airedale

He is pretty neat looking if you ask me. Having raised livestock for many years one of the more interesting things to come across are genetic anomalies producing off the wall colors. Rare most times in the wild but get man involved in their breeding and things can be changed big time. Sometimes it can be a desired trait say like white feathered Turkeys for meat, breeders took those occasional whites that popped up and bred them together over and over eventually getting them to set as a strain having all newly hatched poults come white. Most store bought Turkeys today are white feathered and came from genetic anomalies. Al

Collecting knives has added a side collection of sharpening tools and devices to keep edges sharp. I pretty much have acquired them all and they will all work well if used properly. My best knives are all sharpened by hand using various stones, it is slower and harder to learn but once mastered a shaving sharp razor's edge can be obtained. Below are three of my favorites, a diamond stone, a soft Arkansas and a hard Arkansas. The diamond is only used on a really dull knife to get the edge started, the soft Arkansas will so most of the sharpening followed up by the hard Arkansas for the razor edge. Like with just about everything else there are some youtube videos that can help one get started sharpening with stones in the right direction. Just got done with the Dickinson Crockett and it will shave hair no problem. Al

Par Excellence Deer recovery Airedale Terrier "Grizz" Passed, she was owned by Richard McCorkle a retired police office down Georgia way. A member of my Airedale board for many years with too many recovery tales to count, Grizz and Richard made a lot of hunters happy. I will miss her exploits. Al

Throughout my adult life I have been dabbling with a modest collection of knives I have accumulated down through the years. I stick with mostly American made pocket knives as they were about all I could and can afford. I was introduced to the knife collecting world as a young fellow on an Elk hunting pack trip in Colorado that me and my Dad went on many years ago "1970". In our group was a gentleman named Ralph Bone, he was from Lubbock Texas and by trade a custom knife maker. I thought I was a high roller with my brand new Buck folding 110, old Ralph brought me down out of the clouds showing me some of his creations that cost 10 times as much as my Buck. He went on to explain why a custom knife cost so much, in a nutshell a ton of hand forging, fitting and polishing the finest materials available. Ralph was an original member of the Knifemaker's Guild which in itself has a lot of notoriety but he also went on to become master engraver and custom gun maker. The best thing coming out of meeting Ralph was he sat me down and showed me how to properly sharpen a knife with a stone, I still use that method today so many years later. So I have long been on a quest to own an original Ralph Bone knife, any made directly by him were way out of my price range until a little while ago. I struck paydirt from an old collector that bought one directly and personally from Ralph out of his shop in Lubbock many years ago. We did a bit of haggling on the price and made a deal. The knife pictured below is used but in mint condition, has the belly zip hook along with the original Johnson sheath. I will use this knife and hope to make old Ralph proud.

Still smoking fish in my old stone age "Little Chief" which it seems I have had forever, it has held up well. Al

Back when I did a lot of rabbit hunting some of my favorite habitat was exactly like the overgrown brush filled orchard described above. Turn a couple of Beagles loose in that stuff and you will see Deer come flying out in all directions. Al

Once they realize they are being hunted they will revert to nighttime activities and hole up during the daylight hours where they feel they have the best cover. I hunted on a big farm outside of Norwich years ago, on a side hill there was an old over grown apple orchard, an almost impenetrable entanglement of high brush, briars, brambles along with scrub apple trees. After the opening week bombardment I think almost every deer in that area would take up refuge in that mess. We would surround it and try to drive it but had very limited success. We would save our doe permits for the last day of season and one of those years I was a driver trying to flush something out to the watchers. I literally had to crawl at times to get through in pouring rain. I got to a bit of an opening and was looking ahead with my binoculars and caught just a wee bit of movement, a good look showed three does lying flat on their stomachs not 20 yards away. I was up above them a bit and drew down on the biggest one and aimed right for the middle of her back and killed her right where she laid. The other two took off like a bat out of hell but they never emerged where the watchers were stationed. They just circled and hid in that hellhole. I had one heck of a time getting that doe out of there and I will tell you what. I never went in there again. Al

Gotta love Wolc logic

I never have my gun hanging from my shoulder when actually hunting. For me they earn their keep especially when you have to drag one out or on a long walk out at the end of the day. Al

For me a sling on my rifle is an essential, I use them strictly as a carrying aid and a rifle without one is uncomplete for me. Years ago some slings were used as an aid for steadying your rifle for more steady aim and precision shooting, I tried that method but it never took hold with me. The military believed in them, don't know if they still do today, I have an adjustable military leather sling around here somewhere. A simple nylon strap works just fine for me most of the time, on my heavier rifles I will use a wider strap to distribute the weight better. Although I have some nice leather slings the ones I like in the field are made from nylon or Cordura, All except one use quick detachable mounts, I have one with snug down loops on the ends I use for any sling less firearms mostly double shotguns. Below are some different examples I use. Al

