airedale

I believe it is an alert call and classify it more of a locating call, what it will do it make other Squirrels in the vicinity start to chime in, from there the actual fun comes in, it is up to me to make a spot and stalk into shooting range and make the kill. Al

When you get to be my age most of your friends will be lame-Physically You hit the nail on the head Dan, I was with some friends shooting the breeze this past fall and got to talking about baseball and softball which I played a lot of when a young feller and come to realize that out of a couple of dozen teammates just me and one other guy are still alive. Same with many of the folks I hunted with, man have passed on or are not able to get around well physically. As for concerts I went to quite a few back in the day but the bands I prefer are now mostly older than me and pretty much shutdown. The stuff that is tried to be passed off as music today I have no desire to see or listen to. Al

The sounds most of the Squirrel calls I have duplicate pretty much what the Squirrel in the video is saying. I also have a whistle call that is supposed to help make a hiding treed Squirrel expose itself. You can go on youtube and see and hear many hunters demonstrating calls and hear how they actually sound. The calls I use most of the time when after Squirrels are pictured on the lanyard below, they have produced for me both predators and Squirrels, I stick with what works. Al

I have several Squirrel calls and have had very spotty results using them. For the most part they seem not to do much good in producing shots, that being said I have had several times using them where they actually worked. Once on a stand using one of those rubber bulb type calls I had a Squirrel come in from behind me and jumped on my back and go right up on my head and leap up on to the tree I was sitting against. I let out a scream that would have made Fay Wray proud. The best I can figure is they sometimes trigger a territorial response. Al

Like Rabbits Squirrels can be hunted with dogs, I can say a top Squirrel dog is not easy to come by and they are special. A video below shows a bit of insight, these folks are knocking off Fox Squirrels which are quite large compared to Grays. Also a photo of some of my Airedales that were half way decent on a hunt, a buddy of mine from PA came up to my place to pick up an Airedale pup. He brought along his Kemmer Cur "the blond dog" which is one of the best breeds for Squirrels. Al

I have been out a few times, my Squirrel population is a bit low in my usual spots so I have taken it easy on them. Want to knock off one more and I will have enough to make a good pot of stew. Al

One of my favorite places, been down there several times. It is Airedale country, got my first Airedale Terrier from Mooreland Kennels Sparta Tenn back in 1970, went down and purchased another 20 years later. Another Airedale breeder I exchanged dogs and visited with several times lived in Viola Tenn and another in Manchester, some good times and good friends. Hunted hogs many years ago on the Tellico plains. Saw plenty of game. You will like it down there. Al

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!! Just for the Hell of it take a good look at the last 100 or so posts you have made! You are a Troll "Par Excellence", if you have contributed one thing that would help me in the outdoors I must have missed it! Al

The first half of my hunting life all my Deer hunting was done with various slug guns. My first new gun was a 20 ga Ithaca Deerslayer, went to a 20 ga Remington 1100 with a 2.5 Weaver scope, from there to a model 51 Ithaca Deerslayer semi auto. My final piece is a Winchester Super X Model 1 which I still have. I had Lefever Arms in Lee Center NY make me up a special slug barrel for the Winchester as per one of my gun nut buddys (A Toolmaker) who swore he came up with a tack driving winner. A 28 inch plain barrel was purchased, Lefever cut the barrel to 25 inches and I had them install a set of Browning open sights on it. With the old Remington 7/8 ounce slug I was getting groups at 75 yards with most if not all shots touching. Sent the gun back up to Lefever and had them drill and tap it for a scope base, mounted a straight Leupold 3X and was one happy chappy. Used the Winchester for many years and killed a pile of Deer with it, one of the better ones pictured below. Moved to rifle country back in the mid eighties and that was pretty much it for the Super X1 Winchester, slugs and Deer hunting. Al

Congrats folks, you will not be sorry you took the plunge, Grampy's advice about reading everything you can get your hands on is sound. I have at least a dozen reloading manuals and have gained solid information from all of them, older manuals can be purchased on ebay for a song if you shop right and the info within is still relevant and useful. Also online sites providing sound reloading info are many. The 243 was the first cartridge I loaded for and still have and use the equipment that was purchased over 50 years ago. IMR 4895 was the powder I used for several bullets and rifles with perfect success. A lot of water under the bridge since those days and powder and bullet choices have jumped tremendously. Good score on the Varget powder, it is hard to come by, I have my name on Midway's list for some when they get it in. Al

I am a big fan of double shotguns mostly because of the old school tradition and look they evoke, but they do have the advantages you listed of having two different loads to cover different situations afield. I admit I have zero experience hunting Turkeys with a double but I have used them for all other wing shooting and small game up to Fox size with good success, there is no reason why a quality double would not make a good Turkey gun. Mine are not the high end fancy jobs, they are of medium quality and will pattern as well as my dedicated Remington 870 Waterfowl-Turkey gun. Also I like double triggers over a single selective. Mine are all side by sides except for one 28 ga over and under. Al

