airedale

Much of my best and most productive hunting has been in Oak groves wherever I can find them and not only for Deer, acorns provide food for many other wildlife species. Al

Learned the basics on a Ford 8N farm tractor, my next few cars and one truck were all stick starting with a 1960 MGA, a 1967 Volkswagon Beetle, a 1967 Pontiac GTO, a 1968 Corvette and a Toyota HiLux Pickup. From then up to now all my cars and trucks were automatics. Have rode motorcycles for years and I guess they are considered standard shifting along with a couple of more farm tractors including my current one that are and were stick. Al

I can relate to young Ralphie and his desire to have his own Daisy and so did many other young boys, the Red Ryder model was highly desirable but in my day it was the Daisy 98 Eagle in those Daisy ads that had me drooling. It was deluxe all the way and a scope could even be mounted on it. I eventually ended up getting one buying from a friend for $3, had to pick a lot of beans to come up with that kind of dough. The Daisy Eagle, a good memory. Al

Merry Christmas everyone! Al

For me this time of the year is a shuffle of equipment, there is plenty of small game hunting to be done so long as the weather (mainly snowfall) is half way decent. The Deer rifles and ammo are put away and the Varmint-Rimfire rifles and Shotguns are brought out for small game hunting. The lighter weight clothing is put away and the Wool is brought out, leather boots exchanged for LL Bean Maine hunting boots. Rabbits, Squirrel, Grouse, Pheasant and Varmint seasons are still open well into the winter. Al

As soon as it is available for me I will be standing in line. Being an old Geezer I have been around long enough to remember when Polio, Measles, Mumps, Diphtheria ,Scarlet Fever, Whooping Cough, among other maladies were fairly common. Non of them any good and pretty much gone these days because of vaccinations, for my way of thinking the benefits far outweigh negatives. Al

I had a B7500 and have nothing but good to say about it. What stands out to me with the one you are looking at is the hours, 6500 is up there and with the attachments that are coming with it means that she has probably been worked pretty hard for a lot of hours. Al

It is called still hunting, you know where they are get in there with stealth, play the wind and kill them. Al

Not making excuses for price gougers of any kind be it toilet paper or ammo but this whole situation has been brought on by who is now going to be in the White House and his party's stated platform on gun control! A year ago there was no problem finding or buying ammo!! Al

If the heavy snows hold off for a bit I will do some small game hunting and Grouse will be one of my objectives along with Squirrels, Rabbits and maybe a little Varmint calling mixed in. I have a 28 GA Ringneck myself and it is a sweet gun. I do favor a lot the little Franchi 20 GA below with it's 23 inch barrel and 5 lb weight it is a joy to carry and I shoot it very well. Al

Deer hunting sure has changed in recent years, the actual hunting part seems to be sorely missing more and more. Al

These folks have some nice Targets that can be downloaded and printed for free (a small donation is appreciated), they are great for rimfire and pellet firearms. The hostage target is catching fire with a lot of precision shooters. Targets for Download and Printing within AccurateShooter.com Al

As the old saying goes "practice makes perfect", there is zero doubt in my mind practice will make one a better shot and bring you to you full potential as a shooter which will pay off taking shots at various game. The best thing I ever did that taught me how to be the best shot I could be was shooting in a bullseye pistol league. It taught me two basic but important shooting skills, trigger control and the ability to call my shot. Trigger control is obvious we all want to touch off our shots precisely at the moment we are on target and this will come with practice. Calling your shot will coincide with trigger control and with practice you will know very accurately where your shot will hit from the last mental picture you had when the firearm went off. A good example was the Deer I took this year, he was standing eating acorns at about 75 yards and I was hunting for the first time with a highly accurate single shot Thompson Center Encore firing 25-06. I drew down on him and had a perfect sight picture with the crosshair just behind the front shoulder, I pressed the trigger and "click" I get a misfire, the first misfire with a centerfire rifle that I have ever had, I can say I was just a tad rattled. I broke open the rifle and could see the firing pin strike was hard, had to be a bad primer. Anyhow I chambered a new cartridge and now I was a bit worried the Deer would bust me so I drew down and shot again but admittedly a little quicker than I should have. The Deer took off like a scalded cat and with my binoculars could see him sprinting through the trees for at least 100 yards and still going. So I wait a few minutes and start checking for blood and tracks, there was a light coating of snow so I found tracks pretty quick but there was zero hair and zero blood anywhere and it stayed that way as I unraveled the Deer's trail for over 100 yards and it was getting tough to stay on tract as the trail went through a pretty tracked up area. So let me get to the point, with no blood no hair for over a 100 yards and when last seen the Deer showed no signs of a hit sprinting a breakneck speed a young hunter may very well come to the conclusion that there was a clean miss and quit the track. Here is where calling your shot comes into play, my last mental note of the sight picture when the rifle fired had the crosshairs more mid body than right behind the front should where it should have been. To me that means a liver and semi gut shot and I know a Deer will sometimes cover a lot of ground before they go down, that being said remembering the sight picture there was no doubt in my mind that the Deer was laying dead and not far and I was going to recover him. So with a bit more searching I found the buck and he was hit exactly where I remember the crosshair to have been at the shot. Al