Happy Turkey Day everyone. Al

The RCBS chargemaster came yesterday, I got it setup on the bench, watched RCBS's video on how to operate it and today after I got my chores done I sat down and put it to work weighing and charging about 100 256 Winchester mag cases. Right off the bat I could see this electronic job is not as fast as the old tried and true beam scale, drum powder measure and bench trickler. After using the old stuff for over 50 years and thousands of loads I got pretty good at using it with both speed and accuracy. That being said I do like this gizmo even though it is slow. After I changed my loading routine I became more familiar and got things moving along. When powder charging I always did the whole batch at once and then moved on with the whole batch to the press to seat the bullet. With the electronic job I started with a sized case, charged it with powder, then set the powder pan right back on the electronic charger to get a new charge and continued on with the newly charged case to the RCBS summit press where I seated the bullet. This charge master is very accurate right to the tenth of a grain, A little bit of a learning curve but once I got into the groove I started cranking out rounds at a decent pace. So while I do like the thing because it is all in one and takes up less bench space I do not believe it is any better than the old drum measures and beam scales. Maybe as I use it more I will shine up to it. So as far as loaded ammo I am set for awhile, I have some 60 gr Wichester open points, a pile of Missouri Bullet company 85 gr lead hard cast that duplicates the old 25-20 round, then some high octane stuff 90 gr Sierra HPs and some Barnes 80 gr copper, I had to remove the plastic tip so they would fit in the magazine and so they would function in the rifle. Al

Touched off a few handloads with the 44 mag revolver the other day making sure she is hitting where I aim. Got to thinking about the father of the 44 Mag Elmer Keith. I used to subscribe to Guns and Ammo and read his column every month, also have two of his books which for me were entertaining as Hell. The ultimate big bore fan old Elmer's idea of a Deer rifle was a 458 win mag. Gone but not forgotten. Al

Got dumped on with snow pretty good over the past two days, finished up plowing and shoveling around the house then took a walk into the woods, snow was above my knees and the going was tough. I thought I would go back and get my snowshoes but the more I thought about it I decided not to. I have done tons of hunting on snowshoes for Hare but never for Deer, I did not cotton to the thought of shooting a Deer and having to pull it out in deep snow wearing snowshoes. The weather is supposed to be pretty good over the next week or so, I will just let the snow settle some for easier going. Lots of time left. Al

With this heavy snow I expect a change in the Deer's pattern around here, they seem to lay low for a couple of days before they get out and start moving around and adjusting to the snow. the good part is the snow will show what the pattern changes are. Al

Another layering item is a good quality wool sweater, I have a couple of the Cabelas with the windshear lining, one is 80% wool the other is 100%. I completed most of my chores this morning wearing a thin poly T, a heavy weight military poly long sleeve under shirt and a Cabelas heavy sweater with the windshear lining. When is gets colder I have a heavy nylon windbreaker jacket that I can wear over the above. Al

The warmest cold weather gear I have is a set of Refridgiwear coveralls, the mainstay of the folks who work up in the artic. I wear them all winter long here on the farm doing chores, I can tell you I am never cold with those things on even in sub zero temps. Not my cup of tea for hunting clothes as they are very heavy and bulky, movement can be cumbersome, they would probably work for someone that sits all day. Stay away from anything made of cotton. Al

When I was a young guy I would be out there, these days I am a "ruminator", the season is long and there is plenty of time for me to hunt in weather a bit more enjoyable. Besides I have a half a day worth of chores to do here on the farm where there is never any breaks from the weather, every day, 365 days a year. Looks like I will be clearing some serious snow over the next day or so. Al

It is a stainless 24 inch barrel, the rifle's overall length is 38 inches, light weight compact, easy carrying and it is very accurate. For the two hole crowd I will guarantee this setup will do it. Al

The short barrel and small scope make the rifle very light and those handloads are stiff so shooting a bunch of shots off a bench is not what I call fun, she will rattle your brain, in the field hunting however no problem. Al

I have a really nice aluminum double rifle case I got for a gift many years ago and have used it only once, is somewhat large and bulky, I like the soft sided case personally. I would not say it is exactly fireproof per,se but I think it may hold up under some moderate heat, regardless that is what I am going to use. Al

A Bobcat is one animal I have never come across, there just are not any around these parts. I have run into tracks where I hunted snowshoe Hare up north of here but that is it for me. Congrats Al

Sorry to hear that Paula, I was looking forward to seeing another nice buck taken by you. The season is long so you can still get after them, I can tell you I have killed a lot of Deer the very last day of the season. Al

True and that is why I will be casing my firearms, if I can avoid a hassle I will. Al