Cover is the key for sure, those thick briar patches make it tough for the varmints and hawks also. I liked hunting old hillside grown up crab apple orchards and briar patches for Cotton Tails, I have found that Grouse like the same cover too. My Airedales worked real well to flush them out of that type of habitat for a shot. Below is a photo of Airedale (Dill) owned by a woman from England on my Airedale board, they call their method of Rabbit and Hare hunting "Bushing". They use various Terriers to root them out of the thick stuff, rough work for rough dogs. Al

Beagles are one of the most refined hunting breeds in existence, they have been specifically bred to hunt Rabbits and Hare for hundreds of years. I have had other dogs breeds that could put Rabbits in the bag for me, I had a pretty fair English Coonhound that was good and even had an Airedale that put out quite a few for me but all and all a well bred Beagle is the way to go. There are nuances within the Beagle breed relating to size, nose and speed, I hunted mostly Hare on snow so I wanted Beagles up on legs and that had cold noses. Al

Not many things more fun than good Rabbit-Hare habitat, a good Beagle and a suitable firearm. Want to get a newbie or kid hooked on hunting there is nothing better than starting them out on rabbits. Nice little film than explains things, brings back many good memories for me. Al

The only thing I put away was the rifle and ammo I hunted Deer with and switched it out for shotguns and varmint rifles, small game is in full swing for me so I have a couple of months to go before everything gets put away. It is the best time of the year. Al

No, his name is Richard Ley, he is an old time Houndsman that lives in New Mexico, he has a long history hunting successfully Mountain Lions. Al

Yes he did and if one does any amount of actual game tracking they would know exactly what was meant. Al

Carlos I picked up one of those Frankford Arsenal case cleaners a few years ago and it does a real good job. One thing you have to check before seating your primers is the flash hole in the primer pocket, after cleaning I found about one in ten cases had a piece of tumbling media stuck in the flash hole, to prevent any ignition problems I used a correctly sized punch to push it out. Al

As one of my mentors once told me. "Blessed is the tracker for he drinks deep where others only sip and animals write their life's story for him" Al

I do not have a model 94 Winchester but I do have a couple of model 94 Marlins and a model 95 Marlin that have scopes mounted on them. The two 94s one a 357 mag and the other a 44 mag I use early season in the woods when ranges are fairly short. The 95 is a 45-70 that has much more range potential but I still use it as a shorter range woods Deer rifle. What I want first and foremost is reliability, IE recoil and fog proof, along with good optical quality along with compact dimensions, light weight and a big wide field of view. High powered magnification is something I do not need for big game and most of my dedicated Deer rifles (And Shotgun) have lower powered scopes, mostly Leupolds in 2.5X, 3X, 1X4X, 1X5. I have become especially fond of the little Leupold 2.5X ultralight on my light weight Deer rifles, everything balances out nicely. Even the little 250 Savage 99A below which can reach out pretty far, I still went with a 1X5 compact because I am hunting Deer with it, at 5X I can still make a good shot on a Deer size animal out to it's maximum range. Now if there were still Woodchucks around in huntable numbers that Savage would be wearing a 3X9 Compact. By the way all these type-style scopes have a 20 mm objective front lenses and have never cost me a deer because of it even in lower light conditions. Weaver style bases should still be able to be found for your Winchester and everyone makes rings to go with those style bases, I would advise to buy something with good quality. Al

Well I am a real wack job, I hunt Fox, Coyote, Coons, Woodchucks, Rats, Pigeons, Crows, Possums, Blah blah Blah, most of these animals I do not personally eat but if someone wants them to eat I am more than happy to let them have at it. I have eaten Coon and Woodchuck a few times but most fed the local varmints. Just another typical cheap shot by the FRY COOK who should be permanently banned. Al

That is the way Trolls operate, the same two or three characters day after day week after week month after month, year after year, their sole purpose is to cause chaos and trouble, these guys are Trolls and should have been banned long ago. Al

Ahhh, scored on some like new first rate Woolrich USA made medium weight on my favorite shopping site EBAY, saved about $250 at least over comparable new. Like the pants a lot, been wearing them Squirrel hunting, they are just right for the current weather. Will probably be breaking out the heavier weight PA Tux before long. Al

Barrel length and powder burn rate speeds are the major contributing factors to bullet velocity. Slower burn rate powders do best in long barrels where they will burn completely and efficiently. A short barrel is the opposite, a powder with a faster burn rate will give the best efficiency and velocity. A 26 inch barrel was the standard used to give published inflated factory ammo velocities. Depending on the cartridge 50 to 25 feet per second is lost for each inch less than the 26 inch so called standard. 4064 is a medium burn rate powder and should work ok in a short barrel. As for traditional lead core bullets I feel that the Hornady interlocks are pretty darn good but there are other good ones available, a 150 gr should give everything you need for killing performance and accuracy with a bit of load development. Al

I will go along with the Butt Out also, makes a shitty job easy! Al