Your Winchester should be drilled and tapped on the side for old standbys like Williams or Lyman receiver sights, the choices Rachunter gave you are also very good options. Al

Would have been all over but the gutting Al

Browning still chambers it in their BAR. A used Remington in 742 or 7400 is another option. Al

Gone but not forgotten by me at least as I own items from both of those old Utica NY companies whose products are pictured. Like the guy in the old ad I have a Utica Savage 99 and some of the last hunting clothing Utica Duxbak manufactured, I wore my Duxbak insulated camo pants the last day of Rifle season. Al

Things are getting real bad quick, the price gouging is getting started and the prices are spiraling. Went over on the gun auction site to see if by chance there were any buys on 22 LR ammo, prices are nuts. A few months ago one could buy bricks of decent ammo comparable to what is below in the $25 range give or take a couple of buck. Only $210 more and still climbing and don't forget to add on the $20 shipping! Al

They are not gone, they are there somewhere, that is the type of cover they look for to lay up in until dark, they will let you walk right by them. I would bet a good chunk of change if someone cast a couple of Deer running Beagles in that stuff you would see Deer running all over the place. Problem is that would not be legal Al

Picked this one up used on Amazon and it arrived today, O'Connor is my favorite outdoor writer, I think I have just about everything he wrote book wise. This one has some of his old magazine articles which I have read many of but not all especially his early ones. Al

The one man drive can be a highly effective tactic for deer hunting and a method I and the group of hunters I hunted with used quite a bit successfully. There have been many posts here over the past few days from hunters stating they are not seeing any deer from their stands but their trail cameras in the summer and early fall showed plenty of deer. The deer have not left, they are still there holed up and hiding in what they feel is their best concealing cover. With the hunters sitting and the deer sitting until after dark there will not be much action unless someone gets them moving. A single person sneaking around rooting the deer out of their cover will provide shots to watchers stationed on known escape routes. It is a tactic that really does work for both driver and watchers so long as you have knowledge and experience with the lay of the land you are hunting and using the winds to your advantage. Al

I had a year where I only had a Buck tag, I hunted my ass off through the season seeing only a couple of does. The last day comes and I decide to do an afternoon sit until dark. Things shaped up the same as every other day, a big fat zero! But my spirits were high because when I got home after hunting the wife and myself were going out with another couple to a new restaurant that was serving one of my all time favorites, Alaskan King Crab and the best part it was all you can eat! I was sitting on that stump the last hour of daylight drooling just thinking of the feast that was to come. Well don't you know with about 15 minutes to go before sunset out steps a 6 point, crap! I had to shoot him and did but I was not as happy as I should have been. It was a quick field dressing and drag out and I was off to the races to get ready to eat. In the end it only cost me an hour from the original dining time. Talk about just under the wire!! Don't give up! Al

My 50 plus year old Hoppes front rifle rest had seen plenty of action over the years and was in need of a spruce up. I damaged the shot filled bag years ago by resting and shooting revolvers over it. The splatter from the cylinder gaps ate away at the leather eventually causing a hole, I taped it up so the lead shot would not leak out and while it was usable it had seen it's better days so I decided to replace it. The cast aluminum body parts had quite a few places where the paint had peeled off and many of the adjusting screw's threads were corroded. Picked up a new "Protector" front bag that was a tad too big and had to make a block to make it work right. Cleaned and lubed everything up and gave the body a rattle can paint job and she looks as good as new and should be good for another 50 years of blasting away at the range. Equipment like this can be found online for a song, with a little work it can be made as good as new and you can save substantial money. Al

Once they get a whiff of unusual human activity they perceive as danger they will go into survival mode and all their so called normal activity we see most of the year is deserted. They are still living in their home range laying low in the best habitat that conceals them and moving mostly under the cover of darkness to feed. Your best friend now is snow and getting out of those tree stands and ground blinds putting the "hunt" back into hunting. Still hunting and tracking is the way to go now and these methods will show you exactly where they are and how they are moving. I am not a huge fan of drives but it is a productive way to get them out of their hiding spots and expose themselves. Al

Personally that is exactly how I like to see them, Al