airedale

I went on one Elk hunt in Colorado 50 years ago with my Dad. It was an outfitted old fashioned pack train hunt 20 miles into the mountains on horseback and equipment carried in on pack mules, the ride in took a whole day. The tent camps were already setup days earlier by the outfitter so when we got in all we had to do was unpack our gear into a tent. You have to be in decent shape and back then I was a young buck and physically gnarly so I had no problems in that respect getting around in the mountains. Another thing is if you are going to be riding horses it is best to get some riding in to get your ass in shape because you will get saddle sore. My Dad and I both took small bulls but I was not disappointed as the whole experience of the pack in trip itself for me was a blast. Made a friend with one of the Horse wranglers about my age who went by the name of Buffalo McCarthy, after I shot my Elk he and I did a lot of fishing and some small game hunting with his sawed off shotgun, along with some mountain horseback riding. Met Ralph Bone a custom knife maker who was an original knife guild member and he taught me the proper way how to sharpen a knife, a skill I still use today. All and all a great bunch of memories. Al

Winter sale from 15% to 49% off, free shipping on $50 and up purchase, picked up a pair of waxed canvas upland brush pants for half price. Al

Years ago I took a friend of mine and his son on their first Coon hunt. We were hunting corn fields that bordered big woods, things were going along good as we made a couple of trees and had taken two Coon on the edge of the woods. About 11 pm my two English Coonhounds then struck another track inside the woods and headed in deep. They got back in so far we could not hear them anymore on the trail so I had to get out my radio telemetry antenna and receiver to locate the hounds who were wearing transmitter collars. I got a signal and checking my compass they were headed directly north so north we headed. Things started looking not so good when we hit the edge of a big swamp about a mile back, still could not hear the dogs so I took another reading with my receiver and could still get a signal directly north. Now we had to work our way around bogs, streams and potholes of water which slowed things down dramatically and on top of that the temp had dropped into the teens so it was getting cold. Finally after slogging through and around that miserable swamp we could hear the dogs treeing. It takes another half hour to get to them and it is 1 AM and they are smack in the middle of a small pond on an island with an old bare snag of a tree with a big old coon sitting up in the top. Things kept going downhill from there, I let my friend do the shooting while I spotted the coon with my light. At the shot the coon flew out of the tree into the water with my old female hound going in after it. In the water coons can be dangerous to dogs as they will get on their heads causing them to drown and from what I could see that was exactly what was going on in this pitched battle. Without hesitation I kicked off my boots and coat and in I went to my dog with my friend's son following. The water got to be about chest deep and man talk about cold! So I get to my dog and pull her and the coon back on to the island where her and her daughter took care of business, I put the finishing touches on with good heavy club. Turns out the coon was hit in the front leg so that is why it had a lot of fight left in it. So now we wade back through the pond to dry land and things continue to go downhill, the kid's light goes dead from water intrusion, he is so cold hit teeth are chattering and I now notice my light was getting dim which was brand new and being used for the first time. I told my buddy there is no way I am going back through that swamp on this black night with only one light working at 2 in the morning especially with me and the kid sopping wet and freezing our asses off. Made the decision to stay put, build a fire and make our way through the swamp out at first light when we could see. Got out the old Zippo windproof lighter and picked up some dry fire starter starter and had a good roaring bonfire going in short order. Through the years I have made a small fire many times in the middle of the woods coon hunting listening to my dogs and all the other creepy sounds so that was the easy part. Took off all my clothes and hung them over the fire to dry and put back on my Carhart coon hunter's coat and got close to the fire to keep warm. We made the kid a bed of dry balsam branches and he fell asleep next to the fire while me and his dad told sat there and told tall tales until daylight. As soon as we could see to walk got dressed into my smoky smelling dry clothes, took a reading with my compass and headed out, in a couple of hours we came out of the woods right where the truck was parked. Later found out my brand new Cajun Coon hunting light had a shorted wire on it's charger and never charged up the battery to full. Below is my old girl "Specky" that was hunted in the above, one of the top two or three hunting dogs I have ever seen and had the pleasure to hunt behind. The simple point of this tale is to make sure you have the skill to make a fire when hitting the timber. Al

Never saw one of those calls Old Brian, I would have liked to see this guy demo the call to hear how it sounded. Being an avid Squirrel hunter I have used a bunch of different calls down through the years and while I have had a few Squirrels come in to the calls I do not have a whole lot of confidence in them being great producers on a consistent basis. I can duplicate the sounds made with most of the commercial calls by just sucking on the back of my hand. Have had better success getting Fox to come into range with them than getting Squirrels to come in. Al

Have a good one! Al

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