired one in 22 Hornet, 22 Mag and 17 HMR, I used these rifles for varmint hunting and they have proven their worth. They did have a couple of negatives for me, the trigger was on the heavy side and their two piece bolt design could have a little slop causing less than stellar accuracy. Now when it comes to accuracy these Rugers have all that is needed for hunting but I get a little off the deep end and am always trying to squeeze the best performance I can out of all my firearms. Aftermarket triggers and sears made the weight of pull and easy fix thanks to Volquartsen and Dayton Traister. If the bolt needs tightening it is solved by installing trigger-bolt shims. Those little improvements can make for some tack driving groups. I have gone through all three of my 77s and they print their bullets where aimed. Well looks to me that Ruger is phasing these high end 77s out, too much good stuff going into them makes for high prices that most will not pay. Below is my stainless maggie with an 8X Leupold mounted, she will do under an inch all day long, the other rifle is the standard sporter in 17 HMR, great fur rifle. Al

My favorite is your little video hunt with the Savage 99 and dressed up in the Woolrich PA tux. Al