airedale

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

Happy Birthday to my favorite "Ball Buster"

Ran across a couple of more old Newfoundland memories. Al

This year has not been the greatest for Squirrels or Deer in my area. I hunted yesterday and did not see a single Squirrel. Now that the Deer hunting is over and getting just a bit of snow on the ground I will be hunting with one of my Airedales which should increase my success a bit. It is all about finding their food source and around my place it has always been Beechnuts, "Beech tree stands", and Acorns, Oak tree stands. Also white pine groves can be decent for Squirrels as they like the pine nuts in the cones. My hunting area was devastated by the Gypsy Moth Caterpillars, the trees I listed happen to be the caterpiller's favorites so mast crops are slim and far between. Standing cornfields on forest edges have always been a hot spot for me. Al

In my opinion it is never too late to learn how to handload ammunition, it can be got into fairly reasonable price wise, and for the most part you can put up the ammo you need that may even be better than store bought. Al

Some of the Boys on my Airedale board sent me some hog hunting pics, I got to do it in Tennessee many moons ago and it is a blast. With dogs involved the hard part is getting a clear shot on caught or bayed up hogs. These guys will get in there with the dogs while they hang on to the ears and get hold of the back legs and will hog tie them up. Sometimes they will not immediately kill, they have holding pens and keep the hogs in them, they will feed and fatten up the hogs for a few weeks which they say makes for much better eating. Al

Wolc what is your advice to someone like me that actually loves eating Chicken? Al

You can do a search on ebay or google and find vendors that sell everything you would need for muzzleloaders. For Deer Hunting I would lean toward finding a bullets to use over patched balls. For smaller game and plinking patched balls are a blast and cheap. TC maxi Balls would be a good stating point. Al

Your TC Hawken has a barrel with a medium twist designed to fire both patched ball and Maxi Balls accurately. As long as your barrel is in good condition a bit of experimentation with different patch thicknesses, powder charges and bullets I would be sure you will find something that performs. I have several sidelocks that I like messing around with, the top rifle is a bunch of accumulated parts I purchased on ebay. TC Hawken stock and lock with a stainless Green Mountain Barrel, it has a twist made for shooting bullets. The middle rifle is a TC Cherokee I picked up at a gun show, it was one of the toughest nuts for me to crack ever, the only thing that shoots well out of it is TC Maxi Balls The bottom rifle is put together from a kit my boys got me for my birthday years ago. You have done a good job refurbing yours, it look great. Much of the fun is working up an accurate load, congrats and good luck. Al

Congratulations, I am a sidelock fan myself and a 45 cal fan. Weight wise the second biggest Deer I have ever taken was a Doe outside of Norwich NY about 35 years ago, a real Moose. I did not actually put her on a scale but I will say she made my Dad and Brother's two decent eight point bucks taken the same day look small laying beside them. On the drag out all the hair on the side that was on the ground rubbed off to completely bare skin, never had the happen before or since. Al

A fall day a few years ago from my front porch. Al

It is one of the smartest moves you will ever make, looks like you have a good start with your equipment. Remember most manufacturers reloading equipment is interchangeable with everyone else, I have odds and ends from just about everybody on my loading bench. Also you can save money buying used equipment off ebay as it is almost impossible to wear this stuff out. Good luck and if you have any questions someone here will help you along. Al